Divided by party, ideology and region but J&K MLAs united by one demand: Hike our salaries

The last salary hike for MLAs was in 2016. During last year’s Budget session of the J&K Assembly, members had raised a salary hike demand, following which a House Committee was set up to look into the matter. The committee later recommended that the salary and allowances of legislators should be doubled to a total of around Rs 3 lakh. The recommendations, however, have not yet been implemented.

‘Can a poor man’s child become MLA?’

This week, the issue of the MLAs’ salary came up in the Assembly when, during Zero Hour, BJP’s Balwant Mankotia said, “Whenever the issue of daily-wagers comes up in the House, we talk of non-availability of funds. However, the people outside the House carry a false impression that MLAs have increased their own salary.”

This set off a series of impassioned remarks by legislators from all sides of the House regarding the need for an increase in their salaries.

National Conference MLA Javid Baig said that among the most important issues to be addressed by the House was whether “the child of a poor man or a farmer can ever become a member of the House”, or if the opportunity is only meant for “those people who do not need salary, vehicle or fuel, any allowance, or house rent”.

He expressed concern over the “false campaign” against their salary hike, adding, “Let a law be made that no poor man shall contest the election after mortgaging or selling his land.” Asking people not “make a joke of our salary”, he said, “We are not beggars, but elected representatives. What we get here is not salary, but our earned right and dues, and these should be settled in a dignified manner.”

“We work from morning till late evening and move from one office to another, for whom?… We fight for the issues of journalists, daily wagers and die while moving from one place to another,” the MLA said.

The government spends Rs 20,000-30,000 crore annually on maintaining the bureaucracy, but the “files in their offices will get eaten by ants if those are not moved by the MLAs”, he said as members on both sides of the aisle thumped their desks.

Highlighting the difficulties faced by those in politics, Baig said even becoming a block president was fraught with great difficulty, having spent an entire life working in an organisation. “And before death, if he gets a chance, he becomes a member of this House and that too for one, two or five years, depending on its tenure,” he added.

Pointing out that the Election Commission allows for expenditure of up to Rs 30 lakh to contest elections, he asked where candidates were supposed to get this money from. “Whom will he approach to get Rs 30 lakh and then contest the election to become a member of this House and serve the people… The issue is of one who has mortgaged or sold one’s land, or has taken loans, whose 80% of the salary goes in paying loan instalments,” he said.

‘Earned more as non-MLA’

Agreeing with the National Conference member, BJP’s R S Pathania said that the term “salary and allowances” used in the context of MLAs was “defective” as they are not the “salaried servants accountable to the government”, but are elected representatives accountable to the people.

“I used to earn more as a non-MLA,” said Pathania, who had been a practising lawyer. “As an MLA, my income and the (Income Tax) return had gone down, but I have the satisfaction of contributing to society,” he said, adding, “This (an MLA’s seat) is not a profit-making chair and the MLA sits on a maximum-pressure button.”

He suggested the House follow a model adopted by Parliament for automatic enhancement of legislators’ salaries, so as to avoid controversy whenever members vote to increase their own salaries. Pathania expressed concern over the delay in the increase of the salary, saying that recommendations of the House Committee set up for the purpose should be accepted in toto.

Congress’s Nizamuddin Bhat said that while serving as Chairman of the Privilege Committee for a year, he felt pained hearing about the kind of “humiliation” members of the House face while serving the people.

“Whether our work is done or not, or our recommendation is accepted or not — whether we are heard or not — why a legislator in Jammu and Kashmir being dealt with in such a manner that he has to stand here (in the Assembly) and cry for his respect and honour?” Bhat asked.

“Did I not sell my house…, my orchard? Did I not become a beggar while contesting the elections?” the Congress MLA asked.

Referring to MLAs who served as IAS officers, and district or High Court judges prior to their becoming members of the House, he said, “We have not come here to make a joke of ourselves, or face humiliation.”

Sajjad Lone of the People’s Conference said the issue is not a matter of the salary of legislators, but of the authority of the House. “It is not about perks and salary, but the institution,” he added.

Narinder Singh, another BJP MLA, said he and Prof Gharu Ram Bhagat, another party colleague in the House, used to get a salary of Rs 4 lakh as university professors. Expressing sadness that there is always criticism whenever the issue of MLAs’ salary hike comes up, he suggested an institutional framework for automatic increase in their salary as per already fixed norms after a particular time period.