George Fernandes was a pioneer economy traveller

New Delhi: Much has been written during the last one week about the directions by the Government of India to the Ministers and Congress Members of Parliament to travel economy class during their tour within the country or abroad.
Much also has been made about the ‘directions’ communicated to the Minister of External Affairs S.M. Krishna and Minister of State Shashi Tharoor to shift from their rooms in five star hotels even though they were paying for the rental personally.
The Cabinet Minister who refused to travel first class out of conviction was George Fernandes, the former Minister for Defence. I witnessed it as Information Consultant in the Defence Ministry. In fact it caused me some embarrassment, as I was booked in the Indian Airlines flight in the first class which was my entitlement and to my surprise I saw the Defence Minister, George Fernandes traveling in the economic class during the flight from Delhi to Mumbai.
I quietly went to a person traveling in the economy class to take my seat in the first class and traveled in the economy class. Later, whenever I traveled with George Fernandes I took care to ensure that my booking was done in the economy class.
Last week, I heard the Congress Spokesperson Manish Tewari saying that he was ready to travel even in the cargo compartment.
I recalled that I had to travel in the cargo compartment of a IL-76 of the Indian Air Force from Gauhati to Delhi in 2004 along with George Fernandes. The plane was not pressurized and not one word could be heard by me during the two-hour long flight though I was in the bucket seat along with the Defence Minister.
14/09/09 I. Ramamohan Rao, former Principal Information Officer, Government of India/ANI/Thaindian.com, Thailand

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Categories: Indian Aviation- In General Sep 2009