The Doctors, The Economy and The Food Security
When a natural calamity was damaging the life and property in
Uttarakhand, the CM was camping in New Delhi to take maximum financial aid he
can draw from his party's Central Government. This is just an example for the
mindset of the politicians across the party line; they take every adversity on
people as an opportunity for themselves. The bureaucrats are no different and
neither are the people at large. Most of us love to use abuse and misuse public
property at very first available opportunity. We are a country where every
demand, if not meted favorably is followed by a series of shut down,
strike, fast unto death etc. In the name of Gandhi all these activities are
supported by the people and pampered by the politicians, willingly or unwillingly. We
have to think for larger transparency in our system, local public participation
in the policy making and better ways to put forth our dissents without harming
productivity. The economic activities should not stall due to wrong policies,
as we have seen in infrastructure, capital goods, power and mining sector in
recent years. If the government is really interested in welfare then it should
take some hard steps toward population control, arrangement should be made for
skill development and so on and so forth. Money should not be wasted as it is
being in MNREGA. Even the PM said that the government money has been invested in
non-productive schemes. If only our PM had managed our economy like he manages
his own, we would have been a prosperous country. But then there are elections
and there are leaders in his party and coalition, they need to be kept in good
humor. I am in no way suggesting that the PM and his boss are only responsible for
these problems, but yes they are more responsible than anybody else. In a
country where farmers are forced to take steps like suicide due to the money
they owe, the governments must manage the economy with utmost care. It is
criminal on the part of government to mismanage the economy.
So, we have a prime minister who is not a leader in true sense, but a follower. This awkward situation creates a variety of problems. Like, ministers in his cabinet may well be aware of the fact that he is not the appraiser of their work and, therefore, they don't heed to what he says. I am not a great fan of Digvijay Singh but agree with his remark that dual power Centers have created lot of problems in the Government. Though there seem to be multiple power centers and Digvijay Singh is also one of them. Everybody in the Government seems concerned about his or her personal gain or loss. Sonia Ji seems to be looking for a Nobel prize and Bharat Ratna for the public service, which she does sitting in 10 Janpath with the help of her worker bees, Rahul Ji for a title like the brother of the nation, so that he can follow the Mahatma, Manmohan Ji for the next term, Chidambaram Ji for the overdue promotion to the PM post, for his excellent services to his political boss. Other ministers and leaders may be looking for whatever sum they can collect in these last days of this Government for their next election. Everyone mentioned above may well be concerned about the electoral success in the next general election, and elections are won by the votes, the votes are given by the people and the people vote for something like money, or a bottle of liquor (as per popular perception also endorsed by Anna Ji), or for some freebies, and all these come not without money and the money does not grow on the trees. Hence, the Government needs money for return to power or at least arrest the downfall. Since the money does not grow on the trees, it either to be earned or borrowed from someone. The government had not preferred the former, so now it has left with the latter. But the borrowing has its own limitation, a lot of interest; interests are even more for short term loans taken by the government. The PM blamed everyone else but his government for all the problems our economy has. Also, there is a search going on for the excuses in whose name the money can be borrowed and doled out in form of what can be called as direct cash transfer in form of laptop, mobile phone, tablet etc. The latest excuse is the food security. First coming to the social aspects, if sixty-three year after becoming a Republic, India can’t provide food to its people, then there could be nothing more shameful than that, all the leaders and especially congress party leaders should feel ashamed of it. What is the worth of being nuclear power and aspiring to be super power etc. if your people have no food to eat? What type of growth it would be if people are dying without food? Who will like such type of growth? Not a right thinking person at least. There need to be a balance in growth and welfare, and the policies should be made to benefit both. It is common sense that the growth is necessary to improve our living standards etc. But the same common sense also warns about unrest in society if disparity increases. The point here is that the problem is not the food security. There should be health security and quality education for all the citizens. But it is for the Government to say that whether this bill was really needed? Or it is just being sold for electoral gains at the cost of so much public money, and to benefit the corrupt politicians and bureaucrats eventually.Last week The National Food Security Bill, 2013 was passed by both the houses of the parliament. I have read the bill and yes it is half baked, but still has lot of good things. After passing of the bill there was a flurry of opinions from across the country and abroad. Some were positive about the bill and others predicted that Indian economy which is almost in doldrums shall be doomed after this (Let us leave the left parties). Some were singing praises for Sonia Gandhi whereas others were cursing her, both with certain prejudice which has nothing to take with food security or state of economy for that matter. Sonia Gandhi must have predicted that the load of corruption is taking its toll on the foundation of her Government which is already in what can be said as a non-repairable state. The magnificent work of corruption may cost congress so dearly that its electoral balance sheet will take couple of general elections before coming in green. Therefore, she has nothing more to lose and has started what is best for last overs, the slogging. There is nothing wrong in it and we should be thankful to her for at least slogging, our PM still stalling. All important bills which were pending for last nine years have been passed in the current session of the parliament. This, itself is a proof that Congress party knows that the days are numbered for them in power and they should do something which they can talk about in 2019 general elections, or whenever it take place. Definitely, they are looking beyond 2014 general elections which they consider to be losing.The National Food Security Bill, 2013 will take at least a year to implement. Though Congress party will try to implement it before the general election, at least in the states where it is in government or in coalition. After implementing this bill they will tell that see we have implemented the food security and the others have not and so are anti-poor. But there is a catch, and the catch is the identification of beneficiaries. There are already food security schemes in almost all the states and the increase in number of beneficiaries shall be limited. The state governments will try hard to take advantage of this scheme by adding one or two things in it, and this is possible under provisions of the bill. So, electoral benefits of this bill can’t be guaranteed.The economics of the bill is for P Chidambaram to understand. We pay tax on everything we do, thanks to P Chidambaram. The man is so cunning in his budget that it takes some time for even the experts to understand his budget. The real problem for the economy is the current account deficit (When UPA came to power we were current account surplus country) and extravagant spending on non-productive schemes which Congress Party doesn't want to highlight for obvious reasons. Then what about the statement of Sonia Gandhi that, “We don’t know from where the money will come for this, but it has to be?” It was just a grand standing that, look! My poor people see how we are taking the ire of the corporate world and the middle class for you only, please vote for us. The bill is not going to cost much additional money as per the FM, at least for this financial year, Chidambaram has vetted this bill; the only problem will be the smell of money by ever hungry shrewd politicians and bureaucrats.The economic problem is due to mismanagement and corruption; it can’t be attributed to the welfare schemes. Amid the hullabaloo about extra spending on welfare schemes we should not forget that only a small portion of money being spent actually reaches to the people and most of it is taken away by the politician and bureaucrat nexus. Only if the Government can save this money, we will have food, education and health security, and that too in the half of the welfare expenditure being done today. So, to get the right perspective we have to analyze the problem from corruption side. Corruption is the foremost reason for all our economic woes, be it intellectual corruption or financial corruption.
The economic situation is declining day by day, layoffs are becoming common phenomenon instead of rare and are across the sectors, the unemployment is increasing; there is no assurance from the Government for improvement either. Ever since East India Company captured control over us, we look towards West for solutions to our ever growing problems. Fortunately the top leadership of the Congress party and the top bureaucracy is dominated by the people who have studied in the west, and therefore are learned people, still our growth rate is declining. An overrated economist and underrated politician, Dr. Manmohan Singh, who is credited for liberalization of the Indian economy, is not being able to explain this decline. I neither know the economics nor am I going to discuss it. But one thing I know, "Limit your Spending To your Earnings”, which our government not seemed to be doing. Either Dr. Manmohan Singh has failed or he was credited for something he only implemented way back in 1991. It seems that he was a bureaucrat then and is still a bureaucrat. That time late Mr. Rao was the leader and now Ms. Sonia Gandhi is the leader.
So, we have a prime minister who is not a leader in true sense, but a follower. This awkward situation creates a variety of problems. Like, ministers in his cabinet may well be aware of the fact that he is not the appraiser of their work and, therefore, they don't heed to what he says. I am not a great fan of Digvijay Singh but agree with his remark that dual power Centers have created lot of problems in the Government. Though there seem to be multiple power centers and Digvijay Singh is also one of them. Everybody in the Government seems concerned about his or her personal gain or loss. Sonia Ji seems to be looking for a Nobel prize and Bharat Ratna for the public service, which she does sitting in 10 Janpath with the help of her worker bees, Rahul Ji for a title like the brother of the nation, so that he can follow the Mahatma, Manmohan Ji for the next term, Chidambaram Ji for the overdue promotion to the PM post, for his excellent services to his political boss. Other ministers and leaders may be looking for whatever sum they can collect in these last days of this Government for their next election. Everyone mentioned above may well be concerned about the electoral success in the next general election, and elections are won by the votes, the votes are given by the people and the people vote for something like money, or a bottle of liquor (as per popular perception also endorsed by Anna Ji), or for some freebies, and all these come not without money and the money does not grow on the trees. Hence, the Government needs money for return to power or at least arrest the downfall. Since the money does not grow on the trees, it either to be earned or borrowed from someone. The government had not preferred the former, so now it has left with the latter. But the borrowing has its own limitation, a lot of interest; interests are even more for short term loans taken by the government. The PM blamed everyone else but his government for all the problems our economy has. Also, there is a search going on for the excuses in whose name the money can be borrowed and doled out in form of what can be called as direct cash transfer in form of laptop, mobile phone, tablet etc. The latest excuse is the food security. First coming to the social aspects, if sixty-three year after becoming a Republic, India can’t provide food to its people, then there could be nothing more shameful than that, all the leaders and especially congress party leaders should feel ashamed of it. What is the worth of being nuclear power and aspiring to be super power etc. if your people have no food to eat? What type of growth it would be if people are dying without food? Who will like such type of growth? Not a right thinking person at least. There need to be a balance in growth and welfare, and the policies should be made to benefit both. It is common sense that the growth is necessary to improve our living standards etc. But the same common sense also warns about unrest in society if disparity increases. The point here is that the problem is not the food security. There should be health security and quality education for all the citizens. But it is for the Government to say that whether this bill was really needed? Or it is just being sold for electoral gains at the cost of so much public money, and to benefit the corrupt politicians and bureaucrats eventually.Last week The National Food Security Bill, 2013 was passed by both the houses of the parliament. I have read the bill and yes it is half baked, but still has lot of good things. After passing of the bill there was a flurry of opinions from across the country and abroad. Some were positive about the bill and others predicted that Indian economy which is almost in doldrums shall be doomed after this (Let us leave the left parties). Some were singing praises for Sonia Gandhi whereas others were cursing her, both with certain prejudice which has nothing to take with food security or state of economy for that matter. Sonia Gandhi must have predicted that the load of corruption is taking its toll on the foundation of her Government which is already in what can be said as a non-repairable state. The magnificent work of corruption may cost congress so dearly that its electoral balance sheet will take couple of general elections before coming in green. Therefore, she has nothing more to lose and has started what is best for last overs, the slogging. There is nothing wrong in it and we should be thankful to her for at least slogging, our PM still stalling. All important bills which were pending for last nine years have been passed in the current session of the parliament. This, itself is a proof that Congress party knows that the days are numbered for them in power and they should do something which they can talk about in 2019 general elections, or whenever it take place. Definitely, they are looking beyond 2014 general elections which they consider to be losing.The National Food Security Bill, 2013 will take at least a year to implement. Though Congress party will try to implement it before the general election, at least in the states where it is in government or in coalition. After implementing this bill they will tell that see we have implemented the food security and the others have not and so are anti-poor. But there is a catch, and the catch is the identification of beneficiaries. There are already food security schemes in almost all the states and the increase in number of beneficiaries shall be limited. The state governments will try hard to take advantage of this scheme by adding one or two things in it, and this is possible under provisions of the bill. So, electoral benefits of this bill can’t be guaranteed.The economics of the bill is for P Chidambaram to understand. We pay tax on everything we do, thanks to P Chidambaram. The man is so cunning in his budget that it takes some time for even the experts to understand his budget. The real problem for the economy is the current account deficit (When UPA came to power we were current account surplus country) and extravagant spending on non-productive schemes which Congress Party doesn't want to highlight for obvious reasons. Then what about the statement of Sonia Gandhi that, “We don’t know from where the money will come for this, but it has to be?” It was just a grand standing that, look! My poor people see how we are taking the ire of the corporate world and the middle class for you only, please vote for us. The bill is not going to cost much additional money as per the FM, at least for this financial year, Chidambaram has vetted this bill; the only problem will be the smell of money by ever hungry shrewd politicians and bureaucrats.The economic problem is due to mismanagement and corruption; it can’t be attributed to the welfare schemes. Amid the hullabaloo about extra spending on welfare schemes we should not forget that only a small portion of money being spent actually reaches to the people and most of it is taken away by the politician and bureaucrat nexus. Only if the Government can save this money, we will have food, education and health security, and that too in the half of the welfare expenditure being done today. So, to get the right perspective we have to analyze the problem from corruption side. Corruption is the foremost reason for all our economic woes, be it intellectual corruption or financial corruption.
The economic situation is declining day by day, layoffs are becoming common phenomenon instead of rare and are across the sectors, the unemployment is increasing; there is no assurance from the Government for improvement either. Ever since East India Company captured control over us, we look towards West for solutions to our ever growing problems. Fortunately the top leadership of the Congress party and the top bureaucracy is dominated by the people who have studied in the west, and therefore are learned people, still our growth rate is declining. An overrated economist and underrated politician, Dr. Manmohan Singh, who is credited for liberalization of the Indian economy, is not being able to explain this decline. I neither know the economics nor am I going to discuss it. But one thing I know, "Limit your Spending To your Earnings”, which our government not seemed to be doing. Either Dr. Manmohan Singh has failed or he was credited for something he only implemented way back in 1991. It seems that he was a bureaucrat then and is still a bureaucrat. That time late Mr. Rao was the leader and now Ms. Sonia Gandhi is the leader.
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