When asked why he travelled in third class in trains, Mahatma Gandhi is said to have replied, “because there is no fourth class.” He travelled in the company of the common man and practised the most humble lifestyle. The inheritors of Gandhi need nothing less than 5-star comforts. On being asked to fly in economy, they ask: “why should we, when there is a business class?” (I can’t travel economy class: Pawar, September 11).
India has really come a long way at least in the matter of the lifestyle of our political leaders which puts to shame even the most lavish lifestyle of the Maharajas of yore. The austerity drama of the government is always a farce. Even a token measure taken in the name of showing solidarity with the people of India who’re suffering the effects of a drought has been questioned by the ministers in the cabinet meeting in a childish manner — all this also assumes that we don’t need to practise austerity in the absence of the problem created by the drought. We need to rethink our decision to re-elect such shameless and self-serving politicians as trustees of the hard-earned money we pay as taxes.
M C Joshi, Lucknow
