Congress not amused at ‘cattle class’ remark.
First time Congress MP and minister Shashi Tharoor — a regular on the social networking website Twitter — today received a stern message from the party leadership to restrain himself. The latest flak for the minister of state for external affairs came after he described the economy class of airlines — a coveted place in the recent austerity spree of the Congress — as “cattle class” and publicly announcing that he will continue to travel in the ‘cattle class’ out of solidarity with “holy cows”.
On Tuesday, Tharoor in a reply to a question on whether he would continue to travel in cattle class, wrote in his Twitter blog: “Absolutely, in cattle class out of solidarity with all our holy cows”.
While Tharoor’s chair remains safe for the time being, a peeved Congress leadership couldn’t accept these off-the-cuff remarks a day after party president Sonia Gandhi travelled in an economy class seat to Mumbai. A senior leader close to Gandhi said: “The message has been conveyed to him (Tharoor) that being a newcomer he should first learn the political culture of the Congress which has a history attached to its name.”
A section of the Congress also claimed that Tharoor had been advised not to air his personal comments and its better if he stopped his Twitter writings altogether.
The Congress slammed Tharoor for his ‘insensitive’ remarks. Party spokesperson Jayanthi Natarajan said: “We totally condemn it. The statement is not in sync with our political culture. His remarks are not acceptable.”
“Certainly, the party does not endorse it. We find it unacceptable and totally insensitive. We do not approve of this articulation. Thousands of people travel in economy class,” she added.
More From This Section
The Congress also faced embarrassment as Tharoor spoke about showing solidarity with “holy cows” at a time when both Sonia and Rahul Gandhi are spearheading the austerity campaign and travelling in less expensive class in train and flights.
Tharoor had already received flak recently for his stay in a luxurious hotel and was forced to shift to the Navy guest house in the national capital.