Congress austerity drive prompts ridicule

By Rina Chandran

MUMBAI (Reuters) - With a drought looming and elections in some key Indian states approaching, the Congress-led government has embarked on a much-publicised austerity drive that has been slammed by the opposition and ridiculed by the media.

In a country where the hierarchy of politicians is determined by the size of their bungalows and their convoys, Congress chief Sonia Gandhi has asked party leaders to give up a fifth of their salaries for drought-relief work, and flew economy on a commercial flight to Mumbai to launch the poll campaign.

Her son and youth Congress leader Rahul eschewed a chopper for a seat on a local train this week, while the finance ministry has appealed for fewer overseas trips with smaller entourages, and a ban on conferences in luxury hotels.

"To be austere should not be reduced to one's line of travel," Congress spokesman Abhishek Singhvi said in Delhi, where one minister protested that he was "too tall" to fly economy, and another said their positions demand they entertain in style.

"It is a way of thinking, a way of living and an approach. In difficult times, it is necessary."

Having won an election this year on a platform of inclusive growth, the Congress party was caught red-faced when the Indian Express reported that Foreign Minister S.M. Krishna and junior Foreign Minister Shashi Tharoor were living in luxury hotels.

"Austerity, in its latest avataar, is a chimera that the Congress has manufactured, rather anachronistically, to package itself as the party of the masses, partaking of their drought-induced suffering," the paper said in an editorial.

Both ministers said they had paid for their suites -- priced at 50,000 rupees ($1,030) and 100,000 rupees a night -- themselves, but the report sparked an uproar in the media.