From Sonia to Rajnath: India's netas across parties under declare assets

From Sonia Gandhi to Sushma Swaraj, from Mayawati to Rajnath Singh, top leaders of all six national political parties have hugely undervalued their land and immovable assets in sworn affidavits they are required to file before every election they contest. While the Supreme Court-orered declaration of assets and liabilities was supposed to have helped voters form an opinion on possible misuse of power for personal gains, an analysis by The Indian Express has found that while the affidavits are now dutifully filed by thousands of candidates contesting elections across India, there appears to be a tendency to understate their real assets or the real value of their assets. The Express report included an analysis of the declarations of presidents of the Congress, BJP, CPI, CPM, BSP and NCP, their leaders in Parliament, 48 chiefs of state units as well as the chief ministers of the five states where Assembly polls are being held. [caption id=“attachment_126330” align=“alignleft” width=“380”]  Sonia, Sheila are among those mentioned in the report[/caption] According to the report, “If some have hugely undervalued the assets, others do not mention valuation reports. Market values declared are less than even the circle rates of properties. And for some, the value of their assets does not budge even after five years as they declare their worth to be the same from one poll to the next.” Sonia Gandhi, according to the report, declared before the 2004 and 2009 General election that she owned land (3 bighas in Mehrauli and 12 bighas 15 biswa in Sultanpur) which she valued at Rs 2.19 lakh. The EC mandates that current market value be applied. Curiously, a BSP candidate in the 2008 Delhi Assembly poll declared land in the same area (12 bighas 5 biswa) to be worth Rs 18.37 crore. The report lists others whose declarations did not match market value of the land in those areas during that period – Lok Sabha Speaker Meira Kumar’s bungalow in New Friends Colony and Maharani Bagh were declared at Rs 2.4 crore and 4.95 crore, but would have been worth Rs 12 crore and Rs 26 crore respectively. Delhi CM Sheila Dikshit’s Nizamuddin house is pegged at Rs 98.39 lakh in her affidavit but would cost over Rs 5 crore in the market today; Home Minister Sushilkumar Shinde declared a Pali Hill, Mumbai flat to be valued at Rs 1.29 crore but in 2009 it would have cost about Rs 2.5 crore. Sushma Swaraj declared book values for her and her husband’s flat though the rules demand market value to be declared.Mayawati, on the other hand, declared a 42,907-sq ft home in Chanakyapuri to be worth Rs 61.86 crore – realty experts said it would have been valued at Rs 429 crore in 2009. Read the full report here. Incidentally, only on Monday, the Congress trashed reports that said Congress president Sonia Gandhi was the 12th richest leader in the world, ranked higher than even Queen Elizabeth of Britain and Prince Albert II of Monaco, ranked 18 and 13 respectively. International news website Huffington Post had pegged Sonia’s worth at Rs 12,400 crore. No relevant data was provided alongside to explain their ranking which the website said was done based on “available data”. The names of Sonia and the former emir of Qatar Hamid bin Khalifa al-Thani were later removed from the list with the editors stating that the credibility of Sonia’s listing  on a third party was later found doubtful. “Our editors have been unable to verify the amount, removed the link, and regret any confusion,” said an editor’s note along with the list. Around every major election, news reports and analyses of MLAs and MPs’ assets have found leaders’ net worth to have increased dramatically during their term as elected representatives. This recent report about the Madhya Pradesh Assembly elections said the average asset of candidates of major political parties in the state has gone up from Rs 1.07 crore in 2008 to Rs 3.38 crore now, while the number of crorepatis had doubled. The report also pointed out that 21 per cent of candidates had not declared their PAN details and 40 percent had not declared their income tax returns. The most revealing data was this: average assets of 141 sitting MLAs had grown by 242 percent. Conversely, this report in Firstpost  states that politicians’ most common excuse for the astronomical growth in value of assets is appreciation of already owned property. In Delhi where polls will be held soon, sitting MLAs who are recontesting showed a 51 percent increase in assets on a yearly basis.