mehboobkz
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One man's cattle class is another man's idea of supreme luxury. Which is why the Congress austerity drive has a hollow ring. People can sniff the hypocritical undertone. S M Krishna and Shashi Tharoor were ordered out of their five-star splendour, which they were paying for at their own expense, but the government continues to foot the bill for the stay in the four-star Samrat hotel of many outstation MPs whose government bungalows in Delhi are still being renovated. Rahul Gandhi, as a token gesture, may travel in airconditioned Chair Car on a train, but what about the fact that 12 bulletproof cars had to be airlifted from Delhi to Chennai by an Air Force plane for his three-day trip to Tamil Nadu recently?
In the debate on austerity in public life, one should perhaps make a distinction between extravagance at one's own cost and reckless expenditure at the expense of the public exchequer. A few token gestures cannot wish away the fact that five-star culture is deeply ingrained in a section of our political class and it cannot be removed just by a party diktat.
I, for one, do not subscribe to the old school belief that those in politics should be there for social service alone and should necessarily adhere to simple Gandhian living. If this was the case, it would reduce the pool of talent from which we can draw in politics. A person who has entered political life after a successful stint in his original profession or comes from a wealthy background is usually an asset in government. A code which maintains that the well-heeled must not display their wealth, is unrealistic and insincere.
Today's MPs are undoubtedly more affluent than those of half a century ago. For instance, 30 years back, one often saw MPs waiting patiently for the special shuttle at Parliament House to get dropped home. But today, almost no MP takes the bus. The parking lot of Parliament House speaks for itself. Rows of large, shiny, ostentatious vehicles. Not humble Maruti 800s or Swifts, but pricey Pajeros, Land Cruisers and Honda CRVs -- and an occasional Lamborghini, Mercedes S20 series and even a Bentley.
Donning khadi pajamas does not necessarily mean eschewing the five-star lifestyle, as Rahul Gandhi implied recently at a press conference. Our politicians can be seen regularly at Delhi's five-star restaurants, hotels and gyms, even if they wear khadi in the daytime. Rather than the mandatory kurta pajama uniform, a more revealing glimpse of a politician's spending habits can be got from the brand names of the pens and watches he sports. The late hotelier and MP Lalit Suri once gave me a rundown on the prices of some of the watches and rings worn by his parliamentary colleagues, which was an eye-opener.
Equally revealing is the money spent in renovations of government bungalows. In the last ten years, many of these shabby houses which date back to the Raj have been totally transformed, even if they are heritage structures and it is against the rules to alter them drastically. False ceilings fitted to make central air conditioning possible, narrow windows with bars and ugly grills removed and huge plate-glass windows installed, the old, broken-down tiles replaced by marble flooring, plush toilets and jacuzzis installed, and so on. One affluent MP even installed a swimming pool on his roof.
Rather than diffusing an important issue by bringing into the ambit ostentatious lifestyle, the Congress should first focus simply on expenditure which comes directly from the taxpayer's kitty. Cutting down on needless foreign travel and doing away with some of the trappings of being a VIP is a step in the right direction.
People in pubic life tend to look upon their privileges as compensation for their low salaries compared to the private sector. Because of our socialist mooring and Gandhian roots, we pegged the salaries of bureaucrats, MPs, judges and ministers at an unrealistically low level. To compensate for the salaries, the government provided a series of perks. The salaries have subsequently been raised, but the perks still remain.
The irony is that the perks cost the exchequer far more than the actual salaries. They include large bungalows with gardens, free telephone bills, free water and electricity, servants quarters, cars with drivers, escort cars, unnecessary security staff, first class air travel, free travel for kith and kin, constant tours, foreign travel, frequent flyer miles for family and friends, and so on.
A recent report pointed out that while cabinet ministers' salaries total a mere Rs 1.75 crore, their perks cost the government some Rs 180 core, including Rs 138.7 crore for tour expenses alone. A magazine calculated last year that in four years of the UPA government, 71 of the 78 ministers had logged enough miles to circle the earth 256 times. If the finance ministry undertook a thoughtful exercise in cutting back on some of this wasteful expenditure, which ministers, MPs and officials have taken for granted for far too long, it would be far more meaningful than the charade about MPs renouncing their five-star lifestyle.
http://www.indianexpress.com/news/the-congresss-fivestar-hypocrisy/521094/0
In the debate on austerity in public life, one should perhaps make a distinction between extravagance at one's own cost and reckless expenditure at the expense of the public exchequer. A few token gestures cannot wish away the fact that five-star culture is deeply ingrained in a section of our political class and it cannot be removed just by a party diktat.
I, for one, do not subscribe to the old school belief that those in politics should be there for social service alone and should necessarily adhere to simple Gandhian living. If this was the case, it would reduce the pool of talent from which we can draw in politics. A person who has entered political life after a successful stint in his original profession or comes from a wealthy background is usually an asset in government. A code which maintains that the well-heeled must not display their wealth, is unrealistic and insincere.
Today's MPs are undoubtedly more affluent than those of half a century ago. For instance, 30 years back, one often saw MPs waiting patiently for the special shuttle at Parliament House to get dropped home. But today, almost no MP takes the bus. The parking lot of Parliament House speaks for itself. Rows of large, shiny, ostentatious vehicles. Not humble Maruti 800s or Swifts, but pricey Pajeros, Land Cruisers and Honda CRVs -- and an occasional Lamborghini, Mercedes S20 series and even a Bentley.
Donning khadi pajamas does not necessarily mean eschewing the five-star lifestyle, as Rahul Gandhi implied recently at a press conference. Our politicians can be seen regularly at Delhi's five-star restaurants, hotels and gyms, even if they wear khadi in the daytime. Rather than the mandatory kurta pajama uniform, a more revealing glimpse of a politician's spending habits can be got from the brand names of the pens and watches he sports. The late hotelier and MP Lalit Suri once gave me a rundown on the prices of some of the watches and rings worn by his parliamentary colleagues, which was an eye-opener.
Equally revealing is the money spent in renovations of government bungalows. In the last ten years, many of these shabby houses which date back to the Raj have been totally transformed, even if they are heritage structures and it is against the rules to alter them drastically. False ceilings fitted to make central air conditioning possible, narrow windows with bars and ugly grills removed and huge plate-glass windows installed, the old, broken-down tiles replaced by marble flooring, plush toilets and jacuzzis installed, and so on. One affluent MP even installed a swimming pool on his roof.
Rather than diffusing an important issue by bringing into the ambit ostentatious lifestyle, the Congress should first focus simply on expenditure which comes directly from the taxpayer's kitty. Cutting down on needless foreign travel and doing away with some of the trappings of being a VIP is a step in the right direction.
People in pubic life tend to look upon their privileges as compensation for their low salaries compared to the private sector. Because of our socialist mooring and Gandhian roots, we pegged the salaries of bureaucrats, MPs, judges and ministers at an unrealistically low level. To compensate for the salaries, the government provided a series of perks. The salaries have subsequently been raised, but the perks still remain.
The irony is that the perks cost the exchequer far more than the actual salaries. They include large bungalows with gardens, free telephone bills, free water and electricity, servants quarters, cars with drivers, escort cars, unnecessary security staff, first class air travel, free travel for kith and kin, constant tours, foreign travel, frequent flyer miles for family and friends, and so on.
A recent report pointed out that while cabinet ministers' salaries total a mere Rs 1.75 crore, their perks cost the government some Rs 180 core, including Rs 138.7 crore for tour expenses alone. A magazine calculated last year that in four years of the UPA government, 71 of the 78 ministers had logged enough miles to circle the earth 256 times. If the finance ministry undertook a thoughtful exercise in cutting back on some of this wasteful expenditure, which ministers, MPs and officials have taken for granted for far too long, it would be far more meaningful than the charade about MPs renouncing their five-star lifestyle.
http://www.indianexpress.com/news/the-congresss-fivestar-hypocrisy/521094/0
