Grounded twice, Mahajan’s mega junket takes off

Mahajan will be accompanied by his two deputies, Ministers of State O Rajagopal and Santosh Gangwar in the Parliamentary Affairs Ministry.

The first proposal for the trip — to ‘learn and understand’ the working of the Parliamentary system in those countries — was made six-odd months ago; the Prime Minister denied permission on the grounds that the ‘economic conditions’ at home were not conducive to such expenditure. A second proposal, a couple of months ago, met with the same result.

When contacted, Gangwar confirmed Vajpayee’s denying permission. ‘‘The Prime Minister had questioned the need for such a large delegation going. We justified it on the grounds that MPs from all major political parties had to be accommodated, following which we got the clearance. In any case, two or three delegations are sent abroad every year. There was no delegation all of last year so we planned this one between the Winter and Budget sessions of Parliament.’’

The delegation will travel in style — Business Class — at a time when fares to South African destinations are at their peak ahead of the cricket world cup. The round-trip tickets are likely to cost the exchequer around Rs 50 lakh; added to this will be the cost of boarding and lodging and daily allowances for the travelling MPs.

The delegation comprises 14 members of the L S including BJP spokesperson V K Malhotra, Congress chief whip Priya Ranjan Dasmunshi, Rupchand Pal of the CPI (M), K Yerrannaidu ( TDP) , Kunwar Akhilesh Singh (SP), Chandrakant Khaire of Shiv Sena, Rasshid Alvi of the BSP, Raghunath Jha of Janata Dal (Samta), P H Pandian of the AIADMK, Prasanna Acharya of the BJD and S S Palaimanickam of the DMK.

The Rajya Sabha is represented by Suresh Pachouri of the Congress, Nilotpal Basu of the CPI(M) and Dr Alladi P Rajkumar of the TDP. Also in the delegation are two members of the Ministry of Parliamentary Affairs and one from Mahajan’s personal staff.