The ideological mentor of the BJP, Mr Tharoor said, found it "extremely difficult" to "curb" PM Modi.

Lashing out at Congress lawmaker Shashi Tharoor for his comments against Prime Minister Narendra Modi, Union Minister Giriraj Singh on Sunday said Mr Tharoor would have been silenced "if this was Pakistan".

"If this was Pakistan, Tharoor would have been made to shut his mouth. He has not only insulted the Prime Minister, but crores of Hindus and followers of Lord Shiva in this country. The Congress has crossed all limits now," Mr Singh was quoted as saying by news agency ANI.

Mr Tharoor stirred up a controversy by quoting an analogy for Prime Minister Narendra Modi -- one that he attributed to an "RSS source" of a journalist. Speaking at an event in Bengaluru, Mr Tharoor, whose book on PM Modi was recently released, said the "personality cult" of the Prime Minister did not sit well with many in the RSS establishment. The ideological mentor of the BJP, he said, also found it "extremely difficult" to "curb" PM Modi.

"There's an "extraordinarily striking metaphor", he said, in which the RSS expressed their "profound frustration with their inability to curb Mr Modi - and the man says 'Mr Modi is a like a Scorpion sitting on a Shivling. You cannot move it with your hand and you cannot hit it with a chappal either'."

(With ANI inputs)