After insulting Kumbh, Shashi Tharoor targets political brownie points by championing hyperbolic US report fearmongering over "Hindu Nationalism"

Congress leader Shashi Tharoor has doubled down in terms of making controversial remarks, following his scandalous jibe targeting Kumbh Mela rituals. 

Jumping at an unsubstantiated intelligence report by US Director of National Intelligence Dan Coats on his worldwide threat assessment, Tharoor has chimed in by fear mongering and by shaming India in order to secure political brownie points.

Taking to Twitter, Tharoor, a former UN diplomat, has championed and taken as gospel a casually-thrown-in line in the hyperbolic report regarding the risk of communal violence in India rising if "Hindu Nationalist" themes are used by the BJP in the upcoming elections. The Thiruvananthapuram Lok Sabha MP writes:

"What a shame for our country when US Intelligence warns that our ruling party's "Hindu-nationalist campaign" could be "a signal to incite low-level violence to animate their supporters"."

He concludes, "We need a #BehtarBharat where hate is not promoted by those in power."

In the report, the US spy chief, while speaking about the challenges facing South Asia, makes points about war and terrorism relating to Afghanistan and Pakistan, and following that, comes to India.

Under the sub-heading "Indian Elections and Ethnic Tensions", the American report proclaims:

"Parliamentary elections in India increase the possibility of communal violence if Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) stresses Hindu nationalist themes. BJP policies during Modi’s first term have deepened communal tensions in some BJP-governed states, and Hindu nationalist state leaders might view a Hindu-nationalist campaign as a signal to incite low-level violence to animate their supporters. Increasing communal clashes could alienate Indian Muslims and allow Islamist terrorist groups in India to expand their influence."

This is hardly the first time that someone in the Congress has leapt at a report that portrays India in a poor light without adequately buttressing its claims. Rahul Gandhi had latched onto an exaggerated report that portrayed India as an unsafe place for women despite it being based on 'perception' rather than data. Congress ally Jignesh Mevani has also similarly attempted to mount a campaign around a UN Human Rights office report that berated the Indian Army for its operations in Jammu and Kashmir while not once using the phrase “terror group” in the context of the terrorism emanating from Pakistani soul. 

A short while before he fear-mongered over the US report, Tharoor took a jibe at the goings-on at the Kumbh Mela, sharing a picture of Yogi Adityanath taking a holy dip and writing:

"Ganga bhi swachh rakhni hain, aur paap bhi yahi dhone hain. Iss Sangam mein sab nange hain. Jai Ganga Maiya ki!" he said in a tweet. (Ganga has to be kept clean, and sins also have to be washed there. In this sangam (meeting point of rivers) everyone is naked. Hail Goddess Ganga!)