Ruling MPs’ assets grow at rapid clip
This even as new report grades the performance of government as ‘strictly average’
Latest data analysis shows that the average year-on-year median asset growth for incumbents belonging to the National Democratic Alliance is 31 times of a common individual. The Informed Voter Project’s report grades the government as ‘strictly average’ as 81.5% of agriculture- and environment-related promises received medium or worsethan-medium performance.
The Informed Voter Project, a non-profit institution, analyses candidates and political parties according to their manifestos, performance statistics, criminal record, assets and education. As part of the initiative, independent researchers from Mumbai have been informing citizens about the candidates in the city for the past eight elections. This year, the report card also provides the citizens with data about the annual growth rate of the candidates’ assets.
According to the Credit SuisseGlobal Wealth Databook, the median per capita assets in India, which reflects the accumulated wealth level below
which 50% of the population lives, grew at the annual rate of 10.7% from 2014 to 2019, whereas the growth rate from 2019 to 2022 was recorded at just 0.7%. At the same time, incumbents affiliated with the NDA reported 22% yearon-year asset growth on average, whereas incumbents from the INDIA bloc recorded 10% growth on average.
“Analysing this data, we can say that the average wealth growth of the incumbents from NDA is 31.42 times that of the common citizens,
whereas the growth of INDIA bloc incumbents is 14.28 times more,” Vivek Gilani from the Informed Voter Project, said.
The Informed Voter Project also examined the actions by the NDA government towards the fulfilment of promises made in the 2019 elections. Out of the 33 promises related to agriculture and farmers’ welfare, the evaluation showed that 43% were graded as ‘very-low’ performance, 11% as ‘low’, 34% as ‘medium’, 11% as ‘mediumhigh’ and none was graded as
10.7%
Annual growth rate from 2014 to 2019 of median per capita assets in India, which reflects accumulated wealth level below which 50% of the population lives
0.7%
Annual growth rate from 2019 to 2022 of median per capita assets in India
‘high’ performance.
The researchers also evaluated 13 environment-related promises, out of which 46% were graded as ‘very low’ whereas 15% were graded as ‘high’. On average, 81.5% of the promises related to both the sectors showed medium or worse-than-medium performance of the government.
“Our analysis of performance in the 17th Lok Sabha reveals the ruling party and the NDA government is a strictly average alliance of members. It’s nearly always in the middle of the classroom – almost never right up-front like a bright curious student of the subject. So no wonder these past five years of government performance is not such a fulfilling experience and we’re starved,” said the report.