Government’s Austerity Drive

The UPA government announced an austerity drive in September this year, with all overseas travel on hold, five star bookings a strict no-no and local travel only by economy class.

One should realize that the politician is in a class of his own – no morals, no ethics just pure thick skin – hence it wasn’t long before it was noticed that travel used to happen economy class with a compulsory upgrade to business class, five star bookings continuing but in proxy names and so on.

There is always a slip between the cup and the lip - for our home grown politicians hypocrisy is a way of life – how many people do you know who can lie with a straight face and also think that they do so for the greater public good! Very few I am sure, unless of course you are fortunate enough to have politicians amongst your social circle!

Not content to make a mockery of the so called austerity drive, the UPA government has surpassed itself by passing the air travel bill for Ministers. This bill was probably one of the fastest bills ever passed in India’s parliamentary history by both Houses giving their accent without any debate. The bill allows Ministers to take along any number of their relatives and companions to avail free air travel at the same rates at which traveling allowances were payable to them and their family. This bill has apparently been passed so that the Ministers can be brought on par with MP’s who are allowed to travel with their spouse or legitimate children (the implication in the statement is significant!) or step-children, as also the Minister’s companions or relatives to travel on their own or with the Minister. This is a carte blanche given by the Ministers to themselves for unlimited air travel which in theory could mean an entire flight being booked by a Minister for free for travel with his/her coterie. I really won’t be surprised if this actually happens! These are the guys who want CEO’s to cut their salaries or for a cap to brought on their salaries – guys who actually contribute to the growth of the nation and also pay taxes which in turn go into paying for the freebies being enjoyed by our super bunch of 544 citizens representatives!

With such freebies being enjoyed by our elected representatives are you really surprised that the common citizen ends up bearing the cross with higher taxes – the latest being the tax on perquisites. If you ask me the tax on perquisites is akin to the freebies on air travel – don’t you think these bozos too should be taxed? As it is, their wealth increases on an average more than a 100 fold every five years with no one asking questions as to how they have become so prosperous in such a short time. Just imagine an ordinary citizen amassing wealth in this fashion – you will have the revenue authorities coming down on him/her like a ton of bricks to extract their pound of flesh and a token amount for the government!

Even at the level of local government we see sheer wastage, inefficiency, bogged down infrastructure projects with cost escalation and the common man bearing the burden!! With money going down the drain (usually the drain is lined with politicians and bureaucrats), it is always the common man who faces hardships in the form of lack of water, electricity, roads, decent housing and also the happy job of paying more and more every passing year in the form of higher taxes which they pay for the inefficiency and greed of our elected representatives and lethargic bureaucracy!