Congress advises Tharoor to stay within limits

NEW DELHI: Minister of state for external affairs Shashi Tharoor has once again managed to upset Congress by airing his views on government policy on the microblogging network, Twitter. Congress, which celebrated its 125th anniversary on Monday, sent out another warning to its Tiruvananthapuram MP by reminding him of its disapproval of his “cattle class” remark, also made on Twitter earlier this year.

If the party‘s official message to him was terse “we have nothing more to add now”, then senior leader Satyavrat Chaturvedi compensated with loaded statement advising that everyone should stay within their limits. He also took potshots at the UN-returned minister pointing out that “old habits” die hard and expressed hope that he would slowly understand the “political culture”. He also said personal opinion should not be aired from a public fora.

Congress’ statements came on a day when Mr Tharoor ‘tweeted’ that he had missed the “brouhaha” over his questioning of tighter visa norms, but refused to add anything to his earlier comments. Mr Krishna had on Monday rebuffed Mr Tharoor for questioning the tightening of visa rules and asked him to discuss his “perceptions” within the “four walls” of the government rather than in public. “Was travelling out of range & missed brouhaha. Now that EAM (External Affairs Minister) Krishnaji, whom I respect, has spoken, I hv (have) nothing 2 (to) add. Will discuss visa issue w (with) him,” Mr Tharoor said in his latest Twitter post. Mr Tharoor also thanked his followers on the site for supporting him on the issue. “But thanks for all the kind words over the last 24 hrs. Appreciate the support!,” he said.

Questioning the tightening of Indian visa rules in the backdrop of the David Headley case, Mr Tharoor had posted a ‘tweet’ on Saturday wondering whether the new visa norms for foreign nationals made any sense at all and if they would actually “protect” security. “26/11 killers had no visas,” he had posted.

AICC media in-charge Janardan Dwivedi, in response to the controversy, said: “Whatever the party had to say, it had expressed its opinion earlier (when it had disapproved of the cattle class ‘tweets’). S M Krishna has already spoken about it. We have nothing more to add.”