Following the ‘soft Hindutva‘ approach Congress is taking to woo back alienated communities, Congress leader, who had once reportedly told the court he is not a Hindu, wrote a book ‘Why I am a Hindu’ has committed a faux pas while wishing for Mahavir Jayanti today. Congress MP Shashi Tharoor today wished his followers for Mahavir Jayanti, the birth anniversary of the twenty-fourth and last Tirthankar and is one of the most important religious festivals of the Jains by posting a picture of Gautam Buddha.
Twitterati came together to teach Tharoor a lesson or two in religion, liberally sprinkled with humour.
@ShashiTharoor you happen to post picture of Gautam Buddha. There is as much as difference in Buddha & Mahavir as in day & night. Hope you get the right photo sometime soon.
— Animesh Jain?? (@Animesh_India) March 29, 2018
Happy Ram Navmi. pic.twitter.com/nJGpIajunq
— Royal Fussy (@Fussy_Ca) March 29, 2018
It’s Mahavir’s Jayanti not Gautam Buddha Jayanti. This is what happens when you become Hindu due to party pressure. pic.twitter.com/M8dJIktbNW
— Smoking Skills (@SmokingSkills_) March 29, 2018
The author of several books on India, Indian history, and one titled Why I Am A Hindu has put a Gautam Buddha pic to wish Bhagwan Mahavir Jayanti ? pic.twitter.com/lOKtxxW2Ee
— Aashish Chandorkar (@c_aashish) March 29, 2018
After being pointed out his error, Tharoor accepted the same and posted a link to the source of his image where he said he welcomes more authentic and acceptable alternatives.
Here’s the source for my picture: https://t.co/OrNVaFsJqd
Authentic, accepted alternatives most welcome. At least, thanks to my apparent error, a lot more people are tweeting on Mahavira than they would otherwise have! https://t.co/vYHNgeeY22— Shashi Tharoor (@ShashiTharoor) March 29, 2018
While Gautam Buddha and Lord Mahavir, both stood for peace and non-violence, and were born decades apart, they are very different from each other and founded two different Indic school of thoughts. One would expect someone who writes books on India and Hinduism to have the basics sorted.
