For favours expected: MPs have the gifts but who’s paying, really?

’Tis the season to be gloomy as charges of corruption fly high and thick. ‘Invisible hands’ are being blamed for ‘spoiling’ the public procurement and payments system in Karnataka. The ‘40% commission’ electoral plank which propelled the Congress to power in 2023 has returned to haunt it. Even the Chief Minister’s Economic Advisor publicly lamented about the spread of corruption across the State but later denied having ranked it on a country-wide scale.

While outright bribery is the most visible face of corruption in the public sector, the dubious practice of gift-giving rarely attracts attention. Last year, during Deepavali, a Lok Sabha MP from Bihar and member of the Department-related Parliamentary Standing Committee on Railways returned a gold coin and a block of silver which were ‘gifted’ to him. In his whistleblowing letter to the Committee’s Chairman, he alleged that representatives of two central public sector undertakings (CPSUs) controlled by the Railways Ministry visited him in his room in the middle of the night and handed over two bags filled with expensive festival memorabilia.

The MP questioned Indian Railways’ public morality and ethics holding that such acts border on corruption to silence MPs from raising issues of public concern – such as decreasing railway safety, increasing fares, humiliating treatment of passengers, non-payment of minimum wages to railway sanitation workers, and the prioritisation of the high-end Vande Bharat trains over those which transport millions every day. He also criticised the practice of arranging accommodation for MPs in 5-star hotels during their study tours. While the media highlighted this anguish-filled letter, the Chairman’s response is still awaited. It is also not known whether other Committee members followed his example of returning any gifts they might have received.

So, I filed identical RTI applications with four Railway CPSUs, two of which were named in the MP’s letter, seeking a copy of their respective policies about gifting memorabilia to Railways Committee Members and arranging for their accommodation, the year-wise list of gift articles presented to them since January 2020, the list of vendors from whom those items were purchased, copies of tax invoices, and the amount of expenditure incurred on this practice. I also asked about the cost of arranging accommodation for MPs during study tours and the account head under which all such expenditure is booked.

RITES, a Navratna company, refused all this information by invoking, believe it or not, the exemption of parliamentary privilege which protects MPs’ freedom of speech and action in Parliament. RailTel, another Navratna CPSU, replied that it has no policy for giving gifts or arranging accommodation for Committee members and rejected access to all other information saying that they were voluminous in nature. The Rail Land Development Authority gave a common reply to all questions saying, “no Standing Parliamentary Committee on Rajbhasha had visited” them since January 2020!

Rail Vikas Nigam Ltd. (RVNL), also a Navratna company, was a lot more transparent. It provided year-wise expenditure incurred on providing hospitality and mementoes during the visits of the Railways Committee as well as two others, namely Parliament’s Public Accounts Committee and the Committee on PSUs. RVNL had spent more than Rs 17 lakh since August 2021. It also admitted that each of the Railways PSUs shared such expenditure equally. As for tax invoices, it agreed to allow inspection because they are voluminous in nature.

While planning my visit to avail this right of inspection, I asked the Secretariats of the Lok Sabha and the Rajya Sabha for two policy guidelines – one for arranging accommodation for MPs during study tours of parliamentary committees and the other about accepting gifts. Their RTI replies were identical. Both admitted, the earlier practice of the Secretariats footing accommodation bills was given up in 2020 due to account reconciliation complications. The concerned administrative ministries were instructed to bear all such expenditure thereafter. The current guidelines stipulate government-owned accommodation as the preferred mode and that private hotels must be explored only as the last resort. As for gifts, the policy is clear – “No gifts are to be accepted by the members/officers of the Committee/Sub-Committee from the organisation concerned.”

On the one hand, these CPSUs brazenly flout Parliament’s ethically grounded conflict-of-interest policies and on the other, they audaciously treat the expenditure records like sarkari secrets. Gift-giving is a clear case of misuse of public money and adversely impacts the integrity of the parliamentary committee system. As the incumbent conscience-keepers of Parliament, when will the Lok Sabha Speaker or the Rajya Sabha Chairman wake up to end this practice?