http://timesofindia.indiatimes.com/India/Dalit_priest_for_Bihar_temple/articleshow/2159143.cms
On the Spot - Tavleen Singh Maya a trend-setter Tavleen Singh | Thursday, June 28, 2007 11:51:3 IST What is surprising is that she has the courage to declare her assets and this makes her in a weird sort of way more honest than ninety percent of our politicians When I saw the fuss over Mayawati's assets last week it made me laugh. 'Maya grew 400% richer in 3 years' screeched a front page headline in one of our most respected national newspapers and I could not help thinking that it was only because Mayawati is a Dalit leader that she is coming in for such special censure when it comes to corruption. I believe that it is because she is low of caste that my upper caste colleagues in hackdom make such a fuss every time a whiff of corruption emanates from Mayawati. While we speak of caste and casteism may I mention that never in the thirty years I have been a journalist have I met a Dalit reporter. Muslims and other backward castes abound, of Baniyas and Brahmins in the media there is abundance and from the Northeast come hundreds of members of scheduled tribes but search for a Dalit reporter and I am willing to bet that you would not find one in a single national newspaper. This makes me sympathetic to the Dalit cause and the fact that Mayawati has held on to her Dalit vote after twenty years in politics must mean that she is doing something right. But, you would not know it from reading the Indian press. Until she swept the polls in last month's elections in Uttar Pradesh nearly all the publicity she got was negative. Quick bucks When it comes to corruption all our politicians are naked in this hamaam. Any junior reporter on a political beat in Delhi learns quickly that the reason why so many unemployable heirs are knocking around in those sandstone corridors of power is because a career in politics is the fastest way to make money in India. Everyone, let me repeat that, everyone does. Mayawati has been Chief Minister of our largest state more than once before. So if she has moved from some squalid Delhi suburb called Inderpuri to the grandeur of Sardar Patel Marg it really is no big deal. What is surprising is that she has the courage to declare her assets and this makes her in a weird sort of way more honest than ninety percent of our politicians. Maywati has declared that she is worth Rs 52.5 crores. An astounding figure if you consider that Sharad Pawar claims he is only worth Rs 1.3 crores, Sonia Gandhi is really poor at Rs 81 lakhs, Atal Behari Vajpayee even poorer at Rs 59 lakhs and Lalu Prasad a pauper at Rs 23.8 lakhs. Mayawati sets a new trend by being a little more honest than the others. Instead of reviling her we need to find ways to get our other politicians to be more truthful about their assets. For the Finance Ministry this would be an easy-peasy exercise. All it needs to do is investigate the declared assets of our political leaders in the same way in which they investigate ours. If an ordinary Indian is found to be lying about his assets he is liable to have them confiscated. The same rule should apply to our political leaders since it is they who made it. Right? Why does it not apply? Not much investigation is required since everyone standing for election is now obliged to declare their worth to the Election Commission. The Finance Ministry only needs to obtain this list of assets and have its tax inspectors check it out. If a house is found to have been undervalued then it should automatically be taken away. Ditto jewelery and other assets. If the Finance Ministry took the trouble to investigate five major political leaders there would be instant results. Either everyone would start being more truthful or they would retire from public life and hang on to their ill-gotten gains. Nothing better could happen. Abysmal failure On account of 'public service' having become such a lucrative source of making easy money the worst kind of people have come into politics. Criminals, heirs and shysters constitute an unfortunately large section of our legislatures and the sooner we get rid of them the better. If the Finance Ministry looks serious about cleaning up public life a better class of person come into politics. Unless this happens soon we are doomed. Already, because of the failures of our political class we are seeing whole areas of the country slip into the hands of Maoists, Islamists and other dangerous groups. Whole swathes of central India are in the lawless grip of armed extremists and in supposedly progressive Maharashtra we saw a party of Maulvis win the Malegaon municipal election recently. A booming economy must not delude us into forgetting how serious our political problems are or that they exist mainly because of the abysmal failure of our political class. Until we get better people in public life this cannot change. Mayawati is not perfect but at least she represents a serious political idea. They who point fingers at her need to pay more attention to those who have made huge fortunes out of political life without representing more than the interests of their family and friends. As for me I would like to put on record that in the handful of encounters I have had with the lady I have found her to be passionate about her cause. This is more than I can say for 99.9 percent of the other politicians I meet.
