I’ve long been an avid reader and admirer of Arun Nehru’s columns in the Asian Age / Deccan Chronicle. It is usually a very hard nosed look at India and the political situation of the week. But of late, the gentleman seems to have gone a little wonky.
In his latest article on today’s AA/DC he has gone on record to support the abhorrent raise in the salary and perks of the Member of Parliaments.
The justification he gives is - quote
what would happen if the discussion panels on all our TV networks displayed the monthly salary drawn by the person debating the issue, and if you take the salary levels of the TV anchors none of us will have any hesitation in giving the MPs another hike of 300 per cent!
- unquote.
India of today is infested with Naxalite menace in about 200 districts of the Union. If that is so, then at least 200 Members of the Parliament represent those constituencies (it might be more, since one district doesn’t mean one Parliament constituency).
OTOH, the PM, the intelligentsia and every one seems to agree that the Naxal problem is due to economic non-development, which means the people of those districts are among the poorest of the poor in the nation today.
So, how come one can justify raising one’s salary to the equivalent of anyone of the electronic media, the IT industry or the civil servants (who incidentally must work for more than 30 years before he reaches the Rs. 80,000 mark), when one’s constituency is comprised of poor; whose sons and daughters feel that it is better to take up arms against the state rather than work?
Definitely in the days of Mr. Nehru (probably in the days of Mrs. Indira Gandhi and Mr. Rajiv Gadhi) he would have put it up to a ‘conscience’ vote to the Parliament and made that public – a variant of the Right To Information.
But with the Bureaucratic Bungling PM in seat, it is all hype, no bite. Why could not this administration put the bill to a conscience vote and made it public so that each one of the public would know how their MP voted ?
Something is wrong somewhere, I don’t know exactly where, but at least I can point to Mr. (Arun) Nehru’s article.
In his latest article on today’s AA/DC he has gone on record to support the abhorrent raise in the salary and perks of the Member of Parliaments.
The justification he gives is - quote
what would happen if the discussion panels on all our TV networks displayed the monthly salary drawn by the person debating the issue, and if you take the salary levels of the TV anchors none of us will have any hesitation in giving the MPs another hike of 300 per cent!
- unquote.
India of today is infested with Naxalite menace in about 200 districts of the Union. If that is so, then at least 200 Members of the Parliament represent those constituencies (it might be more, since one district doesn’t mean one Parliament constituency).
OTOH, the PM, the intelligentsia and every one seems to agree that the Naxal problem is due to economic non-development, which means the people of those districts are among the poorest of the poor in the nation today.
So, how come one can justify raising one’s salary to the equivalent of anyone of the electronic media, the IT industry or the civil servants (who incidentally must work for more than 30 years before he reaches the Rs. 80,000 mark), when one’s constituency is comprised of poor; whose sons and daughters feel that it is better to take up arms against the state rather than work?
Definitely in the days of Mr. Nehru (probably in the days of Mrs. Indira Gandhi and Mr. Rajiv Gadhi) he would have put it up to a ‘conscience’ vote to the Parliament and made that public – a variant of the Right To Information.
But with the Bureaucratic Bungling PM in seat, it is all hype, no bite. Why could not this administration put the bill to a conscience vote and made it public so that each one of the public would know how their MP voted ?
Something is wrong somewhere, I don’t know exactly where, but at least I can point to Mr. (Arun) Nehru’s article.
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