'Sorry, some are offended.' Shashi Tharoor issues apology after picture with 'attractive' MPs goes viral

Congress MP Shashi Tharoor on Monday found himself in a midst of an awkward position on social media after he shared a selfie with six "attractive" women Members of Parliament.

The picture, which was clicked at the start of the Winter Session of Parliament, featured Trinamool's Nusrat Jahan and Mimi Chakraborty, Congress's Jothimani, NCP's Supriya Sule, Amarinder Singh's wife Preneet Kaur and Tamizhachi Thangapandia along with Mr Tharoor.

While everyone is all smiles in the picture, it was Tharoor's caption on Twitter which became a subject of criticism online.


"Who says the Lok Sabha isn't an attractive place to work? With six of my fellow MPs this morning: @supriya_sule @preneet_kaur @ThamizhachiTh @mimichakraborty @nusratchirps @JothimaniMP," Tharoor wrote.

Minutes after the picture was uploaded, people on Twitter started slamming the Congress leader for comparing political leaders to their looks and called Tharoor's comment a "casual objectification".

Netizens were not happy with the way Tharoor, a senior political leader, captioned the image and pointed out how women are treated as a showpiece in a workplace.








In the wake of backlash, Tharoor took to Twitter to clear the air behind the controversial tweet and apologised to whoever he may have offended with his post.

The political leader said that the selfie was clicked in great good humour and it was the women MPs who asked him to tweet it out in the same context.

"The whole selfie thing was done (at the women MPs' initiative) in great good humour & it was they who asked me to tweet it in the same spirit. I am sorry some people are offended but i was happy to be roped in to this show of workplace camaraderie. That's all this is," Tharoor tweeted hours after the selfie went viral on the micro-blogging site.