Bangalore, September 19
Prime Minister Manmohan Singh’s comment that the remark by Minister of State for External Affairs Shashi Tharoor on Twitter was made jokingly seem to have set the tone on how members of the union cabinet would respond if confronted on the issue.
Tharoor’s remark -- in response to columnist Kanchan Gupta’s question whether he would travel by “cattle class” (economy class) in flights -- that he would “in solidarity with the holy cows”, saw senior Congress leaders training the gun at him.
Union Finance Minister Pranab Mukherjee, when asked about Tharoor’s comment here today, however, replied: “The Prime Minister has already spoken on the subject and I have nothing more to add to that.”
Mukherjee had earlier turned the heat on Tharoor for living in a five-star hotel in Delhi. The stance adopted by him today would come as a relief for the Congress MP from Kerala, who probably never expected that his casual comment would provoke such a reaction from his own party members.
Mukherjee, who was here to interact with business and industry representatives on the proposed direct tax code, when pestered by a journalist to comment on the Tharoor issue snapped back: “You have the freedom to say anything you like. But I do not have such freedom.”
The Finance Minister replied in the negative when asked whether travel by VIPs by the economy class in flight would bring down government expenditure substantially.
“It would be simply a drop in the ocean. But if we can bring down the overall non-plan expenditure by about 10 per cent, it will be a huge saving. I have requested all the state governments also to try to bring down the non-plan expenditure by 10 per cent”, he said.
On the security implication of the “austerity measures” unfolded by the Union government, Mukherjee said it had been decided that security of VIPs, particularly SPG protectees, would not be compromised for the sake of inexpensive travel.
On the spiralling price of commodities, the Union Finance Minister said prices of three essential commodities -- sugar, edible oil and pulses -- had gone up owing to shortage of these items. He said duty on these items had been abolished so that these could be freely imported.
