BJP MP Varun Gandhi in Navi Mumbai. (Express Photo by Narendra Vaskar)
Lok Sabha MP Varun Gandhi on Wednesday said that a constitutional body should be appointed to decide the hike in the salaries of the MPs. He also talked about strengthening the Election Commission of India.
Gandhi said that the MPs and MLAs raise their salaries by “raising their hands. There have been four salary increments in last five years”. “I got up in the parliament and said it is a country where 20,000 farmers are killing themselves and we should be thinking about it closely. There should be a constitutional body that is appointed to look at whether we deserve a hike in salary and look at the cost and standard of living. The way to increase our salaries can’t just be to raise our hands. That’s immoral and unfair,” he added.
Gandhi was talking on ‘Preparing for Tomorrow: Innovation, Education reform’ at DY Patil college in Nerul in Navi Mumbai.
He said that the Election Commission needs to be strengthened because it can’t even file cases after the election is over. It doesn’t have any power, he added. He said that he, as an MP for nine years, hasn’t taken home any salary and given it to NGOs or people in need. “I had written to MPs, who have declared their assets more than Rs 25 crores, requesting them to give up their salaries voluntarily. If it happens, it will save the country Rs 500 crore a year. I never heard back from anyone of them,” the MP from Sultanpur added.
Gandhi also spoke about the lack of transparency of information in our country as one of the reasons for corruption.
“A lot of politics today has become about saying the easiest things to win. The political parties manifestos are full of things that can never be done. The problem is that we are always looking for messiahs and not looking for solutions to the problems,” he said.