Despite the moral edge that the Aam Aadmi Party (AAP) movement has given to politics, a 16-member team of legislators from the Congress-ruled Karnataka state in the south were determined to tour a few South American countries at government expense. It was on the intervention of Congress vice-president Rahul Gandhi, a reinvigorated person after the drubbing his party received in the recent Rajasthan and Delhi elections, that they finally buried the trip, which was a joyride out of tax payers’ money.

The most shocking aspect, however, is that the members going abroad were from the State Estimates Committee, entrusted with the task of saving superfluous expenditure. Representatives of both the Congress and the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) constituted a team for the proposed tour. The BJP members developed sudden cold feet when some in the media criticised the junkets, while the Congressmen caved in after Rahul pointed out that the expense of Rs160 million (Dh9.4 million) was a waste when 60 districts of the state faced drought and when more than 200 farmers had committed suicide.

The members were technically justified because the state assembly had laid down that the legislators could tour foreign countries twice in their five-year tenure. Probably, the same provision is offered to members in most other states as well. The Andhra Pradesh legislators are reportedly planning a trip abroad. The Akali Dal government in Punjab sent the legislators to Scotland to see how scotch whiskey was brewed.

All such trips are considered study tours. Since the reports following the tours are not published, it is anybody’s guess whether the legislators submit anything in writing at all. In fact, they are all paid holidays for pleasure, something that the government uses to placate its own members and those in the opposition. And this favour is not confined to legislators alone. Members of the committee of the Scheduled Caste and Minorities in Karnataka have just returned from a 16-day trip abroad. Their itinerary showed that they were visiting beaches, posh restaurants and pleasure resorts.

I found the same craze of going abroad among India’s parliamentarians. Since I was a nominated member of the Rajya Sabha, I was never included in any such trip. Because of the media, an ethics committee was sought to be set up to stop extravagant expenses. The political parties normally distributed the “study tours” among themselves. It is flabbergasting that Language Committee members, including persons other than MPs, go to England and America every year to assess the spread of Hindi.

In fact, a “phoren” (foreign) trip is as much a craze in India as in Pakistan and Bangladesh. The legislators there also go abroad on one pretext or the other. Whether it is a hangover of the 150-year colonial rule of the British or part of thoughtless expenditure of the burgeoning middle class is difficult to say. Probably, both assumptions are correct.

Yet, it cannot be denied that a free foreign tour is the best “bribe” any government can offer.

Countries in the West know this. Missions of the United Kingdom and the US utilise this to have the best of concessions. Top Indian bureaucrats fall for “invitations” from abroad. It would be revealing to find out how many children of secretaries to the government have gone abroad on scholarships or fully paid studies. Foreign missions see to it that the children of highly-placed people are given pre-travel and full expenses on board and lodging in schools, colleges or other educational institutions. Unfortunately, bureaucrats are falling prey to the generous hospitality of foreign missions. You can spot top officials at parties of minor officials of foreign missions. This greed is nothing new. It has been there since a few years after independence.

India’s first prime minister Jawaharlal Nehru was so shocked by the presence of secretaries to the government at parties of third secretaries in foreign missions that he issued a circular to instruct that the top officials should respond to invitations of only foreign officials of equivalent status. As days went by, the violations of the circular increased. Today it is free, for all. Invitations are sought even by MPs. Prime Minister Manmohan Singh should issue a circular on the lines Nehru had done.

However, I have lost hope after seeing the manner in which the Government of India has suffered humiliation at the hands of the US State Department. Devyani Khobragade was handcuffed and put in jail to share the cell with criminals. US Secretary of State John Kerry refused to tender an apology on the incident. It has now been found that Khobragade enjoyed full diplomatic immunity when she was arrested.

I am not surprised by America’s arrogance of power. President Barack Obama, who looked different initially, has become part of the establishment. He neither evokes confidence nor hope. He should have himself rung up Prime Minister Singh to express remorse.

The loss is that of America’s. The Indians were beginning to feel that the US was different from the rest of West. That impression has dissipated. Washington may talk of strategic ties and New Delhi may reciprocate to be on the same page with the biggest power, but this relationship will stay at the official level only. People of India will remain distant.

For them, the treatment meted out to Khobragade has little to do with the diplomatic niceties. They consider it as an instance of the weight that Washington throws around. The persistence in prosecuting Khobragade says it all.

The entire case began when Khobragade was not paying her domestic servant the wages as per US laws. I recall when I was serving as an employee of the USIS in Delhi, I too did not get the wages the Americans were getting. This is probably understandable. But what I could not comprehend was the additional allowances that the Americans used to get while touring within the country as compared to the Indians who accompanied them. I know this from my experience.

Kuldip Nayar is a former Indian High Commissioner to the United Kingdom and a former Rajya Sabha member.