This is not the first time that Tharoor's tweets had earned him a sharp rebuke from his party. In 2009, when he was Minister of State for External Affairs Tharoor, one of the first ministers to tweet,  (he had just 5000 followers then, 24 lakh now) had caused heartburn in the government and the Congress.

On his page on Twitter, Tharoor was asked: Tell us minister, next time you travel to Kerala, will it be cattle class?

His reply: Absolutely, in cattle class out of solidarity with all our holy cows.

The Congress said his remarks were unacceptable and totally insensitive.

These came at a time when the party has launched an aggressive austerity drive, which saw Congress chief Sonia Gandhi flying to Mumbai in economy class and general secretary Rahul Gandhi travelling to Ludhiana in an A/C chair car.