Union Minister Shashi Tharoor today said the Wharton India Economic Forum should not have cancelled the invitation to Gujarat Chief Minister Narendra Modi and instead students could have used the opportunity to “challenge” his decisions after hearing him out.

“I disagree profoundly with Mr Modi...Students should have gone through his various decisions and record. Once invited, they should have actually heard him out and they should have actually challenged (Modi’s various decisions),” he told presspersons outside Parliament House.

He said the “process” should have been to listen to him and then grill him on various issues. “University is a place where you can answer questions and ask questions...Once you invite somebody, then disinviting is unnecessary,” he said.

Wharton Business School had invited Modi to deliver an address via video conference on March 22-23 but cancelled it on Sunday. It is yet to announce a replacement for Modi.

Recently, Modi had commented on Tharoor’s personal life, saying his wife was once his “50-crore-rupee girlfriend”.

The remarks were made a day after the Congress leader made a comeback in the Union Council of Ministers as Minister of State for Human Resources Development.

“There was a Congress leader who was a minister. He was accused of amassing wealth from cricket. He had said in Parliament that he is not connected to the Rs 50-crore in the lady’s name,” Modi had said in an apparent reference to Tharoor in the context of the IPL cricket controversy involving Sunanda Pushkar in 2010. Tharoor had later resigned as Minister of State for External Affairs.

Tharoor had hit back, saying his wife is “priceless” but the Gujarat Chief Minister needs to be able to love someone to understand that.

Tharoor also said his wife was worth a lot more than Modi’s “imaginary Rs 50 crore”.

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