Jetsetters reach SA, ministers cool heels

But there’s a whole lot of people going anyway, in private jets and on the national carriers. Some MNCs have booked entire First Class cabins on commercial flights for their chosen guests.

While Vijay Mallya’s Boeing 737 Cricket Express has been parked for a week in Jo’burg, those who winged their way in in their Gulfstreams are LN Mittal from London and the brothers Ambani, who arrived separately in their own jets.

The invitees: Nafisa Ali and Shilpa Shetty, Raveena Tandon and Ritu Beri, Farooq Abdullah and Sharad Pawar, Jyotiraditya Scindia and Udhav Thackeray, Rajiv Shukla and Praful Patel. Also, Tamil Nadu Governor Ram Mohan Rao.

But Cabinet Ministers are not the only ones having to watch the final on TV. The PM’s plans to attend the World Cup, had India reached the finals, were cut short because of the Iraq crisis. As a source in the PMO explains, ‘‘The idea was to make up one’s mind as the time came but Iraq has stopped us in our tracks.’’

While ministers suffer quietly, there are three lucky ones who managed to slip away — the PM’s official emmissary to the World Cup, Minister of State of Sports Vijay Verma, the minister’s relative, Labour Minister Sahib Singh Verma and Law Minister Arun Jaitley.

Sources in the PMO say Jaitley’s trip, was sanctioned long before the decision to ban ministers’ travel. ‘‘He is making a detour from a conference in London via South Africa,’’ says the source. There is no word on Verma’s absence from the Capital.

But the biggest heartburn is probably being felt by Sahara’s Subroto Roy, whose company is the official sponsor of the Indian cricket team. The war has grounded Roy’s Sahara Airways, which was going to fly down the parivar’s cheerleaders, from Aishwarya Rai to Amitabh Bachchan, for a non-stop weekend party at Sun City.