Senior Congress leader Shashi Tharoor  launched a cleanliness drive on Kovalam beach, personally collecting garbage in bags. Prime Minister Narendra Modi praised his efforts and also retweeted the pictures.

Tharoor, who was sacked as spokesperson of the Congress party for tagging along with Modi’s Swachh Bharat campaign, said that Mahatma Gandhi’s sanitation drive was a national cause and not aligned to any party.

Prime Minister Modi retweeted the photos of Tharoor on his twitter handle @narendramodi and also praised him, writing: “A great effort by @ShashiTharoor! His active participation in Swachh Bharat Mission is very encouraging.”

Earlier, Tharoor, Congress MP from Thiruvananthapuram, while launching the cleanliness drive on the beach tweeted: “Before my actions today are distorted: a clean India requires no label. Why cede Gandhiji’s sanitation drive to any party? A national cause.”

Tharoor and a few other Congress workers and representatives of local bodies held brooms and took to the job of cleaning streets.

“I am a Congressman and my ideology is there should be clean surroundings. I first arrived in this city when I was 10 years and at that time even after heavy rains, the city used to be clean due to the excellent drainage facility. But today, urban planning has failed and the place here has become like a sewage dump,” said Tharoor.

Tharoor said it was Mahatma Gandhi who said sanitation is more important than independence.

“Cleanliness is a national programme… not the programme of any particular party,” he added.

Prime Minister Narendra Modi had nominated Tharoor to spread the message of a clean India.