The poor often get unfairly tarnished for squatting on public property whereas the worst culprits are entitled politicians

At the memorial of the late great Sushma Swaraj, many mourners noted how the former Foreign Minister had vacated her official accommodation soon after leaving the Government. Her actions are in direct contrast to the shameful and thuggish behaviour of Jat leader Ajit Singh, who tried to hold on to his official quarters even after being trashed at the hustings. He further tried to hire goons to threaten the Government back in 2014. Thankfully, Singh realised that he could not muster any public sympathy for his squatting, which he tried to rationalise calling it a “matter of Jat pride” and left his house in a huff. But others like Adhir Ranjan Choudhury of the Congress, who refused to give up his ministerial quarters after his party’s defeat in 2014, had to be physically evicted. Now in 2019, the Modi Government is taking it upon itself to ensure that Members of Parliament (MPs) do not overstay their welcome in Government housing. It has given errant MPs and former Ministers, several of them members of the BJP, a week to vacate their houses.

Frankly, this move was long overdue and there should be no quarter given. Several MPs have used all sorts of excuses to overstay their welcome. Some have moved the courts to get stay orders but after the Supreme Court ordered a cleanup in 2013, that avenue was closed. However, some high-security individuals, who are in the ‘Z+’ security category, such as LK Advani and Priyanka Gandhi, might be allowed to remain in exclusive housing because they are easier to protect. Government housing is a privilege that parliamentarians enjoy only for their term and this rule has to be enforced. If previous occupants do not leave, how will new MPs and Ministers function? Just because a person wants to retain a fancy New Delhi address, he/she should pay the same market rentals in private colonies that ordinary citizens do. Nobody should have an extremely inflated sense of self like Ajit Singh, a man now reduced to being a political nobody, ignored by the community for whom he said he wanted to keep his house. At the same time, the shortage of housing in central Delhi is also evidence of the need to build new and better housing facilities for Government servants, defence personnel and parliamentarians in the centre of the city. Several older Government colonies and many bungalows built in ‘Lutyens Delhi’ are showing signs of age.  They are in desperate need of repair if not outright reconstruction. Old rules do not apply to housing anymore and old structures must be removed.