Austerity: Ministers reluctant to tighten belt

Most Congress leaders and Cabinet ministers have already felt the pinch of these measures and resent the fact that Congress president and United Progressive Alliance chairperson Sonia Gandhi wants to ground their high-flying ways and curtail their five-star extravagance.

Sonia Gandhi has clearly stated that both the Congress and the UPA government would have to take austerity measures in these difficult times to send the right signal to the suffering masses.

But Cabinet ministers are unwilling to share Sonia and Rahul Gandhi's views. The issue came up at the Cabinet meeting on Thursday against the backdrop of the government issuing guidelines to avoid wasteful expenditure. These include traveling by economy class instead of business class on flights, not hosting meetings and press conferences at five-star hotels and avoiding unnecessary foreign junkets.

Though a number of Congress ministers are resentful about the guidelines, they have refrained from airing their views in public. But this is not the case with senior ministers who belong to other parties who have sought clarifications about the austerity measures.

During Thursday's Cabinet meeting, Nationalist Congress Party chief and Union Agriculture Minister Sharad Pawar wanted to know if the measures were applicable only to bureaucrats. He was told that the measures extended to ministers as well, with Finance Minister Pranab Mukherjee telling the Cabinet that it was a year of drought and everyone needed to tighten their belts. However, Mukherjee conceded that these guidelines would only be applicable for a year.

Pawar told the Cabinet about an earlier trip to China during such an austerity drive, when he was seated in economy while everyone looked for him in business class.

Clarifications were also sought by National Conference leader Dr Farooq Abdullah and Dravida Munnetra Kazhagam leader Dayanidhi Maran. Among the Congress ministers, Commerce Minister Anand Sharma and Road Transport and Highways Minister Kamal Nath spoke on the issue.

While the decision to issue austerity guidelines was taken at a Congress Working Committee meeting convened by Sonia Gandhi, very little was done till The Indian Express reported how External Affairs Minister S M Krishna and his Minister of State Shashi Tharoor had stayed at five star hotels since they joined the government. Both ministers said they paid for their stay, and did not use government funds.

"All ministers have been advised to travel economy class and not to hold press conferences in five-star hotels to save money in adverse times," sources told this correspondent.