NEW DELHI: The BJP on Friday asked the Prime Minister to tell the nation who paid for the stay of the two Union Ministers — S M Krishna and Shashi Tharoor — in the five-star hotels in Delhi. Both the Ministers were staying in five-star hotels since the residential bungalows allotted to them are under renovation.
“The country is entitled to know who paid their bills,” asked BJP spokesperson Ravi Shankar Prasad.
Prasad said that as per the reports, Ministry of External Affairs Joint Secretary Gauri Shankar Gupta had written to the Union Urban Development Ministry that since both the Ministers were staying in private hotels, as their official private houses were not ready, their stay should be authorised.
After getting the reply in the negative, the MEA wrote to the Cabinet Secretariat to bear the expenses.
However, it, too, turned down the request, saying that the accommodation was handled by the Union Urban Development Ministry. The BJP wanted to know who paid the bills and asked the Prime Minister to clear the air on the issue.
Talking about the mounting pressure of the US on India to sign the NPT, the BJP wanted to know whether India would go ahead and sign the NPT. Prasad wondered whether India had got a clean-waiver from the Nuclear Suppliers Group.
Prasad asked Union HRD Minister Kapil Sibal not to be arrogant with the IIT professors. “They are the top academicians and we expect the Government to be more reasonable to them,” he remarked.