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India Is Your MP Underpaid?

Jan 1, 2010
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by Pritish Nandy

I was a MP not very long ago. I loved those six years. Everyone called me sir, not because of my age but because I was a MP. And even though I never travelled anywhere by train during those years, I revelled in the fact that I could have gone anywhere I liked, on any train, first class with a bogey reserved for my family. Whenever I flew, there were always people around to pick up my baggage, not because I was travelling business class but because I was a MP. And yes, whenever I wrote to any Government officer to help someone in need, it was done. No, not because I was a journalist but because I was a MP.

The job had many perquisites, apart from the tax free wage of Rs 4,000. Then the wages were suddenly quadrupled to Rs 16,000, with office expenses of Rs 20,000 and a constituency allowance of Rs 20,000 thrown in. I could borrow interest free money to buy a car, get my petrol paid, make as many free phone calls as I wanted. My home came free. So did the furniture, the electricity, the water, the gardeners, the plants. There were also allowances to wash curtains and sofa covers and a rather funny allowance of Rs 1,000 per day to attend Parliament, which I always thought was a MP's job in the first place! And, O yes, we also got Rs 1 crore a year (now enhanced to Rs 2 crore) to spend on our constituencies. More enterprising MPs enjoyed many more perquisites best left to your imagination. While I was embarrassed being vastly overpaid for the job I was doing, they kept demanding more.

Today, out of 543 MPs in Lok Sabha, 315 are crorepatis. That's 60%. 43 out of the 54 newly elected Rajya Sabha MPs are also millionaires. Their average declared assets are over Rs 25 crore each. That's an awfully wealthy lot of people in whose hands we have vested out destiny. The assets of your average Lok Sabha MP have grown from Rs 1.86 crore in the last house to Rs 5.33 crore. That's 200% more. And, as we all know, not all our MPs are known to always declare all their assets. Much of these exist in a colour not recognised by our tax laws. That's fine, I guess. Being a MP gives you certain immunities, not all of them meant to be discussed in a public forum.

If you think it pays to be in the ruling party, you are dead right: 7 out of 10 MPs from the Congress are crorepatis. The BJP have 5. MPs from some of the smaller parties like SAD, TRS and JD (Secular) are all crorepatis while the NCP, DMK, RLD, BSP, Shiv Sena, National Conference and Samajwadi Party have more crorepatis than the 60% average. Only the CPM and the Trinamool, the two Bengal based parties, don't field crorepatis. The CPM has 1crorepati out of 16 MPs; the Trinamool has 7 out of 19. This shows in the state-wise average. West Bengal and Kerala have few crorepati MPs while Punjab and Delhi have only crorepati MPs and Haryana narrowly misses out on this distinction with one MP, poor guy, who's not a crorepati.

Do MPs become richer in office? Sure they do. Statistics show that the average assets of 304 MPs who contested in 2004 and then re-contested last year grew 300%. And, yes, we're only talking about declared assets here. But then, we can't complain. We are the ones who vote for the rich. Over 33% of those with assets above Rs 5 crore won the last elections while 99.5% of those with assets below Rs 10 lakhs lost! Apart from West Bengal and the North East, every other state voted for crorepati MPs. Haryana grabbed first place with its average MP worth Rs 18 crore. Andhra is not far behind at 16.

But no, this is not enough for our MPs. It's not enough that they are rich, infinitely richer than those who they represent, and every term makes them even richer. It's not enough that they openly perpetuate their families in power. It's not enough that all their vulgar indulgences and more are paid for by you and me through back breaking taxes. It's not enough that the number of days they actually work in Parliament are barely 60 in a year. The rest of the time goes in squabbling and ranting. Now they want a 500% pay hike and perquisites quadrupled. The Government, to buy peace, has already agreed to a 300% raise but that's not good enough for our MPs. They want more, much more.

And no, I'm not even mentioning that 150 MPs elected last year have criminal cases against them, with 73 serious, very serious cases ranging from rape to murder. Do you really think these people deserve to earn 104 times what the average Indian earns?
http://blogs.timesofindia.indiatimes.com/extraordinaryissue/entry/is-your-mp-underpaid
Rajneesh madhok
 
Last edited by a moderator:
May 24, 2008
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If MPs are underpaid then what is the reason for them spending crores of rupees in an Lok Sabha election which is not even going to give them any power . Infact in India a drop of politics is just enough to make your seven generations lead a comfortable life . However increasing salaries is justified from the view that some HONEST MPs may lead comfortably when they are no longer in power because the pensions ( whatever the term ) shall be higher proportionately . This may act as an advantage for MPs to get more clean in their acts . To a corrupt though an amount of 34,000 ( 50,000-16,000 ) may not make much difference makes much more in a single day .
 
Jan 1, 2010
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Dalbirkji,

Unless & until the politics & corruption is not fixed. We can not expect clean administration. Not to go far. We come to municipalities even. The 15% commission to Municipal councilor is in common which is being heard which is cosmetic and unsustainable. Now keep on making addition to the MLAs and MPs. The MP has to clear two crores development projects in a year.
The accounting of political parties should be accurate, auditied and placed before the Election commission. We have seen so many incidents when there is a question of trust vote. The horse trading of MPS and display of note bundles has been shown, which obviously show how low levels our democracy has sunk.
The issue of criminalisation of politics is a burning issue. Why not the laws should be amended in the Representation of People act in such a way that any candidate with criminal background and who had been charge-sheeted or framed in a court of law should not be permitted to contest the election till his name is cleared by the court.
Dalbirkji,
The MPs are underpaid because there greed to make more and more will not come to an end. They used to spend crores because if we calculate their income by the above mentioned pattern they get their expenditure recovered in a year. Secondly the winning candidate usually gets more funds during election campaign than his/ her expenditures in the elections. Yeah you are correct that the drop of politics is due to the corruption. We can say that the increase of salaries is justified but the problem is that the corruption should be checked. The question still remains unsolved. How can we get clean administration. Yeah it is correct that the sum of Rs 34,000 has not having much amount to be considered as the earnings can be calculated as per the above calculation of Muncipal councilors. The MC is the first stage of politics. Keep on calculating the actual beneficiaries share.
Rajneesh Madhok
 

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rajneesh madhok ji

I have just edited your first article to show that it was written by Pritish Nandy and not by you. At first it looked like you were the author. Here is the reason why. You don't want to be the target of criticism directed at you personally which would be misplaced criticism. :)
 
Jan 1, 2010
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Hon'ble Narayanjot Kaurji,
Regards,
Thanks for editing. Though I have provided the Link to the article in my first article. I am thankful to you for preforming the Editing job very carefully.
Thanks & Regards,
Rajneesh Madhok
 

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