Panaji: Chief minister Manohar Parrikar took a fresh swipe at Shashi Tharoor for his 2009 tweet when the Congress MP had referred to the economy class as " cattle class". Parrikar said here on Thursday that in public life, perception was important and that despite being entitled to travel by business class, he chose to travel in the economy segment."Before I entered politics, I used to travel by business class. Now as the chief minister, I am entitled to business class but I travel by economy class or as Shashi Tharoor says, cattle class. It is not cattle class and I don't know why he said that. It is quite comfortable," Parrikar said.While Congress and UPA were on an austerity drive in 2009, Tharoor had tweeted that he would travel "in cattle class in solidarity with all our holy cows".His remarks came in for scathing criticism from within Congress and its allies as well as from BJP.Parrikar said for politicians, perception among voters was important because a politician was expected to live a life at par with the common man."Basically, public money has to be carefully handled and you cannot even display your wealth when you are in public life. Because you are expected to stay at par with the common man," the chief minister said.He said while studying at IIT, Mumbai, he had nurtured a dream of purchasing a luxury car, but quickly shelved the idea once he entered the political arena."The obvious reason is this: Even if I worked hard and earned money to afford it, no one is going to say that I have earned money through hard work to drive around in a Mercedes. So, it is not only how you are, it is also how you look. Perception counts. Even if it is your own money," Parrikar said.

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