What do you call a politician who promptly declares her income and files tax ? Normally you would claim that such a politician is very honest and a credit to society, very different from other politicians. And what happens when you find out that the politician has no income source to justify such huge incomes (over Rs. 50 crores), and the only source is that ‘this is a donation from the loving masses’. It is notable that these are the loving masses who are mostly poor, who could not care less about donating to improve society, but who donate for increasing the wealth of a politician. And when the Tax tribunal takes up the case, it actually says that the love and respect for the politician is great, it believes her and stops the case.
Well, this is India. Where a normal salaried individual has to worry about sources of income, about how to conceal some amount of money made from under the table or from the buying or selling of stocks and property, and a politician is able to brazenly claim massive amounts as donations and legalize them. And the Central Government (a proper shame they, the way that they condone all illegal activities) looks the other way and does not even think about the kind of example and precedent that they are letting set. No wonder the Congress is sinking lower and lower in terms of middle class approval. Read this article in the Times of India, and you will find out more:
The Congress just does not learn. With Mayawati starting to show her true colors, with a transparent land grab that had to be stayed by the court, the Congress is on her side. They need to have as many people as possible on their side for the Presidential poll, and hence this tactic of supporting her. But it seems like doing political suicide. Mayawati seeks the support of Dalits, Muslims, and Brahmins; this was the original voting base of the Congress in Uttar Pradesh and other states. Hence for the Congress to support Mayawati means that they have cut off their own voting base and any hopes of revival in UP. In addition, the BSP is liable to take this same vote bank to other states such as Delhi, Madhya Pradesh, Bihar, Haryana, and so on, eating away at the Congress vote base everywhere.
Lust for patronage threatens Congress’s revival in UP, with its leaders bending over backwards to appease BSP supremo Mayawati, even as it appeared that the Dalit czarina was milking Sonia Gandhi’s dependence on her. When Congress could have easily watched Mayawati’s tightrope walk from a corner, the voluntary help extended by UPOA has alerted the central leadership, which, however, wants to keep mum till presidential polls.
Congress failed to emerge as a serious rival to SP despite its untiring efforts. BJP also came a cropper for the same reason, leaving the field open to a highly motivated Mayawati to stamp herself as the sole challenger. Congress insiders attributed the party’s failure to pull itself back on the rails in UP, despite Rahul Gandhi leading the charge, on its state leadership’s failure to project itself as an opposition party.