Finmeccanica deal: Obama had rejected these copters for being too expensive, which India happily bought

We are surely very rich, aren’t we?  The PM and the rest of the VVIPs want to move around in machines which even Obama thinks is very expensive for him and others in the US!

US president Barack Obama had found a variant of the AW-101 helicopters too exorbitant to pass muster in 2009. But the Indian government had no such qualms while inking the Rs 3,546-crore deal for 12 plush AW-101 helicopters just a year later in 2010.

Btw, this is not all in terms of the toys that our VVIPs get.  Look at the other variety that they strut around in:

Earlier, India had inducted five mid-sized Embraer 135BJ Legacy jets, under a Rs 727-crore deal in September 2003, and three Business Boeing Jets (BBJs), under a Rs 937-crore contract in October 2005, for the travel of VVIPs. The BBJs also have advanced self-protection suites to guard against missiles and other threats. While the Legacy jets replaced old HS-748 Avros with the Communication Squadron, the BBJs substituted the two 737-200 aircraft bought in 1983.

Austerity measures, my foot!!