Tharoor invokes Gandhi but nitpickers make issue of tweet

NEW DELHI: Minister of state for external affairs Shashi Tharoor's 'tweets' or messages on the micro-blogging network 'Twitter' continue to draw unwarranted attention after his "cattle class, holy cows��� wisecrack on the government's austerity drive earned him the Congress party's ire.

Mr Tharoor's "retweet" or reproduction of a message about how Mahatma Gandhi would have wanted Indians to work harder on his birthday rather than enjoy a holiday became the subject of a fresh controversy in the media on Friday.

Mr Tharoor's candid and politically incorrect style is a god-sent for the 24-hour new media cycle, which has made the minister its favourite whipping boy.

"Gandhiji said "work is worship" and we enjoy a holiday on his birthday. He would have wanted us to work harder today," Mr Tharoor 'retweeted' on his site. He then went to add on his own: "Vietnamese vice-president said yesterday: in Vietnam, Ho Chi Minh's birthday is a working day and citizens are expected to put in extra effort at work to honour him".

He was quoting Mr Nguyen Thi Doan , whom he met at a dinner hosted by Vice-President Hamid Ansari Thursday night. Among the other things Mr Tharoor tweeted on Gandhi jayanti were that he had attended inter-faith prayers at Rajghat and also noted "Gandhiji's 140th birth anniversary. Unusually sunny and bright: metaphor for light he still shines".

However, his point of view that not observing Gandhi Jayanti as a holiday might be a better way of honouring the Mahatma once again got him attention.

Mr Tharoor has been comparatively subdued on his Twitter account in the wake of the 'cattle class' controversy which had forced him to apologise for his remarks and even met the Congress President Sonia Gandhi and Prime Minister Manmohan Singh over the remarks.

The party had warned him to put an end to the controversy triggered by the Twitter comments and signalled that it would not like to see a repeat. The minister too did not bring up the matter again on the internet forum.