austerity drive

Minister of State for External Affairs Shashi Tharoor, the urbane and articulate former international diplomat, was being sarcastic when he posted a message on Twitter that he would travel “cattle class out of solidarity with all our holy cows!”.
The message on the social networking site may have made his “followers” smile but politicians didn’t find it witty. Tharoor has apologised for his remark but the Congress on Friday indicated that it might take action against him. "The Congress will take appropriate action at appropriate time," said party spokesperson Manish Tewari.
Prime Minister Manmohan Singh called Tharoor’s remark a joke but the matter may not end soon. Rajasthan Chief Minister Ashok Gehlot has demanded Tharoor's resignation. "Such statements by Tharoor are bound to evoke reactions," said Tewari about Gehlot’s demand.
Are demands for Tharoor's resignation justified? CNN-IBN’s Bhupendra Chaubey asked Tewari, BJP spokesperson Ravi Shankar Prasad, novelist and blogger Amit Varma, and Kanchan Gupta, Associate Editor at The Pioneer newspaper.
Prasad believed Tharoor’s fault, as a minister, was that he made a “statement of extravagance”.