Our society is becoming increasingly a culture of competitive intolerance: Tharoor

New Delhi: Union Minister Shashi Tharoor has expressed anger over the controversy about Kamal Haasan's 'Vishwaroopam', Salman Rushdie and Ashish Nandy. While speaking to Karan Thapar on this week's Devil's Advocate, Tharoor said that people are going out of their way to clamp down on cultural freedom in the name of religion.

Below is transcript of an excerpt of the show:

Karan Thapar: 'Vishwaroopam' can't be screened in Tamil Nadu, Salman Rushdie has been advised not to visit Calcutta, Ashis Nandy still faces the possibility of arrest for something he said at a literary festival. Is this disturbing and distressing for you?

The Union Minister said that people are going out of their way to clamp down on cultural freedom in the name of religion.

Shashi Tharoor: It is. We seem to be becoming increasingly a culture of competitive intolerance. Each segment of of our society goes out of its way to say how offended they are with somebody else's cultural expression. And the result if we take into account how offended everybody is going to be a terrible narrowing of the cultural space, the space for expression, the space for imagination in our society and cultures don't grow without that.

(For updates you can share with your friends, follow IBNLive on Facebook, Twitter, Google+ and Pinterest)