Recently, an Indian lawmaker from the state of Odisha wrote to the Speaker of the House and requested to discontinue subsidised food served in the Parliament canteen.
This incident attracted a lot of attention from the media, with people demanding that this benefit be promptly discontinued. One of the reasons for this uproar is that a vast majority of people believe that most politicians are rich, corrupt and can surely afford their canteen food.
In my opinion, the lawmaker does not have the right priorities. Even if only one per cent of the 545 lawmakers really need this food, the cost of providing the subsidy is still affordable. The annual average cost is around $2.3 million (Dh8.5 million), which is negligible when compared to the economy they govern, since it’s one of the largest economies in the world, standing at around $2.8 trillion (Dh10.3 trillion) with foreign exchange reserves at around $350 billion (Dh1,285.6 billion).
The more important issue is the manner in which one of the three branches of Parliament is functioning. The job of the legislature is to discuss, debate and make or amend laws for society. However, on average, around 75 per cent of the Parliament’s time is wasted due to disruptions, like canteen spending. In fact, sometimes the Parliament becomes a ‘theatre of the absurd’. The economy, industry and other sections of society wait for laws to make a more efficient nation, but all it sees are these disruptions. The Indian Parliament meets three times annually, for a total of approximately 100 days in a year, and this costs around $100 million (Dh367 million). With each minute lost, it costs the country more than $4,000 (Dh14,692.6). Most of us would not mind that these lawmakers eat at subsidised rates, provided that they do what they are elected to do and what they are paid for.
- The reader is a financial analyst based out of Doha, Qatar.
