The gentleman in the picture possesses the most famous set of silver strands in Karnataka politics.
When he got his son married off to Union civil aviation minister Praful Patel‘s daughter in November 2006, the who’s who of politics (P. Chidambaram, Dayanidhi Maran, Amar Singh, Ram Vilas Paswan, Jaipal Reddy) posed with the bride and groom.
When an educational trust named after his father was inaugurated in May 2005, “a galaxy of industry icons” (K.V. Kamath, Nandan Nilekani, T.V. Mohandas Pai, Sudha Murthy, Baba Kalyani, R. Gopalakrishnan, Vijay and Vikram Kirloskar) was there to lend glitter.
He is, of course, R.V. Deshpande.
For years now, Deshpande has stalled attempts to secure information of his assets and liabilities filed before the Karnataka Lok Ayukta for two years 1986-87 and 2004-05 using the Right to Information Act.
Deshpande has consistently said that the information given by legislators is “personal and confidential“, and should not be made available to the public as it had no relationship to any public activity or interest. Revealing the details would cause an unwarranted invasion of the privacy of the individual.
Personal? Confidential? Intrusion of privacy?
You bet.
Deshpande, 61, who is the Congress candidate from Haliyal constituency in the 2008 assembly elections, has filed the mandatory affidavit before the returning officer, and every line of it reveals why Deshpande has been so cagey about his assets and liabilities.
# Deshpande’s assets at the time of the May 2004 elections: Rs 9 crore.
# Deshpande’s assets at the time of the May 2008 elections: Rs 145 crore.
That Rs 136 crore jump is one part of the “Deshpande Shining” story. The other part is the pathbreaking empowerment of women in the Deshpande family (and indeed in most political families), as a result of which women of the house are all miraculously worth more than the men.
# Deshpande owns properties of Rs 47.83 crore; Radha Deshpande owns properties of Rs 97.74 crore.
# Deshpande has Rs 1.66 lakh in cash; Radha Deshpande has Rs 12.92 lakh in cash.
# Deshpande has Rs 26.78 lakh in deposits; Radha Deshpande has Rs 2.94 crore in deposits.
# Deshpande has investments worth Rs 21.87 crore in various companies, Radha Deshpande has investments of Rs 63.68 crore.
# The share of Mr and Mrs Deshpande in the undivided family is Rs 12.58 crore.
# Mr and Mrs Deshpande have national savings certificates and insurance policies of Rs 4 crore; gold, silver and diamond jewels of Rs 59 lakh; agricultural property and sites worth Rs 4 crore; residential and commercial buildings worth Rs 6 crore.
Deshpande has been a member of the 7th, 8th, 9th, 10th, 11th and 12th assemblies. Deshpande has held six different portfolios: minister for small scale Industries, agriculture, housing, major and medium industries, infrastructure development, and co-operation.
But can anybody explain how a man who lists “service to mankind, especially poor” among his “other interests” saw a 1,611 per cent appreciation in his assets in the last four years?
The Sensex ended 2004 at 6602; yesterday in 2008, it was 17,287. When the Sensex has seen a 261 per cent jump in a four-year period, how has the “Deshpande Story” been 6.17 times better than the “India Story”?
Oops, sorry, we missed something. Deshpande owes financial institutions Rs 2,032.
Photograph: Karnataka Photo News
churumuri 
nanagondu kOTi koTTre, ondu langOTi konDukoLLteeni saar
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Why only Deshpande. Every politician who enjoyed power or not has made it a point to scale their asset level few hundred times more than what they have declared in 2004. A very good economic factor which our PM and FM who are financial prodigies cannot imagine. If such raise is for our economy there were no aam admi in our country. Hail our politicians for raising their economy atlest if not of poor man.
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Deshpande was the minister in charge when the lands were being acquired for a whole variety of projects—Bangalore Mysore Infrastructure Corridor, Bangalore international airport, and of course, the land acquisition for the IT companies. Considering the kind of captains of industry who have been adorning Shri Deshpande’s social calendar, there is only one conclusion to come to, given the state of Karnataka’s industries.
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I congratulate this man. Over the past four years his personal investments have generated stupendous returns. Move over Mr. Buffet, meet the true guru of wealth creation- albeit personal. What a humble man! He has perhaps deliberately revealed only a small fraction of his wealth so as not to attact attention to himself!
I have no doubt that Mr. Deshpande has the capacity to take his personal riches to even higher levels over the next four years.
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He got 136 crores as dowry in his son’s marries. That explains the jump from 9 crore to 145 crores !!
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Is this story only on Churumuri or has it been published in any News media? This is not an isolated case, all politicians are like this. But let some of them be exposed. Please come out with more information and ALL MEDIA should cover this news.
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This is a fitting advertisement for the season! Can be shown on all media without a fee.
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Globalisation, liberalisation, anybody? A scooter for me and an a jet for Deshpande. Make it a dozen jets?
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How to gauge the actual wealth?
This figure increased by another 1611%?
So much for a guy who was tilling in his tractor when Ramakrishna Hegde sent for him to join his cabinet!
Must be a characteristic of political maNNina makkaL!
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We in India have many Ph.D students doing research and writing dissertations on all kinds of topics. Why can’t some of them who are socially concerned take up this topic of how political leaders are able to earn such mind boggling returns to beat even Buffet, andlegendaru Peter Lynch.
There may be some thing all of us have to learn. This could opne up a new branch in sociology, economics or politics.
Perhaps some NGOs like MGP, Public Cause, CERC, CUTS, VOICE (all consumer organizations) or Center for Science and Enviornment of Delhi, or some well known NGOs support such research?
At least some one can bring out a booklet on the assets of high asset politicians.
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@goutam, No media house will have the guts to publish this story. I only wish the time will come when achievements or contributions as a minister can be listed out like this for our politicians.
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Iwonder what use the Election Commission would do the mandatory disclosures made in the affidavit while filing nomination papers tot he elections.
It does not bother to check theveracity of the information supplied. Does not even bother to find out whether anybody has concealed any information. A Kannada channel reported the other day of Roshan Baig having concealed the purchase of twelve crore property.
Mind you what is disclosed does not tell the full story of the wealth amassed by the candidates incluidng the former ministers and legislators, The information has been thoroughly wetted and only which can be disclosed has been done so. What about the undisclosed income> I betit is much more than what is disclosed through mandatory disclosures.
As long as the information given is not verfied and the cases of assets much beyond the known income are probed, such information hardly serves any purpose, except evoking “tchu tchu” comments from people like us
ng
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Remember , He was also a Minister for Industry, Forests etc. Haliyal forests have disappeared because of this great man. He has grabbed land and “Mattashed” forests. He continues to do so NOW…..
One shining example of how to serve YOUR FAMILY and hoodwink your constituency…
Long live INDIAN DEMOCRACY, Short Live PUBLIC MEMORY…..
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Sheer hard work, sir, hard work. Only aim is to amass as much wealth in as short a period as possible. Nobody knows about the future , you know. Deshabhaktiya pratheeka Deshapande. Avarige 120 varsha ayussu koDali, devaru.
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We have finally managed to make our politicians disclose their wealth (at least a portion of it). Now, we do the second half – that is, asking an explanation for their source of Income. We need to slowly tighten the net around them….
Sorry for my dream sequence – I have been smoking a lot lately! lol
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He is One of the BIGGEST operators in the share market and all his transactions are done through a hyderabad based broking outlet.Even when the assembly is in session / cabinet meet is on , iam told that this gentleman calls up the brokers and executes deals.At some point of time a SUGAR company had issued shares to farmers / villagers in Karnataka.Our friend went and purchased the whole lot paying 6 times more to the illiterate guys when the actual market price was 60 times more than the face value.As industry minister he was in charge of approvals and this usually fetches 7 % of the project cost.
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Boring Journalist has made an excellent point. Income tax people also are looking at these numbers. Because of confidentiality they may not be able to reveal what taxes these rich leaders have paid. Either they can take action themselves as they seem to be doing by raiding the corrupt business people or to harass those troubling media people. Or they can give information to another government institution like Lok Ayukta to look into these rich people. But do they?
Otherwise these declaration will be of no use in a democracy like ours where votes are given based not on the merit of the candidates but on caste, mafia connection, booze, money, vote booth capturing, dummy votes, etc. Only when our democracy matures which is unlikely even in the life a child born today.
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Me also thinks, general public (atleast in Bangalore) is up in arms that IT people earn more. They got their priorities wrong.
Recently, a lorry brushed the rear bumper my friend’s Alto. The lorry driver wasn’t maintaining enough stopping distance. As usual the crowd gathered and one leader in the crowd told my friend that IT people should worry about this since they earn more !?
I think people (voters) should really worry whether their representative’s wealth came from legal sources.
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Only god can save karnataka this is the only state that promotes greasing the palms to an extent of perfection, just goes to show how spineless the people are.
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Dear Dr. BVS, a booklet is not enough. I wish there was some web site with information on all murky dealings , criminal activities and hoarding of wealth by the legislators and ministers. That would have helped as a reference point and helped to keep these details fresh in the memory of the people. Even our Mysore have former MLAs and mayors with ‘rags to riches’ stories!! and they are contesting again ( to be the next Ambanis and Buffets?????)
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I guess, this guys is originally from Maharastra.., A migrant to karnataka.
His assets are close to 500 crs. He has disclosed only 135 cr.., It is only tip of the iceburg. A serious enquiry has to be made about his illegal property.
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Odd-man out,
let us have both the booklet as well as web site. Perhaps, churumuri can to start with a site where we can collect the assets of rich candidates. There is one politician in Mysore who starting from a humble orgin has been able to construct multi crores educational institutions. If one is charitable such things could be perceived as productive assests compared to many who simply deposit them in swiss banks. There must be many such politicians like him and we need to expose suh assests also.
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IT no longer pays as it used to. Well some useless Jr Engg in BBMP who earns a few thousands as salary will have several tens of crores. And those Urban Dev ministers who approve projects that these engineers execute will obviously have more money. But there seems to be no Engineers at Haliyal as no roads exist let alone other amenities.
RV and his senior Cong men, viz., Kharrrrge and Dharam though have been representing their towns for donkeys’ years have given very little to the people who have voted.
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Looks like the Naxalites are the only ones who are doing something about the whole mess…
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Oh ya..Naxalites are doing something abt the mess by throwing bombs and killing innocent people.
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I think we need more transparency in our system – we all know people turn to politics when the stock market is not giving them enough returns. Now, do we want to say that even politics needs to turn a cold-shoulder to such ‘turn’ants?
Come on! This guy has certainly been a major sinkage of our tax money, and all other moneys too. No doubt. Even if he has paid all the relevant tax that applied to his assets. So now, whats the point? Do we want to prove his ways of making money as illegal, or do we want to snatch back his excess earnings out of his own pocket? I’d prefer the latter plan though :)
At least the election commission should rule that guys with such abnormal money-growth rates should pledge such excesses of money to the CEC until such time that the election results get out and a govt. is formed. This will make sure these buggers dont spill such moneys into the “trades” that they are bound to be involved in, soon after the election results come out. After all it is these tradings (and not the ones at the Stock exchange) that has helped them amass @ such rapid rates right?
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The wealth of a few people is definitely creating a culture of indifference, ignorance, and even death.
Education is in the hands of the ultra-wealthy and get-rich-quick is the only message they teach our children.
“Karunaalu baa belake” should now be our naadageethe and not that insipid catalogue, “Jaya Bhaaratha Jananiya thanujaathe.” A fine instance of ignorance. Kannada naadu was there long before the idea of India took root in the beginning of the twentieth century.
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Pulilkeshi saar,
neevu helodella sari.. aadre illeke heltideera ee maatanna antha bidisi helidre santosha..
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Where do I sign up?
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I don’t know full details of how he earned so much, but know little bit…
One person from Sirsi runs a transport company..it has grown from nothing to multi-crore (revenue >15 crore?) in no-time…official owner runs the company, but most of the government contracts are DEAL from Deshpande (for e.g. sugur factory, paper-mill etc.) – Transport company pays handsome DIVIDEND to the Sutradhaara… all unaccounted…..
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All these politicians are corrupt….They all need to be arrested.
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Who makes the politicians corrupt?
Everyone to be blamed one way or other.
You and me, everybody. If we are strict and sticking to principles, things will change.
How many of you have led honest lives?
Did you not pay donations enter Engineering colleges? (reservations for the moneyed)
Did you use reservation quotas to enter colleges and jobs? (caste based reservations)
How much money did you shell out do get your driver’s license in a short time?
We are allowing corruption to prosper in various ways and forms!!
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Dr. Sree Reddy has a point – the system, politicians, bureaucrats, etc. are total shit. That is a proven and time tested fact. But what about the ‘public’? The public is indisciplined, corrupt, ‘adjust-maadi’ and utterly lack civic sense.
Make any number of flyovers and expressways, but the attitude of the public is such that the entire purpose will get screwed. On the NICE expressway between Tumkur road and Mysore road stretch, I see two wheelers driving on the wrong side! How dangerous and insane is that? And if, god forbid, I happen to collide against one of them, I will be lynched by a mob, even though it is the two wheeler who is entirely responsible.
No hope – absolutely no hope!
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Good work! How did you unearth these details? Write more exposes on such crooked money bags. Start with H.Ditching.Devegowda, who started his life as a PWD civil contractor in early sixties.
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Hat’s of to your efforts, pls keep me informed of any such info of our so called Leaders.
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