The Nation Derailed

The Nation Derailed

The Government of India, currently being managed by the leading Congress party needs to be congratulated for the skillful and ingenious manner in which they have emotionally blackmailed the entire nation and the Parliament from the main topic of concern for the citizens at large.

After a long slumber, when the leading opposition parties were at last, just happening to rise to the occasion by raising the issue of the hyper-inflation and tremendous Price rise (that has already broken the very back bone of the common man and the house wife in particular), in order to corner the Government on the issue so as to make an honest effort to provide some relief to the Common man and try to bring the cruel economic offenders to books. Read http://www.ndtv.com/news/india/price-rise-bjp-wants-sugar-scam-probe-16848.php

At the same time the Government and the Congress in particular ( in league with the Leading opposition parties), took a bold step of introducing the ten year old bill of Women’s reservation, in the Parliament. The Common man is himself bewildered at the plight of governance in the country and the fate to which they are being subjected to because of the sheer neglect by the so called Government…!!

On the one hand the Government had been trying to show that the Indian Economy is out of recession and the economy is steadily growing. The Industry is registering huge profits, the Banks are logging the highest profits ever, the exports are on the rise and the agricultural production had continuously been growing. In fact during the past two years it was continuously drummed that even during the worst recession, however the growth in the Industrial sector had suffered tremendously in 2008 and 2009 because of international recession but the fervent growth in the agricultural production had helped the Economy to register an average positive growth and not a negative growth as most of the developed nations had suffered during the corresponding period.

Recently Finance Minister Pranab Mukherjee gave a comparative chart of the fuel price hike done under the UPA and the NDA respectively in which he explained that the rise in prices of petroleum products was far less during the UPA rule as compared to that of the NDA. Read http://in.news.yahoo.com/48/20100303/814/tnl-pranab-to-brief-allies-on-fuel-price.html . The common man is gasping to comprehend whether he should clap over the wisdom of the Fm or cry over his fate. Well has the Finance Minister conveniently forgotten that it was the Congress that had played the cards of tremendous price rise during the NDA regime to their own advantage during the then elections and UPA 1 came into existence and gained virtual power from the NDA with the help of the common man..?

Mukherjee also told the MPs that the minimum support price for food grains was doubled under the UPA as compared to that under the NDA rule. Fine does he know that the prices of all the essential commodities at the retail level have actually grown by a minimum of around three times instead during the rule of UPA 2 or his advisors have kept him unaware of the ground realities…? Moreover their own Report on Economic Survey of the country has expressed doubts whether small and marginal farmers are really getting the benefits of the so claimed sharp jump in the support prices of various crops. Read http://www.mydigitalfc.com/economy/are-farmers-getting-benefits-msp-doubts-survey-563...!! But, has he forgotten that UPA 1 was given additional charge for the next five years by the common man not because of the Nuclear Deal with America but because they had successfully contained the fuel price hike as well as the prices of essential commodities to some extent during their previous innings, as compared to that of the NDA.

Now, point to be noted and that is beyond the comprehension of this very common man who brought the UPA back to power is that when the farmers are not deriving the real benefit from the sudden rise in the cent percent rise in MSP of agricultural commodities, then who is really profiteering in the backdrop of hyper-inflation, international price rise, and sudden jump in the MSP to the farmers and so many other lame excuses being put forward by the managers of the Government and the bureaucracy…..!!

Another question that baffles the mind of the common man is that when the so called experts in the UPA Government decided to suddenly double the Minimum Support Prices of agricultural commodities, was there really a need to do so and did they have the least idea or the statistical data, whether the economy was well geared up to sustain the sudden increase in prices even by cent percent at the retail level. Had the income level of the poor masses that constitute the 40% of the population and the 40% of the middle income group, grown by cent percent overnight so as to sustain the sudden rise in prices. On the one hand the prices have been allowed to escalate and on the other hand the Government is least bothered by the sudden rise - that too jump by 100 to 200%.Recently, the top leaders of the congress had the cheek to shout at the top of their voice that the prices would still grow under the pretext of the so called rise in international prices.

Any foolish economist would have advised that Ideally speaking the Minimum Support Prices should have been allowed to increase at the most by 25% at one time, then after a gap of at least 1 year by another 25%, so that the rise in the prices of essential commodities at the retail level also grows slowly such that it could be adjusted by the system over a period of time and the farmer would have also taken advantage on account of the increase in the MSP. No economist or even the worst administrator would have ever advised the government to increase the MSP suddenly by 100%. If some expert has really given this kind of advice to the Government of India then he is either not a person of sound caliber to occupy that position of power or is only an enemy of the Congress for advised them against the normal practice.

Now, Has the Government ever thought of what should be ideal distribution cost over the official MSP of the food prices before it reaches the hands of the ultimate customers? Ideally it should not cross more than 40-50% over the MSP, but as of today it has crossed more than 150-200% over the MSP. These huge margins find their way into the pockets of the middle agencies, retailers and also not to forget the political parties at the cost of the sweat and blood of the common man and the innocent farmers.

Coming back to the point where we started, the managers of the Government finding themselves completely cornered on the issue of price rise during the current session of the Parliament, have very cleverly diverted the attention of the whole Parliament and the nation from the issue of tackling the severe crisis of inflation and price rise to the 10 year old debate of providing reservation to the women in the parliament. Now this is only going to be fruitful ideally for 5000 women all over India both in the parliament and all the legislative assemblies taken together who will be able to gain some position of identity in the society.

But what about providing relief to the 50 crore women in particular or the 100 crore total Indian population that is completely broken to spine on account of the already huge price hike of essential commodities and will have to further suffer on account of the cascading effect of the further rise in the fuel prices over the other commodities and huge growth of unemployment a hard fact that the government has been ignoring. It seems that the Finance Ministry and the government is sailing in its dreams on a Seven Star A.C. Cruise that is surrounded by the tempest of inflationary crisis and unemployment but they are enjoying their adventurous journey sleeping in their A.C cabins, sadly far away from the ground realities.

The opposition parties are equally responsible for their failure, from having allowed the Government from diverting the attention of the nation from the most important problem of price rise to reservation for women in the legislature. If this issue could have waited 10 years it could have waited 10 days or one month. But the leaders have to be more responsible in identifying the priorities in order to save the common man from the daily recurring loss because of the additional expenses he has to bear and who is paying thru his nose on account of the unemployment and artificial hyper-inflation.

The plight of the common man may be at the mercy of the so called irresponsible leaders but remember the common man is well aware of his might. The silence of the common man should not be taken for granted in a healthy democracy.

INDER KRISHEN WALI