Click to play videoThe 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.
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.
Moral panic?
The Congress has the highest number of millionaire MPs and voters don't judge politicians on the basis of them staying in a five-star hotels, but Congress' stand of being a party for the Aam Aadmi (common man) can get them into trouble with such rich MPs.
To this Vrinda said that though ministers were entitled to a lot of luxuries and there was nothing wrong with an MP staying at a five-star hotel, staying at a hotel for three months seemed excessive.
“If you are talking about living in a presidential suite that is Rs 30 lakh as rent for a month, it sounds a bit too much,” she said.
Tiwari however said that the ministers had left because of empathy with the aam aadmi.
“Once a person becomes a public representative there are certain perception issues one needs to take care of. When your countrymen are in a problem, you need to go that extra mile to show them that you are empathising with them,” he stated.
Cherian intervened saying that the question wasn't about how much was one contributing or doing but about if the public cared.
“Politicians shouldn't be judged over accessing certain resources to carry out their duties. I’m fully in favour of giving the politicians five secretarial staff if they could handle all the queries and be connected to the people who elected them,” he said.
He felt that it was simply tokenism asking the ministers to vacate their five-star suites.
Moneyed ministers
Politics is being ruled by big money, one needs to be a millionaire to contest for an election. But what needs to be addressed is the role of money in politics and elections rather than tokenistic gestures, which will be forgotten.
Vrinda agreed saying MPs have vast funds given to them by the Government to run their constituencies.
“Why should we sneer at the luxuries which MPs are entitled to? It's similar to how a CEO of a company would be treated,” she said.
She further put forth that the ministers could redeem themselves by showing that they paid for their suites.
“They came clean and produced their bills to the public that they have paid for it themselves,” she stated.
Cherian agreed with Vrinda saying that by making politicians accountable to the public there would be more transparency.
“The more there is right to information the more transparency there is. But if we don’t have that the country is on a path to chaos,” he said.
Politics for public service
In today's condition of liberalisation, it seems difficult to return to Nehruvian style austerity. And though Tharoor and Krishna have vacated their suites there will be other ministers who can spend public money luxuriously.
Tiwari said it wasn't about Nehruvian socialism or market economy but the fact that politics was about public service.
“Whenever the nation has been in some crisis, the leadership has expressed solidarity with the people,” he said.
He further said five-star hotels were still considered to be a certain kind of opulence and as a public figure one needs to be careful about their public and private position.
“When times are difficult and there is a certain semblance of a crisis in the country, there is a certain measure expected out of the leadership,” Tiwari pointed out.
Vrinda responded that the Constitutional Club was a top-notch, swanky establishment, which was underwritten from the taxpayers’ money, and it wasn't very different from a five-star hotel.
“Where is the question that a five-star hotel was an oasis of luxury when the Constitutional Club was far more fabulous,” she said.
Cherian agreed with Tiwari on the point of solidarity. He said that it even indicates a signal of tax tightening. “They’re trying to signal to the country that we are all tightening our belts. And the ominous signs I see, this belt-tightening might become a tax-tightening situation too,” he said.
However, Cherian also wanted to know whether this move indicates a more simplistic aam aadmi friendly Government.
Tiwari answered his question saying that there were certain affairs of governance which ran according to the way they have to function in a world which is interconnected.
“Though one can't go all the way in all spheres of governance, public representatives can stand with the people in the time of a crisis,” he said.
He further agreed with Cherian on the suggestion of a smaller simplistic form of Government, “The only way that we can have an efficient government is by having a leaner, meaner and smaller government which is better paid,” he concluded the debate by saying.
SMS/WEB POLL: Should politicians stay away from five-star culture?
Yes: 76 per cent
No: 24 per cent
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