Hindustan Times
Is austerity drive a farce?
For more than a week now, newspapers and TV networks have been going hoarse over the so-called austerity drive by the Central government and the Congress party. While it is good to create a perception that the ruling party and its government were keen to identify themselves with the common man (aam aadmi), the present drive has assumed farcical dimensions. Pranab Mukherjee’s disclosure about his travel by economy class to Kolkata contributed to the confusion and one after the other, ministers started announcing that they would travel by economy too. A private secretary to a minister who had only a week earlier sought a favour from the Air India to upgrade him and his boss to business class called up the airline office two days ago wanting officials to confirm the tickets this time for economy.
Reason: The Congress president had traveled by Economy to Mumbai and so how could any other minister fly by any class other than economy.
Rahul Gandhi showing total disregard for his security chose to travel by train to Ludhiana and back. I wonder how the Special Protection Group (SPG) which protects him allowed this to happen especially when it is headed by veteran Bharat Wanchoo who was also in Rajiv Gandhi’s security team. We have to understand clearly that threats to Rahul and Sonia Gandhi are real given that two members of their family have been assassinated in the past.
Therefore, their choice of traveling by economy or by train should have been shot down by the SPG. As per security regulations all over the world, it is the security agency, which determines how to provide security to the Protectee, and the Protectee should ordinarily have no say in overriding the rulebook. I think, a tragedy is waiting to happen if proper security precautions are not taken and there is no express purpose being served by Ms Gandhi traveling by economy and Rahul by train. They are endangering not only themselves but also their fellow passengers.
There is logic in the argument that ministers should set an example by cutting down their costs. But that does not mean that they should display this by traveling economy. There is very little expenditure incurred when a minister travels by first or business class but when he travels by economy, he puts a lot of people to discomfort. Foreign Minister SM Krishna’s proclamation that he would go to Belarus by Economy and that of Montek Singh Ahluwalia to travel similarly for G-20 defies all reason. They should travel in comfort when they go to represent our country.
While ministers are falling over each other to travel by economy, the bureaucrats continue to travel ‘J’ class. It will be interesting to know how many bureaucrats have traveled “as per their entitlement”in Business class even as their ministers were traveling economy. If economics is worked out, not even five percent of total expenditure on travel is spent on politicians. The huge chunk is for bureaucrats. For any government to make an austerity drive successful, it is important to implement it first on bureaucrats.
Those of us who have lived in Delhi will recall that at one time, the use of official car was only meant from office to office. Most bureaucrats would travel to their place of work in their own car and subsequently make use of official car for official purposes. Later the rules were amended and bureaucrats first started fixing meetings half an hour before their official time and half an hour after the official time to enable them to use office cars. Subsequently, the cars started ferrying their kids to schools and their wives to shopping centers. The practice continues and no one has been able to do anything about it.
Another way of avoiding wasteful expenditure is to make use of services of existing officers instead of relying on retired officials or pensioners.
There must be more than 50 retired officials enjoying perks of office after their super annuation. Some are Governors and some are holding Cabinet or MoS ranks in various bodies of the government. They also continue to stay in official accommodation. Should they not be covered under austerity drive? But Indian people are obsessed with politicians and only see fault in them while the bureaucrats manage to get away.
There have been austerity drives in the past but they have not succeeded because they lacked the motivation. They were more cosmetic in nature and lacked sincerity. The only time I can recall when an austerity drive succeeded was when Lal Bahadur Shastri was the Prime Minister. I remember as a kid that he had given a call for “miss a meal” in the wake of the Indo-Pakistan conflict in 1965. People actually missed their Monday evening meal and dinner at weddings was banned. Only snacks could be served. The common people responded to his call and were touched by the Jai Jawan Jai Kisan slogan he coined.
Indira Gandhi too caught public imagination by her slogan of Garibi Hatao and went on to become arguably the greatest mass leader of the last century, something acknowledged by many surveys including one conducted by the BBC if my memory is correct.
Prices are going through the roof. The need of the hour is to control them. Pranab Mukherjee as the Finance Minister and the rest of the government should be worried about them and not preach travel by economy. These are political stunts and people can see through them.
Finally Rahul Gandhi should refrain from any (mis) adventure in future and abide by the advice of his security personnel and not that of some inexperienced youngsters around him. Such lapses are unforgivable and the Union Government must ensure that he is adequately protected and correctly advised when he travels. Austerity at a huge price is not worth it.
(5 votes, average: 5 out of 5)
Loading ...Posted by Pankaj Vohra on Wednesday, September 16, 2009 at 6:48 pm
Filed under New Delhi · Tagged austerity drive, Central government, Congress Party, Indo-Pakistan conflict, Jai Jawan Jai Kisan slogan, Kolkata, Lal Bahadur Shastri, Rahul Gandhi, Sonia Gandhi, Special Protection Group, SPG
Dear Mr. Vohra,
Primarily, though I am an out and out Congressman, the comment of Shashi Tharoor that economy class is “cattle class” is wholly unacceptable. If economy airtravel is cattle class- what would train-travel or rural-bus travel equal? It is annoying that the same man was India’s nominee for the position of Secy-Gen of the UN.
Equally, I saw in your last piece regarding the death of a Pakistan President, a comment by a gentleman who found fault with Mr. Krishna (who hails from the same state as me) for accepting his son-in-law’s generosity in footing his hotel’s bill. While what he says is true about the north and some parts of the south that an average father-in-law would not even accept a glass of water from his married daughter, it does’nt apply to some cultures including Mr. Krishna’s. However, these factors indeed ought to be kept in mind foremost by persons in public life.
While the foreign ministry is in the shambles. It is the Gandhi family that is doing the country proud by actually walking the talk- inconvenience to them be damned.
The only difficulty with the Gandhi family is that there is’nt enough of them. I had been to meet Rahul Gandhi for his help in getting the nomination to the Mysore Parliamentary constituency on 19th January 2009. He was most forthcoming and very positive- even promising to have a meeting fixed with the Party General Secretary in charge of Karnataka. However the promised meeting never materialised, consequently- needless to mention, I was unsuccesful in obtaining the Party nomination (or even any party position), despite being closely associated with the Party for 15 years (having worked closely with two Cabinet ministers and two party general secretaries) and despite being young, bright, dedicated etc.. I have never been able to meet Mr. Gandhi again despite scores of attempts. I suppose the strain of meeting the aspirations of crores of youth makes it well nigh impossible to keep up promises. Plus there are just two of them from the family, whom everybody in the country wants a piece of!
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Rajeev Reply:
September 17th, 2009 at 11:48 pm
You have been in politics for 15 years still you couldn’t get any party post but your dyanstic leader never had to face any such problem. He can become PM whenever he wants.
This is difference between AAM ADMI (you) and KHAAS AADMI (Rahulji Gandhiji).
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Brijesh Kalappa Reply:
September 18th, 2009 at 5:08 pm
Thank you Rajeev for commiserating with me. But I’m perfectly happy with the INC- its middle of the road, truly secular and has has always had tremendously inspiring leadership. I’d prefer to stay here as a toothless old man with no position at all… as Aam Aaadmi for life!
Incidentally, why was Shourie not expelled despite his “Alice in blunderland” remarks, and why was Vasundhara raje not expelled for defying the party, where Jaswanth Singh was expelled for merely voicing the already articulated opinion of L.K. Advani?
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Rajeev Reply:
September 24th, 2009 at 7:29 pm
You should ask all these questions to BJP. I have no links with them but I can confidently say that I am anti-congress rather anti-gandhi (fake gandhis) and unlike you who wants to die as chamcha congressi, I refuse to call anyone HUZUR-MAIBAAP.
Indians feel proud about projecting themselves as ‘poor and helpless people’. Anyone not doing so becomes an object of ridicule. The country’s large middle class can enjoy all the ‘five-star’ facilities just because they are paying their taxes (though evasions are huge). A middle-class family of four in New Delhi can comfortably own five cars. But the public officials should not do so even at their own expense.
On the one hand India is proud about introducing state of the art technologies in every field and on the other does not want public officials (people who are visible mascots of the country’s prosperity abroad) to make use of these facilities.
Is there not something hypocritical about what we expect from our politicians? How many people lecturing the Government about going beyond tokenism have really made any changes in their own lifestyles given the economic pressures on a large segment of the Indian population? How many newspaper editors and senior journalists have stopped buying Bisleri bottled water or have shifted their scheduled interviews to more modest venues? Why is the backdrop of every episode of ‘Walk the Talk with Shekhar Gupta” so lush and grand?
http://thetrajectory.com/blogs/?p=831
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The only person who lived an austere life without making a fuss about it was Babu Rajendra Prasad. He led the life of a true Karmayogi and Fakir, while living his tenure in the Rashtrapati Bhavan. The rest of them are ’showing’ austerity through “sheer respect to the holy cows”. At least some one is candid enough to admit it so frankly. Give Tharoor his due !!
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Of course it’s a farce. Irnoically when Tharoor and Krishan were living in five-star hotel their stay was austere in comparision to spraqling 2 acre bungalow reserved for ministers they will be moving to.
Those bungalows land piece alone are worth 40-50 crore . Whichever way one looks at those bungalows are 10-star accomodation in comparison.
I say if these guys are really serious they should construct a five star hotel and move all MPs to that hotel. It will save even on the cost public incurs in order to provide these fat cows security.
Free of all that land and lease it and you will get thousands of crores of money to fund rural india projects.
And what is this drama of since there is a draught so we will do this nautanki.. If they must do this nautanki which at bets is tokenism . Should not these guys be indulign in this tokenism always after all we are a country of 500 million surviving on 1 $ a day. IS not that situation a permannet crisis moment..
I ask these nautankibaaz to put in place a publicly accessible system where each minister each Mp enters the cost of all the services he avails and let people judge how frivolous life they live..
Till that happens this natunaki will remain nautanki..
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Vohra, I also need security what shud i do?
Author is sooo worried about Gandhi family!
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I completely agree with you. The austerity drive appears to be a largely token measure, intended to portray a certain image. In any case, it seems that the impact of such measures in monetary terms is negligible in the larger picture. What is more important than a token ride in economy by a politician is that there should be action on ground issues that actually affect everyone, like rising prices.
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Dear Mr Vohra,
I beg to disagree with you. My understanding of the `Austerity` is that unnecessary expenses needs to be controlled. I am of the view that there is a pertinent need to trim and control govt. coffers. Mrs. Gandhi, the entire cabinet and many others have understood this and are emphasising on measures to be adopted. Small gestures such as travelling in economy class instead of business class goes a long way in sending the precise message. I welcome and appreciate the thought the congress has taken and would want to congratulate Mrs. Gandhi for personally leading on this front.
Regards
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Sam Reply:
September 18th, 2009 at 6:26 am
What is wrong with travelling in Economy class ?
Why is not suitable for Ministers or Buerocrats ?
First class/business class costs thousands of more dollars than economy class..
Please explain…
Remember more than 800 million people live on less than $2 in India.
Even Bill Gates travelled in economy class for a long time to set an example.
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This Mrs. Gandhi is looking just like the last one. All show and no substance. Just by mouthing Garibi hato how much Graibi did Mrs. Gandhi remove - none.
Instead of wasting time on this nonsense why do they not get down to polcy making and reform.
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hi,
I think most of the people here are getting off the track!
We are discussing austerity not Gandhi family, or Congress or BJP,
I think Mr. Vohra is right about public money wasted by beureacrats.
But, I think some measures taken by the MP ’s will go a long way, so if somebody sets a good example(I hope they stick to it), point should be taken.
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Pankaj Reply:
September 18th, 2009 at 6:31 pm
Reena you are also off track….
Vohra is “only” discussing austerity by Gandhi family or Congress……
Articles should be non baised..but Vohra is Congressi and Gandhi family admirer… what can u expect from such a blinded person!
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Pankaj Reply:
September 18th, 2009 at 6:32 pm
and do u think rahul and sonia will travel in eco “cattle class” every time from now onwards,….. its a show shae bazi!
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Pankaj Vohra Reply:
September 20th, 2009 at 12:31 pm
Please do not speak on my behalf. Read the blog and do not spread misinformation.You have a pre determined mind set and are like many of your equally ill informed friends obsessed with making Gandhi family a target. This blog is about the austerity drive being a farce ? Do you understand. In future, I will expect you to be more respectful when you address me. Your style does not reflect too well on you.
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Rajeev Reply:
September 24th, 2009 at 7:31 pm
Pankaj,
I would appreciate if you address Mr.Vohra as Mr.Vohra. Only journalists have right to degrade everyone else except ofcourse gandhi parivar.
However I agree with your assesment of Shri 1008 Pandit Vohra, residing preist of Gandhi family in a temple called Hindustan times.
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Bob Mathews Reply:
September 24th, 2009 at 8:23 pm
Rajeev,
Here you are and you’ve found a friend in Pankaj or is ‘Pankaj’ a pseudonym for Rajeev!!!!
“Wise men talk because they have something to say; fools, because they have to say something” Plato
Rajeev Reply:
September 24th, 2009 at 9:51 pm
Rice Cake…
Its a well planned farce, and I am sure it is in response to some quarters in the opposition who may have been carping about huge Govt. travel expenses.
Finance Minister announces the need for austerity, suggests cattle class travel for all (the term cattle class has been around for decades so all the bozos who are bristling about this term should be ashamed and retract).
Big show is made by prominent people of austere travel knowing fully well it will back fire (Do you think they are idiots?).
Public outrage over the “cost of austerity” splashes across all forms of media, forcing the prominent people to travel upper class, only now it will be in public interest.
I am surprised that knowledgable people fell for this one!!
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For Rajeev and his band of bigots,
“Prejudice is the child of ignorance. ” ~William Hazlitt
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Rajeev Reply:
September 26th, 2009 at 3:04 am
fermented rice cake
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Bob Mathews Reply:
September 26th, 2009 at 12:09 pm
Prejudices are the chains forged by ignorance to keep men apart. ~Countess of Blessington
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Rajeev Reply:
September 26th, 2009 at 9:56 pm
Fermented Rice minded…
“Obstinate people can be divided into the opinionated, the ignorant, and the boorish.”
Aristotle
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Rajeev Reply:
September 29th, 2009 at 2:07 am
Rice cake is stinking…
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People who use their first names (usually fake) only and do not disclose their identities with their sur names and genuine e-mail ID’s are generally first class toilet wall writers. They write on toilet walls to vent the perversion they bear in thier hearts.
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Bob Mathews Reply:
September 28th, 2009 at 9:30 pm
Brijesh,
Well said!!
And you will notice from the language and tone that it is one person posting crude comment using pseudonyms.
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Rajeev Reply:
September 29th, 2009 at 2:07 am
Rice Cakoo..
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Rajeev Reply:
September 29th, 2009 at 2:06 am
Only Casteist use their last name. I am not one of you who drum their liberalism but find it difficult to shed caste.
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Bob Mathews Reply:
September 29th, 2009 at 9:43 am
“Stupidity is better kept a secret than displayed”
Heraclitus of Ephesus
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Rajeev Reply:
September 29th, 2009 at 9:29 pm
Rice Cakooo…
Brijesh Kalappa Reply:
September 29th, 2009 at 3:46 pm
Rajeev, surely you’ll have no objection to revealing your caste-less identity.
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Rajeev Reply:
September 29th, 2009 at 9:36 pm
Yes..Why not? I am an aam admi working in IT industry for defence industry. I have no political connections unlike you.
I am secular to the core (in real sense) coming from a Sufi background (my ancestors were Naqsbandi Sufis who never CONVERTED to Islam).
I may not be a all-knowing wisecrack like you but I have interacted with people from all backgrounds (travels each and every corner of India) in India and abroad. I have decided that I will never let my children practice Casteism in any way because it is because of casteism we lost it big time to Muslims and Christians.
I have no respect for the CONVERTS because these people who can betray their ancestors will also sell their motherland as xtians used to do when british ruled and muslims when muslims rulers ruled.
Do you need more? How is your boss Kapil Sibal doing? Ask him a simple question (if you don’t fear loosing his job), how is Rahul Gandhi more qualified than other young turks such as Sachin pilot, to become PM of India? Why a men in white hair (sibal) acts like a pooch infront of Rahul? Has he no shame?
Rajeev claims to have interacted with people from all backgrounds “(travels each and every corner of India) in India and abroad”.
Strangely the “interactions” and the “travels” have done him no good because whatever he writes reeks of prejuidice and hate!!!!
“People do not seem to realize that their opinion of the world is also a confession of character.”
Ralph Waldo Emerson
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Rajeev Reply:
October 1st, 2009 at 12:24 am
You deserve no respect cause you are rice CAKOO..I respect people who respect their culture, their ancestors, their land..that is what I have learnt from outsiders. We are the only people on earth with absoultely no self-respect and that is the reason whole world treats India and Indians like $hit.
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Rajeev,
Primarily, since you clearly do not mind disclosing your identity, its hardly sufficient to just throw in a few details. Just see, if I called myself Pradeep, and stated that I am a lawyer who worked with a prominent lawyer. I could not ever be identified. Lack of identification clearly impedes dialogue. You’ll be stuck with your views and I with mine- it’ll only turn out to be a slanging match- similar to toilet wall writers who write in with their perversions.
Do step out of the closet, you’ll be surprised to know that there are just as many people who share your views as there are who share mine. There is nothing really personal in all this. The fact that you write with such pride shows your hard held convictions. Which is, to say the least, laudable.
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Rajeev Reply:
October 1st, 2009 at 12:22 am
Please let me know what you want to know about me-
1. Name: Rajeev
2. Last Name: Vohra, Batra, Malik, Singh etc.
3. Profession: IT professional
4. Sector: Defence
5. Educational qualification: BE (Computer Engg)
6. Religion: Hindu-Sufi
7. Political Ideology: Equality
Anything else..Do you want to know the color of my underwear? It is black today.
Come out of this overtly smart Indian mindset. You are not here to fix marriage of your daughter with me.. rather you are here to shere ideas.
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Bob Mathews Reply:
October 1st, 2009 at 11:02 pm
In another blog this same fraud claimed his last name is ‘Yadav”.
Need I same more!!!
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Rajeev Reply:
October 1st, 2009 at 12:27 am
I apologise if I posted anything offensive. I take back my “Daughter” comment. All I want top say is that you don’t have to know me personally to exchange idea. My ideology is my identity and same is true for you.
I am absolutely not interested in personal details of anyone. It is your views that I criticise and in turn sometimes your mindset which may come out as personal comment.
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“We are the only people on earth with absoultely no self-respect and that is the reason whole world treats India and Indians like $hit.”
There is no doubt in my mind that you belong to this miniscule group!!!
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“Abuse is the weapon of the vulgar”
Samuel Griswold Goodrich
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I regret to say that this so-called debate has degenerated into full scale war of words between two persons who do not seem to have ever met.Why this proxy war which is off the track from the substantive point raised in a column contributed by Pankaj Vohra ji.
Coming back to the main theme ,I feel that the media too has to share its quota of blame in making a farce of the austerity drive launched by the Finance Minister.What has Pranab Da to say on crores of rupees being wasted by the various ministries ,departments, autonomous organisations and public sector enterprises in launching silly half-page ans full-page advertisements in all national and regional newspapers showing portraits of Sonia Gandhi, PM ministers MPs etc,trumpeting their achievements for nothing.Can the FM send a suitable advisories to all union ministers to refrain from wasting tax payers’ money,after taking the approval of the de facto Prime Minister located at 10-Janpath. In fact, it is criminal mis-use of authority to show the photograph of Sonia Gandhi,who does not hold any Constitutional position or any position in the GOI. HOW COULD MONEY FROM THE CONSOLIDATED FUND OF INDIA BE MIS-USED FOR THE PRESIDENT OF A POLITICAL PARTY ?Any comment, Pankaj Vohra Sir?
A K SAXENA (A retired civil servant)
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