Tharoor apologises for the 'cattle class' remark

New Delhi, Sep 18: After running into serious trouble with the offensive comment that he posted on Twitter on government's austerity drive, External Affairs minister, Shashi Tharoor on Thursday, Sep 17 apologised for offending the people and the Congress party.

Tharoor said 'sorry' for hurting the sentiments with his 'cattle-class' remark on the micro-blogging site and said that his words had been misunderstood.

The minister tweeted late on Thursday, Sep 17 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'."

Clarifying that the phrase 'cattle class' was used in a query and he had just repeated it, Tharoor tweeted, "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 went on to clarify that the word 'cattle-class' when translated into Malayalam sounds worse and especially taken out of context.

Further, 'holy cows' was not referring to any individuals but rather the sacrosanct issues or principles that no one dares challenge, he said, adding that he had learned an lesson from this episode.

OneIndia News