The Hindu Business Line : Loyalty is a depreciable asset, at 100 per cent

THIS day counts as important, despite being a thirteenth, because of results that would start pouring in from EVMs. Numbers are going to make the difference between winners and losers, and tally is what all political magic is to be about. Thrust to the vanquished will be TV microphones to speak on what their debits were, even as the victorious will be laying claim to imagined credits, without being humble enough to ascribe their success to a variety of factors, including dame luck.

Any number of exit polls and opinion surveys are carried out, but they cannot steal the surprise element that springs from ballot boxes, just as in CA exams. Sadly, however, for accountants, there is no unfolding of ballot papers, manual counting and so forth. Traditional number-crunching is not relevant in elections, except in solving alliance equations.

It will be long before the ICAI implements electronic voting for their own council elections, because there they have preference voting, surplus, overflow and so on, and so their periodic exercise would continue to occupy counting tables for days on end, with an electorate that polls about 50,000 votes.

Apart from their counting skills, which unfortunately do not seem to count any longer, accountants are valued for their connections, with taxmen, godmen and politicians. What worries CAs is that tax officials get transferred, godmen get into problems and netas get dumped often unceremoniously.

Thus, for instance, if a CA, or a council member, has been shining in borrowed limelight all along, as being close to so-and-so, he has reasons to worry today if that neta is trailing and loses out in the election race.

Likewise, for those who have been complaining of saffronisation of the governing council of the Institute, there would be enough occasions to initiate a cleanup if tables get turned.

But don't write these accountants off too easily. Because they can adapt to changed situation faster than babus, by classifying one-time `assets' as new `liabilities' and vice versa.

Loyalty enjoys hundred per cent depreciation, if it exists, and all's fair in war and accounting.

AccountSpeak@thehindu.co.in

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