Plain-speak: Our overstaying MPs

The business of MPs and MLAs hanging on despite not being entitled is sordid. Not only do the worthies overstay without batting an eyelid, but go to the extent of not paying the rent they are supposed to for hanging on. More than 50 former MPs had stayed put. Some of them owed Rs 90 lakhs in rent even if they moved out writes Mahesh Vijapurkar

Social media was abuzz with a picture of David Cameron, in jeans, T-shirt, and sneakers carrying a large carton from a movers’ van, the posters exulting at the ordinariness of a prime minister who just vacated his chair. It was, however, an old picture, of 2007 when he was in the Opposition, but an MP nevertheless. Apparently he had counted on resigning in October after the debacle on the Brexit vote, though he had planned on staying in his own London house now rented out. But election of Theresa May as his successor in double quick time by his party changed it all. She had to be immediately accommodated in the prime minister’s official quarters. That showed a grace to which we are not accustomed to in India. Only in recent times have we 7 Race Course Road as the official residence of the prime minister, though there is no guarantee other Lutyen’s bungalow would not become a PM’s residence. The place where Indira Gandhi stayed has become a museum, and Rajiv Gandhi’s almost a family heirloom. Other prime ministers have operated from different places. Chandrashekhar did not shift to any larger place but was content with is MP’s quarters. Which brings up the point: an MP’s accommodation can meet the needs of the high office, but then a specific address – like 10 Downing Street and the White Office – if permanently the address, makes a lot of sense. A change at the helm means ushering out the incumbent of the morning and ushering in the new person to office, and probably the discretion to fiddle is limited to changing the curtains or the sofa upholstery. And maybe the doormats too, because these can be matters of personal taste than having, as in India, a hostage to PWD’s dowdy taste. Our MPs like the address-related gravitas conferred on them and many refuse to vacate even after their parliamentary tenures are over. The Urban Development Minister’s task is cut out when he has to find, like a realtor, accommodation for newly elected MPs. It is not that many haven’t had time to find alternative housing despite the electoral body blows which sent them packing out of the parliament. This business of hanging on despite not being entitled is sordid, to say the least. Not only do they overstay without batting an eyelid, but go to the extent of not paying the rent they are supposed to for hanging on. As recently as in February, it was reported that more than 50 former MPs had stayed put. Some of them, between then, owed Rs 90 lakhs in rent even if they moved out. When the new Lok Sabha was elected in 2014, many MPs, including ministers, not been returned. When the turn came to leave the official house, as many as 90 former MPs, of whom 22 were former ministers in the UPA wanted time to leave. Over 300 newly elected MPs had to be accommodated in the guest houses of their respective states, and as many as 180 rooms had to be booked in star-rated hotels. Even if owned by the government, they cost; the room may have been rented out to the usual users – businessmen, tourists, fixers, et al. The twist came later. When their entitled accommodation was made available, the MPs who had been put up in the Hotels, like the Ashoka, did not shift. Their reason was that the allotted premises was not to their liking. The ministry then bluntly told them to be ready to pay their bills. But how dare a hotel demand settlement of the bills and possibly risk a privilege motion? So entrenched has this practice become that after a hearing on this, including of course officials clinging to their houses – an official knows his exact retirement date, while an MP lives on the gamble and hope till the results are announced – that the Supreme Court had in 2013 seen the government a victim rather than facilitators of overstay. It is a matter of culture. If someone vacates the moment the entitlement ceased, it is the stuff of headlines.