Dissident BJP MP Varun Gandhi, in a letter to Lok Sabha Speaker Sumitra Mahajan last week, has urged MPs to begin a “movement” to forego their salaries for the remainder of the present Lok Sabha’s term to show their sensitivity to the fact of rising inequalities across the country. In all likelihood, he may find his letter headed for the dustbin. The reason is evident: the MP isn’t in the good books of his party’s leadership and he has raised valid but uncomfortable issues earlier on the functioning of the Narendra Modi government.
This time too, his letter gives the impression — quite rightly, of course — that inequalities have grown under the Modi government as well. The “movement” that this scion of the other branch of the Nehru-Gandhi family speaks of has little hope of gaining any traction. In the past, except the Communist and Left parties, all other MPs have been vociferous about increasing their own salaries and perks. Therefore, it’s not unlikely that this Mr Gandhi (as distinct from Congress president Rahul Gandhi) has brought up his demand in order to gain wider recognition for himself as a serious and caring politician.
The BJP, which has sidelined him, will naturally not like this, not least as he approvingly refers to his great-grandfather Jawaharlal Nehru, our first PM, getting the country’s very first Cabinet meeting to decide that ministers would forego salaries for three months due to the economic crisis. Mr Gandhi has noted that each MP costs the exchequer Rs 2.7 lakhs per month. They aren’t poor. They shouldn’t be greedy.
