Senior Congress leader Shashi Tharoor on Thursday accused Union Civil Aviation Minister Jyotiraditya Scindia of adopting the Modi government’s “uncaring attitude” towards the public after switching sides.

Both leaders have been indulging in a war of words over airport chaos due to extensive flight delays.

“It’s a pity that since switching sides you have adopted the Modi Government’s uncaring attitude to the public. As RahulGandhibsaid during the Bharat Jodo Nyay Yatra, it’s clear the suffering of the people is not the suffering of this Government,” Tharoor wrote on ‘X’.

The Congress leader further stated that crores worth of economic value have been lost and lakhs of lives disrupted as people could not go about their daily lives during the festive season.

“…and all the Hon Minister can do is to engage in name-calling,” he said.

Tharoor further added that he didn’t blame the government for the weather and was only highlighting the shortcomings in the Centre’s planning.

“I am not denying that there has been some growth. Nor am I blaming the Govt for the weather. I am pointing out that there are a number of evident shortcomings in the Govt’s planning & its failure to take pro-active action on problems that could easily have been anticipated,” he added.

Earlier on Tuesday, Tharoor raised the issue of the chaos that unfolded at Delhi airport due to extensive flight delays and alleged that the aviation ministry’s “neglect and incompetence” was behind this “Modi government-made disaster”.

“Delhi Airport has been in chaos recently. The young professional wanting to go home for Makar Sankranti. The Army officer excited to visit his ancestral village for Lohri. The anxious son trying to get home to take care of an unwell parent. Thousands of peoples’ lives and schedules have been disrupted by a regular, predictable, foggy winter day. It’s a ModiGovt-made disaster, a result of the Ministry of Civil Aviation’s neglect and incompetence,” he said tagging Scindia.

Responding to her former party colleague’s remarks, Scindia called Tharoor an “arm-chair” critic and termed his criticism “baseless rhetoric”.

Check out the exchange of words between Tharoor and Scindia below:

1/6 It is for someone who is lost in his esoteric world of thesaurus that data mining of selective press articles from the internet qualifies as “research”.

Here are some actual facts for arm-chair critic @ShashiTharoor and the Cong IT Cell that might help tackle their lack of… https://t.co/hA3sijtjr8

— Jyotiraditya M. Scindia (@JM_Scindia) January 17, 2024