In the weekly parliamentary party meeting, Advani told BJP MPs that they should not speak to the media or utter their opinions in public on the issue of increasing their pay packets.
BJP parliamentary party head LK Advani today asked his MPs from both Houses not to publicly air their views on the proposed hike in their salaries as the practice of legislators themselves taking a call on the issue was unethical.
In the weekly parliamentary party meeting, Advani told BJP MPs that they should not speak to the media or utter their opinions in public on the issue of increasing their pay packets.
"He feels that there should be a body on the lines of the pay commission to decide from time to time the salaries and allowances of MPs. Advani is strongly opposed to MPs themselves deciding how much they should get," a senior BJP MP, preferring anonymity, said.
Most BJP MPs, including the party top brass, are of the view that the present salary of legislators is too low and should be increased but think there should be a mechanism for dealing with the issue.
"The government itself started this exercise when the JPC was formed and the proposal of increasing the salary to Rs 80,000 was taken up. Now, some of their own ministers are opposing it," a senior BJP MP said.
Meanwhile, BJP MP in Rajya Sabha M Venkaiah Naidu batted for establishing a "scientific method" for increasing the salaries of legislators.
"MPs increasing their own salary is not a good convention. MPs are also public servants like bureaucrats and officials. So their salaries and allowances should be decided by a permanent body through a scientific method," Naidu said.
He maintained that a "structure" should be put in place for dealing with the issue of pay and emoluments of MPs from time to time and keeping in view factors like price rise.
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