Congress president Sonia Gandhi and its young and dynamic general secretary Rahul Gandhi are really leading from the front in the austerity drive launched by the grand old party.

While Sonia Gandhi travelled economy class on a flight from New Delhi to Mumbai on September 14, Rahul Gandhi joined his party’s austerity drive as he travelled from New Delhi to Punjab in an air-conditioned chair car of the Swarn Shatabdi Express on September 15.

Amidst tight security, Rahul Gandhi boarded the coach at 6 am today at New Delhi railway station. Rahul Gandhi made the four-hour journey from New Delhi to Ludhiana as an ordinary passenger, eschewing the executive class coach as part of the austerity drive announced by India’s ruling Congress party in view of the drought situation in the country.

The Congress leader reached Ludhiana for a training camp of Punjab Youth Congress workers. Rahul Gandhi is scheduled to return to New Delhi by the evening Shatabdi train in a similar coach.

Before the austerity measures came into place, the politician would have flown in a private helicopter as there is no direct flight between New Delhi and Ludhiana.

Meanwhile, party president Sonia Gandhi flew economy class to Mumbai in a commercial airliner, joining a battery of ministers in an effort by the government to enforce austerity measures.

It is good that the people who profess the austerity mantra have started practising it. Normally, it is unheard of in this country as leaders profess one thing to the people and practice something else in their life. So far, this has been our experience.