People should work on Gandhi Jayanti: Tharoor tweets

'Gandhiji said ‘Work is Worship’ and we enjoy holiday on his birthday.'

Tech-savvy Politician: Shashi Tharoor

Continuing to ‘tweet’ his opinion despite receiving flak, Minister of State for External Affairs Shashi Tharoor now feels people should work rather than enjoy a holiday on Mahatma Gandhi’s birthday.

“Gandhiji said ‘Work is Worship’ and we enjoy holiday on his birthday,” he said in a reply to a posting on Twitter.

To support his contention, Mr. Tharoor cited the views of visiting Vietnamese Vice-President Nguyen Thi Doan.

“In V’nam (Vietnam), Ho Chi Minh’s birthday is a working day and citizens are expected to put in an extra effort at work to honour him,” he said quoting Mr. Nguyen whom he met at a dinner hosted by Vice-President Hamid Ansari Thursday night.

Mr. Tharoor also posted that he had attended the inter-faith prayers at Rajghat.

“Gandhiji’s 140th birth anniversary. Unusually sunny and bright: metaphor for light he still shines,” he said.

Mr. Tharoor’s comment on his Twitter in September dubbing travel in economy class as “cattle class” had evoked strong rebuke from his party colleagues.