Rags to Rags Stories

All over the world, storybooks are replete with the Rags to Riches Stories. Riches to Rags stories are far too dull to publish or read. Rich to Rich stories are monotonous. It turns out that the Rags to Rags stories are the only ones worth disclosing voluntarily!

Setting a nice precedent recently, few people of eminence have made voluntary disclosure. The disheartening part of it is there is nothing to behold! No wonder they came forward to show what they do not have. Hope the Government does not institute a CBI inquiry to investigate how they got disproportionate poverty and leaves them alone. I request their colleagues to forgive and leave these poor people, who are a blot on their society, alone.

How can everyone voluntarily disclose private wealth? It would be obscene, is it not? Disclosing something that is purely private on a web site is no fun. If it is for the cover page of Playboy or Playgirl, it is a different matter altogether.

One journalist recently interviewed several notable people of P(oltical)-Class, B(abus)-Class, CBS (Contractors, Black-marketers, Smugglers et. al.) category people. The motif of the interviews is their collective view on disclosures. Apparently, all these honest people are eager to disclose voluntarily. Here are some of their concerns:

- Absence of suitable award systems, say Bharat Ratna, for disclosing the highest amount
- Doubts like: to show the tip or disclose the entire iceberg
- Absence of clarity on what to disclose and what not to
- Some are eager to give very precise data but are uncomfortable with the fluctuations in the Swiss franc to Rupee conversion rates
- Most of these people have so much, they do not know the exact value of their assets and they are eager to avoid giving wrong information.
- Some people want to have clarity on whether the disclosure should include what they kept in benami names, in the names of kith and kin and relatives and also their pet animals.