Ramachandran asks for closing of controversy on Tharoor's remarks

Union minister of state for home, Mullappally Ramachandran today said the controversy over the 'cattle class' remark of his ministerial colleague Shashi Tharoor should be treated as closed, as prime minister Manmohan Singh himself had termed it a "joke".
  
"With prime minister Manmohan Singh terming the remarks by Shashi Tharoor as a mere joke, the matter should be treated as closed," he told reporters here.  
 
Ramachandran had on Wednesday said the Congress' condemnation of Union minister of state for external affairs Shashi Tharoor's remark reflected the sentiments of all partymen in the country.
  
Tharoor's remark that he would travel "cattle class in solidarity with all our holy cows" in a Twitter posting came against the backdrop of an austerity drive in the Government and in the Congress, which had strongly rebuked him.