MUMBAI: In many constituencies in Maharashtra, the word ‘drought’ depends on which side of the political landscape you’re on. Voters in Vidarbha or Solapur, for instance, have lived with deprivation for decades.
The scene changes dramatically for their political masters, who have declared property and assets worth crores in their affidavits before the Election Commission. The Bhandara-Gondia constituency in Vidarbha, for instance, is a dust bowl, plagued by extreme poverty and underdevelopment.
The candidate from here: Union civil aviation minister Praful Patel, who owns assets worth Rs 67.36 crore, bank deposits of Rs 3.2 lakh and bonds, debentures and shares worth Rs 4.61 crore. The book value of his shares is Rs 2.81 crore. He also owns 1.83 kg gold, 24 kg silver and precious stones worth Rs 6.8 lakh.
His wife Varshaben has bank deposits of Rs 3.6 lakh and owns 2.89 kg gold and 59 kg silver, worth Rs 1.33 crore. Their son Prajay has 6.78 kg gold and jewellery worth Rs 1.33 crore. Varshaben owns non-agricultural land worth Rs 2.76 crore in Anand (Gujarat), along with residential premises valued at Rs 27.94 lakh.
Next on the wealth chart from Vidarbha is Congress candidate from Wardha, Datta Meghe, who was once a close associate of NCP chief Sharad Pawar. Mr Meghe has assets worth over Rs 22 crore and owns property worth a little over the amount.
He has a flat in Worli (Mumbai) worth Rs 1.93 crore in his name and another in his wife Shalinitai’s name in the area, valued at Rs 1.01 crore. Mr Meghe also runs a chain of educational institutions—from schools to medical and engineering colleges—in Nagpur and Wardha, and owns a health club and poultry farms. But unlike Mr Patel, Mr Meghe owns a car worth Rs 3.29 lakh. His wife has 2.292 kg gold and 72.16 kg silver, together worth Rs 43.33 lakh.
NCP chief Sharad Pawar is ‘poorer’ than Praful Patel and Dutta Meghe. Mr Pawar has declared movable and immovable assets, shares and bank deposits worth Rs 8.82 crore in his and his wife Pratibha’s name. Mr Pawar has assets worth over Rs 3.92 crore in his name and Rs 3.31 crore in his wife’s name.
About Rs 1.5 crore of assets, is shown as HUF holdings. Mr Pawar has gold (808.4 gm) and silver (15,171 gm) worth over Rs 15.08 lakh. Pratibha owns jewellery worth over Rs 5.99 lakh as part of the Rs 2.69-crore movable assets shown in her name. Jewellery worth over Rs 6.25 lakh is shown as part of the HUF holdings worth over Rs 64 lakh. Mr Pawar has a 2,850 sq ft office property in Pune Camp in his name, valued at Rs 2.10 crore.
Another big gun contesting from the drought-prone Solapur is Union energy minister Sushilkumar Shinde. He has declared assets worth over Rs 8.6 crore in his and his wife Ujwala’s name. The Shindes own immovable property worth Rs 5.25 crore and movable assets of over Rs 3.34 crore.
Mr Shinde has just about Rs 21,000 cash in hand while his wife has Rs 18,000. Together, they have about Rs 3.2 crore deposits in 13 banks spread across Solapur, Mumbai and New Delhi. Unlike Mr Pawar and Praful Patel, Mr Shinde owns a vehicle, even if it just a Fiat, which, according to him, is worth Rs 7,680 and a tractor valued at Rs 2 lakh.
From Economic Times
Devinder Sharma
Sometimes I wonder whether we even realise that the days of the Great Indian democracy are almost over. We are being told day in and day out to come and vote, but vote for whom? The only choice we have is between the stinkingly rich and not-so-rich. I wonder whether we even have time to pause and think, think why and how a poverty-stricken nation where 77 per cent of the population does not spend more than Rs 20 a day, cannot now elect a leader who comes from the masses, who truly represents the masses.
It is no longer the kind of democracy that you and me have lived with all these years. It wasn't perfect, I agree. But still we could elect people who were mass leaders, who worked tirelessly with people. But now, the times have changed. Not only have the configurations changed, the contours too have changed. So have the goal posts. Money is the essential qualification for an aspiring leader. If you have the money, you can think of becoming a leader, a people's representative. If you don't have money, forget it. You are only meant to vote.
Indian democracy has now become a big money game.
I see it as a dress rehearsal for a new emerging corporate democracy, call it Corpocracy. Indian Parliament is fast becoming a rich men's club. This is not only the story of the Lok Sabha, the lower House. The Rajya Sabha, the upper House, is already being corporatised. Corporate heads are getting themselves nominated (and elected) to Rajya Sabha in droves.
We are treading on a dangerous path. The architects of the Indian Constitution had failed to visualise the degeneration, the decline and fall of the electoral system in the years to come. They had failed, and failed miserably to protect Indian democracy from the greedy hawks in the system. I don't blame them, for we all are in reality short-sighted. But we can surely rectify the mistake. If we care for democracy -- a democracy of the people, by the people and for the people -- than we have little choice. We must act fast, and act in a manner that can protect the democractic norms we want to cherish.
All we need to do is to force the political parties to demand that in the candidate's list that is given to us when we go to vote, after all the names of the candidates mentioned in the list, there should be an option that says: none of these. People should have the right to say no if they feel none of the candidates deserve his/her vote.
This is the only way to protect the Great Indian democracy from going the corporate way.
Otherwise, look at how nauseating it can be to see the kind of people seeking representation from the suicide belt of Vidharbha in Maharashtra. The news report I am pasting below is from the pages of The Economic Times (April 6, 2009). And this is not only true for Vidharbha, you see the same trend all over the country. The 2009 general elections marks a watershed in the election scenario. This is the stage when the switch-over to corpocracy is taking place. The next time it will completely be a corporate game. The end of people's democracy is in sight.
Mera bharat mahaan, didn't you hear that?
A leaderless region at the polls
P Sainath
The Congress, which took a battering in Vidarbha in 2004, may fare somewhat better this time
“A curious feature of elections here,” says Dr. Raju Mishra, author of Janadesh, the definitive book on polls in Vidarbha, “is that this is a leaderless region. There is not a single leader whose stature holds region-wide.”
Here, there is no Pawar as in Western Maharashtra, no Rane as in the Konkan. Truly odd, since the State presidents of both the Congress and the BJP are from Vidarbha.
Vidarbha in Maharashtra is well over twice the size of Kerala. Of 11 districts, just six — the cotton belt — are bigger than Punjab. This traditionally pro-Congress region battered the party in the 2004 Lok Sabha polls. The BJP-Sena swept 10 of the then 11 seats in the region (after delimitation, there are 10), riding a wave of farmer anger. And with the BSP cutting into its votes, the Congress could retain only the Nagpur seat.
The region’s eastern districts mostly grow paddy while the western ones mainly cotton and soybean. Issues affecting these crops matter a lot to the over 17 million voters here. The six-cotton growing districts have been hotspots of agrarian distress. An official report in 2006 declared that over two-thirds of nine million people surveyed were in distress. And there have been thousands of farmers’ suicides here in the past few years.
This time round, the Congress faces less hostility and could fare somewhat better than it did in 2004. However, that does not imply an easy ride. All its candidates face a serious threat from those of the Bahujan Samaj Party (BSP), who could cause either the Congress-NCP or the Sena-BJP to lose seats. Meanwhile, the caste arithmetic gets more complex daily and will play a bigger role in this election than in the last one.
The lowering of the hostility level came in 2008. “No government in history has ever given out a Rs. 71,000-crore loan waiver for farmers,” asserts Datta Meghe, Congress candidate from Wardha.
Perhaps more vital was the rise in the MSP for cotton to Rs. 3,000. Many farmers missed out on the loan waiver as they owned more than five acres. But several of them gained from the Rs.20,000 write-off, for those above the cut-off point, bringing some relief, even if temporary.
Mr. Meghe’s own campaign in Wardha just got a boost from Rahul Gandhi’s rally there. The Congress-NCP combine holds all six Assembly seats here. His main rival is sitting MP Suresh Waghmare of the BJP who beat Prabha Rau of the Congress by just over 3000 votes in 2004. And while Mr. Meghe exudes confidence, his main worry could come from the BSP and Congress dissidents. The BSP’s Vipin Kangale, an adivasi, could repeat his party’s 2004 feat when it grabbed over eight per cent of the vote.
In Nagpur, Vilas Muttemwar of the Congress would normally be said to have the edge. He beat his 2004 BJP rival by a nearly one-lakh margin. His main problem: three of four Congress MLAs here, including two ministers, are against him. Also, the BSP’s Manikrao Vaidya and the Ambedkar group’s Yashwant Manohar might cut into the Congress vote, helping the BJP’s Banwarilal Purohit. However, the BSP factor could hit the BJP as well amongst voters of the Teli community.
Union Civil Aviation Minister Praful Patel is in trouble in Bhandara-Gondiya. In 2004, sitting MP and BJP candidate Natthu Shisupal Patle beat him by 3009 votes, with the BSP grabbing 90,000 votes. This time, Mr. Patel faces more than the BJP and BSP. Expelled Congress rebel — and MLA till just days ago — Nana Patole might dent his vote. The post-Khairlanji caste polarisation of OBC versus Buddhist could also trouble Mr. Patel. In Ramtek (Reserved SC), Mukul Wasnik of the Congress faces the Shiv Sena’s Kripal Tumhane, a Hindu Dalit. The BSP, which logged eight per cent in 2004, and another Dalit candidate, could hit the Congress’ non-Hindu Dalit vote. On the other hand, Sena activists are unhappy with Mr. Tumhane, a former Congressman who joined the Sena just months ago.
In Akola, the Congress’ Babasaheb Dhabekar could cut into the vote of the otherwise strong sitting BJP MP and candidate Sanjay Dhotre.
That could bring some gain to Prakash Ambedkar of the Baripa Bahujan Mahasanhga (BBM). In Amravati (Reserved SC), Ghadchiroli-Chimur (ST) and Chandrapur, the Congress-NCP will have a rough ride thanks to the BSP, strong caste-based independents and rebels.
The caste composition of Yavatmal-Washim constituency favours the Congress’ Haribhau Rathod, a Banjara, over Bhavana Gawali (OBC) of the Shiv Sena. However, he will have to address the disquiet of the 1.5 lakh Muslim voters over the Digras riots. And the recent violence in Pusad will also hurt him. In Buldhana, the NCP’s Rajendra Shingne might have the edge in his tough battle with the Sena’s Prataprao Jadhav.
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