Congress MP Sudhakaran tweets in support of Tharoor
By IANSFriday, September 18, 2009
NEW DELHI - While the Congress party says it would take “appropriate action” against Minister of State for External Affairs Shashi Tharoor for his “cattle class” travel remark, his fellow Congress MP from Kerala K. Sudhakaran has tweeted in his support.
“It’s sad we shouted ’sensitivity’ for two days to a tweet by @shashitharoor while we were actually being ‘oversensitive’,” said Sudhakaran, who has more than 2,000 followers on the twitter.
Sudhakaran, who is known as the party’s strong man in the Marxist bastion Kannur in Kerala, said: “Let’s not lose our sense of humour! tweeting is fun! So let’s keep tweeting tweeple.”
He said: “We should also learn to take things sportingly and leave it at that, and focus on bigger things.”
Sudhakaran added that “some tweets shouldn’t be taken so seriously and (be) left at that.”
Tharoor ran into trouble for a message he posted on the social networking site Twitter in which he said sarcastically in response to a query that he would travel “cattle class out of solidarity with all our holy cows!”.
The Congress said it would take “appropriate action” against him at a suitable time and reiterated that the party condemned his comments.
The minister, who is in Liberia on an official visit, tweeted late Thursday night that he had “learned belatedly of fuss over my tweet replying to journo’s query whether I would travel to Kerala in ‘cattle class’”.
He pointed out that the phrase “cattle class” was used in the journalist’s query, which he just repeated.
“It’s a silly expression but means no disrespect to economy travellers, only to airlines for herding us in like cattle. Many have misunderstood,” he tweeted.
He admitted that the phrase when translated into Malayalam sounded worse, especially if taken out of context. “To those hurt by the belief that my repeating the phrase showed contempt: sorry,” said Tharoor.
He also explained that the word “holy cows” was not referring to any individual. “Holy cows are NOT individuals but sacrosanct issues or principles that no one dares challenge. Wish critics would look it up.”
Criticising Tharoor, Leader of Opposition in Kerala assembly Oommen Chandy of the Congress said: “Political workers should behave like servants of the people and not their owners.”
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September 20, 2009: 8:25 am
The fuss over the Tharoor’s comments suprises me as many Indian’s do, at the same time it reminds me that such a surprise is out of place because the Ideoligical purity of many political leaders is a farce. I have first hand experience of seeing Congress Leaders wearing the torn Brand New Khadhi Shirts to show their poverty to the people. I mean to say that the political Ideology of Truth and Simplicity once preached and practiced by Gandhi never penetrated beyond the skin of his followers. So when some one like Mr. Tharoor, what ever may be his past business, is now in there cadre should not expose the party’s double standard by saying a truth. They will continue preaching “Austerity” and in practice sponsor expensive trip to it’s young Leaders (Refer to THE HINDU’s report of Rahuls Trip to one of the southern state). So, one must be surprised only if the comments like the one made by Mr. Tharoor is tolerated without resistance by the Party. |
Sunil Mithirmala