In today's India, Swami Vivekananda would be thrown engine oil at: Shashi Tharoor

New Delhi: Continuing with his central theme of attacking BJP and RSS on issues of intolerance, Shashi Tharoor on Sunday said that goons would throw engine oil at Swami Vivekananda if he came to India of today.

The senior Congress leader was speaking at an event in Thiruvananthapuram and in the presence of social activist Swami Agnivesh. "I am convinced if Swami Vivekananda were to come to today's India, he would be the target of these goondas that Swami Agnivesh has been," he said. "They will bring engine oil to throw at his face and will also try to knock him down on the streets because Swami Vivekananda would be saying, respect people. He would say humanity is more important."

Swami Agnivesh was beaten, allegedly by Bharatiya Janata Yuva Morcha and Akhil Bharatiya Vidyarthi Parishad (ABVP) workers, in Pakur in Jharkhand last month.

Tharoor, a very vocal critic of what he says is increasing instances of violence and religious intolerance in the country, also - and once again - trained guns on BJP directly. "After the ascent of BJP in power in Delhi and subsequently their rise in power in 21 states, we have seen a widespread rise in incidents of communal violence. People are being assaulted in the name of protecting cows. The government says 70 incidents of cow-related violence has been recorded since independence. 68 of these have been in the last four years. I can rest my case there," he said.

He didn't rest his case.

Accusing the Centre of looking the other way, Tharoor went on to say that PM Narendra Modi is guilty of being silent. "Not once has he stood up and addressed the nation to condemn acts of violence despite having 68 opportunities to do so in the last four years."

This was hardly the first time Tharoor made a scathing attack against BJP. Last month, he had warned of 'Hindu Pakistan' if BJP won elections in 2019. There was massive backlash after this comment with his office in Kerala being attacked and BJP workers showing him black flags.