Women-effect

During the debate on the Budget, RJD chief Lalu Prasad said the government should seriously consider hiking the salaries and pensions of MPs. The salary, he said, should be raised to Rs 80,000 per month and the pension to Rs 100,000. Since pensions are usually lower than salaries, Prasad’s explanation was that after the Women’s Reservation Bill was passed, many of the sitting MPs would be without a job. When Finance Minister Pranab Mukherjee didn’t seem to be addressing this issue in his reply to the Budget, Prasad sent him a chit asking him to respond to his suggestion. Mukherjee smiled when he read the chit and passed it on to party chief Sonia Gandhi, who was sitting next to him.