BY KEDAR NATH PANDEY
DESPITE the Union Cabinet giving its nod to a 300 per cent hike in the salary of lawmakers, the latter chose to sulk and did not allow any serious business to be conducted in the Lok Sabha on August 20. The basic salary of the parliamentarians, for the record, has been increased from Rs 16,000 to Rs 50,000 a month and the secretarial assistance allowance from Rs 14,000 to ` 20,000 a month.

However, it is far too short of the Joint Parliamentary Committee recommendation that they be paid Rs 80,001, a rupee more than the Secretary in the Government of India.
The JPC had also recommended a secretarial allowance of Rs 44,000, which was considered too steep by the Cabinet. The Union Cabinet also rejected the JPC proposal to increase the number of free air journeys by MPs from 35 to 50 a year.
The Lower House hardly worked for an hour on Friday with RJD, SP, Janata Dal (U) and BSP members disrupting the proceedings from the word go.
Describing the three-fold hike as an “insult”, the MPs forced an adjournment of the House after the lunch break.
More Pay, More Perks
Once again RJD supreme, Mr Lalu Prasad Yadav was in the forefront of the protest. “Salary bill vapas le jao (take the salary Bill back)... It should be torn into pieces. The hike is an insult to us,” the former Railway Minister declared before trooping into the well of the House with colleagues and SP MPs.
For a change, Janata Dal (United) president, Mr Sharad Yadav and Bahujan Samaj Party members also joined the chorus. In between the chaos a Congress party MP interjected: “Laluji you are a rich man with Rs 900 crore.” This has reference to the fodder scam in which the RJD leader is facing a number of court cases.
Though the Congress and the BJP leaders have not openly backed the demand for a raise, their MPs could be seen complimenting Mr Lalu Prasad and Mr Mulayam Singh Yadav for initiating the move.
BJP MP from Purnia (Bihar), Mr Uday Singh was even heard saying that MPs should accept Mr Lalu and Mr Mulayam as their leaders because they had showed courage in demanding the increase. To this, Mr Mulayam pointed at Mr Gopinath Munde and quipped, “Munde baitha hai (Munde is your leader).
According to sources, Congress President, Ms Sonia Gandhi’s account of how her mother-in-law drew less salary as prime minister than her late husband as pilot, was the cue for the government to announce the raise without any further delay.
The Union Cabinet has also jacked up the limit for interest-free loan for buying a personal vehicle from Rs 1 lakh to Rs 4 lakh. It has increased road mileage rate for vehicles used by MPs from Rs 13 per km to Rs 16 per km and allowed the spouse of a parliamentarian to travel any number of times in first class or executive class in the train. The spouses have also been allowed up to eight free plane tickets from their place of residence to Delhi.
The Cabinet further augmented the pension benefits from Rs 8,000 to Rs 20,000 per month. It doubled the MP’s daily allowance from Rs 1000. The allowance is paid when the parliament is in session. The MPs will also enjoy 1.5 lakh free telephone calls.
Since the strength of the Lok Sabha (545) and the Rajya Sabha (250) aggregates to 895, the increase in the salary alone would cost over Rs 36 crore to the exchequer annually.
An Irate Public
Nr Vivek Velankar, the president of the Pune-based Sajag Nagrik Manch, a citizens’ rights group, says that this kind of monetary dole out is unethical given how common citizens in this country of 1.1 billion have been enduring crippling hardships over the past years owing to rising inflation.
Barring a privileged five per cent of Indians employed in the country’s organised sector, he contends, the majority of Indians have zero scope of increasing their earnings in these difficult times. “It is like Nero playing the fiddle when Rome was burning,” he said, arguing that politicians ought to offer solidarity to India’s poor.
The public anger over the salary increase and other allowances is also about the discredited image of politicians, derided widely as criminal and corrupt.
During India’s freedom movement, Mahatma Gandhi memorably advocated a Spartan lifestyle for elected government representatives, insisting that they were peoples’ servants, not their masters. Delegates from the Congress party, which was involved with Gandhi in the freedom struggle, travelled third class in crowded trains, surviving on a paltry daily allowance of Rs 40.
Indian MPs had to wait until 1954 – seven years after independence – to draw on a monthly salary. But Gandhi’s principles have long been forgotten in a rapidly modernising India. Today’s MPs travel in luxury cars, fly in chartered planes, and live in mansions, adding to their self-serving image.
A study conducted last year by the Association for Democratic Reforms, a New Delhi-based electoral monitor had reported that 150 MPs had criminal cases pending against them, 73 of them involved in serious crimes like murder.
Uncaring Politicians
Any pay rise must be linked to performance. The MPs – well known for shouting slogans and creating mayhem in parliament – have neglected one of their basic duties of crafting and debating legislation.
The average number of sittings of the Lok Sabha has declined to 81 between 1992 and 2001 from a yearly average of 124 in the first decade of independence, a sharp decline of 34 per cent.
The annual average of the number of pieces of legislation voted on and passed has fallen to 50 from 68 in the same period. Even more absurd are those MPs getting to decide their own salaries and the quantum of their pay raise.
In 2006, Mr Somnath Chatterjee, the speaker of the Lok Sabha at the time, suggested to his fellow MPs that it was unethical to vote on their personal pay packet and recommended the setting up of an independent commission to decide on the matter. His suggestion was dismissed outright by a majority of MPs.
There is an underlying irony in this. Indian Parliament in many ways mirrors Indian public life: Infuriatingly chaotic at one level and rigidly rule-bound at another. Parliament, as it exists today, is too tolerant of indiscipline and too intolerant of genuine dissent. A typical MP will be a roaring lion during zero and question hours and a timid mouse when bound by a whip.–INAV