The Great Austerity Drama

’Austerity’, I believe could be the most searched word in the English dictionaries online by many Indians, recently. I myself did a search before starting this blog. Its not a very common word in political parlance, considering no Elections in near future, So I thought understanding the meaning of it important. J

Indian government has requested or ordered its ministers to lead a simple life. Yes, Ministers were asked to vacate their plush five star hotel suites and travel economy class, all in order to cut cost and save tax payers money. In the whole drive some tried to prove their point by travelling economy class in an airline with a few seats around them vacant and travel chair car train inviting troubles and another made a statement not in the interest of the party’s policy on austerity and had to apologize later. All created a few interesting article for the news hungry media and people like me who browse the news portals online.

Will this drive make a common man happy? Yes, of course it will make you feel happy at the expense of your comfort. I don’t think one will have a comfortable journey with Rahul Gandhi besides him and be worried about the missed stone thrown at him. When a politician travels it’s not possible to avoid his side-kicks, guards, fans who come to see-off him, and most intimidating thing, the armed guards all over the place. To add to this, we could see a dozen journalists and cameramen to cover the rarest phenomenon on the earth.

Don’t they have the privilege to travel Business class? Yes. Of course they do have. After all they are people who run the country and most responsible people in position; if a CEO/SVP in the corporate world could travel why cant they? I don’t think a common man will whine about his tax money spent on their travel. As a tax payer I have no problem if a politician in Office uses a chartered jet or business class or 5 star accommodation, because they spend on all these to work for the Common Man. So the point is as long as they work for the people, they can spend and avoid discomfort to the people. And for god sake hope they don't make our wonderful train journey and flight journey hell by being one of us. It practically doesn't work. If they are still serious about the austerity drive, how about travelling in disguise by wearing a Halloween mask. :).

Hope this Auterity Naatak ends soon……

The Great Austerity Drama