T N Ninan: A lucrative career

WEEKEND RUMINATIONS

A book that studied millionaire businessmen in the US some few years ago said that most of them knew the role chance had played in their success. As a consequence, most of them wished their children to move away from the risky world of running an enterprise, and get into safer but prosperous professions like law and medicine. Now, by its very nature, politics in India offers a far riskier career than business in the US. You have to go back to the voter every five years, or oftener; and you may get thrown into the dust-bin once the votes are counted. Elections are costly, and you have to court all manner of people whom you may not care for. Why then is politics a hereditary business in India, unlike most other democracies?

After recent disclosures, the answer seems to be that it is a more attractive career than almost else you can think of, provided you get a head-start (which a hereditary line gives you). Consider the revelation that Om Prakash Chautala, former chief minister of Haryana and son of an earlier chief minister, accumulated a staggering Rs 1,400 crore in six short years. That's almost a crore every working day. Admittedly, the number reflects today's inflated land values (which for Mr Chautala, as for most politicians, is the preferred form of investment); but even at acquisition cost, the wealth would be substantial. Did Mr Chautala report that level of assets in his election disclosures, as the law requires? Probably not. How could he have made that kind of money? Your guess is as good as mine, but we can be sure that it was not on his official salary and legislator's allowances.

Case No. 2 concerns the reports this week that two people linked to K Natwar Singh, the former foreign minister, have confessed to receiving money from Iraq's oil deals. Mr Natwar Singh is the last person most people would have associated with such goings on, and he continues to protest his innocence while his son has not confessed to wrongdoing, either. But if it is true that those linked to him and/or his son have confessed to receiving illegal oil money, it does not look very good.

Case No. 3 concerns the unfortunate Pramod Mahajan, who many had thought would soon head the BJP. In the wake of his tragic death, after being shot by his brother, it has emerged that Mr Mahajan had helped his brother with business contracts, and a job for which he apparently was not required to report for work. Nevertheless, if one is to go by numerous reports in the press, his brother had a serious grouse, which was that Mr Mahajan did not let him make crores of rupees, as his personal staff (he believed) had managed to do.

The point that emerges through these three cases (assuming that they have all been correctly documented and reported) is that if you are in politics, you and those around you can make a lot of money. Tie that in with the politician's penchant for buying real estate (in which, as everyone knows, the cash component of a transaction is usually very large), and it becomes a neat circle. None of this would come as a surprise to readers, since it is in line with street opinion about what goes on in the world of politics, but it does establish the point. And it helps to explain why the children of prominent politicians so often follow in their parent's footsteps. If you inherit a pocket borough as a constituency, or get the leadership mantle in a party with a strong presence in a state or caste group, you can come up trumps in most situations. Even if you have to wait out every other five-year period, the turn of the wheel soon brings you back into office. And then, it would seem, the pay-off is beyond anything that a normal career in any other field of activity can hope to offer.