National leaders should avoid five-star culture

The Congress party asked External Affairs Minister, SM Krishna, and Minister of State for External Affairs, Shashi Tharoor, to vacate the five star hotel suites they had been occupying for the last three months as their houses were under renovation.

Though the ministers claim to have paid from their own pocket for their stay at the hotels, they vacated their suites following Finance Minister Pranab Mukherjee’s call for austerity. Yet, all official ministerial residences and perks are far more luxurious and expensive than five-star hotels.

So, who is more austere – those who pay their own bills in a hotel or those who stay in palatial bungalows with free five-star facilities? Was it hypocritical of the Congress party to force ministers to vacate their hotel rooms?

The question that was being asked on CNN-IBN’s Face The Nation was: Should politicians stay away from five-star culture?

On the panel of experts to try and answer the question were Congress Spokesperson Manish Tewari; Image Consultant, Dilip Cherian and columnist and journalist Vrinda Goipinath.

Cong asks leaders to leave luxury hotels

At the start of the show, 78 per cent of those who voted in agreed that politicians should stay away from five-star culture while 22 per cent disagreed.

UPA’S austerity measures

An MP or his spouse or companion is entitled to many luxuries and facilities – some of these include free first-class rail travel anywhere in India, 40 times of free air-travel in business class, an MP’s bungalow furnished with all the latest appliances.

They are entitled to one year of free local calls and any medical expenses. In such a scenario it seems hypocritical to order Shashi Tharoor and SM Krishna to evict their suites in five-star hotels.

Tiwari clarified that asking them to leave their suites was not an order but just an advisory by senior members of the Congress party.

“The issue is wrongly formulated and though the ministers have the ability to afford accommodation in not just a five-star but seven-star facility, as public representatives should express solidarity with the nation, which is reeling under drought,” he stated.

“One of the methods of expressing solidarity is by bringing austerity into one’s lifestyle,” Tiwari added.

Though Cherian agreed on expressing solidarity, he pointed out that the development comes after the media expose, which has pushed the UPA to take such measures.

Defending the party, Tiwari threw light on the Congress Working Committee’s resolution according to which all MPs and MLAs would take a 20 per cent cut in their salaries to help out with the drought management process.

“It’s not a question of getting caught out since we had expressed out solidarity much earlier. So, a characterisation in those terms is not appropriate,” he said.

–Agencies