A free trip to "foreign," who can refuse it? No wonder that while good citizens of India are busy slogging day and night and paying their taxes, the lawmakers and babus are busy indulging themselves in "junkets." And we are paying for it.
The State Government has sponsored a 40 - member team for the World Kannada Conference being conducted by the Association of Kannada Kootas of America (AKKA) from September 3rd in New Jersey in the United States. The total expenditure the Government will incur for the visit of the delegation is Rs. 1. 5 crore. AKKA, which is organising the convention, will bear all other expenses. But then, guess what? The Kannada and Culture Department has given a Rs. 45 - lakh grant to AKKA. Not just that, many other departments have also reportedly given funds.
Now, we are glad that all the 34 kootas, the various Kannada Sanghas in North America, have gotten together to promote our culture and expose their children to our culture lest they become too Americanised. But why do they have to send out 500 invitations to various officials and politicians in India?!
Recently, I met a government official who by way of trying to please me, told me, “Sir I'll get you an AKKA invitation. Come we'll go on an American trip. With AKKA invitation, getting visa is easier.” So is this why AKKA sends so many invitations? Has the AKKA convention been reduced to just an opportunity which merely increases one’s chance of getting an American visa?
No wonder, in 2008 the Government had reportedly claimed that 108 legislators were going to the US at their own cost. But they were going on the strength of the AKKA invitation. Once in the USA, how many of these 108 guests actually visited the conference? According to a news report, only 31.
It is, of course, understandable and very courteous of the Kannadigas in the US to invite the Chief Minister of their Home State. It is also very thoughtful of them to arrange for investors’ meets. But where is the need for these Kannadigas — who for the most part complain about the “corrupt system” in India, who attribute their “brain - drain” to our (their former nation, India) nation's “unappreciative attitude towards their talent,” the same people who as soon as they land in India cannot wait to get back — to invite 500 people from India and most of them politicians? The very tribe that has in a way caused them to leave their country.
What is even more questionable is the fact that AKKA has accepted Rs. 45 lakh grant from our government. We are a poor nation and they are living in a prosperous nation. If they have any concern, they must send us money. If they want an Indian taxpayer to pay for their cultural and business meet, then let them guarantee us a return on our investment or else let them run it within a budget that they can afford. Why should the Indian taxpayer spend on entertaining people richer than us, who were once upon a time Indians? Why should we pay so our richer country cousins can have fashion shows, Miss AKKA pageant and AKKA Idol contest? Let them do it with their own dollars. Not our rupee. It is very unbecoming of a people who claim to live in a more mature, educated and developed nation. Even if the grant was for a project to help us, we are sure the American - Kannadigas can pay for it themselves.
Our men in white and men in safari suits love freebies. These foreign trips at our cost have been going on since many years. In 1970, Veerendra Patil who was the Chief Minister of Karnataka, selected a group of favoured politicians, officials and academics and sent them to Osaka in Japan to attend "Expo - 70," an international exhibition and “investment meet”. They came back with nothing. How could they, when they did not have the faintest idea of what was being presented? Of course, there were protests and since then many officials have been clandestinely taking their trips.
In fact, Mail Today newspaper on Saturday reported that over 200 politicians and officials from various government and civic bodies were sent on foreign tours to study various aspects of organising Commonwealth Games (CWG). Close to Rs. 45 crore of taxpayers' money was spent on these trips, government sources said, of which Rs. 33 crore alone was spent by Delhi government to send a 50 - member delegation to Melbourne as an “observer group” during the closing ceremony of the Commonwealth Games in 2006. Taxpayers ended up paying in excess of Rs. 5 lakh per person for every trip that lasted, on an average, five days. In almost all cases, government sources said, the delegates flew first class.
Look what is happening to our CWG four years later, it is obvious all the money was wasted and nothing was learnt. In fact, some people who went had nothing to do with the Commonwealth Games such as Chetan Chauhan, former Test cricketer and two-time MP. He can’t even claim cricket as an excuse as cricket is not a CWG sport.
When living in New York, I met a doctor from Hubli who has been living in the US since the late '70s. Speaking of the politicians and officials, he said, “It's unfortunate. Half these fellows who come either ask "let's see stripping" or "let's go shopping." Very rarely do we get someone who is genuinely interested in observing the quality of life here and the facilities provided by the government to the people.” He then went on to add, “When we introduce them to our local American leaders, they either don't communicate well or are indifferent. It's quite embarrassing.”
Speaking of embarrassments, I have a small anecdote to narrate. A few years ago, I met a friend of mine who was well - connected in London. He was telling of how it is important to train our leaders on the culture and etiquette followed in other nations before sending them out. He was saying this because it seems, a group of leaders from Karnataka had been to London for a tour and my friend who was living there was asked to go and visit them. After breakfast, the leaders were leaving for North London so all the bags were brought to the bus.
While most bags were loaded onto the underbelly of the huge bus, one famous leader came late with one bag. He set the bag down and loudly and crudely shouted - out pointing to his bag, “Ayeee,” at the English bus driver who was standing a few metres away smoking and reading a newspaper. The driver looked at him and turned away. Once again he shouted, making a hand gesture, "Ayeee, bag, bag." Once again the driver stared and went back to his paper and smoking. Finally our leader told my friend, "Enappa, ivnige kivi kelsalva?" (What is this? Is he deaf?) and once again shouted louder, "Ayeee put the bag inside I say.”
The driver calmly stubbed his cigarette, put his paper away and walked up to our senior politician and said, "If you ayeee me again, I will kick your mannerless arse. Keep your s*** yourself you arrogant fool."
"En appa hinge maath adthane" (What is this? Why does he talk in this way?) was the only response our senior political leader could give while meekly putting his bag himself into the open trunk right next to him.
Official tours for the most part are junkets, masked with fancy name-tags such as “exposure” tour, “fact - finding” tour, and “technology transfer” tour, where the officials see a certain technology that is used in the foreign country and then get it to India. In 1999, the Western Ghats Forestry Project funded by the World Bank and the Union Ministry of Environment and Forest sent 110 Forest Officers to the Forestry Research Institute at Oxford University in two batches to learn about “capacity building” (Learning how to build large and capable team to execute projects). It made many wonder why we had to go to England spending crores to learn how to manage our own people whose attitudes and habits are radically different from that of the Englishman’s.
For all these years of “educational tours”, how much of it has translated to the field? How many officials have applied this foreign knowledge to make our roads, electricity and other infrastructural necessities as efficient and trouble - free as the countries they visited? Hardly any. But we taxpayers continue to be burdened paying for these unproductive junkets.
No other taxpayer in the world is ripped off by its government and its fellow non - taxpaying citizens like an Indian taxpayer is. In the same breath, the Indian taxpayer is also the most nonchalant when it comes to knowing where and how his money is being used by the government.
While our city officials are leaving in a few days for a study tour in Town Planning to France, we hope that after all these years, the least they can bring back is the knowledge of building a good road that stays good. May be it’s time to junk these junkets.
