The Standpoint

The Austere Craze

By

Abhishek Mukherjee

It is generally believed austere living is a concept alien to the politician class and bureaucrats in this country, with regards to excessive expenditure on official meetings, foreign and domestic trips among others. The new push for measures to control the State’s expenditure in spite of being a welcome one has now become the new talking point in the political sphere.

The Finance Ministry recently issued a memorandum to all ministries and departments to reduce non-plan expenditure by 5 to 10 percent. It signified the discouraging of meetings in five star hotels or holding seminars and exhibitions abroad, and permission for only economy class in domestic travel (only if absolutely necessary and even then the duration of stay will be limited), and restriction of purchase of government vehicles. The plan, however, was not meant for the Members of Parliament – a major shock.

MPs did not mind to oblige, though. Air travel in economy class suddenly became a new trend, as the Congress chief among others made headlines when she flew economy class to Mumbai in a commercial airliner, joining a battery of ministers in an effort by the government to enforce austerity measures. Two rows of seats were booked for Gandhi and her security personnel in the aircraft as she left for Mumbai to launch the Congress campaign for the Oct 13 assembly elections in Maharashtra, official sources said. While some days later her son, Rahul Gandhi joined the trend by travelling in Shatabdi Express and by refusing to accept flowers at the station staff.

Minister of State Shashi Tharoor recently commented he would travel “cattle class out of solidarity with all our holy cows!” which provided an interesting insight. The term ‘cattle class’ did not point to the economy class travellers, instead he clarified that it targeted the airline companies for herding passengers in like cattle. “Holy cows are not individuals but sacrosanct issues or principles that no one dares to challenge. I wish critics would look it up,” he justified on his twitter account.

Along with SM Krishna, Tharoor had also been asked to vacate a five-star hotel which he had made his temporary home. He was spending his savings for his stay, he had defended. “I would be ashamed if I was spending the people’s money. But I’m not, I’m spending my own savings,” he said. In a recent revelation, Tharoor seemed to have travelled numerous times in his “cattle class”.

With top politicians making their “austerity” public, and the blame game well and truly on, the theory of this simple measure became a political issue. Akhilesh Yadav, son of SP Chief Mulayam Singh Yadav, blasted the Congress, saying that by this new drive, the ruling government was only trying to camouflage its shortcomings.

“Contrary to the tall claims of the Central government, prices of essential commodities are rising, people are facing water and power crisis and nothing has been done to provide employment under the much-hyped government schemes and to divert people's attention from these problems a hype over austerity move has been created,” he said in a statement.

Unfortunately, the hype seems to have no effect on Congress ticket seekers from Haryana and Maharashtra, who are too busy entertaining guests and supporters to worry about austerity. There is no attempt to conceal the grand arrangements. If one candidate boasts of having ferried 50 people to the capital daily for the past one week, another claims his 25 supporters haven’t returned home for a fortnight. Money is no factor if they get the ticket, most of them admit. Hundreds of five-star hotel rooms have been occupied by ticket seekers from Haryana and Maharashtra. The Haryana and Maharashtra Bhavans too are packed. “There are thousands of them; you will not find any lobby of any five-star hotel in Delhi or Gurgaon empty,” one former MLA claimed.

Given the common belief among the public about lavish lifestyles of the people at the helm of administration of states and the country, testified by black money in Swiss Banks. It remains to be seen whether they can utilise this “hype” to actually save unnecessary expenditure and help the country’s cause, and whether journalism can do its bit for the rightful following of the ministry’s directives.