File photo: Sonia Gandhi at an election rally
The Congress has scoffed at a report that lists Congress president Sonia Gandhi as the 12th richest world leader, ahead of Queen Elizabeth of Britain and Albert II, Prince of Monaco.
The report, published by Huffington Post World, has gone viral and is trending on the Internet.
(Read full report here) Valdimir Putin, president of Russia, tops the list and President Barack Obama of the US does not find place on it. "To put it in perspective, President Obama may be worth several million dollars, but he does not even come close to some of (his) contemporaries," says the report.
HuffPost says that "based on available data," it has "compiled a list of the 20 richest world leaders currently in power." But it is not clear in the report how it has arrived at figures.
At number 12, the report pegs Mrs Gandhi's worth at $ 2 billion.
The Congress's Manish Tiwari said, "If Huffington Post would stick to huffing puffing then I think they would do a much better job for themselves. Because If you do put out these absurd and ridiculous things out in print, then you only open yourself to be made a laughing stock. I would not even like to dignify with a response," he said.
The Huffington Post report says it has compared each country's
GDP per capita with a leader's personal net worth "just to show how different life is for the haves and have-nots."
On the list are kings, presidents, sultans and queens and it is dominated by the heads of oil-rich middle east nations. Most, notes the report, "are male (as the world's political leaders tend to be, too)".
On its website, the
National Election Watch website of the Association for Democratic Rights, says according to an affadavit filed during the Lok Sabha elections in 2009, Mrs Gandhi had declared assets worth Rs.1.38 crore.