Meteoric rise in wealth of politicians
Special Correspondent :
Meteoric rise in the number of millionaires aggressively intruding into the country’s politics, which is inauspiciously fattening the wallets of politicians, making the successive national parliaments into clubs of crorepatis.
The affidavits of candidates, which should have been heavily scrutinized by Election Commission with the help of the ACC, BB and NBR, paint the grim picture of the politicians of the country, according to an analysis of Transparency International Bangladesh (TIB).
In the upcoming national polls, 571 candidates from different parties and independents have declared immovable assets worth at least Tk1 crore, with 18 among them possessing assets valued at Tk100 crore or more.
A cabinet minister of the incumbent government has business worth Tk 2,312 crores abroad, but he did not give this information in the election affidavit.
Though the TIB informed this information in a press conference on Tuesday, but it didn’t disclose the name of the minister.
TIB officials, however, said that they will provide everything including evidence regarding the minister’s business if any government authority wants it.
The prevalence of candidates with immovable assets worth Tk1 crore is notably higher in the upcoming election compared to previous ones, with the count being 274 in 2008, 202 in 2014, and 552 in 2018.
The TIB disclosed this information on Tuesday after scrutinising data related to the candidates’ personal belongings submitted to the Election Commission in their affidavits.
According to TIB, approximately 21.20% of the candidates possess assets ranging from Tk1 crore to Tk10 crore, 4.62% have assets worth between Tk10 crore and Tk50 crore, 1.07% own assets valued between Tk50 crore and Tk100 crore, and an additional 1.07% have assets exceeding Tk100 crore.
Around 72.09% of the candidates have assets valued at less than Tk1 crore.
In the 12th national polls, the majority of candidates with assets worth at least Tk1 crore are affiliated with the ruling Awami League, numbering 235.
Following closely are independents, with 163 of them having assets worth Tk1 crore.
In contrast, 47 candidates from Jatiya Party, 17 from Jatiya Party (JP), seven from Jatiya Samajtantrik Dal, six from Trinamool BNP, and five from Bangladesh Workers Party possess assets worth at least Tk1 crore.
In the elections of 2008, 2014, 2018, and 2024, the percentage of candidates possessing assets worth at least Tk1 crore within Jatiya Party were 35.59%, 25.58%, 31.65%, and 20%, respectively.
For the Awami League, the corresponding percentages of millionaire candidates are 27.94%, 61.54%, 83.15%, and 86.96%, respectively.
The BNP, which has boycotted the next election, had 44.71% millionaire candidates in 2008 and 51.32% in 2018.
At the forefront of candidates with assets exceeding Tk100 crore is Golam Dastagir Gazi, the Awami League candidate in the Narayanganj-1 constituency, who declared assets amounting to Tk1,345.77 crore in his affidavit submitted to the Election Commission.
Other candidates with an assets surpassing Tk100 crore mark include SAK Ekramuzzaman, an independent candidate affiliated with the ruling Awami League in Brahmanbaria-1 seat, holds assets valued at Tk421.16 crore.
Salman Fazlur Rahman, the Awami League candidate for the Dhaka-1 seat, boasts assets worth Tk315.76 crore. In Cumilla-8, Awami League candidate Abu Zafar Mohammad Shafi Uddin possesses assets totaling Tk306.68 crore. Yusuf Abdullah Harun, an Awami League candidate in Cumilla-3, reports assets worth Tk277.61 crore.
Independent candidate Dilip Kumar Agarwala in Chuadanga-1 has assets amounting to Tk276.19 crore, while Abdul Momin Mondal, an Awami League candidate from Sirajganj-5, declares assets valued at Tk253.24 crore.
Meanwhile, human rights activist and Chairperson of the TIB’s Board of Trustees Advocate Sultana Kamal has expressed her surprise after seeing the wealth estimates of election candidates in their affidavits.
“I do not know whether the wealth of our candidates has increased in a legal way. Then we should also try to increase some resources,” said Sultana Kamal while presenting a report formed by analysing the election affidavits of all candidates at their Dhaka office.
The study titled “Election Affidavit Charts: What Message Are They Conveying to the People?” was disclosed at TIB office on Tuesday and a dashboard titled “Know Your Candidate” was launched.
She said, “The mountain of wealth we are seeing is now the new normal in our country. Some people will have crores of taka while others will worry about how to make ends meet.
“We are surprised by this information. The number of landless people in our country is so high, we have not yet been able to raise the level of poverty. We have repeatedly expressed our regret about this.”
This was not the vision of the country. “We dreamed of equality. There is a law that one family cannot own more than 100 bighas of land.
But the candidates participating in the election seem to have several times more than that limit.
That too acquired in a short time. How is it even possible for some people to gain so much wealth in such a short time?”
She lamented, “We are creating a discriminatory society. We’ve gone through a get-rich-quick process, which we are also proud of because we consider this economic development.
However, only some people are benefitting from this development. Out of our 17 crore people, only a few have grabbed all of our wealth.”
Money did not just appear from somewhere, some people are snatching wealth while others are being deprived of it, said Sultana Kamal.
