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Updated: Jan 24, 2020 13:23 IST

Senior Congress leader Shashi Tharoor has joined the Twitter tirade over the controversy involving the former governor of Mizoram Swaraj Kaushal and actors Naseeruddin Shah and Anupam Kher.

Swaraj Kaushal, the husband of late Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) leader Sushma Swaraj, had in at least nine tweets berated Naseeruddin Shah for attacking Anupam Kher.

Kaushal had called Naseeruddin Shah an “ungrateful and disillusioned man” and pointed out to his marriage outside his religion for criticising Anupam Sher as a “clown” and his “sycophantic nature”.

The Congress’ Lok Sabha lawmaker from Kerala’s Thiruvananthapuram criticised Kaushal’s choice of words in one of his tweets.

“Governor Sahib, is it now anti-national to marry outside your religion? Or to criticise Anupam Kher? You are entitled to defend a friend, but surely not on the kinds of grounds listed in this unfortunate tweet,” Shashi Tharoor tweeted on Thursday evening.

Naseeruddin Shah had made his comments against Anupam Kher in an interview with The Wire as he talked about the protests against the Citizenship Amendment Act, the reaction of Bollywood celebrities, the student protests and Deepika Padukone’s decision to show solidarity.

“Someone like Anupam Kher has been very vocal. I don’t think he needs to be taken seriously. He’s a clown. Any number of his contemporaries from NFD and FTII can attest to his sycophantic nature. It’s in his blood, he can’t help it,” Shah had said.

Kher then released a video in response to Shah’s comments against him.

“Thanks for these compliments, but I don’t take what you said seriously at all. However, I never bad-mouthed you or said anything rude to you. But now I would like to say that you have spent your entire life, despite all the success, in frustration,” Kher said in his video.

“If you can criticise Dilip Kumar, Amitabh Bachchan, Rajesh Khanna, Shah Rukh Khan, and Virat Kohli, then I am sure I am in great company. Also, none of these people took your statements seriously. Because we know that this is not you talking but all the substances you’ve consumed for years,” he said.

“They’ve clouded your judgement of what is right and what is wrong. If saying bad things about me gets you headlines for a couple of days, then this is my gift to you. May God keep you happy, your well-wisher, Anupam. And do you know what’s in my blood? Hindustan,” he said.