Thought for the day
"Liberty and equality
are captivating sounds, but they often captivate to destroy."
—John Tyler (American,
1790-1862)
Word for the day
Ocellated (adj)
(of a spot or marking)
eyelike.
Malice towards none
In Karnataka elections BJP
appears trying too hard to prove nothing!
First random thought this morning
Insofar accusation of corruption by political leaders on each
other is concerned, we have two options: (a) Believe the senior political leaders
and accept that everyone is a criminal out there; or (b) Have trust in
judiciary and believe that no one is dishonest out there since no one from
Rajiv Gandhi (Bofors), Suresh Kalmadi & Sheila Dixit (CWG), A. Raja (Coal)
& Kalanithi Maran (2G), Sonia Gandhi & Rahul Gandhi (National Herald)
and Amit Shah & Narendra Modi (various case related to 2002 Gujarat Riots)
have been convicted so far.
You can't use any of the two options selectively on case to case
basis.
Four years of Modi rule - 5
While waiting for my turn at the barber shop last weekend, I
watched an episode of TV Serial "Nimki Mukhiya".
The protagonist in the daily soap is an ambitious girl from
socially backward community, in a remote Bihar village. The landlord of the
village had controlled the Village local administrative body (Panchayat) for
over 15years, before the seat of Village Head (Mukhiya) was reserved for female
candidates belonging to socially backward classes.
The landlord, not to be easily taken down, fielded his domestic
help (a backward class woman) as his proxy candidate. However, Nimki, being a
popular girl amongst the backward community people who are in majority,
contested the elections and won; but not before she distributed free prepaid
mobile Sim cards to the voters.
The landlord, not at all willing to accept the defeat, persuaded
one of his son and apparent political heir to marry Nimki Mukhiya, so that he
can still control the power. After solemnizing the marriage, the family still
hates the girl from lower caste, and keeps her in outhouse of the Haveli. She
is not allowed to enter the house, meet anyone (not even her husband) or even
touch anything!
The landlord impresses the state party leaders using the
popularity of Nimki, and obtains the ticket to contest elections for the state
assembly. He even manipulates Nimki and gets her to campaign for him in the
village.
In the episode I watched, as a campaign strategy, Nimki rejects
the suggestion of landlord's family members to distribute free food and clothes
to backward caste voters. Instead she suggests to organize a beauty treatment
(make up) camp for the poor and oppressed female voters. She is able to
persuade the seasoned politicians that by raising aspirations of the poor and
oppressed, they can win their electoral favor.
Unfortunately, for few hours of feel good, most voters appear
willing to forget and forgive the 15years of atrocities, the landlord
perpetrated on them.
From my experience and anecdotal evidence, I know that this serial
is not far away from reality. And unfortunately this highlights one of the
worst failures of the incumbent government.
Prime Minister Modi gave wings to the aspirations of the poor
people, but did little to unshackle their feet from the chains of ignorance,
poverty, frivolity, racism, oppression in the name of regressive customs,
religious distortions, and feudal practices.
These people may be better off in absolute monetary terms, but
stand more poor, frustrated and cynical than ever.
In a vast majority of cases, aspirations are resulting in
indulgence, at the expense of basic needs. People are spending on motor bikes,
smart phones, SUVs, tractors, wedding & birthday celebrations, compromising
on food, health, education & training, and shelter needs.
Most like to depend on the state for these necessities.
For example, consider my following observations made in the course
of various travels through the hinterlands.
Farmers' distress
Farm loan waiver has been a contentious issues in India's
socio-economic milieu for past many decades. It would not be entirely wrong to
say that most governments and political parties have used this as a tool to
exploit voters' sentiments rather than solving the problem of farmers' stress
or structural inadequacies in the Indian agriculture sector. Consequently,
every episode of loan waiver has yielded almost nothing more than a temporary
relief for the farmers.
While travelling through Madhya Pradesh and Maharashtra, it was noticed
that the recent episode of loan waiver, which started with the newly elected
BJP government in the state of Uttar Pradesh waiving farm loans to fulfill its
election promise, seems materially different from the earlier episodes. This
episode manifests some seriously disturbing trends emerging in Indian
socio-economic sphere.
First of all, it was found that the farmers are demanding loan
waiver as matter of "Right" and not as a matter of
"Relief", as used to be the case in earlier episodes of loan waivers.
This change in attitude can potentially alter the dynamics of state-farmer
relationship in future.
Secondly, for the first time a distinct change in the ethos of the
farming community was observed. Traditionally, Indian farmers considered
defaulting on loans and other financial and social obligations an unpardonable
sin. The popular belief was that if you fail to discharge your debt in this
life, you will have to take another birth to discharge such obligations. This
seems the case no longer. A significant number of young farmers are more than
willing to default on their loans. With morality out of financial dealings,
this can potentially change the whole paradigm of non-corporate lending in the
country.
Third, in past many episodes of farm loan waiver were preceded by
protests, blockades and some spontaneous violence. But in the latest episode
the violence appeared more organized. There is nothing to suggest that this
will end with one time waiver of loans. This appears to be a natural corollary
of the first point. Not waiving loan would be considered violation of a
legitimate "Right" and hence violent protests would be considered
"in order".
Moreover, "farm loans" are also becoming riskier as the
cost of input (seeds, agro chemical, equipment rental, wages etc.) is rising
along with the output prices. However, in case of crop failure the quantum of
loss is much higher as compared to, let's say, 10years ago.
The incumbent government may not be entirely responsible for this,
but this is certainly a major act of omission. The government could have done
so much to stem the rot, but it just ignored and let it develop into gangrene.
Rise in petty crime
The rise in aspirational consumption, especially due to distortion
of social customs (especially marriage, death, birth) for the sake of vanity,
ignorance, and misguidance is leading to rise in the cases of crimes (including
substantial rise in the cases of domestic violence and crime against women).
In rural and semi-urban areas, motor cycle has replaced bicycle as
a mandatory dowry item. These days, it is almost impossible to marry your
daughter if you cannot afford a motorcycle in dowry. Smart phones also find
place in most ‘demand lists’. Many old aged villagers argue that it is a
collateral damage of better road and telecommunication connectivity.
This is in fact may true for a large majority of urban poor and
lower middle class people also.
A youth who has obtained an engineering degree from a regional or
local institution, after spending over a million rupees (in many cases
borrowed) finds it tough to get a job paying a modest sum of Rs3lacs a year.
His monthly personal expenses (Motorbike, Mobile, Movie and one Meal a week in
a restaurant) are more than Rs10k. This phenomenon could be easily correlated to
the huge rise in petty crimes in past decade or so.
The social initiatives like focus on cleanliness, cooking gas
connection to BPL families are commendable. But what we need is a social
renaissance. Small correction and incremental improvement might not be enough
given the serious nature of the problem, in my view.
I am not a social scientist. I may therefore not be an appropriate
person to comment on the acceleration in the degeneration of the society. But
what I can say is that none of the governments, including the present one, have
accorded any priority to this aspect.
(More on this when I come back on 24th May 2018)
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