Money Only Matters: MP Babudom's 200% Pay Hike?

The other day the Cabinet approved for a 200% hike in our MPs salaries. While i agree that it's long overdue for our 'money only matters MPs, a 200% hike in my opinion sounds little undeserving considering the social economic landscape of this country. Never forget that the country's 40% or more of the population is under poverty line. Farmers who are the 'producers' are committing suicide unabated in this Rising Asian Giant. Even more the recent price inflation has aggravated the sufferings of the common man.

With this 200% hike, a conservative market value of an Indian MP's pay package comes to around 57 lakhs per annum. Now India's GDP per capita income is $3176 purchase power parity. So therefore the disparity between an average Indian income and an MP's income is over 100 times which fares much better than even some of the developed countries like Japan, Singapore, Italy etc. Not satisfied with this hike, one MP even growled that it's an insult to the parliament.

We would have really appreciated if the Cabinet had in mind the plight of the common Indian before its salary review. For instance, who knows if they had seen Peepli Live before its decision, it might be a different story. While David Cameron in the UK is advocating pay cuts for public sector 'fat cats' [read Babudom] to reduce the fiscal deficits, it's a shame on our MPs who are still not satisfied but complaining even after such an astronomical pay hike. In actual, they are the millionaires who are complaining. What can we expect as a common man from millionaires who are complaining about their salaries?

But Indians are not deaf, dumb and blind. They listen, they see and they will speak out soon. Let's wait for the next election.