Is it a muffler or a Hermes scarf?

This article was prompted by the recent news article where Arvind Kejriwal and his supporters have stoutly defended his flying first class as it was sponsored by his hosts.

Now all of us know that fortunately or unfortunately AAP seems to be the only party openly displaying funding details to the citizens of our country. However as this consistently leads to a holier-than-thou attitude among their supporters there are a few points to be made here.

1. AAP of all parties seems to be aware of the importance of self-promotion and branding, especially via new media. Today, for good or bad, perception is extremely important, if not everything. When one claims to be an ardent supporter of the common man it is also important to maintain perceptions. Remember Sarojini Naidu's famous statement that it was very expensive to maintain Mahatma Gandhi in poverty?

2. For a person who made a media spectacle by traveling in a crowded local train in Mumbai, this is in a way inexcusable. Even if the sponsors were willing to pay for business class a true espouser could have asked for an economy ticket and then asked the differential to be given as contribution to the party. Here Kejriwal seems to have kept personal comfort ahead of the larger picture. Deja vu? When he decided to quit the Delhi government?

3. Our leadership often comes up with lame excuses to cover up embarrassing disclosures. The claim that the dream is for every middle class Indian to be able to afford business class flying is as lame as the best our leadership have come up with. I am reminded of Swami Vivekananda talking about social reformation. To paraphrase him we should not pull down the upper classes to maintain societal equity, rather we should try to uplift the downtrodden. Kejriwal's justification seems to be a much lamer version of that.

All of this being said, especially today when black money is a hot topic, I truly wish our political class will open their books to outside scrutiny. It is true to an extent that there can be victimization of donors by political opponents. However I am sure most of us believe that more harm is done by not revealing who the donors are. Today we have two foreigners who have come forward to help us tackle the foreign-stashed black money issue. But are we ready to address the domestic black economy? How can we expect cleanliness outside if we do not put our own house in order?

Black Money at the Top?

Everyone must have heard about the arguments happening with respect to including the PM in the ambit of the Lokpal Bill. I recently came across an interesting article. This was in German and seems to be an article from 1991. What it seems to say is that Rajiv Gandhi had CHF 2.5 billion (Swiss Francs) in secret accounts. 

As per the current exchange rates this translates to more than INR 125 billion (12500 crores). Now I do not know if this is true or false. If it is true I wonder how Rajiv Gandhi was came to possess so much money. Rajiv Gandhi was our PM and hence this is about the prestige of the country too. If the report is untrue the Indian National Congress can probably think about filing a defamation case. 

Anyway, politics does not seem to be a bad career option at all!

Tax Havens

India and Switzerland are negotiating a treaty whereby India can gain some access to details of the money deposited by its citizens in Swiss accounts. The question is, does the government have similar treaties in place or at least lined up with other countries also? Cayman Islands, Luxembourg and Lichtenstein are three countries I, a layman, can think of off the top of my head which can be alternatives to Switzerland. Those who stash the money away must surely be more aware than I am.So unless there are treaties with all these nations I cannot understand how the Swiss treaty can be affective. 

Furthermore the treaty has to be approved by Parliament and when this will happen is a big question mark. Opposition parties have not been letting the Parliament function properly and surely there must be many politicians among those who have money abroad illegally. So the more the treaty's ratification is delayed the more time these people will have to look for alternative locations.

Another point of interest is the tax situation in our country. I do not have the exact figures but apparently about 1% or so of our population pays income tax. Somehow this seems unfair especially when we hear about various irregularities in spending the taxpayers' money. Agricultural income is not taxed at all. This can be brought into the tax ambit. Rates can be lowered and simultaneously penalties for evasion should be made very high to deter. In US courts defendants are occasionally slapped with very high damages. I believe the idea is to deter them from repeating the mistake/offence (the success of this is another question altogether). This is the concept I am talking about. The evasion penalties must be so high that people should think twice before planning tax evasion. However as I have said, the rates should also be brought down simultaneously, thus encouraging more people to honestly pay their taxes.

A Few Thoughts on Black Money and The Commonwealth Games

The amount of money that Indians has allegedly stashed away in secret Swiss bank accounts was an important issue during the general elections. Advani had talked about this. Manmohan Singh has promised to bring back this money within hundred days if he was given a chance to form a government again.

For good or bad, the people of this country have brought back the UPA to power. Apart from occasional noises on this issue there does not seem to have been any concrete action on this issue. Does the Prime Minister accept the fact that he has been unable to deliver upon his promise? Was that simply a poll gimmick?

Now the Swiss banks have said that no data exists on Indian black money in Switzerland. In fact the country does not provide country level breakup of holdings in its banks. It has said that the article on which the entire debate was based was actually a fabrication and never was released officially. Is this the danger of trusting today's media blindly? So is there or is there not Indian black money stashed away in Switzerland? Will we ever know?

On a sidenote, probably based on media reports of unpreparedness the Chief of the Commonwealth Games Federation has written a letter asking for an audience with the PM. Mr Suresh Kalmadi is supposed to facilitate this meeting. I myself have seen a few sites for the games where no activity seems to be taking place. An added complication could be the occasional hiccups being faced by the Delhi Metro. This Mr Kalmadi has been in charge of our Olympics Association (and now the Commonwealth Games) for quite some time now. What has this guy been doing? I think it would be nice if we had a kind of performance appraisal for this chap!

Mr Manmohan Singh, get back all the black money immediately and spend it on the Commonwealth Games. We shall see how they will not start on time :P

By the way, the italicization of the word 'allegedly' in the first line is a take on the ToI's habit. This glorified tabloid which calls itself a newspaper has this habit of inserting this word in its articles. Very frankly I find this practice very irritating. This is a tribute to the paper and its editors.