Modi's girlfriend remark is being panned by BJP: Tharoor

New Delhi: Days after Narendra Modi took potshots at his wife, Union Minister Shashi Tharoor today said he was “gratified” that a large number of people, including BJP leaders, “deplored” the Gujarat Chief Minister’s conduct. “When this little business (Modi’s attack on his wife) happened, I was gratified by the enormous number… large number of BJP people including some former ministers reached out to me to say how much they regretted the deplorable conduct of one of their own, which they would not say publicly,” Tharoor told Karan Thapar on _CNN-IBN’_s Devil’s Advocate programme. [caption id=“attachment_513997” align=“alignleft” width=“380”]  Shashi Tharoor with wife Sunanda Pushkar. AFP.[/caption] Speaking at an election rally in Shimla last month, Modi had taken potshots at Tharoor’s personal life, saying his wife Sunanda Pushkar was once his “Rs 50 crore girlfriend”. Modi had made the remarks a day after the Congress leader made a comeback in the Union Cabinet reshuffle as Minister of State for Human Resources Development. “Wah kya girlfriend hai. Apne kabhi dekha hai 50 crore ka girlfriend (What a girlfriend? Have you ever seen a Rs 50-crore girlfriend)?”, Modi had said at an election rally. Hitting out at him over his remarks, Tharoor had tweeted: “My wife is worth a lot more than your imaginary 50 crores. She is priceless. But you need2be able2love some1 2understand that.” Asked if he was worried over the Opposition trying to rake up the issue of corruption charges against him which led to his resignation two years back, Tharoor replied in negative. “I hope not. First of all there isn’t anything in the past. As I said there is no money involved, no acts of corruption. I am not sure what they would keep raking up…,” he said. However, he felt at “odds” over the attitude of the political parties in public life and in private. He said when he was being attacked over the corruption charges, he found it difficult to “pardon those in Opposition whom I thought as friends socially who have so behaved”. “But now I am slowly realising that there seem to be different norms for public behaviours of politicians and private conduct,” he said. Apparently indicating on maintaining a low profile this time around, Tharoor said he would rather like to focus on his Ministry and his constituency. PTI