Nehruvians, bolshies and jholawalas, who for the past 70 years have been foolishly trying to transform India which has a 5,000-year tradition of free enterprise into a socialist country, routinely trash the American electorate for electing millionaires to the White House, e.g, its current incumbent. But typically, they seem to be unaware that our socialist paradise engineered by them has metamorphosed into a giant capitalist kleptocracy.
According to the Delhi-based Association for Democratic Reforms (ADR, estb. 1999), an NGO which has been doing commendable public service by keeping tabs on the primitive capital accumulation practices of our elected representatives in Parliament and state legislative assemblies, the net worth of our socialism spouting leaders mysteriously multiplies in geometric proportion after they are elected to office. For instance, the assets value of 184 MLAs who re-contested the Karnataka legislative assembly election of May 12 rose by an average 64 percent during the period 2013-18.
That’s the average assets value growth. The value of assets of the assembly’s five richest MLAs is over Rs 100 crore. The average wealth of the 222 MLAs who have been elected to Karnataka’s 15th legislative assembly is Rs.34.59 crore. In short, the majority of MLAs in the incumbent Karnataka assembly are crorepatis (Rs.100 lakh plus) while the annual per capita income of India is Rs.1.17 lakh (cf. Rs.34.15 lakh in the US).
Clearly, both countries are ruled by the uber rich. Except that contemporary India is also a kleptocracy. According to ADR, 35 percent of MLAs elected to the Karnataka assembly in 2013 had serious criminal charges filed against them, awaiting adjudication. Moreover criminal charges are pending against 36 percent of the country’s 1,765 MPs and MLAs. That’s socialism with Indian characteristics.