Kaun Banega Crorepati? That question is easily answered in this National Election Watch List! Something is appallingly wrong with the system when it’s easier to count the non-millionaires amongst India’s minister list.

At 122+ crores, the richest is Praful Patel, former Minister of State for Civil Aviation and presently Cabinet Minister in the Ministry of Heavy Industries and Public Enterprises. The number gets the special attention in P. Sainath’s scathing op-ed in the Hindu today:

(Read the full P. Sainath’s Op-ed) Air India might not be doing as well we’d like it to. But the braveheart who flew it fearlessly into dense clouds of debt is doing okay. Praful Patel (who no longer holds the aviation portfolio) added, on average, over half a million rupees every day to his assets in 28 months between May 2009 and August 2011.

Imagine that – half a million rupees a day in 28 months! Meanwhile India’s Planning Commission just had the unbelievably audacious balls to declare that rural Indians making 26 rupees per day, and city dwellers making 32 rupees a day would be officially considered not poor.

“The Planning Commission suggests that spending Rs 5.5 on cereals per day is good enough to keep people healthy. Similarly, a daily spend of Rs 1.02 on pulses, Rs 2.33 on milk and Rs 1.55 on edible oil should be enough to provide adequate nutrition and keep people above the poverty line without the need of subsidized rations from the government. It further suggests that just Rs 1.95 on vegetables a day would be adequate. A bit more, and one might end up outside the social security net.”

The elected leaders get richer by the day. And their solution to end India’s poverty – just change the criteria of what defines poverty.