Dear Lalu ji,

I am sad to say that your advisors have got it all wrong. Or should I say you have got it all wrong.

I still cannot believe how an astute and imaginative politician like you could be misled.

Okay, before we get into the detail. First of all do accept my heartiest congratulations on the salary hike from Rs 16,000 to Rs 50,000.

I know you are not happy with the raise. But then who is? Ask me about it. I am waiting for a job that gives me a raise of just 1% every day.

Of course the Indian media has gone to town highlighting that members of parliament like you have got a hike of 300%. That's obviously all wrong.

But to tell you the truth, I never had a great regard for the mathematical skills of the Indian media. They tend to forget their basic math time and time again.

Your salary has gone up by Rs 34,000 (Rs 50,000 - Rs 16,000). Expressed in percentage terms this is an increase of 212.5% (Rs 34,000 expressed as a percentage of Rs 16,000) and not 300% as the media has been harping.

You will definitely agree that 212.5% is nowhere near 300% and that is gross misreporting of facts as they are.

Okay, okay, I realise I am getting too stuck up with the Maths. Pardon me for that. Before you get irritated and try pulling out that piece of hair from your nose again, let me tell you a story that I recently read in a book.

Well, it's not much of a story but some numbers that you might find interesting. But before we get to the numbers let me reproduce a portion of a book that I recently happened to read.

Raghuram Govind Rajan, a professor of finance at the University of Chicago and also an economic advisor to our Prime Minister Manmohan Singh, has this to say in his recent book Fault Lines: "For example, Kenya, a country that survives on international aid and had an annual per capital income of US $463 in 2006, paid its legislators a base compensation of $81,000 a year, tax free, plus a variety of allowances and perks thateffectively doubled their take home pay. In a year of widespread drought, a favored car for legislators was Mercedes-Benz E class, supported by a "basic" monthly car allowance of $4,719. The legislators had the gall to hold up a drought relief bill as they demanded a higher car allowance, citing shoddy condition of the roads in their constituencies as justification. Unsurprisingly, the public's demand that the legislators fix the roads had little effect, but the raise went through. The "public servants' earned significantly more than the most Kenyan corporate executives and more than their counterparts in the developed world."

Now that one paragraph has several things that you can build upon. Kenya had a per capita income of $463 in 2006. Per capita income as you would know by now, having spent so many years as an MLA in Bihar and an MP in the Indian parliament is the average amount of money a citizen of the country makes. So for example if the income of the country is Rs 100 and there are 10 citizens, then the per capita income of that country is Rs 10.

Let's assume that in the last three to four years the per capita income of Kenya has increased to $500. This when converted to Indian rupees is Rs 23,500 ( assuming 1$ = Rs 47).

Now compare this to the per capita income in India. For the year 2009, it was $1031 or Rs 48,457. I will now request you to keep these two per capita numbers in your mind and concentrate for a few more minutes on my basic point.

The Kenyan MP makes $81,000 per year, which in rupee terms amounts to around Rs 38 lakh per year. You in turn even after the salary hike will be making only Rs 6 lakh per year (Rs 50,000 x 12).

The Kenyan MP also gets a car allowance of $4,719 per month or $56,628 per year. In rupee terms that is another Rs 26.6 lakh.Your conveyance allowance on the other hand has been increased to Rs 4 lakh per year.

As Rajan points out their effective take home salary of a Kenyan MP is double their base compensation of $81,000. This would mean a take home salary of $162,000 or around Rs 76 lakh. And that was in 2006.

You daily parliament allowance has been doubled to Rs 2000 a day when the parliament is in session. Assuming the Parliament meets 100 days a year, that would mean an additional Rs 2 lakh. Your monthly constitution allowance (whatever that might mean) has been doubled to Rs 40,000 per month, which would mean Rs 4.8 lakh a year. Also you are allowed to claim office expenses of Rs 4.8 lakh per year.

Now if I add all of this up you make a total of around Rs 22 lakh. But that is still Rs 54 lakh lesser than what a Kenyan MP makes, a country which survives largely on international aid and has a per-capita income almost half that of India (their per capita is around $500 and ours is around $1000 as I have mentioned before).

From what I read in the media I gather that you wanted a salary of Rs 80,001 or Re 1 more than the highest paid bureaucrat.

Now my point is that why compare yourself to the highest paid bureaucrat and not to the lowest paid Kenyan MP. If you do that, you can hope to make Rs 54 lakh more from your current income. And what more it will all be legal money.

Of course you will have to pay 30% tax on that, but then you could move another bill in parliament exempting Indian MPs from paying tax like it is in Kenya.

Oh and you need to be a lot more aggressive on that conveyance allowance. Having lived all my growing up years in Bihar, I can definitely vouch for the fact that roads in Chappra, your constituency, will not be pretty good. So you might just need to use the helicopter once too often.

Also remember you and me are the descendants of the great Aryabhatta, the man who invented the concept of zero. And I need not tell you that more zeros that follow any number then richer you are.

Yours truly,

Vivek Kaul

PS: Looks like our MPs have got an increase of Rs 10,000 per month more. But still they need to cover a long distance as far as salaries in Kenya are concerned.