'Scorpion' remark against PM: SC extends stay on defamation proceedings against Shashi Tharoor
New Delhi (PTI): The Supreme Court on Monday extended by four weeks the stay on the trial court proceedings against Congress MP Shashi Tharoor in a defamation case filed for his alleged "scorpion on Shivling" remark targeting Prime Minister Narendra Modi.
A bench comprising Justices Hrishikesh Roy and SVN Bhatti has granted four weeks' time to Delhi police and the complainant to file their responses to Tharoor's plea.
"The interim order (of stay on the defamation proceedings) to continue," directed the bench.
The counsel appearing for Delhi police argued the main issue in the case was whether complainant Rajiv Babbar, a BJP leader, was an aggrieved party.
The top court, on September 10, had stayed the proceedings before the trial court in the defamation case filed against Tharoor.
The Congress MP had moved the top court against the high court's August 29 order, which refused to quash the defamation proceedings against him.
Tharoor had sought setting aside the trial court's April 27, 2019, order summoning him as an accused in the criminal defamation complaint.
The complaint was filed against Tharoor in the trial court by Babbar, who claimed that his religious sentiments were hurt by the Congress leader's statement.
In October 2018, Tharoor had claimed that an unnamed RSS leader had compared Modi to "a scorpion sitting on a Shivling". The Congress leader had said it was an "extraordinarily striking metaphor".
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Will vacate one of two assembly seats won in 10 days: BJP''s Suvendu
Kolkata (PTI): BJP leader Suvendu Adhikari, who defeated West Bengal Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee in Bhabanipur and secured Nandigram for three times in a row in the recent assembly polls, said on Wednesday that he would vacate one of the two constituencies within 10 days.
Adhikari also asserted that the party's central leadership would decide which constituency he would retain.
"I will vacate one seat within 10 days. The party will decide which one I retain. I will not forget my responsibility towards the people of Bhabanipur and Nandigram," he said.
Adhikari on Monday defeated Banerjee in Bhabanipur by over 15,000 votes, puncturing what was long seen as her safest political refuge and delivering a decisive psychological blow to the TMC, amid a sweeping BJP surge across West Bengal.
Addressing party workers and supporters in Nandigram in Purba Medinipur district, the BJP leader appealed to them not to take out victory processions immediately and instead maintain peace.
"Do not take out victory rallies now. Maintain peace and discipline. Celebrate after May 9, after taking permission," he told party workers.
State BJP president Samik Bhattacharya on Wednesday announced that the oath-taking ceremony of the new government will be held on May 9 at Brigade Parade Ground.
Referring to alleged attacks on BJP workers during the TMC regime, Adhikari said he would not forget the “atrocities" faced by them and assured them of taking appropriate action against perpetrators through legal processes.
"I was part of the 2011 ‘poribartan’ (change), and now I am part of the real change. I offer my gratitude to the people of Nandigram," Adhikari said.
He was referring to the TMC's victory in 2011 when the Mamata Banerjee party dismantled the 34-year Left Front regime in the state.
Adhikari offered prayers at a Hanuman statue in Nandigram and remembered the BJP workers, who had died in political violence.
"We will work in such a way that the BJP government in Bengal stays for 100 years," he said, expressing hope that the BJP’s vote share in the state would rise from the current 46 per cent to 60 per cent in future elections.
The BJP leader also assured residents of Nandigram of improved drinking water supply and better hospital and education infrastructure.
