Poor Ministers: Part 2 (Mr. A. K. Antony)

The man behind the US’ dismay for not signing the Logistics Support Agreement (LSA), Communication Interoperability and Security Memorandum Agreement (CISMOA) and Basic Exchange and Cooperation Agreement for Geo-Spatial Cooperation (BECA), Mr. Arackaparambil Kurien Antony, is indeed the real ‘One-man army’.

Recently it was noticed that Mr. Antony belongs to the singleton set in the cabinet, who comes under the “BPL category” (sarcasm). “BPL” is the only term that I could think of after going through the complete list of assets declared by his other peer ministers. But, after going through his achievements/positions held, one can, in no way, dream to underestimate him.

The following list of positions can mesmerize any aspiring politician:

“1970-77, 1977-79, 1995-96, 1996-2001 and 2001-05Member, Kerala Legislative Assembly

1977-78, 1995-96, 2001-04    Chief Minister, Kerala

April 1985- Elected to Rajya Sabha

April 1991- Re-elected to Rajya Sabha

1993-95-Union Cabinet Minister of Civil Supplies, Consumer Affairs and Public Distribution

1996- 2001-Leader of Opposition, Kerala Legislative Assembly

May 2005- Elected to Rajya Sabha

May 2006-Oct. 2006-  Member, Parliamentary Forum on Population and Public Health

June 2006-Oct. 2006-  Member, Committee on Health and Family Welfare

24 Oct. 2006 onwards Minister of Defence

April 2010-Re-elected to Rajya Sabha”

All these esteemed positions come with great responsibilities and an upright amount of salary for the survival of an average Indian family. But it’s hard to envisage a person with such enormous amount of experience and dignity, to possess assets less than 2 lakhs. Taking into consideration the assets of his better half, Mrs. Elizabeth Antony, his total Net asset worth just over 32 lakhs, which is much below the observed average of the cabinet.Besides a house worth Rs.15 lakh and agricultural land amounting to the same value, Mrs Antony also has 2 Savings bank accounts worth Rs.182000.

The following table highlights Mr. Antony’s assets and in the later section, I will try to bring out few interesting facts that I deduced on or after my analysis.

Mr. A.K.Antony (Minister of Defence)			Smt. Alizabeth Antony (Wife, A.K.Antony)
Buildings (commercial and residential)	NIL	Not Applicable	Buildings (commercial and residential)	House	1500000
Deposits in Banks	Deposits	164,012		Land	1500000
Deposits in Banks	Deposits	18,465	Deposits in Banks	Deposits	18465
			Gold	25 sovereigns
Total		182,477			3,018,465

1.  Mr. Antony believes in matriarchy (pun intended); upon comparing their declared asset values.
2. It is worth noting that Mrs. Antony also owns a second-hand Wagon R valued at Rs.169000 and bought with a “Kerala-loyal” bank loan of Rs.136000.
3. Mr. Antony entered into politics as a student leader in Cherthala Taluk as an activist of Kerala Student Union and was highly energetic, successfully exhibiting his innate leadership skills.
4. Wonder how someone who has never ever been a member of the Lower House, in a long political career, be offered the coveted Defence Ministry of a democratic country.