With Y S Jagan declaring his assets recently, the national media and many others have been going gung-ho about how he would become the richest politician if he gets elected into parliament.
Well, this will be one of the biggest jokes if such media tidbits are to be believed. This is not to say what they revealed is incorrect, this is to say that titling Jagan as the richest politician in the nation is incorrect. Here are few reasons why it is not so.
For instance, the West Bengal CM Buddhadeb Bhattacharya has been the Chief Minister for 10 years and he claimed his assets to be Rs 5,000.
Another highlight is Chandrababu Naidu who declared that his assets are just Rs 20 crores. Even Congress MP Lagadapati Rajagopal mentioned that his asset value is Rs 100 crores only. Given these statistics, one can clearly say that these politicians are far better and honest than the employees at government offices where bribes rule the roost.
But frankly, is this true? Can someone like Buddhadeb being a CM for ten years make just Rs 5000? Can someone like Chandrababu who had a similar tenure earn only Rs 20 crores? Well, you know the truth better.
However, it is a rather ambiguous situation for the politicians. If they declare their assets, then becomes a joke looking at the figures. If they don’t then they are tagged as tax evaders and black money makers.
So, if one has to be optimistic about this dirty field of politics and revenues then one way Jagan is better than the rest by declaring that he has nearly Rs 500 crores. One thing is sure that he is bound to pay taxes for his earnings. And that makes him much better than the Babus and Bhattacharyas who run into multi thousand crore earnings but show double digit figures. It is rather unfortunate to see a political system like this run by such politicians.
Written By Srikanth
