Blast from the past: Arvind Kejriwal trolled over decade-old tweet after Delhi Assembly clears bill to hike MLAs’ salaries

A 10-year-old tweet of Delhi Chief Minister Arvind Kejriwal from 2012 is going viral as the Delhi Assembly on Monday passed a bill effecting a 66 per cent hike in the salaries and allowances of the legislators in the national capital. As the bill was passed on the floor of the House without much discussion, an old tweet of Kejriwal started doing the rounds.

“No consensus amongst political parties on Lokpal in 44 years. If they have to increase their salaries, there is consensus in 5 mins,” Kejriwal’s tweet dated March 25, 2012, read.

Reacting to Kejriwal’s old tweet, many hit out at the Delhi CM’s “hypocrisy.” Taking to Twitter, Indian Youth Congress’ National President Srinivas BV wrote, “First 5 bills to be tabled in the Delhi assembly are- 1. Salary hike of Ministers, 2. Salary hike of MLAs, 3. Salary hike of Chief Whip in assembly, 4. Salary hike of Speaker and deputy speaker, 5. Salary hike of LOP of Delhi. Arvind Kejriwal predicted exactly the same in 2012.”

Congress MLA from Punjab Pargat Singh tweeted, “Delhi assembly members gave themselves 66% salary hike by a consensus in 5 minutes. However when it comes to issues of people of Delhi, bills keep on moving between the LG and CM. If hypocrisy had a name, it would be @ArvindKejriwal.”

The Delhi legislators draw one of the lowest salaries across India with MLAs from Telangana, Madhya Pradesh and Karnataka drawing more than Rs 2 lakh per month. The Delhi cabinet had given a go-ahead to the proposed hike last year. After the bill gets the assent of the President, the hikes in the MLAs’ salaries will be effective.

After the proposed hike, the salary of Delhi MLAs, including allowances, will increase from Rs 54,000 per month to Rs 90,000 per month. The basic salary will increase from Rs 12,000 per month to Rs 30,000 per month, while the constituency allowance will go up to Rs 25,000.

Five other bills were passed today which included the hike in salaries of ministers, MLAs, chief whip, Speaker and Deputy Speaker, and Leader of Opposition in the Assembly.

After the bill was passed, Sisodia, while hoping that the Centre would eventually give a go-ahead, said, “Now this salary including allowances has been increased to Rs.90,000. This has been discussed many times in the last 7 years. The central government had some objections to this and gave some suggestions. We have accepted the suggestions and passed it. We hope that the central government will pass it.”