Yet again, Shashi Tharoor, minister of state for external affairs, challenged a stated policy and embarrassed his government. Yet again, the media savoured a few juicy stories where none need have been offered in the first place. It has all happened much too often.

This time round, Tharoor suggested that Saudi Arabia could act as a valuable interlocutor between India and Pakistan. Later, when an indignant India reminded Tharoor that his suggestion amounted to a negation of the oft-reiterated national policy, he characteristically claimed that he had been misinterpreted. He even sought to educate us by pointing out that an interlocutor did not quite mean a mediator.

Perhaps the Cambridge Advanced Learner's Dictionary got it wrong as well, since it has listed among the meanings of interlocutor, “someone who is involved in a conversation and who is representing someone else”.

Tharoor is obviously finding it difficult to eschew his former freedom as a commentator on national affairs. He is also apparently unable to fathom the impact of his reckless remarks on his government's and his country's image. Worst of all, perhaps, for all his flamboyance he has little to show by way of positive contribution to his ministry. A junior minister may not be able to contribute much in the Indian scheme of governance but that is no reason for the incumbent to act as a loose cannon.

It is time the government accepted that it made a mistake in inducting Tharoor into the council of ministers in the first place and relieved him of his job to minimise further misery on both sides.

Shouldn't the prime minister, then, sack Tharoor before he makes yet another characteristic gaffe?