Living (it up) on the fringes

The gardens mostly lie in ruins these days because our new breed of humble, peasant politicians have no time for such niceties unless they can convert them, a la Laloo-Rabri, into dairy farms, fish ponds and ugly outhouses. What the peasant politician lacks in aesthetics he makes up for in greed. So Laloo and Rabri might keep their mansion in Patna because of a new Bihari law that entitles chief ministers who have survived more than five years in office to free housing even after they have been kicked out. Go to Lucknow and you will see a street of fine mansions occupied entirely by ex-chief ministers.

In Delhi they have devised other ways to hang on to their palatial bungalows. Politicians who have entered politics because Daddy or Mummy was a ‘‘leader’’ hang on by converting their parents’ home into a memorial or museum. Bureaucrats hang onto their homes after retirement by begging to be allowed to head some cultural body, some commission or some obscure government think tank. It is not the job they covet so much as a house that would allow them to continue living in the style to which they have become accustomed.

The problem for us taxpayers is that this renders useless some of the most expensive real estate in India worth crores of rupees an acre. There are no modern, democratic countries I know of where this kind of fringe benefit is provided to politicians or bureaucrats.

Our lot enjoyed them because of our uniquely Indian feudal socialism where we treated those who ruled us as socialist maharajahs instead of as servants of the people of India. The housing fringe benefit has allowed them to remain cocooned from the real India, in which a home of one’s own is still the ultimate dream for the rich and poor. For the poor our feudal socialist ways have been even more harmful. If cities like Mumbai and Delhi are to ever have the low-cost and middle-level housing they desperately need, our politicians need to experience the travails of finding a home of their own.

We need to get rid of the housing fringe benefit not just because we can no longer afford it but also to rid public life of the wrong people. When fringe benefits in general and the lure of that ultimate fringe benefit—a house in Lutyens’ Delhi—go, there is some chance that men and women who really want to do something for the country enter public life.

It is not going to be easy to get our supposedly humble public servants used to a more humble standard of living. Mention the removal of fringe benefits like housing to one of them and you will instantly be treated to a lecture on how little they are paid and how the free housing and other perks are there to compensate them for their measly ‘‘socialist’’ salaries. Well, when governments start making proper commercial use of their real estate they will have more than enough money to pay ministers, bureaucrats and MPs decent salaries.

If ministers insist that they need government housing for ‘‘security reasons’’ may I suggest that they be moved, at least in Delhi, into bungalows on the President’s Estate which, if I am not mistaken, sprawls over more than 600 acres of prime land in the heart of Delhi and is as secure as secure can be. It would be a good example for our state governments who could consider similar arrangements on the grounds of Raj Bhavans.

While we are about it may I suggest, as I have done before in this column, that the Prime Minister move back into Teen Murti House, which is a fine prime ministerial residence and quite inappropriate as a memorial. Nehruvian memorabilia can be moved into a proper museum. And, since Dr Manmohan Singh is only half a prime minister, his other half, Sonia Gandhi, could be housed in Hyderabad House. A fine home wasted currently on official banquets that could just as easily be held elsewhere.

Well, how about it Mr Finance Minister? As the person who invented the fringe benefit tax can we hope for your sincere cooperation?

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