"No Mention, Concoction": Shashi Tharoor On BJP's 'Mangalsutra' Charge

The Thiruvananthapuram MP doubled down on his party's charge that the NDA is seeking 400 seats because it wants to change the Constitution.

Hitting back hard at the BJP's allegations that his party's manifesto speaks about wealth redistribution and an inheritance tax, Congress leader Shashi Tharoor has said that the ruling party is talking about the document even without reading it and every charge levelled on this front is "completely concocted by its propaganda machinery". 

Speaking exclusively to NDTV on Wednesday, the three-time MP and candidate from the Thiruvananthapuram Lok Sabha constituency also doubled down on his party's charge that the NDA is seeking 400 seats because it wants to change the Constitution, his differences with Hindutva and how the BJP has hit a ceiling in terms of its vote share in Kerala. 

The BJP, led from the front by Prime Minister Narendra Modi, has been consistently saying that the Congress manifesto speaks about taking people's money and jewellery, including 'mangalsutras' - a sacred ornament in Hinduism symbolising that a woman is married. On some occasions, the PM also said that the Congress will conduct an X-Ray of people's homes to get to their possessions and that these will then be redistributed, including among Muslims.