Krishna, Tharoor asked to move out of luxury hotels

[RPK]

Krishna, Tharoor asked to move out of luxury hotels- Hindustan Times

Stung by a media report that sought to debunk its claims of austerity, the Government on Tuesday asked External Affairs Minister SM Krishna and his junior Shashi Tharoor to move out of luxury hotels where they have been staying for over three months.

"I have requested both the ministers to vacate hotel rooms," Finance Minister Pranab Mukherjee said in New Delhi on Tuesday.

He was reacting to a media report that disclosed that the two ministers were staying in two five-star hotels in the Capital, although they were paying the bills themselves.

Krishna, who was staying at Hotel Maurya Sheraton at Sardar Patel Marg, has now 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.

When his office was contacted, an aide told IANS that Tharoor checked out of the hotel Sep 1.

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.

The two ministers were staying in hotels as official accommodation allotted to them were undergoing renovation.

 

[RPK]

I am spending my own savings, Tharoor tweets - India - NEWS - The Times of India

NEW DELHI: After being asked to leave a five-star hotel, minister of state for external affairs Shashi Tharoor used the social networking tool
Twitter to give his reaction, pointing out that he was spending his "own savings".

"I wld be ashamed if I was spending the people's money. But I'm not - I'm spending my own savings," Tharoor tweeted on Tuesday afternoon, in reply to a question asked on Twitter.

Stung by a media report and also after the government enforced austerity measures, both external affairs minister SM Krishna and his junior Shashi Tharoor moved out of the luxury hotels where they have been staying for the past over three months.

"I have requested both the ministers to vacate hotel rooms," finance minister Pranab Mukherjee said here on Tuesday at a conference on indirect taxes.

Tharoor reacted that he would much rather be in his "official house".

On a suggestion that Kerala House could be a temporary place for stay, Tharoor said: "I need 2 things daily that Kerala House doesn't offer -- a gym and some privacy. But I visit pretty often and meet people there."

Incidentally, Tharoor often gets questions on Twitter on whether the government pays for his trips to his constituency, Thiruvananthapuram.

He had replied on Twitter that he never uses government money, as he usually stays in his own or friends' residences.

Tharoor, who was staying at Hotel Taj Mahal on Man Singh Road, is now staying at the Indian Navy's guesthouse at Kota House.

 

[Flint]

What a waste of time.