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VIEWPOINT: FIFTH COLUMN
Breach Of Privilege
Pay the MPs big salaries but make them give up their perks
Our
MPs, poor dears, are puzzled and hurt. They cannot understand why there
should be so much outrage at the little pay rise they recently gave themselves.
The more literate among them have written long, indignant articles in the
national press expounding on the difficulties of trying to be a member of
Parliament on a pittance. We have to maintain two homes, they say, one in
Delhi and one in the constituency, and we have to cater to the needs of
hundreds of thousands of constituents, so why should anyone expect us to
"serve the nation" if we cannot be allowed to earn at least enough
to keep body and soul together?
In order for them to continue serving the nation-and
keep themselves in dal-roti, as a Congress MP put it-taxpayers will now
bear an additional burden of around Rs 30 crore a year so that MPs can
earn Rs 12,000 a month instead of the paltry Rs 4,000 they earlier subsisted
on. It is the view of this column that even Rs 12,000 a month is too little.
We should urge our MPs to give themselves a minimum salary of at least
Rs 1,00,000 a month but on the condition that they give up all perks and
privileges. No free houses, no free telephone calls or electricity, no
free travel, no free anything any more. This would go a long way towards
changing our "socialist" mindset and improving the abysmal quality
of public life. Let me explain how.
 Anyone
who follows Indian politics would have observed the peculiarly desi phenomenon
of an MP seat being treated as a family estate. When an MP passes on to
that big parliament in the sky or becomes too old or ill to contest, his
seat is usually passed on-like some heirloom-to a member of his immediate
family. No sooner does it become known that a seat is up for grabs than
family members fight each other to capture it. Sons do not hesitate to
give up successful jobs, daughters, without a political thought in their
heads, queue up too as do wives hitherto content with home and hearth.
Why?
Clearly not to earn Rs 4,000 or even Rs 12,000
a month and not many Indians suffer from the delusion that this desperation
to enter electoral politics on the part of people as disparate as businessmen
and bandit queens is to "serve the nation". So why does it happen?
Because the "perks" are so alluring. Some are illegal perks
like accepting payment for asking questions in Parliament and picking
up commissions on introductions and deals, and sadly we can do almost
nothing about these. But we can do something about the legal perks that
come with the job. As part of our socialist culture, we continue to provide
free housing to our MPs. This is not a practice followed in any western
democracy and we should put an instant stop to it, if only because the
real estate freed by chucking MPs out of their homes in Delhi could bring
in much-needed revenues to our bankrupt government. The humblest of MP
flats could fetch a commercial rent of at least Rs 50,000 a month. There
would be other hidden benefits. If MPs had to struggle to find their own
housing in Delhi, they would realise that the ultimate Indian nightmare
lies in trying to find a roof over the head. They would then perhaps understand
that it is largely because of foolish laws like the Urban Land Ceiling
and rent control acts that sufficient real estate-for rich and poor-has
not developed in cities like Delhi and Mumbai.
Also, if MPs were forced to live like ordinary
people instead of in rent-free accommodation in the best parts of town,
they would understand better the daily struggle the average Indian faces
to obtain such basics as electricity and gas connections. Why should MPs
get these things free if they cannot provide them to their constituents?
Once the perks go, we might even start attracting
better people to Parliament. People who brave the heat and dust of the
hustings because of a real desire to do something for the people. Once
the MPs give up their perks in the interests of "serving the nation",
it should be quite easy for them to order bureaucrats to do the same.
In their case, there has already been a hefty pay rise-so hefty that some
state governments went bankrupt-in the form of the Fifth Pay Commission
recommendations. If they want even more money, then let them have it but
please let us put an end to all perks and privileges. We have a right
to demand that our officials and politicians live in the same conditions
as we do.
It could make them understand that "socialism"
of the kind we continue to practise in India is the name of a system that
benefits only our ruling class. We could also then insist that the money
saved by ending the perks and privileges of politicians and bureaucrats
is spent on education and healthcare. That would be real socialism, would
it not?
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