Our members of Parliament (MPs) want more. The Union cabinet has approved an increase in their salary from Rs.16,000 to Rs.50,000 per month, a raise that employees anywhere can only dream of. Yet, they are unhappy. Some want their pay packet to go up to Rs.80,001, a rupee more than the highest paid civil servant.
Their demand is out of order. Any employee, in government or the private sector, brings a set of skills to his job. The link between skills and performance determines what they get.
In the case of MPs, this is not clear and the link between political skills and returns to the country at large is opaque at best.
More than that, the demand, even if it is symbolic, that they be paid more than the highest paid civil servant smacks of arrogance. They may still bend the government to their will, but that would be nothing short of abusing their dominant position.
