News East West
NEW YORK: The Huffington Post, which a day earlier described Congress president Sonia Gandhi as the 12th richest political leader in the world with personal worth of $2 billion, has quietly removed her name from the list.
The removal of Sonia’s name came after the Congress party lashed out at the website, questioning how it calculated her worth and calling the report `absurd.’
Updating the list after the uproar, Huffington Post said, “Sonia Gandhi and the former emir of Qatar Hamid bin Khalifa al-Thani have been removed from this list.”
It said, “Gandhi was originally included based on a listing on a third party site which was subsequently called into question.
“Our editors have been unable to verify the amount, removed the link, and regret any confusion.’’
Rubbishing the website report, Indian information and broadcasting minister Manish Tewari said, “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.’’
As per her nomination papers for the 2009 election, Sonia Gandhi then had total assets worth Rs 1.38 crore only. These included bank deposits worth Rs 28.61, mutual funds worth Rs 20 lakh, RBI bonds worth Rs 12 lakh, public provident fund worth Rs 24.88 lakh, silver worth Rs 18 lakh, jewellery worth Rs 11 lakh and two bighas of land worth Rs 219,000.
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