Shashi Tharoor Defends "Malayali Taliban" Tweet Amid Backlash

Shashi Tharoor posted the tweet with video showing a Taliban member weeping in joy as the group neared Kabul, hours before the fall of the Afghan capital.

Congress MP Shashi Tharoor's comments on "Malayali Taliban" in a post sharing a video of the group's celebrations in Afghanistan after the takeover of Kabul became controversial on Tuesday as many slammed the tweet.  It sounds as if there are at least two Malayali Taliban here - one who says "samsarikkette" around the 8-second mark & another who understands him! https://t.co/SSdrhTLsBG This is highly problematic. Making statements like this especially when the Right Wing eco system is going on a hate campaign against Kerala regarding people joining jihadist groups. And you being an MP from Kerala's capital should be knowing better. I have been approached by Kerala mothers whose daughters are stuck in Afghanistan after having been taken there by their misguided husbands. I arranged a meeting w/ EAM SushmaSwaraj ji for a constituent to plead her case. Obviously it's as an MP that I'm aware of the situation. Listened to this video repeatedly. The man didn't say samsarikkatte. He might've said zamzam - holy water in Arabic, or samsaram in Tamil, meaning wife. Or he was saying some thing in his dialect. If the word wife triggers the MP, why drag Malayalis into that? https://t.co/fMhQEgUklx This is not a comedy show @ShashiTharoor .It seems to be just tip of an iceberg. @INCIndia & Left are ruining #Kerala under pseudo- secularism.In my book #EnemiesWithin I have highlighted the fact about how #Kerala is becoming a hot spot for recruitment of Islamic terrorist. https://t.co/Yi9AEKdGGj Interesting explanation. WIll leave it to the linguists to figure this one out. But there have indeed been misguided Malayalis who joined the Taliban, so that possibility cannot be ruled out entirely. https://t.co/B6AuIqvjHf I am sure all those who decried my tweet about the possibility of Malayalis in the Taliban will now notice the ones who were released from the government's prisons today: https://t.co/N1aDLXrZ4O "It sounds as if there are at least two Malayali Taliban here - one who says "samsarikkette" around the 8-second mark & another who understands him!", Shashi Tharoor, the MP from Kerala's Thiruvananthapuram, wrote in his tweet, sharing the video posted on August 15 by a user, Ramiz. The video showed a Taliban member weeping in joy as the group neared Kabul, hours before the fall of the Afghan capital.