Krishna, Tharoor asked to vacate hotel

Clearly embarrassed by the splurging ways of his cabinet colleagues, while the government is on an all out austerity drive, Finance Minister Pranab Mukherjee on Tuesday asked External Affairs Minister SM Krishna and his deputy Shashi Tharoor to vacate their respective five-star suites and find accommodation
in state–run guesthouses.

But the immediate trigger behind Pranab’s public directive to such senior ministers to change is a newspaper report published today, which chided the two high-profile ministers for staying in expensive hotels, when the country is facing drought like situation in many states.

"I have requested both the ministers to vacate the hotel rooms and go to their respective Bhavans where they have come from, where they have been elected", Mukherjee told reporters here.

He said both of them are ministers in the External Affairs Ministry, which has a guest block in the Hyderabad House.

"They can occupy... and both of them have agreed to vacate hotel rooms today itself," he said.

And, within hours of Pranab’s strong words, Krishna, who was staying at Hotel Maurya Sheraton at Sardar Patel Marg, moved to Foreign Services Institute (FSI) guesthouse, official sources said.

Tharoor, who was staying at Hotel Taj Mahal on Man Singh Road, is now staying at an Indian Navy guesthouse.

Although correct figures are not available but the presidential suite in which Krishna was staying goes for anything upwards of Rs 1 lakh per night – Krishna was staying there for the past three months.

The two ministers, who have declared assets in excess of Rs 10 crore, have been paying their hotel bills on their own, but they have so far refused to divulge details about how much they were paying for the accommodation.

They have been officially saying that the reason behind them staying put in five-star hotels is “the incomplete renovation work” at their respective allotted bungalows.

Congress justifies Pranab’s intervention

Congress spokesperson Manish Tewari justified Mukherjee's intervention in the matter, saying the ministers staying at luxury hotels when the government has announced austerity measures does not send the right signal.

Tewari, however, clarified that the government was not paying for the hotel stay of the two ministers. They were spending their own money, he said.

Nevertheless, the expensive five-star stay by its ministers has, clearly, comes as a blow to UPA government, especially after the directive to all ministries to avoid lavish spending and exhibit austerity.