Letter From New Delhi: India Loses Patience With the Super-Rich

NEW DELHI -- In this developing nation, government officials have long enjoyed first-class air tickets, overnight stays at five-star hotels, and vast entourages of servants and security, in what is known here as "V-VIPism."

But with the global economy in peril and India in the middle of its worst drought in years, such displays of wealth have begun to anger the public, especially after the Indian media reported that Foreign Minister S.M. Krishna and his deputy, Shashi Tharoor, had been holed up for more than three months in two of the capital's most opulent five-star hotels while their pricey bungalows were being built.

The men said they were paying for the hotel stays out of their own pockets. But television pundits wondered how public servants could afford suites that can cost anywhere from $250 to more than $2,000 a night.

While the extravagance is not all that notable for India, the fact that it's become such a hot issue is. Many Indians say an "austerity drive" announced by the ruling party would never have even surfaced 10 years ago. There is more hope for genuine social mobility in India then ever before and more willingness to question those at the top who are seen as living lavishly on the public dime.

The two Foreign Ministry officials recently moved out of the hotels and into modest guesthouses. But that's when penny-pinching became political.

Suddenly, leaders of all ages and political parties began flying economy class, taking the train, eating roti rolls and lentils at roadside truck stops, and wearing khadi -- Mohandas Gandhi-esque homespun cottons, which are a symbol of commitment to the common man in Indian politics. All this was done with the cameras rolling, of course.

Pranab Mukherjee, the finance minister, flew economy class from Delhi to Kolkata. "It was quite enjoyable," Pranab told a scrum of TV reporters.

Soon after the hotel exposé, Sonia Gandhi, leader of the ruling Congress party, announced the austerity drive and flew economy class. She had also previously asked ministers to contribute 20 percent of their salaries toward drought relief.

Rahul Gandhi, the party's heir apparent and Sonia Gandhi's son, made front-page news when he took the train.

More recently, Rahul Gandhi made headlines when he visited a poor rural area and slept outside on a rope cot known as a charpai, refusing even a mosquito net. He then bathed at a hand pump, ate local vegetables and hung out with low-caste farmers.

But there is a question of just how sincere these efforts really are. Tharoor, minister of state for external affairs, went on Twitter and wrote that he would travel "cattle class out of solidarity to all our holy cows." He was chastised by leaders of the Congress party, who were reelected this year on a platform to lift hundreds of millions of Indians out of abject poverty.

Tharoor, a well-dressed man with a head of thick, shiny black hair, is popular in India and was well respected abroad when he was a U.N. undersecretary general. His defenders said that his comments were clearly a joke and that most Indians themselves aspire to fly first class.