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Do you know why Lalu Yadav was asking for Rs 80,001 as basic salary for MPs? No, it’s got nothing to do with the salary of cabinet secretary as was being widely reported in the media. You see, if you have nine kids you need that kind of money to run your household. Don’t you? OK, I know that was a poor joke. Nonetheless, I find myself agreeing with Lalu Yadav for reasons which I feel are worth talking about.
“The Safety, Honour and Welfare of your Country come first, always and every time. The Honour, Welfare and Comfort of the Men you command come next. Your Own ease, Comfort and Safety come last, always and every time.”
This is not just a sentimental quote but the ethos on which the army actually works. These are words which define the moral fabric of our army. And these are words which drive our officers to achieve what they do when facing the enemy. Unfortunately, when some senior lot reach the level of being a General and when they have long been detached from actual soldiering on ground do we see such scams. This is the lot which over the long period of thirty odd years of their service have forgotten what they learnt in their academy.
I was so horribly wrong when I wrote this post on Cash for Votes scam in our parliament and the sting operation conducted by CNN IBN Rajdeep Sardesai is for sale!! in Nov 08. Its not just him who is up for sale most of the news channels and newspapers are up for sale too. Rajdeep Sardesai did nothing which is not done by the media houses. And I’m not talking about a stake sale in their respective companies. I’m talking about the news content which they carry. Yes, it has been proved beyond doubt now that indeed they do sell their space for money. As luck would have it there were quite a few elections in 2009. First it was the Lok Sabha polls and then state assembly elections in not one but four states. Not too forget many other sources like numerous movie releases, book launches etc etc. And they are all sources of good unaccountable money for our media houses.
When did you guys last see party MPs cutting across party lines for anything? Let me refresh your memories. It was when they asked for a pay raise for themselves. Well, they have come together again. This time they want Member of Parliament Local Area Development Scheme (MPLADS) allocation to be increased from Rs 2 Crore per year to Rs 10 Crore per year. They say that they can’t achieve anything in this paltry amount. It’s far too less. I agree.
The home ministry says that they will require 200 companies of paramilitary forces for the elections and it will not be possible to provide security for both IPL as well during elections. There is no doubt that elections and security are much more important than IPL but still a conscious decision will have to be taken by both the Home Ministry and IPL so as to ensure the success of both.
How much is enough? Is there no end to greed for money? Why do people who have millions upon millions still cheat people and commit frauds to make even more money? It was Madoff recently in US and now Ramalingam Raju here in India. Although
Well that’s a valid question. Isn’t it? Everyone seems to be worried about the stock market which keeps making new lows every day. And all this while finance minister P Chidambaram and Montek Singh Ahluwalia have been saying that there is nothing to worry and our financials were sound. So what happened?
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