With a Government that is only content with slogans of working for aam admi and expressing “concern” for the inflation, the people can hardly expect their cries of suffering to be heard.
The man responsible for the total mess in Agriculture, Sharad Pawar, is unable to show what he has done to control the prices of food products. In fact, his policies have been largely responsible not only for the immediate problems but also for the manner in which the country is likely to become extremely vulnerable in the future as far as food security is concerned. Yet, in a show of utter indifference, he keeps inventing all kinds of reasons for the failure to curb the price rise.
The aam admi has to be content to see the Memo of Reasons coming from Pawar showing different reasons at different times based on expediency.
Much has already been written about Sharad Pawar in earlier articles (see here, here and here). Far more could be written, if only it would make a difference.
Pranab Mukerjee, explaining away the inflation, says in one breath in Rajya Sabha: “Prices are a major area of concern,” but they cannot be “merely solved by rhetoric. Corrective economic steps are to be taken,”. Who is engaged in 'rhetoric', pray? It is not the people, not the Opposition parties but the Government that should have acted long back but did not and has not. In the next breath he says: “inflation, especially of food items, has gone up because of the “cost push factor” following a high level of government support prices paid to farmers — be it sugarcane, wheat or rice. However, there would be no going back and "farmers will have to be encouraged." Such comments may well fit in the mouth of Pawar but not Pranab who is a more responsible person. Here is a Government implicitly trying to place the blame for the price rise on the doorstep of the farmers! It is playing a dangerous game by projecting that prices can be reduced only at the cost of the farmers, pitting them against the people-at-large! The people have not forgotten how the Government tried to help the farmers with the sugarcane ordinance that led to massive protests from the farmers, forcing the Government to backtrack hastily, less than a month ago. Such are the ways in which the Agriculture Minister makes policies which are meekly endorsed by the entire Government "in the interest of the farmers".
What do the two contradictory statements from Pranab Mukerjee mean for the aam admi? Do we have to believe that while on the one hand it is the Government which has to take corrective steps, yet at the same time, the prices are rising not because of the lack of corrective steps, but because the price increase takes place due to the farmer being paid more? Is it because of farmers being paid more that prices are increasing on a weekly nay, daily basis?
And then we have the Prime Minister, who seems to be unwilling to call a spade a spade and hold his Agriculture Minister responsible and make him to account.
Unfortunately, the Opposition parties had so far failed to effectively pressurize the Government and whatever little they did so far to highlight the plight of the people does not seem to have made any difference.
The grim situation seems to have woken them up and finally they took the step of protesting in and outside the Parliament on 16th December 2009. Their protests inside the Parliament led to the Lok Sabha being adjourned for the day. It can only be hoped that the Opposition will continue to put the Government under enough pressure to shake up the sense of helplessness that the Government has become used to showing, whenever anything goes wrong, whether it is the safety and security of the country and the people, or the food security.
In the meanwhile, as Pawar continues fiddling with agriculture policies and cricket while the people's bellies are on fire, the Government appears to be twiddling thumbs hoping...hoping that eventually, the people will be forced to drastically reduce their food intake bringing down prices, and improving their health too!
Posts
34 comments:
yes u said is absolutely right,but every party using this issue to shows its concern for their vote bank,
gulohar, let every party do what it wants. it is the govt. that is responsible and has to act.
People cannot all the time try to justify whatever happens to them by saying 'everyone does the same".
People have to act and keep telling Govt. what they think.
If you want democracy, you have to participate too.
Perhaps, the time has come to introduce the penalty of giving lashes to those who make the people go hungry because of their own selfish interests.
Everone knows Pawar as most corrupt and all his actions have hidden agenda.
I think that as this govt got a massive mandate at elections,it can get away with anything & everything .Let us prove them wrong.
If the government cannot bring the galloping inflation under control,then what are they governing ? They have lost the authority to rule !
What you say is 100% right. Sharad Pawar, being the Agri Minister should be sacked uncerimoniously. He has proved to be useless, self centered, and politically opportunist. But then the rulling Congress is also "Shameless" and for the last 60 years looting this country. All Congressmen, including Sharad Pawar have been selling this country for the last 60 years. Filling in their pockets and ruling like "Maharajas".
When farmers are committing suicides, our Agriculture Minister is deeply involved with Cricket. So for him, farmers pain is not the concern but cricket is. And our PM is surely showing his administrative incompetence by keeping such a useless Minister in his cabinet.
Present price rise is artificially created by businessmen and not by the farmers.The present Government and ministers like Sharad Pawar, are totally responsible for such a mess. I also hold our PM and our ex Finance minister responsible for such a mess in spite of their reputation as great economists.
This shows the level of their administrative incompetence,political opportunism and corruption. Politicians have become insensitive and have started taking common people for granted. They just don't care for common people. Their much touted slogan "Congrees ka haath aam admi ke sath" is a political farce and a gimmick to make one billion people of this nation SUCKERS.
India is run by corrupt political class and therefore, I strongly believe, the common man will have to come on the road to teach these ARROGANT" political class a lesson.
The time is not too far I see when these looters will be taught a good lesson. Let anyone not take common people for granted.
The campaign by commoners such as this will soon catch like a wild fire when no one will be able to stop it.Because it's a power by itself and no one should try and play with it.
excellent inputs by news4u and vasu.
it shows people are waking up. but action is needed.
What India needs now is a REVOLUTION...Something massive something out of the box...to shake things up...what i do not understand is the political leaders hunger for money is never satisfied...Its like a black hole...money just vanishes...If all these leaders and their relatives are stripped off their wealth and that money we will realize that they have sucked onto more money then what brits took from this country...Int not just one perticular leader...its the entire range of them who are bafoons...mass can gather...ministers can be sacked...but the ones replacing them are equally bad...SO we do not have any option.
Nice article and to the point. But let us face the reality. No Govt. can curb food price inflation in any significant way once it has started taking place. The food price inflation today is the effect of decisions in the past to raise support prices to make peace with farmers' political lobby and shortfall in food production due to various reasons including seasonal rainfall/ draught distribution incidence unfavourable to sowing, planting and harvesting as also higher support prices leading to lower productivity and ineffective land utilisation in agriculture. Food price inflation will ease on its own as demand falls due to high prices and supply increases in this winter or the nest khariif season. Meanwhile, incomes of certain people would increase. But we won't accept this reality. So we shout and go on with blaming game and finding out who is responsible. That's not the way: unless Parliamentarians and MLAs are made to publicly state that the support price they give to the farmers would not cause food price rise, food prices will rise.
previous writer sen has tried to explain the situation.
but it is just our typical way of explaining away when things get difficult. in the end, the whole exrcise is only confined to finding excuses for failure.
i dont agree that support prices can cause so much increases on daily basis. whatever be the real reason or reasons, they stem for policy and implementation failures.
Thanks for the link
The real reason for this is that , wrong policy making.
Just remember story of a king who appointed monkey as his servant.
Saumin... you are right. REVOLUTION is the answer to this anarchy. when ruling class becomes characterless, self centered and opportunist.
But, REVOLUTION just doesn't happen like that.The common person has extream patience. Is tolerant to maximum limit.Can not factually come on the road as he/she does not have following. Only when the water goes over the head, and it becomes a matter of survival, common man gathers all his guts and REVOLT. That is when it is DO or Die situation.
People have started revolting against the corrupt system but you must understand for common people to come on the road is a very very difficult proposition. And this is where these corrupt politicians are getting a space to play their games with us. They know well, one or two or ten people's voice can be easily choked. They can be easily threatened to shut their mouths. Because the whole corrupt system is used and misused and abused under their rule. You and me are just small fries for them.
The reason why common people don't come forward is the fear of loosing everything. Because it is very true "Might is Right" and who has the time to fight against the might? Not the common man.
For things to change, it is very difficult in our country as your vote has no value.Vote Banks has. You and me netizens from these internet movements can only express our anguish and anger against this corrupt system and corrupt politicians. It can hardly make a difference.
What we need is one good leader of mass appeal with a vision and a Road map for our progress who is selfless, with a national character and pride. A person who can motivate masses with his/her appeal to REVOLT AGAINST THE SYSTEM.
Or else, you will find us only writing and merely talking without any results and ACTION.
Please don't get me wrong, but I do believe these forums, blogging are places to exchange views and ideas with open mind and can be looked at as spark plugs for ignition.
We need to seriously think of an ACTION PLAN. And FAST.
YES! I agree, there MUST be our participation in the DEMOCRATIC system IN CHANGING THINGS FOR GOOD.
I am utterly surprised to read Mr Basudeb Sen's comments.
With all due respect to Mr Sen, his attempt to convince people sounds naive and like an eyewash. He himself is giving reasons why prices have gone up and how? And he also explains where things have gone wrong.
Mr Sen, in case of food prices going up, we are not interested in knowing what is happening to inflation, import export, supply demand, the world crisis, and blah Blah Blah.
Ultimately, government's wrong policies or no right policies and lack of vision is responsible. What else?
Again, It is not as simple as it sounds, the vested interests of politicians, middle men, agents, and many others in this whole corrupt system are working in hand and glove in this loot.
Just today's report from one of the prominent TV channels was giving the figures of each commodity being purchased at what price and sold at what price to consumer.
Just to give you an idea, Tomatoes are purchased at Rs 12 per kg and sold to consumer for Rs 40 p. kg. Onions are purchased for Rs 6 p.kg and sold in the market for Rs 30 p kg. What is the reason for such a reap off?
And let me put it this way... if we have some incompetent Ministers in the Government who lack vision and proactive approach, they have no business to occupy positions in the ministry. They should step down and accept their failures to deliver.
We need competent, visionary people to run our country. We are not interested in listening to excuses for non performance.
I am saying this because we still can not provide basic needs to our people like water and electricity, in Urban cities. Let us not talk of rural conditions.
Mr Sen, what we see and experience is a plain simple truth. It is a completely mismanaged show because of No people oriented policies, corrupt practices, political opportunism, and lack of vision.
Whatever your argument for this government, this government has lost right to RULE if it has failed to see this disaster waiting to happen.
Let us stop passing the BUCK around.
news4u i agree.
no one is interested in excuses.
they have been voted as our representatives and they are simply betraying the ppl and their own pockets and bellies are getting bigger and bigger with ill gotten wealth.
pawar is a classic case. as the main article clearly says, all the excuses are ready, to be given out like a 'cheque return memo'. only thing is when a deposited cheque is returned by a bank, it gives reasons, not excuses.
also the earlier articles are really revealing how this man plays the game.
he should be kicked out first. let the people send their demand to the PM and President on their websites.
nice
Enough has been said by all commentators but it will not even touch the shameless politicians.
Here we are jst for commenting purpose so we are commentng,
if we gather for actng purpose then surley wil act, who are concern abt these issues,
www.gulmohar4u.blogspot.com
gulmohar
ok
Price rise can not be attributed to one factor only except the will to curve and the meak attitute of consumers toward sellers and hoarders BY Government and end user.
The inactions are causing unrest in the form of issues like
Separate states
Naxl movements
POLITICAL UNREST LIKE IN Maharashtare
The rescent cane march to Delhi
GOD SAVE THE QUEEN
pawar is a third rate jerk.
ZERO NO. 1 is correct.
throw him out.
pawar is the worst performing minister in the central government today. but his media management is excellent. so he survives
mote than PR (public relations), it is his MR (money relations) that have been saying him so far.
he is a blot on marathas.
I agree, His Highness Shree Sharad Pawar only understands " Money" language and you know in our country money only speaks. And if you have political power with money? then it is a super power.
I just heard his today's speech.. where he said (Pawarsaab)the "Global warming" is responsible for less produce and food shortage. And the result is price hike. And further he says, the world is facing this problem.
Just after that, I was watching an interesting debate on the same food prics and inflation issue on NDTV. There were two Economists of well repute. Lord Desai,from UK, who is considered to be the intelligent Economist in the world, told the Indian audience, the truth about how this present Manmohan singh government has mismanaged, mishandled and messed up the show on food policy and inflation issue.
According to both the economists ( I do not know the name of other gentleman who was in the debate but I only know he too is a well reputed economists) unbelievably, huge quantity of food grains are being lost to rats and pests in the godowns. Plus,for many thousands of tons of food grains, this government did not find storage. Can you believe that? Mr Desai accused this government squarely for not doing anything substantial in proactive manners to save and store the food. He also said point blank to Congress spokesperson that this government has not done anything and will not do anything for correcting the situation.Both the economists said this as a matter of fact.
They also said, both of them, if this governemnt wanted to control inflation and food prices, it could have been done in matter of just one month with change in policies. But they did not do it and they are not going to do it.
In fact both the economists, stated in clear cut terms what immediate measures should have been taken by this government that would have brought down rising inflation and food prices. I could see, they had solutions and ideas to turn the situation for desired results.
Coming this from an Economist like Lord Desai, I am convinced now, that this is a bigger political game being played with the Indians and right from Sharad Pawar to Manmohan Singh and his government are all involved in this politically motivated game.
I feel this simply because, if Lord Desai has to say this about this mess, how is that our PM who also is a well reputed economist failed understand and to take corrective measures in time? And it is not only PM, with him, there was Mr Chidumbarum, the then Finance Minister, again of an excellent reputation as Economist? How both failed in their judgments to read the situation correctly? I simply refuse to believe they failed. They did not. They simply played all together.
Why have this Congress government failed to deliver??
Only because, all the participants are the beneficiaries of it.
What Lord Desai said is known by the commoners, the aam admi.
The first action to be taken before anything is to sack this chor.
He also blamed the States again.
all his excuses are correctly listed by the article writer in main article. he has to just re-phrase them from time to time.
The biggest problem this nation is facing today is about "LEADERSHIP". Who is leading this government and this nation? Our PM. But our PM however, clean and non corrupt he may be, He is not taking any Bold decisions to change things for good. So what is the use of having a PM who is not capable of making decisions and make his cabinet ministers accountable for disastrous performance?
In plain simple terms, he can not lead, he can not deliver and he can not change things. If he is going to be silent spectator even after holding the highest office, for aam aadmi he is no good. However, as a person he may be clean, non corrupt. For me, being even a part of this political stage, it is as bad as participating and supporting the corrupt political system. So he is equally or even more responsible for this state of affairs.
Who can change the ministers? Who can sack the ministers? Not aam aadmi for sure. We can only express our displeasure and anger through such platforms. That's it. But who should really ACT?
We have a classic case of present Home Minister RR Patil of Maharashtra who proved to be completely inefficient, ineffective and incompetent in his performance and the result was 26/11. The failure was just not in one area but several. First, the intelligence failure, security agencies failure, administrative and handling of crisis of 26/11 was a bigger mess up. As a result, hundreds of innocents lost their lives and many hundreds of families lost their loved ones.
For the first time, common people came on the roads in protest against this utter failures on the part of government and Home minister in particular.There was a huge show by commoners asking for change.Yes, finally he was removed and also the then insensitive CM, Vilasrao Deshmukh got a boot.
And what has happened after the assembly elections?
Are the sensitivities and sentiments of people respected by this National front government? NO.
Bringing back RR Patil as Home minister once again was an insult to injury. It is insulting an intelligence of the common man. What else?
Where do you see in all this political drama... the government of the people, for the people and by the people?
It is Government of the politicians, for the politicians, by the politicians.
Aam Aadmi does not come into picture. These are merely slogans to make you SUCKERS.
who is the boss of rr patil?
you have the answer there.
as to mm singh, i fully agree.
agree with u...
but are politicians only responsible ???
why not to criticse but find solutions...
anonymous
yes the politicians particularly those who are at the helm of affairs now are squarely responsible.
People have to protesst. Solutions have to be found by those who created them and in ,fact, they ought to be made accountable for what they have done including for the losses to public exchequer.
Finding solutions is not a job of aam admi. To govern, plan, administer,execute and apply visionary policies, we elect our representatives who are suppose to solve our problems. We spend millions on them to take care of the Nation's development and progress, welfare of the electorates. If aam admi is expected to find solutions, why do we elect our representatives? And blow millions of rupees on them?
Yes, if we have elected them, we will expect them to perform and deliver. That is our democratic right. They must be made accountable and answerable to people. It surely is not a job of aam aadmi to find solutions to problems.
We voted for them. We gave them the powers. Now, they are in the office with all powers to make such policies which will make aam aadmi's life comfortable. If that is not happening, this whole exercise is useless and futile resulting into immense loss of taxpayers money.
Saying people are also responsible is purely passing on the buck. Saying, people must not just complain, criticize, but participate, get involved, find solutions, is nothing but a naive and gullible expression.
What can aam aadmi do? Except protest? You and me and millions like us can only protests from social platforms like this.And nothing more can be done as a matter of fact. But we MUST protest and this is what exactly we are doing here.
Registering our protest against the incompetent, corrupt, dishonest elected government which simply has failed to deliver to the expectations of aam aadmi.
I feel and I think, this too is my active participation in a small way to CHANGE THINGS.
I want CHANGE. I WANT VISIONARY to lead. I want my government to deliver.I am not interested in stories. I am not interested in excuses. I want to see results.
news4u
thats the correct approach.
as regards the problem under discussion, we must all ask president and PM to dump this big zero.
PM has to be requsted on his website feedback.
president email address is:
presidentofindia@rb.nic.in
for good measure tell pranab too:
pkm@sansad.nic.in
let others be encouraged to do the same.
sharad pawar is a true visionary. he visualizes opportunity to make money out of thin air.
It was very interesting for me to read that post. Thanx for it. I like such themes and anything that is connected to this matter. BTW, why don't you change design :).
It is annoying now to see Shard Pawar's latest statement given to press two days back.
Milk consumption is gone up and so the price of milk too will go up??
He says this on purpose every time and indirectly gives message to commodity sellers. In this case message is to milk suppliers, ohk buddy s, I have spilled the beans, hike the rates Now, stuff your pockets and ours. He did that last time about sugar prices.
It is a clever and cunning way to manipulate prices without becoming a part of the larger scam. And then cleverly say, Didn't I warn you???
And on the other hand a message to you and me gullible goats is.. I am not responsible, some other factors are responsible and I am just making you aware as a Minister. Mr Pawar, your job ends here looks like?
Are you sitting there as a Minister to tell us that which commodity price is going to go up now???
Or holding a ministerial post to take a proactive approach to counter it so that prices are controlled by policy decisions? Visionary planing?
If you have failed to see what is coming in future as a result of present situation, whatever that may be, You must take full responsibility and QUIT. Not give excuses. There are people who have better ideas and solutions to solve problems.
It is a sheer ARROGANCE of Dr Manmohan Singh's Government to take a mute position and see everything as a silent spectator just because their coalition partnership is at stake.
This is where Dr Manmohan Singh and his team of ministers, his high command are all getting exposed of dishonest stand that only proves beyond doubts one thing... that is, their personal interests in enjoying POWER, its super benefits and RULE the nation is supreme.
To all of them, the national interest and the nation, and citizens of this nation are of no significance at all.
Above all this, it is only the selfish considerations of personal gains.
And that 's why it is a serious issue of concern that every thinking person needs to raise.
news4u
your anger is well founded.
please see the new article.
Post a Comment