Patna, May 4: Chief minister Nitish Kumar flew to Bhutan today to understand the gross national happiness, the Buddhist country’s unique tool to measure its growth but his party boss, Sharad Yadav, simply hates setting his foot on foreign soil.

Except Nepal, the Janata Dal (U) president, who became MP for the first time way back in 1974 and represented V.P. Singh and A.B. Vajpayee ministries, has never visited any foreign country in his life. He visits Nepal for he has “emotional and personal” contacts with the Himalayan republic’s leaders and people. He does not accept Nepal, which does not require passport or visa from an Indian, in his definition of an alien country.

An old socialist warhorse, Sharad, has a reason for not visiting the foreign country. “Indians are not treated with respect and dignity in the foreign countries, particularly in the western ones. We offer them the red carpet welcome when they come to our land. But they make Indians realise their alien existence the moment they set their foot on foreign soil,” he said.

Though Sharad refrained from giving specific names and instances his aides explained how the former President APJ Abdul Kalam was forced to remove his shoes by the Continental Airlines Security staff in New York in 2009 and George Fernandes was frisked in an “indecent manner” when he visited US.

The Bollywood star Shah Rukh Khan too had been grilled for two hours at a New York airport in August, 2009.

Yogesh Kumar, personal secretary to the JD (U) chief, quoted Sharad as saying: “I am a socialist and I feel that the Indian leaders should not visit alien lands at the cost of their dignity. They must remind the foreigners how they are treated in India.”

Sharad, however, had nothing against Nitish going to Bhutan, a neighbouring country “respectful” to India. In Sharad’s perception India is like a “second home” to the neighbouring Buddhist countries, which were “respectful to Indian values”.

But unlike Sharad, Nitish does not harbour an aversion against visiting foreign countries.

In course of his first term as the chief minister, Nitish had gone to Mauritius, which had a sizeable population with Bihar roots on the invitation of the Mauritian government in 2008.

Nitish has also decided to lead a six-member Indian delegation to China on a six-day visit beginning from June 13. The Chinese ambassador to India, Zhang Yang, had visited Bihar in January this year offering the state help in the agricultural arena and had invited the chief minister to visit China.

The purpose of his visit to Bhutan is to seek the supply of electric power from that country to power-starved Bihar. “India has been helping Bhutan in building its hydel power projects. Some of such projects are nearing completion. I will visit a few of them during my trip to Bhutan,” Nitish said.

Principal secretary, energy, Ajay V. Nayak is among other officials accompanying Nitish on the trip to Bhutan.

Moreover, Bhutan adopting the unique mechanism to measure its growth through gross national happiness has drawn the chief minister’s curiousity. “I want to understand it for it sounds unique and more holistic,” he said.

Coined by the former Bhutan king, Jigme Singye Wangchuck in 1972 and later developed into an instrument to measure that country’s social and developmental indicators, the GNH is believed to serve as a unifying vision for Bhutan’s five-year plans.

Nitish has already secured sanction from the government of India for visiting Nepal and China.