The Hindu Business Line : Debar them!

IF you and I delay payment of a hundred rupees billed by the Electricity Board or the Bharat Sanchar Nigam by a few days, our line is cut and we are driven from pillar to post for the next six months trying to get the line restored. But if you are an MP, and owe lakhs of rupees for years to either, you can go on thumbing your nose at them without let or hindrance. This is the lesson staring us in the face when we look at the lists of the defaulting MPs in respect of electricity and telephone arrears recently submitted to the Delhi High Court by the New Delhi Municipal Corporation and the Metropolitan Telephone Nigam. Those lists are bound to horrify every law-abiding citizen of this country and make him hang his head in shame at the utterly reprehensible conduct of some of those presuming to represent them in Parliament.

Judge whether this is an exaggeration from the analysis made by me, which I am now sharing with you: The total amount due from the defaulting MPs is Rs 3,02,33,810. Of this, the amount due for power supply from 15 MPs is Rs 1,29,93,336. The highest figure is of one Mr Ramachandra Veerappa (Rs 65,36,685), followed by Mr A. B. A. Ghani Khan Chowdhury (Rs.30,58,499). Messrs Chandrashekhar and H. D. Deve Gowda, former Prime Ministers, far from setting an example in prompt settlement of accounts, owe Rs 7,10,762 and (the comparatively modest) Rs 76,722, while an amount Rs 65,222 is shown against Mr Pritish Nandy, the TV anchor and columnist. As regards MTNL, 64 MPs numbering 52 from the Lok Sabha and 12 from the Rajya Sabha account for dues of Rs 1,50,37,809 and Rs 22,02,665 respectively making a total of Rs 1,72,40,474.

Here again the name of Mr A. B. A. Ghani Khan Chowdhury leads all the rest with a figure of Rs 41,39,200, while Mr Sibhu Soren (Yes, the same that you are thinking of in connection with another case) comes no doubt a distant second with Rs 10,31,125.

I was surprised to see the name of Mr Nilotpal Basu listed for Rs 2,99,463, since I used to be under the impression that he was one of those who had respect for values and norms in public life.

An interesting tidbit is that out of the 15 defaulters of electricity dues and 64 in respect of phone bills, those from the Southern States are only two and nine respectively. This is as good a quantitative yardstick as any to measure the behaviour pattern of the North and the South!

Why not the Election Commission exercise its ample residuary powers to debar candidates who were ex-MPs and do not attach No-Dues Certificates from NDMC and MTNL with their nominations?