By Manuwant Choudhary
The Swatantra Party in the sixties was unfairly called `A Party Of Maharajas' by India's Prime Minister Mrs. Indira Gandhi who wanted to nationalise banks and confiscate the gold of the goldsmiths across India.
Even then one of the founders of Swatantra Party Minoo Masani would point out that for every Maharaja that the Swatantra had ...the Congress had nine Maharaja's.
But the Swatantra Party does not exist anymore so where are India's erstwhile rulers?
They are where they always were..with the Congress Party.
And some with the Bhartiya Janata Party.
So its interesting to note a survey on the assets owned by former royals contesting these elections in India Today.
Ijyaraj Singh, a scion of the Kota Royal family, declares his current assets as Rs.18.01 crores.
While Rao Rajendra Singh, scion of Shahpur royal family, contests from Jaipur Rural, owns Rs.18.65 crores.
I would say they are very poor Maharaja's! Definitely, not the Maharaja's who would import a Rolls Royce from England specially designed for hunting expeditions. How many Rolls can u own with 18 crores?
I also call them poor because a farmer Suraj Bhan contesting from Delhi from the Rashtriya Janadhikar Party has assets of Rs.50.12 crores.
But even a carpenter working at my home said he will not work for him as this 50 crore Mr. Suraj Bhan has only a thousand rupees as cash in his bank account!
Mr. Suraj Bhan is just a reflection of the plight of farmers in independent India.
In India today there are no Maharajas, just a Maharani Sonia Gandhi and her scion Rahul Gandhi.
1 comment:
Can you help identify the royal lineage among our democratic contestants? It would be interesting to look at all of them in the fray, and assess their declared assets and electoral performance.
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