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Sabha had criminal charges pending against them, compared with 124 in the previous par-
themselves, he adds. According to data collected by two Delhi-based political monitoring
organizations, about 30 per cent of members of parliament and of state assemblies had de-
solution is to ban candidates facing charges that had been lodged in a court for six months
(which would give potential candidates time to counter false charges trumped up by oppon-
ents). Moves along these lines have begun in the courts.
Politicians amass huge funds while they are in power, both in state and central govern-
ments, which they use for organizing elections, buying votes, horse trading and other party
activities, as well as building up enormous and ostentatious personal wealth. More than a
third of the 4,013 candidates who contested in six state elections during the twelve months
to May 2013 declared assets of over one crore rupees, far in excess of what they could have
earned legitimately and well beyond the dreams of most people in India.
Real estate and construction companies are especially useful for laundering and storing
funds because their accounts are easily fudged, which encourages close relationships
between politicians and the companies. At the time of elections, builders send funds to help
finance campaigns. An academic study that looked at the cement industry found that de-
mand decreased when builders had to slow down their projects after sending money to the
was continuing income by telling builders to pay their dues to her over a period of 15-20
years. 'The relationship between land, builders and politicians is symbiotic because the
builder can't get land without the politician's help, and then gets locked into the financial
exchanges,' says a member of parliament.
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Kumari Mayawati, who has been chief minister of Uttar Pradesh four times, is a notable
example. The daughter of a post-office worker, she is a leader of the Dalits, the desperately
poor 'untouchables' at the bottom of the Indian caste system. She built up such extensive
wealth - and declared at least some of it - that she ranked with famous film stars and crick-
eters as one of India's top 20 taxpayers in 2007-08 when she paid Rs 26.26 crore. Affi-
davits she filed at election time showed that her assets had inexplicably doubled during her
last term as chief minister (2007-12) to Rs 111.64 crore. The income was euphemistically
declared as admirers' gifts and, apart from sporadic court cases on specific projects, no one
has seriously pursued the reasons or sources of such unaccounted wealth. Mayawati's per-
sonal extravagances included sending her private jet empty to Mumbai to get her preferred
brand of sandals at a cost to the state exchequer of Rs10 lakh, according to US diplomat-
about her security and 'fears assassination', employing 'food tasters' to guard against pois-
oning and maintains a 'vice-like grip on all levels of power'.
