Declare your Assets

It will be recalled that as All India Congress Committee (AICC) in-charge of Assam, Union Law Minister M Veerappa Moily had emphasized that ministers should declare their assets in the interest of the transparency regime, which prompted Chief Minister Tarun Gogoi to ask his colleagues to submit reports of their assets to him within two months. That was six months ago. But even after the lapse of four months since the deadline expired, Assam’s ministers are yet to declare their assets, while Gogoi seems to be oblivious of his own six-month-old instruction — he has not taken any action against the ministers for defying him. It has been learnt that he has not even put pressure on his colleagues so that they submit reports of their assets to him. This is bizarre, but what is more perturbing is the whole issue being symptomatic of a deeper malaise. But first thing first. Why is the Chief Minister not interested to revisit what, and under what circumstances, he had asked his colleagues to declare their assets? The impression is that he was giving an instruction just for the sake of it. The classic pretence, however, was that he was being really serious about assets declaration by the State’s ministers. Six months down the line as the assets of the Gogoi team remain as surreptitious as ever and no one is willing to declare his/her wealth, the people of the State should not be blamed if they were to infer that the ministers in question would not have their finances listed in the public domain because most of the wealth is ill-gotten and garnered by pocketing funds meant for the development of the State. The other question is whether Gogoi would have asked his colleagues to submit to him reports of their assets if Moily had not mounted pressure on him. Equally important is the question as to whether even Moily has forgotten the emphasis he had laid six months ago and whether he has asked Gogoi if the State’s ministers have submitted to him their assets reports. The people of the State should also be not blamed if they are coming to the conclusion that the Chief Minister himself is not interested in the matter of assets declaration because of the quantum of wealth that the ministers have accumulated in too short a period and which, therefore, will be a source of great embarrassment to him if the public seeks information on the ministers’ wealth through the RTI route.

That said, what the people should realize, sooner rather than later and before they are further duped, is that it is they who are the real masters in a democracy and that their elected representatives, including of course the ministers who are reluctant to disclose their assets, are their servants because the representatives have been elected to serve the people. In the instant case, it is high time the people of Assam — a State notorious for corruption — realized that it is they who can make the ministers accountable to them by launching and sustaining democratic protest movements across the State against their refusal to declare their assets. The people should also ask the Chief Minister as to whether he has done his job by merely asking his colleagues to declare their assets without having to bother about what they have really done about it. This is no joke. THE SENTINEL