Tourism Ministry comes up with a “tour” de force!
Necessity is the mother of invention they say and the trickle-down effect of the global financial crisis has forced people to come up with innovative ideas to make that extra buck.
Not to be left behind, The Tourism Ministry has launched a new flagship initiative – Election Tourism – to woo tourists from abroad. “Come witness the great Indian tamasha,” is the tagline of this new campaign that has received hot response so far.
There are several packages up for grabs. As part of a package, tourists can accompany politicians on their campaigns as they prepare for the Lok Sabha elections scheduled for April and May 2009.
“The most popular itinerary so far is ‘Modi Martini’,” said Ambika Soni, Union Minister for Culture and Tourism. “Feel like a martini, shaken and stirred,” is the catchline of this tour which many allege has been ripped off from a Facebook status update. The tour tracks Narendra Modi’s election campaign. The USP of this week-long tour is that you get to learn all about Hinduism in 6 days and 6 nights making it very popular among foreigners. The last day has been kept for clarifications where Mr Modi will personally take questions as visitors are very likely to get confused.
For the affluent, the most expensive tour is ‘Sonia Sonata’ and ‘Rahul Regalia. ’ These tours are only conducted by helicopters. “No travel operators or travel agencies offer tours that can show you all of India in 8 days 9 nights; but ‘Sonia Sonata’ and ‘Rahul Regalia’ can,” said a visibly proud Ambika Soni. The rich, the educated and those interested in Indian history (read Nehru-Gandhi) especially choose this package. The tour is priced at $ 200,000 (Rs 1 crore).
When asked why the tour was so exorbitantly priced, Ms Soni clarified that proceeds from this tour would be used by the Government of India to bid for Gandhiji’s personal items that were being auctioned in New York.
For the adventurous traveller, the Tourism Ministry has jointly launched with NDTV tour ‘Barkha Barista.’ In this tour you get to drink a lot of coffee to stay awake the whole night and appear groggy-eyed on television the next day. The tagline of the tour is “We the (media) people...” and it has caught the imagination of many foreign journalists.
The Tourism Ministry is developing more tours such as ‘Lalu Luxury’ in which you get to travel on the Garib Rath network of the Indian Railways with the Railway Minister. This tour promises to trump ‘Modi Martini’ once it is launched because of its sheer entertainment quotient.
Speaking about the initiative, Ms. Ambika Soni, said, “A society that cannot laugh at itself is not a healthy society.” When it was pointed out to her that this campaign was not exactly about laughing at oneself but having others laugh at you, she was quick on her feet and spoke of world unity and how we were all essentially one.
But I would choose a Modi Martini any day over a Sehwag spectacle... but I would give my life to be up close with a vicious Varun in his elements 
God save Indian Democracy from itself..!!!
keep it up! 
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