SM Krishna, Tharoor to give up five-star comforts: Mukherjee

Union finance minister Pranab Mukherjee told external affairs minister SM Krishna and his junior, Shashi Tharoor, to vacate their five-star digs on Tuesday.  On Monday, as reported by DNA, the government had announced an austerity drive in deference to the drought, but stories in the media pointed out that Krishna had put up at the Maurya Sheraton and Tharoor at the Taj Mahal hotel on Mansingh Road.

Both have been paying for their accommodation, while waiting for their official bungalows to be made habitable. Mukherjee ministry had initiated the austerity drive.
By evening Krishna had ostensibly moved to a guest house on the Foreign Services Institute campus.

“I have been making my own arrangements for my stay. The government had nothing to do with it. I shall continue with the same kind of arrangements till my official bungalow is ready,” Krishna said.

Tharoor had moved out of the Taj on September 1 as he was on a visit to his constituency in Kerala. He may stay a few days with his aunt, artist Anjolie Ela Menon in Delhi, till his bungalow is ready.

Earlier in the day, Tharoor had tweeted, ‘I would be ashamed if I was spending the people’s money, but I’m not. I’m spending my own savings.’ He has been allotted a bungalow on Lodhi Road, while Krishna will be moving to Thyagaraja Marg.

Krishna has been a patron of Maurya Sheraton since 1991, often preferring to stay there on his visits to the capital while he was Karnataka chief minister.