Towards asset tracking!

 

 

April 6, 2009: Sonia Gandhi along with her nomination also filed the details of her assets, which was more than a crore. However, it was neither the nomination filing nor her properties that made the headlines in the leading dailies, but strangely it was all about the ‘car’. Almost all news channels prominently highlighted that the UPA chairperson did not possess a car!! Since last few years, the whole process of asset-declaration by politicians has become more of a publicity grabbing forum. Politicians try to grab headlines either by declaring huge assets or by declaring unbelievably low assets. It is beyond any apprehension that the system of asset declaration was introduced in order to prevent and reduce the use of money power in elections. But then this process fails to address the fundamental reason for its existence. Even after declaring assets, many politicians and their ilk use money to influence their voters.

There is no relation between having huge properties and misusing them for election purposes. At times the assets declared by them become a laughing stock as it's a known fact as to how easy it is stash unaccounted money in swiss banks or under false names within the country. Recently a celebrity politician was found distributing cash on March 12, 2009 while son of another Chief Minister was shown distributing money to voters. To some extent, Election Commission is able to curb the existence of bahubalis but has not been able to curb the power of money. In another incident, during a Karnataka assembly election around Rs 50 crore was seized. The story does not end with money only, but goes beyond traditional methods. During elections, parties heavily indulge in distribution of alcohol too.

The problem is that the whole process closes down after asset-declaration. But it should have been the other way round. Does the data declared assets get verified? In last 4-5 years, many legislators have experienced a five-fold increase in their wealth. And around 50 MPs from Uttar Pradesh does not even have a PAN card! The independent research bodies and the EC have been primarily focussing on individual candidates but no attention is given to political parties. Never have been the accounts of political parties, on a whole, been audited. Given the current scenario, it is important to shift our focus from asset-declarations to asset-usages and then the same should be even applicable to the kin and ilk of the leaders. It would be much more fruitful if political parties are treated like corporate bodies wherein instead of scrutinising the assets of leaders, assets and its usages of the parties are verified. That would make more sense.