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UPA Skids On Messy Oil:TIME TO DRAW LAKSHMAN REKHA, by Poonam I Kaushish, 7 June 2008 Print E-mail

POLITICAL DIARY

New Delhi, 7 June 2008

UPA Skids On Messy Oil

TIME TO DRAW LAKSHMAN REKHA

                                              By Poonam I Kaushish                

Go on failing. Go on. Only next time try to fail better. Samuel Beckett’s saying encapsulates the fallacy of the UPA sarkar. How it continues to flunk in providing good governance. Content only in making appropriate noises, expressing hollow concerns but offering no solutions to end the agony of the aam aadmi over soaring prices, still higher inflation and rocketing oil. Which have trashed all hopes of a better tomorrow. Yet for our netagan, India is Incredible!

So busy rejoicing over Brand India, that they forget the ugly reality of Asli Bharat. Amdaani athanni, kharchaa rupiya…baaki jo bachaa who mahengai maar gayee!. This, my dear readers sums up the tragic reality of the aam aadmi under the UPA. Forget bijli, sarak, paani there is no sight even of the much promised roti, kapada aur maakan for the 800 million poor who satiate their hungry, malnourished bellies feeding on the neon signs of Coke that mock their poverty. Mera Bharat is indeed Mahan!

Don’t worry and lose sleep we have taken stern action to bring down the prices. The inflation rate could already be tapering off, cooed our erudite Finance Minister Chidambaram three months ago. Today, he has helplessly thrown up his hands and sings another tune, “There is yet no sign of a decline in the inflation rate. We do not know if we have peaked yet.”

If this spelt bad news, worse followed. The Prime Minister Manmohan Singh went on national TV and radio to announce a steep hike in petrol, diesel and LPG prices last week. Hoping to play the heartstrings with a plaintive plea, “With a heavy heart I am compelled to say inflation is inevitable due to rising global food and commodity prices and oil prices…we have to tighten our belt. We cannot think only for ourselves, for the present, for the here and now. We must think about what is good for our children, grand children and their children. It is our duty to ensure food and energy security for an India where the aam aadmi feels safe, secure and hopeful about the future.”

Are we expected to applaud? Sing paeans of the Government? Let’s talk real. Has anyone bothered to study the end result of any price hike? Can it be counted upon to keep the total deficit in check? No. On the other hand, the actual impact, working through a multiplier effect, is always far greater than the direct increase estimated by the Government’s go up. An increase will not only make life difficult for the vulnerable citizens but also trigger off a cost-push spiral. Every one knows that any attempt to control deficit financing through increase in prices of essential commodities is at once dangerous and suicidal, both economically and politically.

The price hike would also raise the inflation rate. In real terms, this mans that the purchasing power of the rupee would decrease and the interest rate would have to be increased. This would curb growth rate and lead to a fall in the demand for manufactured goods. All the Government has done is changing the gears of tokenism.

Besides, this is loads of economic gibberish which the 762.9 million people earning less than Rs 20 a day don’t understand and couldn’t care less about. Questionably, which future tabbar (family) is the Prime Minister promising a better future for? The 74 million ‘Nowhere Children” who are neither enrolled in schools nor accounted in the labour force or the 44 million children aged between 5-14 years engaged in economic activities and domestic and non-remunerative work?

Needless to say the economic policies of the UPA Government, far from being able to address the central problems of inflation, agrarian crisis and unemployment are adding new ones for the Indian economy. Disillusionment among the aam aadmi whose aspirations were raised with the UPA’s coming to power, is fast turning into discontent. Borne out by rising farmers suicides, despite doles by the Prime Minister, chakka jams and bandhs. Even the National Rural Employment Guarantee Scheme is mired in corruption wherein the benefits are not accruing to the end user.

The tragedy of India is that it is being ruled by leaders who are stricken by reckless populism and crippled by a crisis of casualness. Who seem to be good enough for only fair weather governance. Even the slightest turbulence causes panic. So comatose are they that they refuse to see the writing on the wall and merrily continue to make mistakes.

So what if sound economics adds up to bad politics and deficit populism. Over the years, our netagan have turned this dictum on its head and converted populist politics into economic nonsense. Prime Minister Manmohan Singh’s Government is no different from that of its predecessors. The issue is not about the price hike of petrol and petroleum products. It is about the manner in which the oil crisis is handled.

Think. Over 70 per cent of India’s oil consumption is by the Central Government and its counterpart in the States. Ministers both at the Centre and States get many cars allotted to them with unlimited petrol. An example: A Central Minister used to drive to his residence every time he wanted to go to the toilet as the washroom in his Ministry was not up to the standard!

The MPS and MLAs are not far behind. They get various Public Sector Undertakings to assign cars to them. Not to forget the babudam. The Joint Secretary and above at the Centre are entitled to an official car round the clock. Used to ferry their wives to her kitty party and shopping and drop-pick up the children from school. Unlike in the past when even ICS Secretaries used to drive to work in their personal cars and used official vehicles only for office work. Before telling the consumer to curb oil consumption, the Government should first strictly ration its own consumption.

To show that his Government means business, the Prime Minister talks austerity and shoots of a letter to all his Ministerial colleagues to desist from wasteful expenditure. ''It is a moral duty to cut down on wasteful expenditure. I'm asking you to severely curtail spending on air travel, particularly foreign travel, unless absolutely necessary,” Only three Ministers heed his advise and forego their annual summer chutti in foreign climes.

Till date the Commerce Minister Kamal Nath has made 72 trips overseas till November last spending a total of 424 days outside the country, the Minister of State for External Affairs, E. Ahmed went abroad 79 times and spent 232 days there, others who follow suit were Renuka Chowdhary, Kapil Sibal, Ramdoss and Ambika Soni. So much for austerity. It is another matter that the Prime Minister conversely confessed that his sarkar indulged in lavish spending. Clearly Government money is nobody’s money!

What next? The time has come to draw a lakshman rekha on populist measures.  The Prime Minister should remember that austerity measures and tightening of the belt flows from the top. Yatha Raja Thatha Praja. The buck stops at our netagans doorstep. ---INFA

(Copyright India News & Feature Alliance)

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

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