Learning is fun

MLAs on an educational trip abroad had so much fun with their families shopping and sight-seeing that 'we could not think of anything else'. There goes tax-payers' money down the drain

MLAs on an educational trip abroad had so much fun with their families shopping and sight-seeing that 'we could not think of anything else'.u00a0 There goes tax-payers' money down the drain

Ten legislators are just back from an 'educational' foreign trip, having learnt nothing. But yes, they did have a rollicking time with their families. And yes, it was at your expense.

The MLAs, including former minister Basavaraja Horatti and Mandya MLA M Srinivas, arrived in Bangalore yesterday after visiting Hong Kong, Australia, New Zealand and Macau over 15 days. Seven of them took their families along.

"We did not meet anybody who could tell us about the system there," said Kimmane Ratnakara, one of the MLAs. "It was just a family picnic that everybody enjoyed."

"We enjoyed sight-seeing and shopping," said an MLA. "My family was happy. It was their dream to see a foreign country and we could not think of anything else."

Paid government holiday? K P Bacchhe Gowda and Basvaraju00a0 Horatti with a friend at the Opera House in Sydney

The genesis

Last year, when B S Yeddyurappa took over as chief minister, the government decided to send legislators of both houses, in six batches, on a foreign tour. The assembly has 224 members and the council 74.

The objective was to educate them about the government system, polity and infrastructureu00a0 development in advanced countries so that they could improve the system back home.

All the batches have completed their educational trip, with the government spending Rs 3.25 lakh onu00a0 each MLA.
But none of them can remember anything he or she has learnt to make them better legislators.

'Not our fault'

"It's not our fault," said Ratnakara. "We went as tourists and the travel agents looked after us well. There was no mention in the tour timetable about visiting government bodies and other places where we could have learnt something."

He felt there should have been workshops for them before and after the tour, some brainstorming sessions and meetings with authorities abroad.

"That can be done in co-ordination with the governments of those countries," he said. "But there was nobody to introduce us to the authorities there and hence we were reduced to common tourists."

When contacted, Jagadish Shetter, speaker of the assembly who is in charge of the MLAs' foreign tour, said, "There have been some shortcomings and we will rectify the mistakes after feedback from the MLAs."

Rectify the mistakes? Does that mean the whole bunch of them will be off on another junket?

Ignorant them
The MLAs were taken aback when people in Australia and New Zealand could not tellu00a0 anything about politics in their country. "Since there were no authorities to educate us, we tried to learn from civilians but many could not even name their prime minister or president," said Ratnakar. Ratnakar said they were well-educated but couldn't be bothered about politics. "We asked how many members there were in Australia's parliament but nobody knew. I am really shocked at this."