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Title: Worth of a President
Category: Other
Blog Entry: Worth of a presidentBoth candidates should declare their assetsThat the BJP has taken the low road in making the argument that presidential candidates should declare their assets is a problem for the BJP, not the argument. L.K. Advani's trip to the Election Commission was as unremarkable as any party-political petition submission. What would have been remarkable, what would have put real force behind the BJP's petition, is an unilateral declaration of Bhairon Singh Shekhawat's assets. That would have convinced everyone that there's more to party politics behind Advani's advocacy. Even the Congress would have had to admit, if only privately, that yet another problematic dimension has appeared in their presidential campaign. As the situation stands now the Congress is simply dismissing the argument, as it is dismissing all doubts and questions about its candidate.But forget the Congress candidate for the moment,  or the fact that it is her busy past that has engendered the question whether we should know what our president is worth. Whatever be the current context, there's no doubt the proposition has great merit to it. If all elected candidates, including those in the Upper House who do not directly contest for citizens' votes, have to declare their assets, if the prime minister has to declare his/her assets, there's no earthly reason why the president and the vice-president should not. These are elected posts, these are crucial posts, and therefore candidates should be made to subscribe to the same disclosure standards. Equally unattractive would be legalistic  quibbling over whether or not the Supreme Court judgment on candidate disclosure embraces presidential and vice-presidential contests. There's a simple enough, democratically sound and ethically satisfying principle involved here. So the logical thing would be that both candidates declare their assets. Here again one has to note that the BJP is ready to make the argument but isn't ready to demonstrate its belief in it.Why wait for the Congress? Why wait for the EC? This presidential election desperately needs a gesture that lifts it above petty politicking. Let the vice-president demonstrate he has the capacity for it.