India’s bling kings
The statements that candidates have filed reveal that the average Indian politician prefers to hold his wealth in land, apartments and gold
There was much merriment among connoisseurs of Indian pop culture when the erstwhile disco king Bappi Lahiri revealed in an affidavit that he owned just 754gm of gold jewellery. The Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) candidate has been as much known for his love for bling as he has for his kitschy songs.
The financial statements that candidates have filed with the Election Commission reveal that the average Indian politician prefers to hold his wealth in land, apartments and gold rather than in financial assets.
The Indian citizen is often exposed to pious lectures from our economic administrators about how our preference for physical rather than financial savings is bad for the economy. It is in this context that the way Indian politicians hold wealth is interesting.
It is highly likely that most politicians understate their wealth in affidavits. But the distribution between physical and financial savings could be same when we take both offshore bank accounts and benami land holdings into account.
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