It appears that for some Shashi Tharoor’s otherwise flawless English-language is a bit too tough to understand. Unfortunately, a failure in comprehending Tharoor’s words landed the Congress MP in a bizarre situation at Jaipur.
Tharoor, who is in Jaipur for the Jaipur Literature Festival, was waiting for his sister at the airport who was arriving from New Delhi.
When asked by someone at the airport what he was waiting for, the former UN under-secretary general said, “my sister”. The person he was addressing misheard it as “my pistol” and alarmed the authorities. Initial media reports claimed that Tharoor was “detained” and “questioned”.
The Central Industrial Security Force (CISF), which is tasked with guarding airports around the country, clarified that Tharoor was neither detained nor questioned.
Later, Tharoor took to Twitter to clarify that he neither owned a pistol nor has applied for a licence. He also slammed the story of his “detention”.
“This would be hilarious except that people might actually believe it….I have never owned a pistol or applied for a license, & I’ve certainly never carried one or been stopped for doing so. Our media’s talent for making up stories is literally unbelievable,” Tharoor tweeted.
This is not the first time that people have goofed up on something related to Tharoor. In December 2017, some media houses goofed up by putting his name in place of Shashi Kapoor following the demise of the legendary Bollywood actor.
Tharoor had, at the time, tweeted: “We’re getting condolence calls in the office! Reports of my demise are, if not exaggerated, at least premature.”