Tharoor falls prey to 'farrago of distortions' in tweet about Nehru-Indira

New Delhi: Senior Congress leader Shashi Tharoor is known for his cryptic tweets and use of words that leave people scratching their heads.

But on Monday, his luck ran out after making one big geographical error and – lo, behold -- a spelling mistake!

In an apparent dig at Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s mega Houston rally that reverberated with the screams of over 50,000 Indian-Amercians.

Tharoor shared a photo of India’s first Prime Minister’s Jawaharlal Nehru and his daughter Indira Gandhi’s mega reception abroad in the 1950s.

Tharoor placed the event in USA in 1954, stating: “Look at the hugely enthusiastic spontaneous turnout of the American public, without any special PR campaign, NRI crowd management or hyped-up media publicity.”

He also misspelt Indira as India. Soon the gaffe #IndiaGandhi, used as a hashtag in the tweet, began to trend.

Refer the event, netizens – including senior journalists -- pointed out that it was not USA the first Prime Minister was visiting, but a public rally in Moscow, USSR. It was also not 1954 as mentioned by Tharoor, but 1956.

The Thiruvananthapuram MP’s veiled attack on Modi’s popularity abroad fell flat on its face but he was quick to correct his mistake.

He later tweeted: “I am told this picture (forwarded to me) probably is from a visit to the USSR and not the US. Even if so, it still doesn't alter the message: the fact is that former PMs also enjoyed popularity abroad. When @narendramodi is honoured, @PMOIndia is honoured; respect is for India.”

Of course, he is right! The respect is always for this country and the people that represent it. But a little fact-checking is always in order to avoid the ‘kerfuffle’, or shall we say the ‘farrago’, it left Twitteratti in.