Elon Musk, the world’s richest man, will be a part of the government of US President-elect Donald Trump, himself a real estate magnate. Musk’s business interests may not always be in the best interests of the US, but he can certainly root for them now from within the government. There are serious ethical concerns when politics becomes synonymous with big capital. But in several democracies across the world, including India, business tycoons join politics to protect themselves from corruption and tax cases and to push policies that promote their interests. It is morally and ethically wrong but it happens. This can be most vividly seen in Maharashtra.
A brief trip to Mumbai made during the Maharashtra election campaign gave one a bird’s eye view of how in “Maximum City” conversations about “people’s’’ candidates are intermeshed with details about the real estate they own and their links to builders. The city’s insiders recount colourful tales of how businessman-politico X could have been shot at because of rivalry with a builders’ conglomerate and how candidates Y and Z have the “solid” backing of the real estate lobby. The biggest builder of all is potentially the Adani Group, which is eyeing the prime land of Dharavi, Asia’s largest slum, located near some of the world’s most expensive real estate. The mind boggles at the bonanza such a deal can yield. Gautam Adani, chairman of the Adani Group, may not be directly absorbed into the government like Musk, but as long as the Narendra Modi government is in power, he is the elephant in every political room.
Assembly elections or property wars
In Pune, the gateway to western Maharashtra, the political stories shift from realtor wars to those of wealthy clans taking each other on in the hinterland, or of feuds within political dynasties. Ultimately, politics appears to be about preserving holdings, be it land, cooperatives, sugar mills, or sundry other institutions. Getting the people’s mandate is a means to that end, and investing in elections can bring healthy returns in case of successful outcomes. A win gives the additional clout needed to influence policy and make allocations that, in turn, can help certain businesses, realtors, shopkeepers, and so on. The cycle of political quid pro quos, insider dealing, and outright corruption, therefore, goes on unabashed and hand in hand with electoral politics. The people, one vote at a time, are just a means to that end.
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Because there is so much money floating around in Maharashtra (even in some parts where people live in utter poverty), the State is the most vivid reminder of how India’s democracy is hostage to the interests of big money and wealth and is only notionally about fighting for the rights of the people. The game involving money, the Enforcement Directorate’s (ED) charges (against political opponents), mega corruption, and en masse defection has played out on a stupendous scale over the past few years. Parties have split, proving that ideology is irrelevant and anyone can be bought. Genuine structural welfarism has been replaced by opportunistic cash handouts through schemes miraculously launched on the eve of elections. If one considers the ethics, it appears like cash for votes, but no one takes note of lapses in probity, ethics, or morality anymore.
“Ultimately, politics appears to be about preserving holdings, be it land, cooperatives, sugar mills, and so on. Getting the people’s mandate is a means to that end, and investing in elections can bring healthy returns in case of successful outcomes.”
Data analysed by the Association for Democratic Reforms (ADR) reveal that the average assets of an MLA contesting elections in Maharashtra in 2024 are higher than the average assets of MLAs in other Assembly contests this year, notably Jammu and Kashmir, Jharkhand, and Haryana. Haryana actually comes close, presumably because of its industrial pockets and real estate values due to its location around the National Capital Region. But there is no comparison, as Maharashtra is larger with subregions and even more dramatic social gradations.
Still, it is interesting that ADR data show that the three richest candidates contesting the Assembly election in Maharashtra are from the BJP: Parag Shah from Ghatkopar East in Mumbai, whose assets are listed at a stupendous Rs.3,383 crore; Prashant Ramsheth Thakur, standing from Panvel in Raigad, whose assets are listed at Rs.475 crore; and Mangal Prabhat Lodha from Malabar Hill in Mumbai with Rs.447 crore. It might seem surprising that such wealthy individuals contest Assembly elections, but it also begs the question of why the super rich are drawn to electoral politics.
Party of small traders to friend of big business
One may also ask if right-wing formations the world over, unencumbered by ideas of equity and justice, are the natural habitat of billionaires and their political interests. In India, we have seen the neat alignment of the corporate-backed Hindutva project since the ascendance of Modi in the capital in 2014. In that election itself, the BJP outspent the Congress-led United Progressive Alliance, which had been in power for a decade, with a campaign that was India’s most expensive until then.
The BJP has been supported by the RSS, whose social origins lie in the Brahmin and Bania communities. Before its rise to power, the Hindu Right was primarily funded through donations from shopkeepers. The late Mumbai politician Pramod Mahajan, the big fundraiser for the BJP in the Atal Bihari Vajpayee era, once told me that small donors were replaced by big corporations once the party came to power in 1998 with Vajpayee as the leader of a coalition government.
Reliance Industries Chairman Mukesh Ambani and his son Anant Ambani pose after casting their vote for the Maharashtra Assembly election, in Mumbai on November 20, 2024. A report by the Association for Democratic Reforms shows that much of the money the BJP has received since 2014 comes from corporate donors while similar contributions to the Congress have crashed. | Photo Credit: ANI
In the Modi era, corporate funding of the party zoomed many times over. The BJP quickly became the nation’s richest party; the accounts submitted by all other parties together did not add up to its wealth (according to income tax data submitted to the Election Commission). The BJP today is not only the wealthiest party but has also ensured that other parties are starved of donations by subjecting them to ED inquiries.
The ADR analysis also shows that much of the money the BJP receives now comes from corporate donors while similar contributions to the Congress have crashed. Simultaneously, the Modi era has seen the number of dollar billionaires going up. We are in an era where some of the rich are getting richer.
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What does this cabal of businessmen and politicians mean for the poor? From Maharashtra to Jharkhand, inequalities are rampant, farm distress is visible, and the economy as it is structured today cannot generate jobs. So, the state throws cash stipends, most famously at women—the Ladki Bahin Yojana in Maharashtra and the Maiya Samman Yojana in Jharkhand—and the politicians who hope to replace those in government promise more of the same. Since the state cannot create jobs or manage inflation, it gives a pre-election handout instead. In Maharashtra, in the land of Ambedkar and Jyotirao Phule, there is no larger vision at play but a cynical managerial arithmetic of caste, community, and cash.
In Politics, the work of political philosophy by Aristotle, the Greek genius had suggested that in a democracy if you have a small number of very rich people and a large number of very poor people, the poor will use their democratic rights to take away property from the rich. Nothing of the sort has happened in India.
Saba Naqvi is a Delhi-based journalist and author of four books who writes on politics and identity issues.
