Inverse Karma

Austerity drive-this seems to be the buzz word around the politicians today! Thanks to Mr.Rahul and his mother Ms.Gandhi’s measures to give up business class luxury for travel, now other fellow politicians are following suit.  It all started with the Finance Minister suddenly realising the effects of recession on our economy and urging Ministers to go on an austerity drive. What followed was economy class travel by some ministers, stripping VIP security for some members, Ministers moving out of luxurious five star hotels to government buildings etc. The austerity drive sure is inspiring politicians but will it go all the way? Will there be a change in the way politicians live their life? Will they stop basking in the luxury of comforts at the cost of taxpayers’ money? Only time can answer such questions.

Now don’t get the assumption that this post is against or favouring any political party. Nor is it a measure to scale which party is better. I just wanted to share my personal opinion on this sudden rise of awareness among the politicians.

Today morning I was reading an article on the newspaper and I was shocked to learn that a 3-day travel expense for a minister costs over Rs.1 crore!! The article had a statistical collection of the hops made during the trip and the expense for each one of it. If we take into account the lodging, security and other issues the whole expense of this trip is sure to top unimaginable figures. All these are for a single trip by one Minister. Now consider all the Ministers carrying out daily trips like these – I’m sure you can do the math.

So all these years large sums of money was drained just on the travel, lodging and security of ministers. If austerity measures are possible now, surely they were possible all along! So why didn’t the politicians think of it before? And even now only after one year of recession has there been such an idea of curbing expenses. And already there are a group who are against the austerity claiming that it poses security problems to politicians. There is no good if a Minister travels in economy class with many seats near to his cleared for security reasons. It then costs even higher than the business class. And the extra security that they have because of such travel? That costs a lot too. So this political stunt doesn’t do any good I guess.

What can be done?

Instead of the economy class gimmicks politicians can reduce their rate of travelling. The use of government vehicles for personal use can be checked. And as Veerappa Moiley stated, corruption should be dealt with iron hands. Other measures can be stripping VIP and VVIP status from those who have it just for maintaining an image or status. This can free their guards and make them available for policing. Also the fleet of vehicles accompanying every minister/official’s car for security can be reduced. The fanfare, huge cut-outs, birthday celebrations are areas that can be concentrated for reducing expenses.

Lastly, measures to complete projects in time can save a LOT! It is the delay in projects that is the main cause of rise in project budget and huge loss to the government. So instead of focussing on curbing expenses by switching to economy class, ministers can see to it that the projects under them are finished on time and ensure that excess money is not wasted.

Anyways, I just hope this austerity drive is not another passing cloud among the politicians and they really do get enlightened and give up their luxuries for the benefit of the citizens.

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