<div>The whole debate over subsidised food in Parliament canteen for the MPs, sparked by BJD MP Baijayant “Jay” Panda’s recent assertion (that “MPs should give up subsidised food”) reeks of hypocrisy.</div><div> </div><div>The moment Panda made the demand, social media was outraged. The refrain was that “Panda was a billionaire industrialist-MP”, and “rather than raising ‘frivolous’ issues, his companies should pay bank dues in time. Some of the bank tweets called him a bank defaulter. Businessworld could not reach him for comments.</div><div> </div><div>Panda may not be the best person to raise the issue, but is the issue of highly subsidised food to our MPs, a frivolous issue? And can the practice be allowed to go on when half of India faces problems like malnourishment?</div><div> </div><div>According to RTI queries, reported recently by New Indian Express, the subsidy on Parliament canteen ran up to a whopping Rs 14 crore in 2013-14.</div><div> </div><div>So, why don’t the MPs discontinue the practice themselves?</div><div> </div><div>Actually, there is a system in place. There’s a Committee on Food Management in Parliament House Complex that routinely deliberates upon such issues. Fifteen members, drawn from both Houses of Parliament, are its members. Their recommendations are then okayed by the Lok Sabha Speaker.</div><div> </div><div>Businessworld spoke to three members of the 15-member committee to understand how and why Parliament should have this practice (in place since 1952) in the first place.</div><div> </div><div>Listen in:</div><div> </div><div>A P Jithender Reddy, the TRS MP from Telangana, is the committee’s chairman. When asked about the rationale of the practice, he told Businessworld: “Please try to understand that more than the 800 MPs, the Parliament food is consumed by 4,000 Class IV employees of Parliament. Why do you want to deprive them of subsidized food?”</div><div> </div><div>There are six canteens on the Parliament premises – two of them exclusively for the MPs. This food is consumed by staffers of Lok Sabha secretariat, Rajya Sabha secretariat, and members of the media.</div><div> </div><div>Pravesh Sahib Singh, a young BJP MP from Delhi, also a member of the food committee member, saw no problems whatsoever with the subsidised food. He told BW|Businessworld: “There’s not much difference between the food products’ market prices and the rates in Parliament House. The rates here are lower because building rental charges, electricity charges and other miscellaneous costs are not included”.</div><div> </div><div>This, however, is far from the truth. Fact is that the subsidised food bills in Parliament at times charge one-tenth of the raw material cost.</div><div> </div><div>Janardan Dwivedi, veteran Congress leader, also a member of the Committee, when reached for comments, said: “I would normally not make a comment on this, but for a perspective, it should be borne in mind that the practice was put in place when MPs used to come with modest means. Also, one should make a list of the institutions where such subsidized food is served. If need be, all such subsidies can be done away with”.</div><div> </div><div>With salary hike the latest war-cry among a large section of our MPs, does it surprise anyone that our much-pampered MPs would not let go of any privilege, no matter how small or inconsequential it is.</div><div> </div><div> </div><div> </div><div> </div>
