BJP Member of Parliament Varun Gandhi has written to Lok Sabha speaker Sumitra Mahajan requesting her to start a “movement” that urges rich Parliamentarians to give up their salaries for the remaining term of the present lower House, which ends in May next year.
Gandhi referred in his letter to a report of Association for Democratic Reform which claims that almost one-fourth of current Lok Sabha MPs had declared assets of over Rs. 10 crore, and all MPs possessed average assets to the tune of Rs. 14.61 crore.
The Sultanpur MP cited widening income inequality in India as the reason for his demands. He explained that voluntary forgoing of salaries by Parliamentarians will be seen as a “positive message across the nation regarding the level of sensitivity we possess as elected representatives.”
Gandhi argued that MPs are paid remuneration of Rs. 50,000 as basic monthly salary and Rs. 45,000 as constituency allowance, apart from several other perks. The exchequer ends up paying roughly Rs. 2.7 lakh to each MP per month, which is a large amount compared to even lucrative private-sector salaries.
This is not the first time Gandhi has raised the issue of MPs getting paid so much. A few months ago, he had questioned Parliamentarians’ powers to decide their own salaries. Addressing that issue again, Gandhi wrote in his letter that India needs a statutory body to decide on compensation payable to MPs.