Some ministers force PM to go soft with austerity measures
In the face of mounting opposition from ministers belonging to allied parties, prime minister Manmohan Singh was forced to partially roll back the stern austerity measures his government had announced.
Union textile Minister Dayanidhi Maran, who belongs to the DMK, pointed out how an attempt to save money on air travel could end up in the government actually spending more. Especially the directive to travel economy class had incurred the displeasure of several ministers. Agriculture Minister Sharad Pawar recalled how, when he was defence minister once, his Russian counterpart and other Russian officials were shocked to find him traveling economy.
Maran recalled how his staff had to travel two days ahead for a meeting outside the Capital and the government had to foot the hotel bills.
Commerce and Industry Minister Anand Sharma spoke of the practical difficulties involved. Ministers, he said, have to travel frequently and often have to hop across continents at short notice. National Conference leader Farooq Abdullah literally put his foot down on traveling economy. There is no leg space for him there, said the tall leader.
Some ministers also pointed out the ministers of external affairs, home, finance and defence have their own aircraft to fly while they are dependent on public carriers.
The prime minister finally put an end to the controversy. “You can take special permission for flying business class,” Singh told them.
Meanwhile, Rahul Gandhi joined the debate on austerity saying politicians should be austere all the time, remarks that came as a stark reminder to two Union ministers, who had to check out of star hotels a couple of days ago following an embarrassing media exposure.
“As a politician you have a duty to be austere anyway," he told a press conference in Chennai at the end of his three-day visit to Tamil Nadu.
Asked about the issue in the wake of external affairs minister S M Krishna and his deputy Shashi Tharoor having to move out of their luxury hotel suites following a controversy, Gandhi said has no such problems as he generally kept himself austere. "I generally tend to keep myself austere", he said.
External affairs minister S M Krishna and his minister of state Shashi Tharoor moved out of the five-star hotels they were staying in after they were ticked off by finance minister Pranab Mukherjee for their extravagance when the government was advocating austerity. The two ministerssaid they were staying
More ministers chose austerity with agriculture minister Sharad Pawar flying from Mumbai to Delhi in a budget airline’s economy class, while finance minister Pranab Mukherjee did the same while traveling to Kolkata and back from the Capital.External affairs minister S.M. Krishna, who on directions
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