Apropos A K Bhattacharya’s information-rich article “UPA ministers’ travel travails” (October 19), it would be instructive to work out the opportunity costs of our ministers’ journeys abroad. In UPA-I Kamal Nath spent nearly one third of his ministerial days in foreign countries. What benefits did he get for India and how much of his remaining days did he devote to his constituency? Recently, there was a report that some ministers and MPs travelled to European countries to study their Goods and Services Tax schemes, as if differences in national cultures did not matter. Also, when a number of ministers are abroad simultaneously (such as in cooler countries during summer months), governance suffers.
Even as Dr Manmohan Singh has taken steps to curb foreign travel of his colleagues, he remains arguably our most travelled prime minister. It has enhanced his reputation as a gentleman head of the country and financial wizard but with little material gains for the nation in political terms.
It was interesting to know that expenses of the National Advisory Council are met from the PMO’s budget, proving the former is the extension of the latter or vice versa depending on one’s perspective.
Y G Chouksey, Pune
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