Party in time of austerity: UPA splurged 20 lakh on anniversary party

The UPA government may extol the virtues of austerity in the face of slowing economic growth but doesn’t hold back when it comes to celebrating its own birthday. The Economic Times today reported in an exclusive report that Rs 20 lakh was spent by the government on a party to mark its fourth anniversary and spent approximately Rs 6,781 per head on the 300 guests who were present at the party. The information accessed under the Right to Information Act by the Prime Minister’s Office revealed that the PM had invited 522 guests including MPs from the alliance in both houses of Parliament, political leaders from other parties, media persons and senior leaders from the Congress. According to an ANI report, the guests had a wide variety of dishes to choose from at the dinner. [caption id=“attachment_1243477” align=“alignleft” width=“380”]  Speaking at the event, the PM had blamed global factors on the slowdown. PTI[/caption] “A wide variety of dishes are on offer, including Jodhpuri Bhindi, Aaloo beans Dry, Sabz Nizami Handi, Kadhai Paneer, Langar Wali Daal, Sabz Dum Biryani, Malabar Avial, Drums Stick Sambhar, Kasturi Murg Tikka, Murg Handi Lazeez,” the report stated. Incidentally the Prime Minister had even spoken about austerity in the party but had blamed the global economy for it. He was also quite optimistic at the time about turning the economy around. “The economic situation is turning around. Inflation is coming under control. The fiscal deficit is being brought under control. The current account deficit is high, but we will bring it down gradually.” “We are confident that growth in 2013-14 will be better than 2012-13 and could exceed 6 percent. This will set the stage for trying to achieve the Twelfth Plan target of 8 percent growth for the five year period. This will be difficult, but it is not impossible. We have done it before, and if we receive a mandate next year, we will certainly achieve it again,” Singh had said during the function.