India affected by ship's direction than arrangement of chairs on upper deck: Tharoor on Cabinet rejig

New Delhi: Senior Congress leader Shashi Tharoor on Thursday took a dig at the government over the Cabinet reshuffle, saying Indians are more affected by the seaworthiness of the ship and the direction it is sailing than by the arrangement of the chairs on the upper deck.

His remarks came a day after a major Union Cabinet makeover was effected with Prime Minister Narendra Modi dropping 12 ministers, including Health Minister Harsh Vardhan, IT and Law Minister Ravi Shankar Prasad and Information and Broadcasting Minister Prakash Javadekar, and bringing in Sarbananda Sonowal, Narayan Rane and Jyotiraditya Scindia along with 33 other new members to his government.

Apart from 15 Cabinet ministers, 28 Ministers of State, comprising new faces and those elevated, were sworn in at a ceremony, which was held in the Darbar Hall of the Rashtrapati Bhavan.

"Wishing the new Council of Ministers well in fulfilling their duties to the people. But Indians are more affected by the seaworthiness of the ship & the direction it's sailing than by the arrangement of the chairs on the upper deck," Tharoor tweeted using the hashtag 'CabinetReshuffle2021'.

Earlier in the day, the Congress took a dig at the Cabinet expansion in a tweet from its official Twitter handle.

"Those who used to shout slogans of 'Minimum Government - Maximum Governance' till yesterday, those people are today working on the model of 'Maximum Government - Minimum Governance'. This expansion of the cabinet is not for the country but only a means to serve the interests of their respective parties," the Congress alleged.