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The pallor of money
How much wealth do our politicians have tucked away in their coffers? This is a question that is essentially two queries.
How much wealth do our politicians have tucked away in their coffers? This is a question that is essentially two queries: one, where do party assets stop and private wealth begin? And, two, is it really such a big deal that politicians amass wealth that seem to be far in excess of their job profiles? The answer to the first is, at best, cloudy and, at worst, an alibi. For anyone who remembers the Bangaru Laxman et al episode, money goes to the grubby hands of party men always in the name of ‘party funds’. As for the second query — do we really care anymore that politics as a career has become a way of making quick Big Money? — perhaps the nation’s comfort level about corruption can be disturbed a bit by the latest move by the Supreme Court. The apex court has directed Mulayam Singh Yadav and his family members to explain the source of their income and investment over the last five years. Understandably, Mr Yadav has reacted to the court’s directive, perceiving it as the result of a political vendetta. The UP Chief Minister’s counter-statement, “Look at the way Congress leaders have amassed wealth”, points to the real story of political moneybags.
The PIL filed against the Yadav family could well be a political move. It is, after all, assembly poll-year in UP in early 2007 and the Congress’s relations with its nominal ally looks less and less like even a political marriage of convenience. But whatever the reasons for a PIL, that should not bother the nation. What should, is the fact that the sources of income of politicians have been brought under the judicial scanner as they should have been long ago. It is not leaders from the SP or the BJP or the Congress alone that have played along the ‘don’t look under our rug and we won’t look under yours’ line. Barring a very few happy anomalies, politicians have become synonymous with wealth that cannot be explained, assets that seem to hark back to the time of the privy purse.
It is no secret that politics and crime in this country have almost become joint ventures. Which is why there are so many criminals in the political fray and so many politicians who don’t think twice of hobnobbing with criminals — to the point of the former dropping by at the latter’s prison cell. The Supreme Court order is far from even being ‘started’ — the petitioner’s credentials will be examined by the court before any ball starts rolling. But even if we don’t get a quick answer to whether Mr Yadav’s wealth is kosher or not, at least we have been reminded that politicians and their massive wealth may not be as natural and blasé as we have conditioned ourselves to believe.
