Nirmala Sitharaman loses luggage, saris, misses reception at G-20 meet

NEW DELHI: Arguably the minister in the Narendra Modi government with the most eclectic collection of saris, Commerce and Industry minister Nirmala Sitharaman found herself in a sorry state after India’s state carrier Air India lost her suitcase as she landed in Sydney, Australia, en route to Cairns for the G-20 summit. That she found out about it minutes after she tweeted praises about the airline’s on board music collection on Friday made her predicament all the more annoying no doubt.

As she always wears saris — usually traditional silk, cotton or tussar handlooms, printed or woven — the baggage mishap presented her with a unique problem; where would she find suitable alternatives till AI located her suitcase? “Landed in Sydney to take a connecting flight to Cairns. My checked in luggage not traceable. :( :( ,” she tweeted early morning. She followed it up with, “On board my connecting flight to Cairns. All my formal wear in the lost suitcase! Not sure I can buy Saris in Cairns! Situation precarious!”

She decided to stay put in her hotel room, giving the evening party a miss. But she kept in touch with the outside world through her tweets. “Sorry to miss the evening reception at the Palm Cove, Cairns. Staying put in the room. No word yet on my lost luggage.” Tweeples also pitched in with advice for the minister. They wanted to know if she got her suitcase back, and how she was managing without her saris. The concern was that as Sitharaman only wears saris, and what if she didn’t get her bag and couldn’t find more saris —how would she manage.

Some suggested she try other formal wears; some others chipped in to help through friends and family. Some well-wishers quickly googled to find out stores in Sydney and Cairns where she could find a sari for herself. Melbourne-based Indian journalist, Mosiqi Acharya, tweeted back to her saying that she had a few saris.

“I had met her during her last visit and when I saw her tweet about the lost luggage, I offered to help,” Acharya told ET. She even suggested that the minister took the help of the consul general in Melbourne who is a woman officer.

Dinesh Chauhan, owner of a sari shop in Australia, said he wanted to reach the minister and could send her a few saris as soon as possible.

Others lambasted Air India for the mishap. “It was a Delhi-Melbourne-Sydney flight and the luggage was by mistake offloaded in Melbourne, but has been sent to her,” said the Air India spokesperson in Delhi.