cover story UPA MINISTERS Illustrations by RAM and SAURABH SINGH Frequent I By Shyamlal Yadav THE PERKS OF his is one high-flying government. In this globalised world, it is FOREIGNFliers TRAVEL now in the nature of official business to travel to different parts HAVE NEVER BEEN of the earth, making new friends, lesser enemies and influenc- SO WIDELY UTILISED. ing people. As a rising economic power, it is perhaps more necessary than ever before to make your presence felt at global THE MINISTERS OF high tables and international conference podiums. But even by THE UPA TRAVELLED that yardstick, the UPA Government would seem to be in an over- Tdrive or rather turbo-charged, its ministerial representatives raking up AT WILL TO LOG frequent-flier miles at a frenetic pace, this, despite the Prime Minister’s ENOUGH MILES TO Office (PMO) supposedly cracking down on bureaucrats and ministers trav- CIRCLE THE EARTH elling abroad at the drop of a Gandhi topi. Whether it’s a case of Democracy on the Move or the New World Order, the perks of foreign 256 TIMES. travel have never been so widely utilised. Consider this. In the 1,287 days of the UPA Government till November 30 last year, its ministers travelled an incredible 1 crore km (10 million km)-plus on trips abroad, official and personal, but mostly official. It means that the ministers made more than 256 trips around the globe, considering the earth’s circumference of 40,008 km. Among the 71 ministers (excluding the prime minister) who went on foreign trips dur- ing their tenure, 47 ministers spent over Rs 27 crore. The bill would be much higher, taking into account the fact that the other ministers did not provide details of their expenditure. This, of course, does not include the expenses incurred by Indian embassies abroad which run up substantial bills hiring limousines and providing other services to visiting ministers. At least 12 of the total 78 ministers travelled more than 2.5 lakh km each in the last three-and-a-half years. Not that they did anything illegal or shady: none of the trips (we hope!) Seventy-one of the 78 UPA ministers (besides prime minister) have made 786 foreign trips spending about 3,798 days and travelling 1.02 crore km in 1,287 days. 30 INDIA TODAY N FEBRUARY 18, 2008 FEBRUARY 18, 2008 N INDIA TODAY 31 cover story UPA MINISTERS In his over 2.36 lakh km travel abroad, Fatmi’s official visits are only 3 but he has spent 181 days over four months and 59 M.A.A. Fatmi on his various ministries apart fromRTI applications to , MoS for human resource development 14 personal trips. crore on his official visits. As commerce Cabinet Secretariat, before the PMOinformation and the minister and head negotiator for India in the could be compiled and made available. The World Trade Organisation deliberations, he air distances have been calculated in ap- Kantilal Bhuria is obliged to travel abroad fairly frequently. proximation. Where the city was not men- MoS for agriculture & consumer affairs And with trade and economic relations as- tioned, the distance from Delhi to the capital Number of trips: Official: 220 suming far greater importance, he is more 8 E. Ahmad city of the destination country was consid- Km travelled: visible than the external affairs minister 1,18,769 Vayalar Ravi ered. Expenses incurred were calculated on O MoS for external affairs P e r s o n a l : 1 2 when the prime minister goes abroad as FFICIAL EXPENSES: Minister for overseas Indian affairs the basis of the per diem allowance that Rs 80.8 lakh was the case recently in Beijing. The cities Number of trips: Km travelled: 6,13,277 ministers are entitled to, since the 18 Days as minister: 1,287 he has visited most frequently, whether pri- Km travelled: vided us information only about the number Santosh Mohan Dev 2,83,036 Official: 5,99,015 km RTI pro- vately or on official work, are London, Kuala OFFICIAL EXPENSES: NUMBER OF TRIPS: 79 of trips and the number of days that each Minister for heavy ind & public enterprises Lumpur, Bangkok, New York, Paris and Rs 1.14 crore minister spent abroad. Here are some high- Number of trips: Official: 76 Personal: 14,262 km Brussels. In comparison, Finance Minister 8 lights of foreign travel by the Km travelled: Mani Shankar Aiyar P. Chidambaram spent a mere 118 days on 1,03,645 Personal: OFFICIAL EXPENSES: UPA ministers. OFFICIAL EXPENSES: Minister for panchayati raj 3 It may come as no great surprise but overseas visits, for which the Government Commerce and Industry Minister Kamal Rs 52 lakh Number of trips: Rs 1.37 crore picked up a tab of Rs 1.45 crore. 17 DAYS ABROAD: 232 Nath, last spotted in Davos, logged the max- Km travelled: Minister of State ( Shankersinh Vaghela 2,09,239 imum mileage on foreign trips and created MOS OFFICIAL EXPENSES*: Ahmad has spent 48 days in UAE during his 22 transit visits (independent charge) Praful) for Patel Civil madeAviation 41 Minister for textiles some sort of a record in the bargain. He Rs 40 lakh trips abroad of which 16 were official. He Number of trips: though Middle-East comes under his ministerial jurisdiction. spent 424 days on 72 trips outside the coun- 8 *Some bills yet to be submitted chose to visit the US six times and the UK Km travelled: try, of which 27 days were spent on six 1,37,494 five times, besides France and Belgium. OFFICIAL EXPENSES: A. Raja personal visits. A cool 14 months spent Records show that the cities Patel visited Not provided Minister for communications and IT outside India. He covered 10,08,162 km up most frequently in his personal capacity are Number of trips to November 30, 2007 (enough to earn : 12 London, Paris, New York, Singapore, Kuala Prem Chand Gupta Km travelled frequent flier miles to make 20 free trips to Minister for corporate affairs : 1,89,994 Lumpur, Bangkok and Dubai. However, OFFICIAL EXPENSES: the US and back, assuming he flew first Number of trips being a businessman of some standing : 7 Not provided class) and the Government spent Rs 1.81 Km travelled would explain why he spent more time : 57,388 abroad on personal visits in comparison to OFFICIAL EXPENSES: Vilas Muttemwar Not provided MoS for new and renewable energy (I.C)* Fernandes’s Number of trips: previous ministry (statistics) has taken him to 9 Km travelled: 1,56,025 more foreign shores— OFFICIAL EXPENSES: Rs 87.4 lakh Australia, Geneva, Italy, South Korea, *Independent Charge Thailand (thrice) etc Oscar Fernandes , MoS (I.C.) for labour and employment—than his present one. Saif-ud-Din Soz Minister for water resources Number of trips: Kamal Nath 9 Km travelled: 65,704 Minister for commerce and industry OFFICIAL EXPENSES: Rs 14.2 lakh Days as minister: 1,287 Prithviraj Chavan NUMBER OF TRIPS: MoS in PMO 72 Official: Number of trips: 66 9 Km travelled: Personal: 92,400 6 OFFICIAL EXPENSES: Not provided involved wives, mistresses or family DAYS ABROAD: shopping on Fifth A 424 tailed list of ministerial travel abroad dur- (read public) expense.venue They at do, government however, Official: Panabaka Lakshmi ing the 397 MoS for health and family welfare show that some ministers are literally UPA Government’s tenure and it makes for fascinating reading. It would Personal: higher than others. In fact, some spent 27 Number of trips: have made better reading and comparative 8 more time abroad on personal trips than Km travelled: Km travelled: assessment if we had access to similar trips 10,08,162 1,23,811 on official visits. OFFICIAL EXPENSES: during the NDA regime too, but the almost 10 Official: 9,33,650 km Rs 28.6 lakh Using the Right T years that have passed since then meant procedure, o Information ( INDIA TODAY RTI) Personal: Nath has covered over has obtained a de- that it was a far more laborious and time- 74,512 km 10-lakh km, consuming process. In any event, it took OFFICIAL EXPENSES: which could earn him enough frequent Rs 1.81 crore flier miles to make 20 free trips US and back assuming he flew first class.to the cover story UPA MINISTERS S. Regupathy official—he spent 125 days on personal vis- as a speaker following the Railways success MoS for environment and forests its and 57 days on official visits. Patel, MOS story, does not belong to the club of frequent for Human Resource Development M.A.A fliers. Dasmunshi took 38 days travelling Number of trips: 7 Fatmi and D. Purandeswari, Minister for abroad on personal visits, as against the 20 Km travelled: 70,416 Information and Broadcasting Priya days he spent overseas on official trips. He OFFICIAL EXPENSES: Rs 67,000* Ranjan Dasmunshi, Minister for Mines Sis travelled 1,59,676 km in total and spent Rs *Only for one trip Ram Ola, MOS for Petroleum and Natural 17 lakh on his official tours. His cities of Gas Dinsha J. Patel, Minister for Corporate preference included Kuala Lumpur, Los Sushil Kumar Shinde Affairs Prem Chand Gupta and MOS for Steel Angeles, London, Switzerland and Paris. Minister for power Akhilesh Das were the ministers to have MOS for External Affairs E. Ahmad spent Number of trips: 6 recorded more days outside the country on more time abroad than his senior minister, Km travelled: 1,47,297 personal visits in comparison to official vis- Pranab Mukherjee.