Least paid Modi

There has always been an inclination among the commoners to know how much the political bosses who govern them earn. And in doing so, much of the real earning that these bosses take home gets lost in unnecessary gossip for want of accurate details. But that may be a thing of the past because Paycheck India, a research initiative at Indian Institute of Management Ahmedabad, has come up with a list of salaries of influential political leaders around the world. Paycheck India, which is connected to the international WageIndicator Network, informs about jobs, salaries and labour laws. 

Currently, this Paycheck listing is uploaded in its website and is also in circulation in a major news-portal. Many of us many not know that India’s newly elected Prime Minister, Narendra Damodardas Modi counts among the lowest salary earner among other global leaders in this list compiled by Prof. Biju Varkkey of IIM Ahemadabad. Modi may have some of the toughest challenges ahead to attend but when it comes to reward then he may be well below than those who take more and perhaps works less comparatively elsewhere. This is otherwise a bizarre reality that is seen mostly in India where workforces are paid less for more work. According to Paycheck India, the following is the list of political leaders and their monthly and yearly incomes. 

Narendra Modi takes home a monthly salary of Rs. 1.60lakh pm and Rs. 19.20lakh pa. Public Speaker and former Secretary of State, USA, Hillary Rodham Clinton is the highest paid whereas Afghan President, Hamid Karzai is the lowest paid leader in the world. In this list, apart from Modi, Indian president Pranab Mukherjee and his Chinese counterpart Xi Jinping takes single digit salary (in lakhs) whereas the rest of world leaders are earning in double digit (in lakhs). 

Now these are salaries earned by world leaders for the hard work they put in for the betterment of their countries. But what about those political leaders who have plundered wealth beyond known sources and stashed them abroad in some ‘safer’ foreign banks. Check it out. 

What happens if predictions and bomb explodes at the same time? Well there is nothing extra terrestrial about it. Ram Boolchand Jethmalani, an eminent lawyer and senior politician, whose recent article is making a ripple effect across the country, touching even the hills of northeast. The Supreme Court of India lawyer in his column in the prestigious The Sunday Guardian has rightly predicted the victory of Narendra Damodardas Modi and the failure of Arun Jaitely, recently. The lawyer clarified on a lighter side that he still sticks to his profession of law and have no desire to be a soothsayer. 

Jethmalani, who campaigned in this general election for Modi without distinction or discrimination, despite his expulsion from the BJP, chiefly manipulated by the notorious members of what he called the 160 Club, wrote that he had written to Modi much before the elections that Jaitely’s defeat in this election was more or less certain. While hinting that Jaitely is a member of this so called 160 Club, he said, “... his attempts to flood important decision making platforms of Narendra Modi’s government with his associates is not going to do him or the new government much good, except perhaps inviting his own quarantine in the party.” 

Jethmalani further says that the recently constituted SIT (Special Investigation Team) to recover black money stashed abroad in foreign banks is a sustained effort of his for five long years in the Supreme Court, which is known to Modi, to have a SIT, in the independent Sunday newspaper, The Sunday Guardian, edited by renowned journalist MJ Akbar. While claiming that Modi alone was responsible to include the issue of recovering black money in the BJP election manifesto he said that the former Congress led UPA government of Manmohan Singh managed to frustrate the apex court judgment of July 2011 under orders of Sonia Gandhi and her son Rahul Gandhi. Though this was rejected by the Supreme Court but the additional solicitor general moved the court again right on the day of counting on May 16, says Jethmalani, to get the SIT constitution stayed, which P Chidambaram badly wants. Well, many say that the SIT may not be enough to “recover our stolen money” but what it can do certainly is that it can bring out the names in the process. “What emerges crystal clear is the desperation that even as their party was being pulverised at the polls, the infamous looter trio of Sonia, Rahul and Chidambaram were trying their utmost to stall the Supreme Court directions... Incidentally, I have repeatedly stated in public and to the press that Sonia and her family are the chief beneficiaries of the plunder of US $1,500 billion, equivalent to Rs 90 lakh crore,” said Jethmalani in his column. 

While naming senior BJP leader LK Advani, how he avoided Jethmalani when he met him to obtain the necessary signatures, to a letter that will disclose the names of black money holders, which is required from the political opposition as sought by the Germany authorities during his visit there. Jethmalani said that he first met Advani – who did nothing and referred him to another BJP leader on reminding and lastly to Jethmalani’s own son. This proves that the sharks of black money exist across political parties in the country.  

Jethmalani is also delighted by the 2014 election verdict which he compares to a Victory Day in India’s history when the “... nation broke its shackles and attained deliverance from the corrupt, communal and colonial UPA government headed by the Italian branch of the Nehru-Gandhi family, which has bled our country by several thousands of crores during the last decade,” in the column. He said that the UPA could not have been more misguided when they thought that by breeding corruption in each constituent they ensured their continuity, which will confidently fetch them a plunder in the election from the consequent religious divisions and its vote-banks. But Modi fought hatred, denigration and lies thrown at him and emerged victorious as the nation rejoiced.