Heard on the street

Brokers keep away from political contributions

Once bitten twice shy. A section of affluent brokers has decided not to give monetary contribution to this high-profile political fund-raiser, who duped them of several lakhs of rupees after the 2004 general elections. They allege that the Mumbai-based fund-raiser, who also dons the robes of a powerbroker, accepted nearly 10 ���to-and-fro��� business class air tickets, and also some money as conveyance expense, from a few stock brokers to lobby for certain ���favours��� with decision-makers in finance, revenue and company affairs ministries, respectively, in Delhi. As the tale goes: the hot-shot lobbyist made just one trip to Delhi, tried working his charms on the bureaucrats, but to no avail. ���We are not upset over this person���s inability to crack a favourable deal with decision-makers; such things are common in politics. The sad part is that this person sold the eight first-class tickets he had with him, all collected separately from various brokers under the pretext of going to Delhi. Learning from their mistakes, the brokers have now decided to only fund individual poll campaigns and not give donation to any political party.

(Contributed by Shailesh Menon)