In the year 1955, the parliamentarians of Lok Sabha and Rajya Sabha came to a bizarre unanimous agreement to increase their salary by RS.1. Suddenly, why did they take such a hilarious decision? The reason is that the salary of the Member of Parliament (MP) at that time was Rs. 420. In India, the term ‘420’ is used to refer to dishonest and dubious characters, and confidence tricksters. Its origin lies in the Section 420 of the Indian Penal Code (IPC) that covers offences relating to cheating and dishonestly inducing delivery of property that leads to severe punishments and jail terms of 7 years. The title of two very popular Hindi films – Chachi 420 and Shri 420- are the direct references to Section 420 of IPC.

This was the same year that the Hindu Marriage act was enacted, the Imperial Bank of India was transformed into The State Bank of India, USS Nautilus, the first nuclear-powered submarine was put into the sea for the first time from Groton, Central Treaty organization, Southeast Asian Treaty Organization (SEATO) and Warsaw Pact were formed, Winston Churchill resigned as the Prime Minister of Britain, Asian-African conference was held at Bandung in Indonesia, Austrian State Treaty was concluded, The Pentagon announced to develop Intercontinental Ballistic Missiles (ICBMs) armed with nuclear weapons, the first Sudanese Civil War began, Pather Panchali and Devdas were setting milestones and Vietnam war began. Dear Venerable Indian MP’s of 1955, It is clearly evident that you all had nothing to do in such an ‘uneventful’ year. Certainly, you are not to be blamed.

Yours sincerely,

A responsible citizen

Dipayan Pal, Coordinator, Class XII, Don Bosco School, Bandel