Aam Aadmi Party chief Arvind Kejriwal has put his money where his mouth is, refusing security cover and an official bungalow as Delhi's Chief Minister designate, setting a commendable precedent for aspiring politicians. Kejriwal has emulated Chief Ministers Mamata Banerjee, Manik Sarkar and Manohar Parrikar - politicians who chose a life of simplicity to make a point about clean governance.
Kejriwal is all set to take over as the Chief Minister of Delhi and is likely to take oath on December 26 at Ramlila Maidan, the nerve centre of the Anna Hazare-led anti-corruption agitation in 2011.
"Thank you for offering me the security. But as I already informed earlier, I don't need any security. I don't need any escort or PSO. God is my biggest security. However I would be grateful if some help is provided for crowd management at a few places where I get mobbed," Kejriwal wrote in his letter to the Additional Commissioner of Police.
Not every politician in India lives in opulence, as Goa Chief Minister Manohar Parrikar has shown. According to media reports, Parrikar goes about the state without his entourage. He was recently spotted in a picture widely circulated on the internet taking a lift from a person riding a scooter. The CM was riding pillion.
The India Today reported in a feature on Parrikar, he travels in a Tata Innova given to him when he was the leader of the Opposition. The approachable CM is available to the general public through an official email ID which he accesses daily.
Parrikar isn't the only one. Former West Bengal Chief Minister Buddhadeb Bhattacharjee resides in a rented government flat. In an affidavit submitted to the Election Commission, Bhattacharjee had declared that he neither owned a house nor a vehicle and had only Rs 5,000 cash in hand.
His successor, Trinamool Party chief Mamata Banerjee, also has a fairly simple lifestyle. The diminutive Banerjee has lived all her life at 30 B, Harish Chatterjee Street near Kalighat, wears plain cotton saris, almost always with a green or blue border and rubber slippers.
Visitors to her house would be offered puffed rice and tea. Tehelka interestingly quoted some of her supporters who still remember the day when then Prime Minister Atal Behari Vajpayee visited her home. "She allowed the Kolkata municipal corporation workers to apply just one coat of paint - her big concession to the mandatory spruce-up that normally precedes a prime ministerial visit. But she cooked the meal herself."
In another instance, the portal said in the feature on Banerjee, on arriving from Delhi, she actually began walking barefoot on the tarmac of Kolkata's Dum Dum airport because the strap of her slippers had snapped.
Tripura Chief Minister Manik Sarkar is dubbed as 'the cleanest and poorest' chief minister in the country with personal property, movable and immovable, valued at less than Rs 2.5 lakh.
The Press Trust of India reported, quoting an affidavit submitted by the 64-year-old Sarkar during filing of nomination in Dhanpur constituency, he had Rs 1080 cash in hand and his bank balance stood at Rs 9720. Sarkar donates his full salary and subsidiary allowances to the party and instead the party pays him Rs 5000 as subsistence allowances.
According to official sources, the Chief Minister's monthly salary is Rs 9,200 which, perhaps is the lowest in the country. ####
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