SALARY HIKE OF MPs

Two days back,a joint parliamentary committee has recommended  that the monthly salaries of members of parliament be increased,a FIVE times hike to Rs.80,000 from the existing Rs.15,000.This is blatantly outrageous.In fact,a former speaker of the parliament has remarked, "India is the only democracy in the world where MPs decide their own salaries.."

It is a pointer to the naked hypocrisy all the political parties show,both in the ruling government and the opposition,while declaring pre-election manifestos where they promise to take austerity measures themselves to help the fluctuating economy.
Whether our MPs really deserve this salary hike is highly debatable,and the recommendation itself is questionable,as the joint parliamentary committee comprises of parliamentarians only.

This issue should be noted specially as the entire global economy including India's is still to recover fully from the 2008 financial meltdown and the residual effects still show.While recomputing of the economic status was being carried out by the reserve bank and all major banks under its umbrella,the ruling government had declared with a lot of fanfare that politicians would fly in the economic class.The hype eventually got neutralised when a minister twitted about flying cattle-class as a sarcastic remark to a possible question-whether this step would really have any effective & practical consequences.Parliamentarians voted by us should be made legally accountable to us too,specially in financial decisions like this.Effectually they are fixing their own salaries at the cost of our tax-money,without consulting us.Well that hardly sounds democratic!

Rs.15,000 might not seem impressive but the financial benefits our MPs get reach awesome figures.Each MP gets approximately Rs.2 lacs every month,as remunerations,exemptions,and complete discounts on rent,electricity,telephones,petrol and diesel for vehicles,school fees etc.These financial benefits have been drafted by MPs themselves,and one doesn' t feel surprised at all to see that on this issue,all political parties are in amazingly unanimous agreement-a very rare scenario,when other far more important decisions about running the central and state governments are concerned,issues regarding the common man are addressed.

As a counter-measure to marginalize this issue,two points should be followed for a start.1)Salaries of elected politicians should be fixed by an independent body,with responsible,honest and unbiased intent.
2)The salaries should be finalised according to the political performance of MPs,again to be scrutinised by an independent body made of honorable members who can truly identify with the plight and needs of the common man.

In our country millions of black currency are utilised without any scrupules by politicos to build up vote banks,election-campaigns are carried out with lavish shower of rupees on travel,constructing expensive oratory platforms,politicos are felicitated with garlands make 1000-rupee notes running upto a quarter million and election funds are strengthened with rampant,unabashed bribery to mention a few.We ourselves,the tax-paying public,are accountable because of self-centered apathy.It is time to change the direction of the blowing wind.

I,myself,would rather not pay taxes at all while feeding my family and sending my daughter to school.Amongst all the rights of our oft-amended constitution,she has got her own right to education too-I have got to see to that.