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 Workship' and we enjoy holiday on his birthday," he said in a reply to a posting on the social networking site Twitter.
To support his contention, 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 Nguyen whom he met at a dinner hosted by Vice President Hamid Ansari last night.
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.
Tharoor's comment on his Twitter in September dubbing travel in economy class as "cattle class" had evoked strong rebuke from his party colleagues.
Image: Minister of State for External Affairs Shashi Tharoor