The news of the ruling Congress Party spending a huge sum of money for the mundane event of holding the third anniversary bash of the UPA-2 government can only be received with disapprobation. What was there to celebrate in the passing of three of the five years given to a government is for the Congress Party and Prime Minister Manmohan Singh to explain. In times past this would be a routine event not worth noting in the calendar. But a disproportionately expensive bash will attract observers’ comment in a poor country.
While India reels under spiralling prices for the fifth year on Dr Singh’s watch, in May the Congress laid out a dinner fit for a czar, if menu details gleaned from a Right To Information reply are to be believed. Apparently more than 3,500 guests partook of the sumptuous meal that cost `7,700 per head on an average. Are these the values that the Prime Minister and Congress president Sonia Gandhi proud to propagate, particularly in a season in which the government officially invokes austerity?
The hypocrisy goes further. Of the total expenditure of nearly `30 lakhs, the bulk came from the ministry of external affairs. Taxpayers’ money was treated as if it was the Congress Party’s to burn. Keeping the PM’s official residence as the venue provided official cover. It is sad that a party that once prided itself on hand-spun khadi has surrendered its soul to the glitter boys of low taste and lower public morals.