Cong pulls up Tharoor for tweet

Union minister Shashi Tharoor, who has got into trouble in the past for publicly voicing his thoughts through his Twitter handle, was once again pulled up by the Congress party on Wednesday over his tweet advocating that the identity of the Delhi gangrape victim be made public and the proposed anti-rape legislation be named after her.

"It is his personal opinion. But I suggest that since he is a part of the government, he should have given his views to the government itself. The party forum is also open for giving such suggestions," said Congress spokesperson Rashid Alvi.

Though he did not directly comment on his colleague's remarks, I&B Minister Manish Tewari maintained that it was "advisable if we can make our laws effective and ensure wheels of justice turn faster".

The rebuff is not new to Tharoor. A couple of years ago, he was similarly pulled up by the party when he tweeted that he would travel "in cattle class out of solidarity with all our holy cows", causing an uproar.

Making it clear that the party was not amused by Tharoor's way of communicating through new age medium like Twitter, Alvi said: "It would have been better had he given this advice to the government as after all the decision has to be taken at their level and Home Minister has to take the decision."

In his tweets on Tuesday, Tharoor, MoS for Human Resource Development, favoured making public the identity of the gangrape victim wondering what interest was served by keeping her name under wraps. He also said the revised anti-rape legislation should be named after the victim if her parents do not have any objection.

The Congress disapproval of Tharoor's remarks came even as the family of the victim said it had no objection to naming the proposed new anti-rape law after the girl.

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