Having failed to get the Cabinet nod for the proposed hike in MPs? salaries and allowances, some Cabinet ministers approached Congress president Sonia Gandhi on Tuesday evening to seek her intervention. Commerce minister Anand Sharma and parliamentary affairs minister Pawan Kumar Bansal were learnt to have raised the issue with the Congress president shortly before the meeting of the political affairs committee in Parliament.
Justifying the proposed hike, Sharma was learnt to have argued that the need of the hour was to get more educated and qualified people in politics. He said that salaries and allowances of MPs in India were the lowest in the world as their counterparts even in Africa and South America were getting more, according to sources present at the meeting. Bansal said that an MP has to run three establishments to take care of the family and the electorate in the constituency and in New Delhi. Finance minister Pranab Mukherjee said that an overwhelming majority of MPs were in favour of the hike. Sensing the general mood, party leaders who were opposed to the proposed hike chose to keep quiet.
The pro-hike lobby in the Congress was, however, left confused by Sonia Gandhi?s cryptic remark after they were done with their arguments. ?My mother-in-law as Prime Minister was getting a smaller salary than my pilot husband,? she is said to have quipped. Congress leaders were not sure whether her remarks were meant to invoke the spirit of sacrifice required of public representatives or to express sympathy with MPs who draw a smaller salary than senior bureaucrats.
At the Cabinet meeting on Monday, Information & Broadcasting Minister Ambika Soni had opposed the proposed hike questioning its timing and quantum. She had pointed out that at a time when the government publicly conceded that the aam aadmi was weighed down by prices and there was a drought in several parts of the country and devastation in Leh, the proposed move by elected representatives to give themselves a hefty hike will not go down well with the people, according to sources.
The MPs have to show some sensitivity to the plight of the people, Soni was said to have argued, adding that those in public life already had low credibility. Home Minister P Chidambaram found the quantum of hike in salaries and allowances?to the tune of Rs 74,000 per MP?too high. Environment minister Jairam Ramesh also found the amount of hike ?too much? and its timing ?bad?.
Human resources development minister Kapil Sibal also sided with the pro-hike lobby at the Cabinet meeting. He was said to have argued that even MLAs in some states were getting more than MPs in terms of their salaries and allowances.