What does it take for a minister to be austere?  A lot of boarding cards, apparently.

Foreign Minister SM Krishna is leaving on a four-day trip for Belarus and Turkmenistan. He has stopped using the special plane he's entitled to for these journeys. So, here's what his trip looks like. Krishna is going to Minsk, the capital of Belarus, via Frankfurt.  He's flying business class with the Prime Minister's permission. The trip will take 18 hours.  Officials say had he taken the 14-seater Embraer VIP squadron aircraft, the flying time from Delhi to Belarus would have been 4 hours

After a day in Minsk , the Foreign Minister goes to Turkmenistan via Istanbul.  Then he's back in Istanbul, to take a flight via London to New York, to attend the UN General Assembly meeting.

The tough travel may not elicit any protests from the minister, given that he isone of the main reasons for the current austerity drive.  Krishna was among two union ministers who was staying at a 5-star hotel (at his own expense), while his government accomomadation was being renovated.  Sonia Gandhi was distrubed when the media reported on this, and soon, Congress ministers were asked to fly economy, and cut down official expenditure.  

To lead by example, Sonia Gandhi flew economy to Mumbai and Bangalore.  Rahul Gandhi went a step further and took the train from Delhi to Ludhiana on Tuesday.