Civility a rare virtue in Indian politics, says Tharoor after Sitharaman visits him in hospital

Thiruvananthapuram: Defence Minister Nirmala Sitharaman Tuesday called on Congress leader Shashi Tharoor, who is in hospital after suffering head injuries while performing a ritual at a temple here.

Tharoor, the Thiruvananthapuram MP and party candidate in the April 23 Lok Sabha polls, was injured when the hook of a weighing scale came off and its iron panel hit his head during the “Thulabharam” ritual.

He was admitted to the Thiruvananthapuram Medical college hospital Monday, and is expected to be discharged later Tuesday.

The former union minister later tweeted, “Touched by the gesture of @nsitharaman, who dropped by today morning to visit me in the hospital, amid her hectic electioneering in Kerala.Civility is a rare virtue in Indian politics – great to see her practice it by example!”.

‘Thulabharam’ is a Hindu ritual in which a person is weighed against a commodity such as flowers, grains, fruits and similar articles in temples and the equal value or quantity is offered as donation.

Monday being the Malayalam new year day (‘Vishu’), Tharoor performed the ritual by offering sugar equal to his weight in the morning before embarking on his poll campaign.

Sitharaman had reached Kerala Monday night and held a road show at Thiruvananthapuram along with BJP candidate Kummanam Rajashekaran along the coastal stretch, besides addressing a campaign meeting at Attingal for Shobha Surendran.

C Divakaran, the CPI and left front candidate, who is opposing Tharoor, also visited him at the hospital.

“Very gracious of my LDF rival C Divakaran to call this morning to express concern about my well-being. Said he had spoken to the Hospital Superintendent to assure himself I would be ok,” Tharoor said.

Divakaran asked Tharoor not to be demoralised,.

“I’m not: I’m more determined than ever to see this through!,” Tharoor said.

The Thiruvananthapuram constituency is witnessing a fierce triangular fight among the ruling CPI(M)-led LDF, Opposition Congress-led UDF and BJP-led NDA.