Gautam Gambhir skipped meeting on Delhi pollution because he must support his family

On Friday morning, Member of Parliament from East Delhi, Gautam Gambhir, was spotted eating jalebis in Indore.

At the same time, in the dank Committee Room 2 of the Parliament House Annexe Extension, four MPs were waiting restlessly to start their scheduled meeting on addressing air pollution in Delhi. One of the fellow parliamentarians they were waiting for was jalebi-eating Gambhir.

According to this tweet, the MPs who attended the meeting were Hussain Masoodi (Anantnag, National Conference), CR Patil (Navsari, BJP), Sanjay Singh (Delhi, AAP) and Jagdambika Pal (Domariyaganj, BJP). Pal is chairman of the Urban Development Committee. Reports indicate that the meeting was also supposed to be attended by officials who didn’t show up.

Once this came to light, there was outrage. 

Gambhir responded to the criticism in a statement on Twitter.

TL;DR of his statement: “I have done a lot of work for Delhi in the past 6 months and intend to do more in the next 4.5 years. I have pledged my MP salary to get stuff done in my constituency. I have not entered politics for money but I have a family to support. Aam Aadmi Party has made my commercial engagements into a thing, which is sad. Please judge me by my work, not by the what Kejriwal and his minions are saying about me.”

Now, this is just the most bizarre justification for skipping a meeting where Gambhir gets to question officials across the board about what they have done about the horrifying air pollution in Delhi. That too on an issue he claims to care about deeply. 

Not only has he been consistently tweeting about pollution, but he has also even been asking gambhir questions in Parliament about it.

His question on the issue was listed in Parliament. In it, he asked for details of meetings with stakeholders and government officials.

Put simply, he cared so much about the problem of pollution that he was demanding answers from government officials. And that’s exactly what he was supposed to do at the meeting which he skipped on November 15. 

Quite a lost opportunity there. But then, there was jalebi!

Gambhir’s reasoning, that he has a family to support, also makes no sense. He is Delhi’s richest MP with declared assets worth Rs 147 crore. He has shown an annual income of Rs 12.4 crore in his income tax returns for the year 2017-18. I think it’s safe to say that Rs 1 crore a month is sufficient to feed a family. Delhi is expensive, but not that expensive. I know because I live here.

To top it off, now that he’s an MP, he actually gets paid to attend Parliament and committee meetings. #TrueStory

Our MPs now draw a basic salary of Rs 1,00,000 per month. They also get a constituency allowance of Rs 70,000 and a secretarial allowance of Rs 60,000. All of this to run their MP’s office in Delhi. But that’s not all. Wait till I list out the amenities our MPs get for the privilege of serving the nation.

An MP gets a travel allowance depending on the distance from their usual place of residence to the Parliament House. This includes committee meeting trips since that is also Parliament business. They can travel by air, rail or road, and the expenses will be reimbursed. MPs and their spouses get 34 such journeys which the gormint pays for. Not just that, they get rail journeys free for life once they become MPs. With spouses!

Not kidding.

Members can also get their “computer expenses” reimbursed from Parliament and they get 1,50,000 free calls per year. MPs are entitled to a rent-free flat or bungalow in Central Delhi, close to their place of work. You know, where they are supposed to attend committee meetings and all. And they don’t have to pay for using water up to 4,000 kilolitres and electricity up to 50,000 units per annum.

So yeah, if you become an MP, practically every aspect of your life is paid for by the taxpayer. And you get a nice little home in Central Delhi. After you retire, you even get a pension. Fun!

If you give it some thought, Gambhir’s argument about supporting his family does seem a little outrageous. One would assume that since he is an elected MP, his first duty is to his constituents, especially when it comes to dealing with national emergencies like high levels of air pollution in the national capital.

Unless, of course, Indore jalebi matters more.