evidence: Shashi Tharoor regarding his 2018 statement where he compared Prime Minister Narendra Modi to a 'scorpion'. [...] "Mr Modi is a scorpion sitting on a Shivling," he had allegedly said at an event in Bengaluru. [...] "There's an extraordinarily striking metaphor expressed by an unnamed RSS source to journalist Vinod Jose, that, 'Modi is like a scorpion sitting on a Shivling, you can't remove him with your hand and you cannot hit it with a chappal either' ... because while removing him with a hand would mean you'd end up getting stung, hitting the Shivaling with a chappal would raise questions on the spiritual tenets you have been practicing for years," he had said, causing the controversy.