Wharton Business School should have heard Gujarat CM Modi: Tharoor

New Delhi, Mar. 6 (ANI): Minister of State for Human Resource and Development (HRD) Shashi Tharoor on Wednesday said the Wharton Business School should have heard Gujarat Chief Minister Narendra Modi after inviting him.

Tharoor, however, said that he disagreed with Modi on several issues.

"I disagree profoundly with Mr. Modi, but students should have thought through his various positions and his record before they invited him. Once they invited him, they should have actually heard him out and he should have been challenged. The university campus is a place where you can actually answer questions and ask questions and that should have been the process," said Tharoor.

"He should have been allowed to say his speech and he should have then been challenged on his record. Once you invite somebody dis-inviting is unnecessary and unfortunate," he added.

Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) leader Balbir Punj rallied behind Modi, and backed the views of Shashi Tharoor.

"Mr. Tharoor is absolutely right when he says that Mr. Narendra Modi once he was invited, Wharton must have heard him and it doesn't behave civilized people to first extend an invitation and then back out from it," he said.

Meanwhile, External Affairs Minister Salman Khurshid commenting on the issue sought an explanation from Modi over the 2002 Gujarat communal riots in which more than thousands were killed.

"Our belief is that Narendra Modi should first explain in India his stand over the questions that have been put before him with regards to the right to life and then he should give an explanation abroad," he said.

Modi, who secured an electoral hat-trick in Gujarat in December last year, had been selected by students to address the Wharton India Economic Forum via videoconference.

The Gujarat Chief Minister, who is being touted by many as the BJP's Prime Ministerial candidate in 2014, had to face protests in the national capital last month when he arrived for his first public address at Delhi University's prestigious Shri Ram College of Commerce (SRCC). (ANI)