Oxford address issue: Shashi Tharoor gets PM Modi’s praise after Sonia’s scolding

New Delhi: A day after he got a reprimand from his party chief Sonia Gandhi, Congress MP Shashi Tharoor on Thursday received handsome praise from Prime Minister Narendra Modi for his debating skills, creating flutters in political circles about the timing of his remarks.

"What Shashi ji said (at the Oxford debate recently) has now gone viral on Youtube," he said praising the passionate argument in Oxford put forward by Tharoor in demanding reparation payments from the UK to India for 200 years of its colonial rule.

Tharoor's speech gelled with the feelings of patriotic Indians on the issue and also shows what impression one can leave with effective arguments by saying the right things at the right place, Modi said.

The Prime Minister was speaking at the inauguration of Speaker's Research Initiative for Parliamentarians at the Parliament House complex here.

Seated in the front row, Tharoor, who was pulled up by Gandhi yesterday for leaking his remarks against Congress' stalling tactics in Parliament on the issue of scams, acknowledged the Prime Minister's praise for him with a smile.

The Congress MP was among the few non-BJP MPs present in the gathering that included veteran Parliamentarian LK Advani, ministers and MPs belonging to BJP and its allies.

Tharoor had found himself in problems over his praise of Modi on a few occasions ever since he came to power last year and attracted criticism within the party for that.

He had accepted the Prime Minister's invitation to join the 'Clean India' campaign and had recently praised Modi's campaign on yoga and had also remarked that the Prime Minister leaves a positive impact on the countries he visits though he follows the UPA policies.