Opinion M/s Reddy Brothers and others

Bangalore’s passage to globalisation and its increasing economic fortune has been underscored by the rising affluence of its politicians. While businessmen-turned-politicians are few,the ranks of politicians-turned-businessmen are swelling. Bangalore’s new-age companies like Infosys and Wipro took decades to grow into billion-dollar enterprises. But politicians of the three major parties,all of which have ruled the state in the last two decades,have multiplied their fortunes in the shortest possible spans of time.

Owing to a Supreme Court ruling in 2002,those contesting an election are required to file a list of their assets. In a sense,it has become easier to track the rise of the declared assets (not benami or salted away offshore) of politicians in India. But there is no mechanism to verify the declarations. If the actual wealth of India’s top politicians is computed accurately,the list of richest Indians could look vastly different.

The infamous Reddy brothers’ benefactors include the former Andhra Pradesh chief minister,Y.S. Rajasekar Reddy,whose son Jaganmohan Reddy’s declared assets were Rs 363 crore,and his wife’s assets an additional Rs 77.5 crore. Solely based on declared assets,Jagan,as he is called,is among India’s richest politicians.

His wealth trajectory looks like this: in 2004,his declared assets were Rs 9.19 lakh; in 2009,after his father became chief minister,his declared assets zoomed to Rs 77 crore,and then to the staggering Rs 363 crore as last declared,a multiplication effect that would shame even Warren Buffett.

Some politicians are born wealthy; others are legitimately rich; but politics has largely become a profitable business today. In Karnataka,that is amply illustrated by the roster of former chief ministers and ministers roaming the courts in corruption cases. Last month,former chief minister B.S. Yeddyurappa first pleaded a “temporary loss of memory” and then checked himself into a hospital for fever,hypertension and diabetes to get a waiver from appearing before the special court of the Karnataka Lokayukta in a case related to alleged irregularities in denotifying government land.

Meanwhile,the Karnataka high court dismissed Yeddyurappa’s anticipatory bail plea in another graft case. That makes the ex-chief minister’s arrest a distinct possibility.

Ironically,Yeddyurappa’s political adversary,former chief minister H.D. Kumaraswamy found himself in a parallel predicament simultaneously,in cases involving a housing society and a mining licence. The Karnataka high court refused to stay the corruption proceedings against Kumaraswamy and his wife,Anitha. Meanwhile,the Lokayukta special court turned down the couple’s anticipatory bail plea in the same case. The couple asked to be exempt from court appearances,citing poor health — Kumaraswamy with diabetes and a heart ailment and his wife with a slipped disc — but have been turned down so far.

Even as Jagan from neighbouring Andhra Pradesh is being investigated on multiple fronts and by various federal government agencies,the chief minister from nearby Tamil Nadu has been ordered by the Supreme Court to appear at a Bangalore trial court in a case pertaining to her disproportionate assets.

Some years ago,when a national magazine that generally lists India’s best colleges,India’s hottest careers and so on,attempted to track the country’s wealthiest politicians,one reader wrote in: “Very interesting article. Going by the financial success of the profession,your next Hot Careers survey should list politics at Number One.”

saritha.rai@expressindia.com