Two days after a report in The Indian Express led to the government asking External Affairs Minister S M Krishna and his Minister of State Shashi Tharoor to vacate their suites in five-star hotels, Congress general secretary Rahul Gandhi said he believed a politician has a “duty” to lead an austere life at all times.

“I don’t think there is a phase when there should be austerity measures and another phase when you shouldn’t have austerity measures,” Rahul said in Chennai when asked to comment on ministers living in luxury at a time their party and government have given clear calls for austerity. “As a politician, one has the duty to be austere anyway.”

The young Congress leader also said that he had no such problems himself as “I generally tend to keep myself austere”, pointing to the white kurta-pyjama he was wearing.

“I don’t go through phases... I don’t really get interested in these kind of things,” he said.

If the Congress icon’s words are set to add to the discomfiture of Krishna and Tharoor, the opposition BJP that is obviously enjoying itself added insult to injury.

In context of Tharoor’s statement justifying his stay at a suite in the Taj Mahal hotel for the past 100 days saying he wanted “a gym and some privacy”, the BJP advised that the minister could use the gym for MPs at the Constitution club.

Rajiv Pratap Rudy, who himself claimed to be a regular visitor of the gym apart from being the secretary of the club, said: “There is a reasonably good gym at the Constitution Club. If not better than the five-star hotel’s, it has a comparable facility.”

... contd.