The Chief Minister has decided that MLAs need another hike as they will be less prone to corruption if they are well paid. The jury is still out on the corruption reduction angle, and we will have to wait and watch. He also said that because politics is a 24X7 job, business entities of the politicians get affected. The facts speak otherwise. It is clear if one studies MLA’s asset declarations before elections it clearly shows that most MLA’s business flourish during their tenure. If the MLA also happens to be a minister, the business fortunes reach stratosphere and crash once the politician is dumped by the public. If MLA’s business does get affected because of their constant service to society, then many who have been MLAs for decades by that argument should not be corepattis.
I believe increasing salaries of MLA’s is required and in the long run can help attract better candidates.
Elected representatives running our State and are akin to the Board of Directors of a Company. Therefore there is no need to pay them less than CEO’s. However, can you see any of our elected representatives being employed in the private sector at senior positions with enviable salary packages? Barring a few, the rest would find it had to make the cut. They neither have the educational qualifications nor required experience for the top post and any large private entity.
This reminds me of an interview I watched on TV while in Singapore many years ago. Lee Kuan Yu, the then Prime Minister of Singapore was being asked questions by college students. A student asked “as an average student of accounts, would he be able to aspire for a political position in the future”. The PM’s reply was simple but loaded and reflected the progress made by Singapore in all spheres. He said to become a politician in Singapore a person had to first reach the top echelons in the Corporate world, he must be acknowledged as the best by his peers. Only then can he make the transition. Once he makes the transition, his salary will be equal to that what he enjoyed in the private sector. Hence, if you are mediocre student, you cannot become a politician in Singapore. Now you know why Singapore is the model every politician wants to copy except their method of choosing politicians in the first place.
Coming back to our dear MLA’s salary increase, to my mind it is a good thing. It is actually a chicken and egg question: Which came first? So do we wait for our MLA to be qualified and show performance before agreeing to a raise or do we believe that by raising their salary we can expect to attract better qualified talent? I believe we cannot change the way people are elected but if the package offered is good it will attract better qualified people into the fray.
Having better qualified people who have a proven track record and who are successful in the fray will possibly add another benefit, they will be less prone to graft. Why less prone to graft, it is assumed that since they would have achieved some recognition among their peers in the private sector they would be exposed to the normal trappings of the positions and so would not hunger for the same when they shift over to the political side. For example, a Mont Blanc pen will not make many corporate head honchos eyes pop or driving a beamer for that matter. It is another matter that many MLA’s display rags to riches stories within months of getting elected which would make the proverbial King Midas seem like a pauper.
No one barring a few like say the late Dhirubhai Ambani will be recognised today as top notch professional without the minimum educational qualification. Therefore there is a need to attract a post graduates with a specialisation either technical or professional viz, Doctors, Lawyers, Engineers, Chartered Accountants. So, the first criteria that would change if the salaries are increased is we would get more and more educationally qualified and experienced people to contest.
Educationally qualified people will not sit around the house and waste time. They will obviously go out and make a mark and further their careers, this will mean their exposure/experience will be more if and when they make it to the assembly. Today, they are talking about making the assembly paperless by giving out handhelds, how many read, how many will be able to understand the technology and understand the matter itself, it will be too much. Matka is surely systematic, and has some operating standards, but it will not prepare you to handle operating systems of handheld or expose you to cutting edge economic theories. Most would have already travelled and would not need to learn about infrastructure abroad using government funds.
A word of caution is necessary here. A few years ago, our ex-Prime Minister would have been one of my examples of the advantage of a professionally qualified political leader, as there is no doubt about his contribution to the Indian economy, he is after all a graduate of the prestigious London School of Economics. However, today I believe he is an example of what can happen if one lets politics take over the professional qualifications.
I do hope with the salary increase, Napoleon Bonaparte’s quip that “in politics stupidity is not a handicap” will be proved wrong. After all we must have faith that a better future is in store for us.
(The author prefers to write rather than chat in a balcao).
