Let statutory body decide MPs' salaries: Varun Gandhi

To reinforce people's faith in the system that is seeing widening inequality gap and increasing farmers' protests amid the agrarian crisis, BJP leader Varun Gandhi on Sunday called for a movement by parliamentarians to forego remuneration for the remaining term of the Lok Sabha and create a statutory body to determine salaries and allowance of elected representatives.

Varun's assertion in the form of a letter to the Speaker of the Lok Sabha, Sumitra Mahajan, comes amidst plans of a sizeable section of MPs to again push for a substantial increase in their salary in the Budget session.

On the same page with his cousin Rahul Gandhi, who had spoken about the country's growing economic disparity by citing an Oxfam study during PM Modi's engagement at World Economic Forum in Davos, Varun, too, questioned the rationale of massive increase in salaries, saying public representatives must be seen to be more responsive to the widening economic gap where India's richest 1% hold 60% of the total wealth.

In what could hurt many critics of India's first PM Jawaharlal Nehru in the BJP, Varun wrote how the first cabinet led by Nehru had decided not avail their salaries for three months in 1952, in light of prevailing economic situation in the country.

"..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," the MP wrote.