Achhe Din - AAP ki Meherbaani

Achhe Din  - AAP ki Meherbaani

It is true that the whole country is still waiting for achhe din. Now, you can either passively wait for the achhe din to arrive or do something which will force achhe din to visit your quarters. The aam aadmi may or may not be in a position to bring home achhe din for himself but Aam Aadmi Party (AAP) leadership is surely full of capable guys who can do something about it if they make up their mind. And made up their mind they have. The Delhi State MLAs have unanimously decided that “enough is not enough” and have taken the matters into their hand.

Now AAP leaders are humans like you and me and they feel like all of us that their salaries and perks need a revision (upward, obviously).  Well, honestly nothing wrong with that. Show me anyone who doesn’t feel that he / she is (grossly) underpaid, right from the Class IV employees to the Cabinet Secretary to the Government of India in the babu-land and from trainees on shop-floor to the (professional) Managing Directors in private sector. But not all of us are lucky enough to get our way. Even the mighty Cabinet Secretary has to wait for Pay Commission to recommend revision of pay, something which happens once in 10 long years. He may make his suggestions regarding the revisions that he would like to see, but finally he has to accept whatever decisions are taken.

But all this is for billions of mere mortals like you and me, the Chosen Ones (and who chooses them, mere mortals like you and me) choose to tread a different path. No Pay Commissions for them and no ungainly haggling over rate of inflation and Dearness Allowance for them. Just appoint some “independent committee” headed by a retired bureaucrat who knows which side of the slice of baked dough has a thick layer of golden yellow fat applied to it and who is only too happy to echo His Masters’ Voice.   

MLAs of Delhi Assembly have by an overwhelming majority decided to rectify their penurious status and given themselves a raise which shall hopefully pull them above the poverty line. The MLAs will henceforth get Rs 2.35 lakh per month instead of paltry Rs 88,000 they were getting earlier and thereby maybe just keep the wolf off their doorsteps. Phew. Thank God.

AAP which enjoys a strength of 67 in a house of 70 was expecting that the bill ratifying the proposed amendments to their pay-packets would sail through without any opposition. But the spoilsport BJP MLAs (numbering two) tried to oppose the bill and had to be shouted down. Looks BJP guys themselves don’t believe that achhe din aanewaale hai.  

My friend, Guy Wise, says all this gives a different twist to the classic Lakhnawi tale of two nawabs missing their train in their time-honored protocol, “Pehle aap” ,”Pehle aap” . Here we have a bunch of modern-day nawabs clamouring “Pehle AAP”, “Pehle AAP” as they all jump on the gravy train.

LazyBee

4th December 2015.