Nehru’s salary was just Rs 2,500 per month – veteran parliamentarian

India’s first Prime Minister Jawaharlal Nehru drew a monthly salary of just Rs 2,500, according to a veteran parliamentarian from Karnataka.

Speaking at a function organised to felicitate him on his 85th birthday, former Federal Minister M S Gurupadaswamy went on a trip down memory lane and recalled the emoluments of the Prime Minister and the other Federal Ministers in his Cabinet during the early fifties.

While Nehru drew a monthly salary of Rs 2,500 as a Prime Minister, his Cabinet colleagues were entitled to monthly wages of Rs 2,200. The other junior Ministers in Nehru’s Cabinet were being paid just Rs 1,800.

Gurupadaswamy, who had successfully contested the elections to the Lok Sabha in 1952, the first after India attained Independence in 1947, said the only vehicle he used for campaigning was his Fiat car.

Gurupadaswamy even had account of the money he spent to win his first election from the Lok Sabha constituency, which those days spread across four districts of Mysore, Chamarajanagar, Mandya and Kodagu. “I had spent a total of Rs 18,000 those days”, the veteran parliamentarian recalled.

Gurupadaswamy, who has now retired from active politics, had served the erstwhile V P Singh-led Government as the Federal Petroleum Minister during his last days in politics. Though he began his political career with Kisan Mazdoor Praja party, which is now dissolved, Gurupadaswamy later joined the Congress. Eventually, he shifted allegiance to the Janata Dal under V P Singh.