In trouble recently for his "cattle-class" tweets, Minister of State for External Affairs Shashi Tharoor wants more Indian politicians to use the networking platform, but regrets the controversy surrounding him might have discouraged them.

Speaking on an online radio show here, Tharoor said Twitter was a useful way to get a peek inside the work-life of an elected leader, and said he would like to see more Indians tweeting.

"I would like to see more Indians using this very attractive interactive broadcast platform to get their thoughts out there," said Tharoor, who currently has more than three lakh followers, the largest in the country.

The minister, who had recently courted trouble for referring to economy travellers as "cattle class," on one of his tweets, however, admitted that the controversy might

discourage his colleagues from trying out this handy tool.

"My only regret is that this whole unseemly controversy might dissuade a number of politicians who are otherwise curious or interested in emulating me from doing so because they fear they somehow maybe doing something that will get them into the kind of trouble that I got into," he told the show hosted by eminent India-American scribe Sree Sreenivasan.

Tharoor said many of his followers had told him that Twitter was a useful way to get a peek inside the work-life of their elected leader and wanted other politicians use it.

"As the Internet gains ground more and more in India, I think those numbers will go up in India," Tharoor said.

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