Anarchic Analogy

I started writing this post sometime last month, but being true to the spirit of the pseudo crusader, I have left it unfinished. Probably its my inability, or perhaps, its my disability...


The eighth month is slowly drawing to a close, and as the year enters it's twilight zone, it seems India's flirtation with Madame Fortune is all but over. Things, however, were quite different, at the same time last year, when the liaison was at it's prime. The economy was chugging ahead at a healthy 9 percent plus. The Sensex was zooming ahead at Mach 3. Inflation was yet to raise its dreaded hood. And there was a relative calm in the political arena.

But now, tables have turned.

Let's start with the least sensitive of all the issues - The Sensex. The gluttonous few of Dalal Street, are in a pensive mood these days. Their betting game is no longer yielding high returns, and this is definitely a cause of concern for the Country. The markets have come down significantly from the highs. FII inflows have dried up. And the SEBI is ready to compromise monetary flow issues to revive the dubious P Notes, for the sake of 'domestic' investors. But then who are we to blame for this? And then, why should we blame, or even be bothered by it? Those involved in organised and legal betting are not new to the hazards of the game. They themselves were responsible for the rise, and now, for the fall. The markets are almost the private domain of the 'selected' few, and I don't see any cause of concern. If a person decides to build a blast furnace in his backyard to heat his broth, it his private matter, and I really respect privacy.

The slowing down of the economy is definitely worrisome. This implies that the wheels of 'development' can come to a standstill. But then the question arise were they rolling at all??? If the driver of the carriage decided to oil one wheel, and shuns the rest, the consequence is a foregone conclusion. As the rich keep continue to feast , latest poverty norms ($1.35/day) suggests that two-thirds of the country still cannot even afford a single meal a day. And this number is by no means trivial...We are talking about 70 crore people...that is the combined population of UK, France and the Scandinavian countries. So is there any development at all???
However, those whose minds are still clouded by misplaced notion of growth might argue that even if sheer numbers are daunting, poverty has been declining faster now than it ever did before. This is yet another figment of imagination of the ruling classes propogated as reality/truth. These people are great believers in numbers, and yes, its the numbers game after all. Poverty in the pre-liberal era (1975-1990) was declining at 59.3% annually. However, this figure dropped to 43.2% in the period 1991-2005.

And yes, the burning hot topic of the moment is the Nano. The real people's car, is facing a stiff opposition from the people. Sounds strange, nah?? Yes, Singur, can very well be a political gimmick, and Mamta Bannerjee, a ridiculous joker, but then can you deny the fact that it is being built on fertile agricultural land.What will the children of this area do when they grow up? They no longer would have any land to till, and the paltry sum given as compensation would have been dwindled away by alcoholic fathers. None of them would find any sort of employment in the gas guzzling factories, not because the Tatas would bear grudges against them, but because these people would be simply unemployable.