What do you do when you have your backs to the wall and you have no way to escape? What would you do when you are facing the truth that you have been corrupt, unfair and favoured the wrong people? You wait for the right time to fight back. That is exactly what the UPA has done and it has displayed some brilliant political acumen in these games.
It didn't make any proper statement in the Coal scam except an excuse of a statement by the PM, allowed Parliament session to be washed out and heaped blame on constitutional authorities and shifted the blame on to states for recommending how to allocate coal mines. It handled 2G by sending A.Raja and Kanimozhi too was in jail on related charges. Kalmadi was in jail on the commonwealth games scam and now they are out and we know that their trials will not happen in the near future. Who knows, they might be excused for lack of evidence or because none of the witnesses or the accused are alive after 30 years and even the report might be missing due to termite action or just corrupted computer files. This is an altogether different issue though.
It waited till the ash and dirt from Coal became unbearable and started the smokescreen with Diesel and added LPG to fuel the fire and inflation too. I admit, some amount of price rise in Diesel and LPG was inevitable but it seems increasing taxes on luxury cars and dual pricing for diesel would just be too harmful for the Society for Indian Automobile Manufacturers who asked the government for support due to falling sales in vehicles ( a ). This is inspite the evidence that SUVs are outselling normal passenger cars ( b ). Gensets, SUVs and mobile towers total to about 22% of diesel consumption and add to it passenger cars and you get the segment of dieself consumers who do not deserve subsidised diesel ( c ). It is transport vehicles that require subsidised diesel especially with State owned Transport Corporations being stressed as it is and yet they serve an important public purpose. Subsidising SUVs owned by the super-rich and Public Transport needed by the masses is not an equal policy, subsidy should be given to those who need it. I have no qualms about LPG cylinder subsidy limit and implementing gas pipeline projects and exploring resources might just stem the price rise here. But maintaining subsidy for MPs and MLAs is unfair, although it really does not matter though most of them do have other under the table sources of income and a puny increase LPG prices will not be of much impact for them in the reality.
FDI in retail is being hailed by Indian corporates, the american investors and the US President. Previously I had suggested that rating agency downgrades, Hillary Clinton's visit to India (d & e) and Obama's speeches (f & g) were all aimed at only pressuring India to adopt policies favourable to USA. They have got what we wanted but due to the inability or perhaps the vested interests of the powerful in our country, we get nothing in return. A strict visa regime exists, US still subsidises its agriculture heavily, aids Pakistan and sees us nothing more than a consumer.
It seems Imperialism is happening from the inside out, our powers are handing our country on a platter for the world powers to conquer. During the colonial era, we were only a market to source raw materials and to dump their products which destroyed our indigenous industry, agriculture, trade and crafts. The same thing will happen again and we are doing this to ourselves.
The political acumen of this bold ploy is clear when we consider the fact that there is little chance of allies putting the government in trouble. The main allies are Tamil Nadu's DMK, TMC from West Bengal and NCP mainly from Maharashtra with SP from Uttar Pradesh supporting it from outside. The condition of none of these allies are secure except maybe that of SP but already people are not happy with the rule and the difference between SP and Mayawati's BSP was just 3% in vote share, an extremely narrow difference which can shift. TMC is now a joke in West Bengal with everyone who raises a voice automatically becoming a maoist. NCP -Congress alliance in Maharashtra is in trouble as issues like Adarsh scam and farmer suicides have dimmed their prospects. DMK is not in power in TN now and so for all these parties, their only salvation lies in continuing the status quo since a change in it will only mean loss of position without chance of any gains.
Our Government did all this to rid itself of the policy paralysis tag, but none of these commentators, rating agencies, foreign heads of states are interested in the pathetic condition of human life in this country. None of those who hail the reform measures (h) have a stake in that, they are only bothered about themselves and this is a fact that government should realise. Perhaps the government knows this but it easier to hand over everything to private companies, both foreign and domestic, and then say it was forced by market or coalition compulsions. It is easier to let free the animal spirits of those who clamour for reforms for their sake and the so called experts and industry and market voices are concerned only about their growth, profits and share prices. They are not even remotely bothered about the enormous human cost of their growth and accepting this voice as the voice of India is exclusion that no amount of hot-air concepts like participative and inclusive governance and aam admi can compensate for.
This government is for the rich, by the rich and of the rich alone and if it does take steps to address other issues, it is mere tokenism. Take issues like Lokpal, Women reservation, Land acquisition, Food Security which are in pending in parliament. Take issues like child and maternal health- India is nowhere near reaching the millenium development goals (i & j) and our poverty is more than that of sub-Saharan Africa (k & l) . International Food Policy Research Institute's Global Hunger Index ranks India 67th out of 81, worse than Pakistan, Myanmar and riot-torn Sudan (m). It is here that governance deficit and policy paralysis has its greatest impact. This is where the government should act and act without hesitation rather than just signing over everything to market forces.
The government will ride on the wave of these reforms to the next election- 18months away when the impact of these reforms would only have started to be felt but it will bury the issue of scams and corruption, pathetic governance and development for the people and policies tailor made to suit the interests of corporates and made under pressure from foreign governments.
It didn't make any proper statement in the Coal scam except an excuse of a statement by the PM, allowed Parliament session to be washed out and heaped blame on constitutional authorities and shifted the blame on to states for recommending how to allocate coal mines. It handled 2G by sending A.Raja and Kanimozhi too was in jail on related charges. Kalmadi was in jail on the commonwealth games scam and now they are out and we know that their trials will not happen in the near future. Who knows, they might be excused for lack of evidence or because none of the witnesses or the accused are alive after 30 years and even the report might be missing due to termite action or just corrupted computer files. This is an altogether different issue though.
It waited till the ash and dirt from Coal became unbearable and started the smokescreen with Diesel and added LPG to fuel the fire and inflation too. I admit, some amount of price rise in Diesel and LPG was inevitable but it seems increasing taxes on luxury cars and dual pricing for diesel would just be too harmful for the Society for Indian Automobile Manufacturers who asked the government for support due to falling sales in vehicles ( a ). This is inspite the evidence that SUVs are outselling normal passenger cars ( b ). Gensets, SUVs and mobile towers total to about 22% of diesel consumption and add to it passenger cars and you get the segment of dieself consumers who do not deserve subsidised diesel ( c ). It is transport vehicles that require subsidised diesel especially with State owned Transport Corporations being stressed as it is and yet they serve an important public purpose. Subsidising SUVs owned by the super-rich and Public Transport needed by the masses is not an equal policy, subsidy should be given to those who need it. I have no qualms about LPG cylinder subsidy limit and implementing gas pipeline projects and exploring resources might just stem the price rise here. But maintaining subsidy for MPs and MLAs is unfair, although it really does not matter though most of them do have other under the table sources of income and a puny increase LPG prices will not be of much impact for them in the reality.
FDI in retail is being hailed by Indian corporates, the american investors and the US President. Previously I had suggested that rating agency downgrades, Hillary Clinton's visit to India (d & e) and Obama's speeches (f & g) were all aimed at only pressuring India to adopt policies favourable to USA. They have got what we wanted but due to the inability or perhaps the vested interests of the powerful in our country, we get nothing in return. A strict visa regime exists, US still subsidises its agriculture heavily, aids Pakistan and sees us nothing more than a consumer.
It seems Imperialism is happening from the inside out, our powers are handing our country on a platter for the world powers to conquer. During the colonial era, we were only a market to source raw materials and to dump their products which destroyed our indigenous industry, agriculture, trade and crafts. The same thing will happen again and we are doing this to ourselves.
The political acumen of this bold ploy is clear when we consider the fact that there is little chance of allies putting the government in trouble. The main allies are Tamil Nadu's DMK, TMC from West Bengal and NCP mainly from Maharashtra with SP from Uttar Pradesh supporting it from outside. The condition of none of these allies are secure except maybe that of SP but already people are not happy with the rule and the difference between SP and Mayawati's BSP was just 3% in vote share, an extremely narrow difference which can shift. TMC is now a joke in West Bengal with everyone who raises a voice automatically becoming a maoist. NCP -Congress alliance in Maharashtra is in trouble as issues like Adarsh scam and farmer suicides have dimmed their prospects. DMK is not in power in TN now and so for all these parties, their only salvation lies in continuing the status quo since a change in it will only mean loss of position without chance of any gains.
Our Government did all this to rid itself of the policy paralysis tag, but none of these commentators, rating agencies, foreign heads of states are interested in the pathetic condition of human life in this country. None of those who hail the reform measures (h) have a stake in that, they are only bothered about themselves and this is a fact that government should realise. Perhaps the government knows this but it easier to hand over everything to private companies, both foreign and domestic, and then say it was forced by market or coalition compulsions. It is easier to let free the animal spirits of those who clamour for reforms for their sake and the so called experts and industry and market voices are concerned only about their growth, profits and share prices. They are not even remotely bothered about the enormous human cost of their growth and accepting this voice as the voice of India is exclusion that no amount of hot-air concepts like participative and inclusive governance and aam admi can compensate for.
This government is for the rich, by the rich and of the rich alone and if it does take steps to address other issues, it is mere tokenism. Take issues like Lokpal, Women reservation, Land acquisition, Food Security which are in pending in parliament. Take issues like child and maternal health- India is nowhere near reaching the millenium development goals (i & j) and our poverty is more than that of sub-Saharan Africa (k & l) . International Food Policy Research Institute's Global Hunger Index ranks India 67th out of 81, worse than Pakistan, Myanmar and riot-torn Sudan (m). It is here that governance deficit and policy paralysis has its greatest impact. This is where the government should act and act without hesitation rather than just signing over everything to market forces.
The government will ride on the wave of these reforms to the next election- 18months away when the impact of these reforms would only have started to be felt but it will bury the issue of scams and corruption, pathetic governance and development for the people and policies tailor made to suit the interests of corporates and made under pressure from foreign governments.
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