Shashi Tharoor today received flak from the Opposition which said he did not not deserve to be a minister for his "insensitive" remarks on economy class travellers.
After the Congress rebuke, Shashi Tharoor today received flak from the Opposition which said he did not not deserve to be a minister for his "insensitive" remarks on economy class travellers.
Reacting to the controversial remarks by Tharoor on social networking site "Twitter", Madhya Pradesh chief minister Shivraj Singh Chauhan said he has no no right to continue in the Union Council of ministers after his "insulting" remarks about economy class travellers.
"I believe that in a democracy, people are God. To refer to them as 'cattle' is an insult to them. And I believe that such a person has no no right to be a Union minister," he told reporters.
Chauhan said Tharoor, Union minister of State for External Affairs, perhaps did not not know India very well.
"And if he says that to sit in economy class is like being cattle, then Shashi Tharoorji, those people who travel economy class are very big people," he said.
Janata Dal (U) president Sharad Yadav also attacked Tharoor's remarks saying, "such people are in large numbers in the party (Congress) who do not know the condition in which people live."
About Tharoor he said, "Tharoor is not fit to become external affairs minister. He does not understand any problems of the country. He understands neither Kerala, nor his own constituency."
Yadav also attacked the Congress over the austerity drive saying it was a ploy to divert the attention from price rise which has hit the common men hard.
"Austerity drive is a ploy by Congress led UPA government to divert attention from drought and price rise which have hit common men hard. Why did they not launch any such drive earlier when they were in power for last five years?," Yadav told reporters here.
Terming the drive a "sham", he alleged the drive was started after external affairs minister SM Krishna and his MoS Shashi Tharoor were exposed "lavishly" spending on hotel bills.
Tharoor, a former UN diplomat and a new comer to politics, yesterday received a sharp rebuke from his own party Congress which said his remarks "cattle class" in the context of economy class travel forced by government's austerity measures were "unacceptable and insensitive".
The first time MP, who also immediately became a minister, attracted criticism after he replied to a query on his page in 'Twitter' whether he would travel in cattle class to Kerala next time on economy class by saying "absolutely, in cattle class out of solidarity with all our holy cows".
The Congress party's strong reaction came against against the backdrop of party president Sonia Gandhi herself flying economy class in commercial flights and Rahul Gandhi travelling Chair Car in Shatabdi Express as part of austerity campaign because of the current drought and other economic difficulties.
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