BJP MP Varun Gandhi pitched for a campaign for “rich parliamentarians” to forego their salaries for the remaining term of the Lok Sabha and a new practice to determine salaries and allowance of elected representatives.
Parliamentarians in India currently have the authority to determine their remunerations. They have been demanding a 100% raise in salaries.
“..my request to you Madam Speaker, is to initiate a movement aimed at the economically advantaged MPs, to forego our remuneration for the remainder of this 16th Lok Sabha,” two-time MP Gandhi wrote to Lok Sabha Speaker Sumitra Mahajan.
“Freezing our salaries for the rest of the 16th Lok Sabha would also be seen as a welcome step in this direction.”Gandhi said India’s inequality gap is widening furt her every day and country’s richest 1%, who now hold 60% of its total wealth, held less than 21% in the late 1930s.
