MPs’ honest demand

My views on salary of the members of Parliament are not likely to be popular. Over the last few days, the electronic media has relentlessly flashed stories regarding the proposed hike of salaries and allowances of MPs. Most of the coverage has been brutally critical and in many instances, cynical and pejorative as well. MPs have been

portrayed as, and demonised as, some kind of predatory, utterly shameless, ruthless mercenary louts who do not have a single thought in their head apart from the worst kind of rapacious looting from every available source.
The leaders who openly advocated the raise in MPs’ salary, like Lalu Prasad Yadav and Mulayam Singh Yadav, have been pilloried and ridiculed. The parliamentary committee which went into the question and made the recommendations has also been criticised. The loudest argument has been that legislators should not have the power to decide their own salaries. That, in fact, is the only argument against the proposed hike in salaries and allowances of MPs. In my view, all other arguments against the proposed hike have been born out of prejudice and misconception.
An objective look at the facts would reveal a great deal and also correct slightly the distortion which is created in the mind of a viewer when TV headlines scream that MPs want to vote themselves a 300 per cent salary increase when people are suffering from inflation. That MPs live in sprawling two-acre bungalows in Lutyens’ Delhi, which in themselves are worth many lakhs by way of monthly rent. That they have free airfare as do their spouses. They have 30,000 free phone calls. They are paid `1,000 a day as sitting fees in Parliament although they never actually sit in Parliament.
Well, all the above is actually true. The reality lies in the manner in which the issue is considered and whether it is considered in a rational manner, free of prejudice, which obviously is well nigh impossible when the subject of discussion is the universally-hated politician. My submission is that the media and public perception of this issue is seriously distorted by prejudice and is, by no means, a balanced consideration of the facts on hand. Admittedly, politicians have themselves almost single-handedly been responsible for the lack of public respect for them and the normally jaundiced perception of the average citizen. It also needs to be straightaway conceded that there are several politicians and MPs who have manipulated the system, misused their official position, been guilty of corrupt practices and totally betrayed not just the trust placed in them by their constituents, but also the oath of office they themselves swore by when they assumed office.
Notwithstanding all the above, the fact remains that an MP represents roughly 15 lakh Indians. He or she is elected after a gruelling election and intense travel over a huge constituency, the geographical spread and population of which is unmatched anywhere else in the world. Thereafter the MP is at the beck and call of each and every constituent, has to answer calls, reply to their letters, incur expenses on postage and address their legitimate concerns. He has to travel the length and breadth of the constituency, and also back and forth from Delhi to constituency, and, insofar as my own constituency/home own Chennai is concerned, it is not only one of the longest domestic air journeys in the country but also among the most expensive.
In addition, Lok Sabha MPs in particular even run up huge bills serving just tea and snacks to their constituents. The other duties of an MP are too varied and diverse to enumerate here but even the most basic functioning of an MP requires tremendous expenditure.
Those who assume that MPs do no work only display their ignorance and prejudice in addition to insulting the intelligence of the Indian electorate. No elected MP can hope to remain in office if he does not fulfil the demands of the constituency, whether they range from building bridges and roads, factories and houses, getting jobs for unemployed youth or ensuring proper medical and education facilities in their constituencies. With our budget and resources being scarce, every MP has to fight tooth and nail to address the development of his or her constituency.
Contrary to public perception, MPs do not spend their time in the lawns of Lutyens’ Delhi dancing with the peacocks. They only come to Delhi when Parliament is in session and only ministers and a few fortunate MPs live in bungalows. Most MPs live in old, leaky crumbling flats in North and South Avenues, depending upon the temperamental CPWD to carry out repairs. Some of us live in more modern flats but nevertheless still flats since we can hardly live in dorm rooms in Parliament House.
Bureaucrats who have passed one examination at the age of 25 and who never again face public scrutiny until retirement live in large houses in Lutyens’ Delhi and get paid `80,000 per month. All their travel is free and they also get staff at the office and at home. Their pension and benefits have been linked by various Pay Commissions which too have been set up and manned by other bureaucrats to be on par, not just with the cost of the living index, but to more than amply cover their comfortable retirement. That is, retirement for those bureaucrats who have not snagged post-retirement jobs in foreign companies or the private sector. In fact, most IAS officers who retired a few years ago receive more by way of pension today than the emoluments they received at the peak of their career.
It is, therefore, perfectly reasonable for MPs who are above the bureaucrats in terms of rank and precedence and who work as hard as any bureaucrat, if not harder (politicians certainly don’t get weekends off or go on LTC paid leave every year), to ask for a salary which is at least equal to the salary of a bureaucrat. The demand is honest and should be viewed without prejudice. If nothing else, the salary hike will at least enable honest MPs who do not possess illegal funds to carry out their duties more efficiently. The truth of the matter is that almost all MPs believe that the salary hike is justified and necessary. The Left parties who oppose it have the option to return their own salaries to the government and ask that the funds be used elsewhere.

Jayanthi Natarajan is a Congress MP in the Rajya Sabha and AICC spokesperson.
The views expressed in this column are her own.