Disturbing asset growth

Is electoral politics a lucrative business? It seems that not many increased their assets between 2009 and 2014 as much as the repeated parliamentarians did. The phenomenon indirectly answers many questions, including ‘why many sitting parliamentarians have expressed their interest to contest again in the upcoming general election’.

A recent analysis report developed by the Association for Democratic Reform and the National Election Watch reveals that the average financial assets of 153 re-elected parliamentarians increased by at least 145 per cent between the year 2009 and the year 2014.

The concerned analysts has compared the affidavits submitted by the parliamentarians in the year 2014 with the affidavits presented during the year 2009 to develop the final analysis report.

As per the report, IUML leader E T Mohammed Basheeer, whose asset grew by at least 2,018 per cent, is the one who experienced the highest asset growth during the period. TMC leader Sisir Kumar Adhikari and AIADMK leader P Venugopal are those occupies the second and third position, with 1,700 per cent and 1,281 per cent asset growths respectively.

Interestingly, the analysis also shows that not all fall in the category of those blessed with the assert growth. As per the report, there are some who witnessed a sharp decline in their assets also. The prominent ones among them are CPI (M) leader P Karunakaran (with the decline of 67 per cent), BJP leader Jagdambika Pal (with the drop of 64 per cent), and Congress leader K V Thomas (with the decline of 21 per cent).

Suspiciously, many who witnessed a drop are not in the candidate list this time and many who experienced a growth are in the list.

The possibility of the existence of an unidentified connection between asset growth rate and candidature cannot be ruled out blindly. A study should be done towards that extent for more clarity in the subject. Don’t you feel so?  

Vignesh. S. G

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