NDA MPs to forego salary: Ananth Kumar's announcement leaves alliance lawmakers surprised, struggling with maths

Immediately after Parliamentary Affairs Minister Ananth Kumar announced that around 400 NDA MPs wouldn’t be taking salary and allowances for the past 23 days of March-early April salary, which were lost due to disruptions in the second half of the Budget Session of Parliament, there had been intense private conversations among parliamentarians on what this move meant for them. The decision came as a surprise to most of them. One of the common concern, which a BJP MP conveyed to Firstpost that the salary for the month of March had already been credited to their bank accounts and he was not sure what would they be expected to do now – return the salary credited by signing a cheque or write a letter to the Parliament secretariat for its adjustment (consider the current salary as advance and have this part deducted from salary of coming months in one go or in installments).[caption id=“attachment_4405699” align=“alignleft” width=“380”]  Parliament of India. PTI[/caption] Then there was another issue, they couldn’t be expected to come to a conclusion on their own as to how much of money they were expected to return or write for adjustment because, the days specified was 23 March, since the second half of Budget session opened on 5 March. Another MP from the NDA rank said the salary hike for MPs, as announced in the annual Budget was coming into effect from 1 April, so the deductions for few days in April will have to calculated differently than that of March. It was not that the prime minister and other top leaders of the ruling NDA were not aware of these concerns and possible complications of computation that may arise, as also convincing all 400 MPs to toe the official line on this matter. A Union minister who was part of the meeting where this decision was taken told Firstpost that they knew that salary and allowances for month of March has been given to MPs and there were also some technical issues involved and therefore a committee of NDA leaders – Ananth Kumar, Anant Geete (Shiv Sena, Heavy Industries Minister) Ram Vilas Paswan (LJP, Consumer Affairs, Food and Public Distribution Minister) was informally constituted to look into all the issue concerned and sort them out by Friday when budget session officially comes to an end. Though it is commonly being said that the decision of NDA MPs not taking salary was decided at the Cabinet meeting chaired by Modi on Wednesday evening but the fact remains that since this was a political issue, concerning ruling coalition and its MPs it couldn’t have come up in the Cabinet. The minister requesting anonymity said, “We usually sit for some time with the prime minister after a Cabinet meeting is over for an informal discussion over issues which any minister or the prime minister may deem fit to take up. Yesterday after the Cabinet meeting was over and officials had left the room, this issue was taken up for discussion.” The minister didn’t tell who raised the issue first, the prime minister or some other leader but he did say that prime minister was always interested in hearing an argument over such issues and assessing them on merit. The issue was discussed at some length and a decision was arrived at. Since Shiv Sena is often critical of the Modi government and BJP moves, Geete was put on board as were other ministers from allied parties. Firstpost spoke to a number of leaders in the NDA including ministers and got a sense that there was a sound realpolitik strategy behind this move. While in public discourse the BJP and its alliance partners could take a moral high ground claiming that even as the treasury benches was open for discussion on any issue raised by the opposition and smooth functioning of Parliament as so many important bills were pending, they were adhering to a moralistic ’no work no pay’ philosophy. By doing so, in the wake of public perception, the BJP and its alliance partners want to put Congress and other parties in Opposition in poor light, forcing adjournments of Parliament on flimsy grounds yet availing pay and perks. The move also puts Congress and its allied parties under pressure to follow suit. The Congress would act under pressure but the politics around the issue is surely going to be spicy. The smooth functioning of the Parliament is the responsibility of the ruling dispensation and as such questions could be raised what the government did to approach the Opposition and concede its demands to allow the House to function. But in the war of rhetorics, the real issue often gets submerged. The BJP with its high decibel vocal firepower may score a point or two over Congress. The Congress would find it difficult to make a counterpoint on the issue of no work no pay. Some ruling coalition MPs have raised a larger question – the issue of dysfunctional Parliament and increased public perception of its irrelevance. There were many important bills in like the Triple Talaq or Muslim Women (Protection of Rights on Marriage) Bill, Whistle Blowers Protection (Amendment) Bill, National Commission for Backward Classes (Repeal) Bill, Motor Vehicles (Amendment) Bill, Prevention of Corruption (Amendment) Bill and dozen others which Parliament could not take up due to the logjam. By making this unilateral move, the ruling coalition has created a situation where the second half of Budget session is closing on a far bitter note (between ruling party and the opposition) than it had when opened a month ago. Will it have its implications on the Monsoon Session? That’s a tricky question to answer for now.