Politicians as new zamindars

No one — least of all the gentle Dr Singh himself — took very seriously Mamatadi's allegedly misquoted remark that if the Centre wouldn't bail Bengal out of its debt trap she might have to resort to beating up the prime minister, even at the risk of being labelled a 'goonda'. However, another suggestion made by the tough-talking Bengal chief minister raises an interesting point.
Arguing that it was the Reds whose profligate ways had put the state so deeply into the red of bankruptcy, the Trinamool leader suggested that all the property owned by the CPM in Kolkata and other parts of Bengal be sold off and the proceeds go towards replenishing the state's depleted coffers. While paying lip service to Proudhon's axiom that all private property is nothing but theft by another name, the comrades enjoy proprietorial rights over large chunks of real estate in Kolkata — starting with the party headquarters in Alimuddin Street.
In fact, it's not just the Marxists but all political parties and politicians who make prime candidates for what might be called a realty check. Having abolished the zamindari system long ago, our netas have with aplomb assumed the role of the new landed gentry as if to the manor born. Apart from office premises for their various organisations, poli-tical outfits across the board are sitting pretty on prime property in the form of official residences for their elected legislators as well as party functionaries.
If Mamata's recommendation regarding the public sale of the CPM's properties were to be taken in right earnest to cover all parties and politicians, the country might well find itself in a position to pay off its national debt, with change left over to jingle in the pocket. It has been estimated that a single ministerial bungalow in Lutyens' Delhi, for instance, would fetch upward of 150 crore if put on the market today.
The Land Acquisition Act being contemplated could do worse than to take into its ambit all properties across the country over which politicians and political parties currently enjoy zamindari rights, which frequently are passed on from one generation to the next. If the present occupants of all these properties were, in the interests of the 'public good', to be evicted and told to fend for themselves in the matter of housing, the fiscal deficit that is the economy's bane today could well become a fiscal surplus.
Not that this is likely to happen, of course. For if an Englishman's home is said to be his castle, our neta's House is their zamindari, and they'll keep it by hook or crook.