Author: Kiran Kumar
Publication: Niticentral.com
Date: September 10, 2012
URL: http://www.niticentral.com/2012/09/wheres-rahul-parliament-does-not-know.html

What is the parliamentary performance of Rahul Gandhi, scion of the Nehru-Gandhi Dynasty, MP who represents Amethi in the Lok Sabha, and general secretary of the Congress? We dealt with the details of this aspect of his taxpayer-funded job on Sunday – Let’s appraise Rahul Gandhi’s performance.  But there’s a lot more left to be said about his attitude towards his job. Here’s the second part of the assessment that you, the taxpayer, should be doing.

Rahul Gandhi’s vacation notifications

If you take time off from your current job, isn’t it reasonable to expect your HR Department, Administration or manager to be informed of your time off? Isn’t this even more important when you go abroad for longer durations? Guess what? Rahul Gandhi has not informed the Lok Sabha, his place of work, about any of his foreign trips since June 2004. You can research how many foreign trips went on during these eight years. Read more here.

“It’s common courtesy for MPs to inform the (Lok Sabha) secretariat about trips abroad, even if they are of a personal nature. But since June 2004, the month UPA came to power, the Congress president and her son have not bothered to inform the secretariat about any of their foreign trips.”

This information was as of July 30, 2011. Aam admi like you and I would be lucky to even hold on to our job if we were to show such disregard to our workplace once and here is the ‘Prime Minister-in-waiting’ who has shown such blatant disregard to his workplace ever since he got the job!

Rahul’s MPLAD Funds Utilisation

You can refer to this site for details of how MPs of Uttar Pradesh have utilised their allocated Member of Parliament Local Area Development Scheme (MPLAD) funds. http://www.mplads.gov.in/15lshtml/lsstat24.htm

It’s imperative that people who have voted an MP would be expecting maximum usage of the allocated funds for the development of their constituency. The MP is expected to make an attempt to get maximum funds allotted and utilise the same. Amethi’s people would peg higher hopes on Rahul Gandhi, considering he is the fifth member of the all-powerful Nehru-Gandhi Dynasty to represent them in Parliament.

But facts show his ‘efficiency’ very differently. Of the eligible Rs 14 crore for his constituency, he has managed to get only Rs 6.56 crore released during the current Lok Sabha term. Compare this with PL Punia getting Rs11.56 crore sanctioned for Barabanki constituency. To make it worse, Rahul has only managed to use 35.35 per cent of the amount released. What a tragedy for the people of Amethi whose MP got only half of the eligible funds released, and spent only a third of that money for the development of his constituency.

Development index of Amethi, the constituency Rahul Gandhi represents

We have seen Rahul’s ‘performance’ in Parliament. We have seen his ‘regard’ for his workplace. Then the funds he has failed to use for the development of his impoverished constituency. Here is the last angle that an appraiser, which is you, must closely look at.

How backward and poor is Amethi after five Nehru-Gandhi dynasty MPs representing this constituency till date? He got some lessons from the CPI(M) in West Bengal in September 2010.The CPI(M) compared one of the poorest places in West Bengal, Purulia, with Sonia Gandhi’s Rae Bareli and Rahul Gandhi’s Amethi together. Instead of doing fresh research, let’s use the readily available numbers.

1. People below poverty line: Purulia 31%; Rae Bareli-Amethi 54%

2. Families with electricity: Purulia 29%; Rae Bareli-Amethi 14%

3. Per capita expenditure: Purulia Rs 461; Rae Bareli-Amethi Rs 385

4. Vaccinated children: Purulia 84%; Rae Bareli-Amethi 16%

5. Neo-natal deaths: Purulia 46 per 1,000; Rae Bareli-Amethi 83

6. Fatality below five years: Purulia 89 per 1,000; Rae Bareli-Amethi 160

In every area that is necessary for good human development index, Rahul Gandhi and the dynasty have failed pathetically in Uttar Pradesh’s ‘safest’ bastions. Of course, the Congress would contest the data, but we have not seen them presenting the real BPL count, neo-natal death count or per-capita expenditure details to counter the CPI(M)’s statistical allegations. If you are a serious researcher, just start with Amethi’s literacy rate and compare it with the national average to get a clear picture of the efficiency of Rahul Gandhi, and the MPs from the dynasty he represents.

Rating time

Now we will let you give Rahul Gandhi a final rating. That is, hypothetically if you were Rahul’s direct manager at his workplace, what kind of rating would you give him out of the best possible 10 after going through his appraisal data presented above? More importantly, would you even dare to ‘promote’ him to a higher responsibility role?