Row over MEA purchase of his books "contemptible": Tharoor

Hitting out at the "bash ST (Shash Tharoor) brigade", the Minister of State for External Affairs on Saturday said that a controversy over the External Affairs Ministry's purchase of books authored by him was "contemptible".

Hitting out at the "bash ST (Shash Tharoor) brigade", the Minister of State for External Affairs on Saturday said that a controversy over the External Affairs Ministry's purchase of books authored by him was "contemptible".

HT Image

Tweeting hours within a media report insinuating alleged misuse of his ministerial clout in the purchase of 150 copies each of his three books being bought by his own Ministry for Indian missions abroad, Tharoor said "truth is irrelevant 4th (for the) bash ST brigade."

The minister also said he had told "the journalist that my books had been bought by MEA years before I had anything to do with government, no idea they had again last year."

"It's contemptible that despite this, they wld(would) imply I orchestrated a decision I was not even aware of," he said.

Tharoor, who has been at the centre of controversies, including the recent one on his reported remarks on Jawaharlal Nehru's foreign policy, had lashed out at the media last Sunday for "distorting" his comments made at a seminar.

In his tweet, the minister said "just for the record, my staff & I have nothing to do with MEA book purchases & I was completely unaware of mine being amongst those bought".