Shashi Tharoor slammed over his tweet on Miss World Manushi Chhillar

Congress leader Shashi Tharoor's attempt to attack the Centre over demonetisation using the surname of new Miss World Manushi Chhillar has invited strong criticism from two senior ministers in the Haryana government.

Haryana Women and Child Development Minister Kavita Jain said Tharoor "indulged in callous and reckless wordplay on new Miss World Manushi Chhillar".

She asked him to apologise and said the Haryana-born Chhillar was not just the pride of the state, but also of the entire nation.

"Tharoor has only exposed his own debased thinking by questioning the self-respect of our daughters, the pride of the country, and the brave community 'Chhillar'," Jain said in a statement here.

"It is tragic that leaders of the Congress party which is headed by a woman do not respect women. Such low thinking is responsible for the Congress losing its base in the country," she added.

Haryana Finance Minister Capt. Abhimanyu also criticized Tharoor. "A shameless comment deserves to be withdrawn and Shashi must apologise for this...can't believe...he can go so low...(sic)" Abhimanyu tweeted.

Tharoor apologised for his remark, which, he said, was a "light-hearted" comment and also praised Chhillar.

"What a mistake to demonetise our currency! BJP should have realised that Indian cash dominates the globe: look, even our Chhillar has become Miss World!" Tharoor had said on the micro-blogging site, apparently punning on the word 'chillar', which in Hindi means "loose change". 

What a mistake to demonetise our currency! BJP should have realised that Indian cash dominates the globe: look, even our Chhillar has become Miss World!

— Shashi Tharoor (@ShashiTharoor) November 19, 2017