MPs pass the Budget, and control the reigns of the nation’s economy. However, they are expected to know that large sections of the population still do not get two square meals a day. The government’s economic challenges are many. The Prime Minister has urged citizens to give up the LPG cooking gas subsidy if they can afford to. The government also cannot implement OROP for the army, but our MPs, who claim to have a daily connect with the people, act as if they are living in ivory towers. The most troublesome fact is that MPs decide their own salaries. The established principle is ‘Nemo debet esse judex in propria causa’, meaning ‘one cannot be a judge in his own case’. But this principle seems to have been neglected while determining the salaries and allowances of MPs.
Some MPs have said their salaries shouls be on par with MPs of Commonwealth Nations, since India is a member of the Commonwealth. But will these MPs care to tell us whether socio-economic conditions of India’s population are on par with those living in Australia or Canada?
MPs are meant to represent the masses. The PM calls himself a ‘Pradhan Sevak’. Unfortunately, VVIP bias exists. While the ‘sahibs’ were given precedence over the common man during the days of the British Raj, independence has installed legislature-members in place of these ‘sahibs’.
