The
Parliament deliberated and delivered. Today on 5th of June 2019,
after almost half a year since they were elected, the DNT government delivered what
they had promised in the din of slimy pledges, viscous commentaries and not so
logical rebuttals during the election period. While the intention invariably remains
the best, which firstly, no one can judge and certainly no one should use as the
criteria for assessment, not all of the people (the people who offered their
quinquennial rights) seem satisfied. Especially when the financial resources
used for justifying the pay hike for a group which represents a little more
than 5% of the total population comes from the total earnings off of one of the
most awaited hydropower projects in the country, Mangdechhu Hydropower Project.
In what
sense of the word “fair”, does the decision of the government provide a logical
rationale. While the project commissions and starts turning its wheels, after
years of nuisance to the otherwise virgin landscape of historically-rich
Trongsa valley, the locals, from their dusty homes, watch the civil servants
gobble up the wealth created at the heavy expense of their beautiful land. When
the very people whose lands and subsequently whose lives were affected by the
construction of the dam are being ignored as the cake is baked and ready to be
cut, it would be a wild goose chase to imagine the poor rural communities in
rest of the country benefitting from it, let alone talk about it.
And this is
the government who played the pipers tune under the banner of narrowing the
gap. Maybe the gap they talked of was just confined within the civil service
which of course represents a huge 5% of the total population. Yes sarcasm. It’s
not all bad though. This decision does help the whole population in one way -
it helps in explaining as to why Bhutan has a worse wealth disparity index (Gini coefficient) than
India (the country where the richest owns a 27 storied residence and the poor
cling on to the legs of extravagant Bhutanese in Jaigaon).
But the
irony here is, even the civil servants are not satisfied. The parliamentarians
of course took quite a share for themselves by increasing their discretionary
allowance along with driver and fuel allowances. The fact that discretionary
allowance even exists is quite mind baffling. When the money involved is of the
state, why leave any area discreet.
Then they
went holy and decided to redeem the noble teachers from the ever-growing
societal stigma and give a generous teaching allowance. They even went an extra
step to rebrand the allowance under the new name, professional allowance. The
parliamentarians were not done and became holier when they saved the noble
medical professions by granting a hefty 65% “professional” allowance. Lack of
professionalism eh? There you go, problem solved.
And what
about the rest of the civil servants. While the doctors, dentists, teachers and
parliamentarians enjoy a hefty increase in their monthly pay checks, the rest
of the lot receive, with their long faces, a mere Nu. 3000 increment. Where is
the equality? Where is the fairness? Where are the shares for the rest of the
people? Where is the motivational boost for rest of the civil servants? What
are the private employees going to do? As this rather short-sighted decision
materializes and start creeping into our lives, one can only hope that the
shopkeepers and restauranteurs do not shoot up their prices in retaliation.
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