May.12 : ALTHOUGH some of the unavoidable legislative work, such as passage of the Finance Bill and even the introduction of the controversial Nuclear Liability Bill, was somehow gone through, the almost daily disruption of both Houses remained the hallmark of the parliamentary session that was adjourned sine die last week. However, despite all the raucous noise and heated exchanges that, at least once, stopped just short of fisticuffs, Parliament managed to deliver one unanimous message loud and clear: It called for an immediate hike in the pay and perks of its members. In precise terms the demand was that the salary of members of Parliament (MPs) should be at least a rupee more than that of the top civil servants. This is on par with what prevails in France, and is perfectly legitimate, and merits support.
In fact, ever since a similar, though not identical, demand was first raised in the second Lok Sabha (1957-62) I have been arguing that India’s lawmakers should be paid as well as its civil servants and other professionals serving in the public sector. If that were done, the MPs’ allowances would also be taxed, along with their salaries. But unfortunately, right since the dawn of Independence, politicians ruling this country, including ministers, of course, have devised a salary structure for themselves that neatly covers up greed with hypocrisy.
Invoking the name of the Mahatma, they usually pretend that they want a modest pay. No wonder even today an MP’s monthly salary is Rs 16,000 which, making allowance for the phenomenal inflation over six decades, is as much of a pittance as it used to be when it was only a few hundred rupees. But the bulk of the politicians’ earnings have always consisted of non-taxable daily allowance for attending Parliament or its countless committees that continue to meet even while Parliament is in recess. There are several other untaxed perks, driving one sociologist to remark that whatever R.H. Tawney might have said, Indian society was both “acquisitive and perquisite”.
To be sure, there are some perks that MPs who have to contest an election every five years, if not oftener, must get. For instance, each member of the Lok Sabha has to maintain two houses, one in his/her constituency and another in New Delhi. Normally, a pied-à-terre in the capital would do. But the reality is that a large number of members occupy sprawling bungalows in Lutyen’s Delhi. Remarkably, many of them are members of the Rajya Sabha who have no popular election to fight and no constituency to nurse. To make matters a lot worse, even after ceasing to be MP and/or minister, a surprisingly large number of them refuse to vacate the lavish houses. The government’s directorate of estates bangs its head against their walls but to no avail. The facility of free travel within the country and abroad available to the chosen ones is also enviable.
And then there are such windfalls as Members of Parliament’s local area development scheme (MPLADS). Under it every MP has at his/her disposal Rs 2 crores a year for local area development projects in his/her constituency. Although the MP decides what has to be done, it is the collector of the district who is supposed to get the project executed. Yet, over the years, there has been no end to allegations of people’s representatives siphoning off a lot of cash. One MP had seen nothing wrong in spending MPLADS funds on building a tennis court in a posh club. And now that the Supreme Court has rejected a PIL praying for the abolition of MPLADS nobody is going to be able to interfere with this largesse.
Important though these matters are, they are really sideshows. The key issue is whether in their anxiety to be a cut above the highest civil servants our MPs are prepared to abide by the discipline, constraints and rules applicable to the bureaucracy here as well as in the French Republic. No one can be appointed even a lower division clerk, leave alone to all-India services such as the Indian Administrative Service, Indian Foreign Service etc, if there is an adverse report against him/her. Civil servants found to be making money on the side are suspended and prosecuted. The gargantuan 2G spectrum scam underscores that politicians are immune from such risks!
No one suggests that there should be a police verification of those offering themselves as candidates in elections. But surely the current situation in which criminals get merrily elected to Parliament and even adorn ministerial chairs has to end before the deserved pay hike for MPs can take effect. It is no good anyone arguing that delay in the conviction of the politicians charged with the most heinous crimes is the fault of the judiciary, not of anyone else. The grave problem can and must be resolved if all political parties unite to amend the Election Law, and if need be the Constitution, to keep criminals out of the electoral process.
During the last days of the Budget session, the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) had shouted itself hoarse against the Congress-led government’s “misuse and abuse” of the Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI). A BJP delegation even met the President to press the demand that the premier investigative agency be freed from the government’s control. Why didn’t the saffron party bring about this much-needed reform when it was in power for six years? And what prevents it today from offering its full cooperation in unbinding the CBI and keeping criminals out of politics?
The matter does not end there. There is also the question whether after a manifold increase in their pay and perks our MPs would work and let the nation’s apex legislature function.
The members of the US Senate and House may be paid much more than lawmakers elsewhere, $174,000 a year, but they work most diligently. They initiate the laws, not the government. Congressional hearings keep the administration on its toes. Here we have daily barracking, rushing to the well of the House, rude exchanges and so on. This cannot be allowed to go on forever. The wholesome principle “No Work, No Pay” must apply to Parliament, too.