Amid protests, Manmohan Singh files nomination for RS

 Prime Minister Manmohan Singh submitted his nomination papers in Guwahati, Assam for election to the Rajya Sabha from Assam for a fifth consecutive term. Elections to two Rajya Sabha seats from the State are scheduled for May 30.

Angry mediapersons shouted slogans and squatted at the main entrance to the Assembly as they were denied entry inside when Dr. Singh was submitting his papers. They wanted to know if there was a specific directive from the Election Commission or the Returning Officer banning their entry. Ministers accompanying Dr. Singh assured them that the Prime Minister would brief them on the Assembly premises. But the mediapersons refused to go inside and insisted that the Prime Minister come out and address them.

As the protest grew, Chief Minister Tarun Gogoi came out and said the Prime Minister would come to them to make a statement. Dr. Singh, in his brief statement, said he was thankful to the people of Assam for his 22-year stint in the Rajya Sabha.

Activists of the All Assam Students’ Union (AASU) staged a protest in the city, accusing the Prime Minister of not taking the initiative to solve Assam’s problems despite being repeatedly elected to the Rajya Sabha from the State. They paraded 15 activists wearing masks with Dr. Singh’s image, sporting his trademark white attire and holding placards. They said that, the Assam Accord remained unimplemented, the India-Bangladesh border was not sealed, the National Register of Citizens (NRC) was not updated and the twin problems of flood and erosion had not been addressed.

The BJP, the Aam Admi Party and the CPI(ML) also staged separate protests, accusing the Prime Minister of ignoring the interests of the State.

Its disheartening to see that the real head of State for the world's largest functional democracy is not elected directly by people. Its time that a constitutional amendment be made making it mandatory for the PM to be a member of a Lok Sabha (as in Britain)

PM's wealth status:-

PM Manmohan Singh might be known throughout the world as the man who unleashed India Inc’s ‘animal spirits’ and gave the private sector a prominent role in the economy, but when it comes to his own investments, he seems to prefer to stick to pre-liberalization middle-class favourites — fixed deposits in a public sector bank and post office savings.

In the affidavit filed along with his nomination papers for the Rajya Sabha election, Singh declared that he had no cash in hand but had as many as eight fixed deposits (FDs) in the SBI amounting to Rs 3,35,16,150 (Rs 3.35 crore). Seen together with his affidavit in 2010, it reveals a simple investment strategy — put the money in fixed deposits and reinvest the returns on maturity. The Rs 2.7 crore he had in FDs in 2010 has grown by more than Rs 65 lakh in the last three years.

Singh’s post office savings at the New Delhi GPO, which stood at Rs 6,65,640 in his declaration in 2010, have also grown to Rs 8,26,922. However, Singh’s immovable assets have not grown. He still has two flats — one in New Delhi and another in Chandigarh, and continues to keep his Maruti 800 car purchased in 1996.