Inflation in benefit of farmers, really!

Saswat Panigrahi

Beni Prasad Verma has now stoked a new row. At a time when rising inflation has left the common man bruised, the Union Minister for Steel came up with a theory which literally stunned the nation. He said that he was "happy" with the soaring prices of food items because according to him, inflation was beneficial to the farmers.

Verma went on to blame the media which was reporting the rise in prices of essential commodities as it was. "Media kehti hai ki khane ki thali mehngi ho gayi hai.. .Isse fayada kisano ka hai, aur sarkar kisano ke fayda ki pakshdhar hai" (Media says cost of food plate has increased but it is benefitting farmers...But, this is helping the farmers. And the government is in favour of farmers’ profit).

Beni Prasad is a senior minister in the Union cabinet and so what he says will be read as the voice of the UPA government.

Remember, another senior Union Minister P Chidambaram recently mocked at the middle class, saying “It cribs too much about price rise”. “The middle class is ready to pay for mineral water and ice cream, but can't bear an increase of Re 1 in price of wheat and rice”, Chidambaram had said.

Excuses, excuses and more excuses – for the ever increasing price rise!

It is no secret that the common

man has been suffering enormously on account of the reckless policy of UPA government. Experts have time and again blamed the government for many of the economic woes that the country has been facing today.

Annual inflation in food articles was pegged at 10.06 percent in July 2010. The figure has been burning holes in common man’s pocket. But the government seems be in a state of inertia and is said to be least bothered, even though the new Finance Minister P Chidambaram has promised to get the economy back on track.

On several occasions, the UPA government has tried to come out with the theory of “imported inflation” and blamed the rise of prices on global phenomenon.

Two global rating agencies - Moody's and Standard and Poor's (S&P) – had severely indicted the Congress-led UPA for pushing India to an economic brink.

Moody's Analytics had said that India was growing but below its potential and blamed UPA government’s politics for weighing on the economy.

As if that was not enough, another report by S&P blamed the UPA leadership for the current economic impasse.

But the government continues to live in denial.

Well… A government which has abysmally failed to rein in the rise in food prices has now come up with a flawed theory to defend its inability. If this is not being insensitive than what is?

It is ironical that the government has suddenly awakened from deep slumber to sympathise with the farmers and in a bid to project itself as a champion of farmers’ cause, a senior minister comes up with - “Price rise is in the interest of the farmers.”

UPA’s new theory to defend inflation is filled with flaws to say the least. One can explain how -

Farmers solely depend on agricultural produce to earn their livelihood. But they never get the supportive price for the products. They mostly sell their agricultural produce to the middle men (traders as they are known as).

When the price of food item increases, it doesn’t swell the farmers’ coffers. It mostly benefits traders or middlemen.

It is unfortunate that the nation is being headed by an economist Prime Minister, whose minister fails to understand this simple logic of economics.

Ramdev’s anti-corruption movement turns political?

Saswat Panigrahi

Baba Ramdev’s satyagraha on the twin issue of corruption and black money ended with the yoga guru courting arrest along with his supporters while trying to march towards Parliament.

To be noted is the fact that his three day fast starting from August 09 extended to five days, with Ramdev waiting in vain for the Congress-led government at the Centre to meet his demands.

While some of the observers are still struggling to decipher what Ramdev’s agitation has achieved so far, one can safely say that the yoga guru has succeeded in creating an anti-establishment storm.

This despite the fact that the crowd at his fast venue was not as substantial as the Baba may have expected it to be. However, the last day of his protest did see a multitude of people thronging to accompany Ramdev in his march towards Parliament.

But as was expected, Ramdev along with his supporters was detained by the police and taken to a makeshift jail in Ambedkar Stadium only to be released later on.

Nonetheless, even with the police not seeing any merit in holding back the yoga guru any longer, the show encompassing Baba Ramdev

does not seem to be over and one may as well see its reverberations in the days to come.

In the course of his fast Ramdev reiterated time and again that his movement was no "political" and that it had "social and democratic agenda" but reading between the lines one may not be so sure of the same.

Baba Ramdev’s August revolution is the replay of his June 2011 movement, which ended with a mid-night crack down on the yoga guru and his peaceful protesters at Ramlila Maidan.

After taking a beating initially, what added credence and weight to Ramdev’s fast this time around was the presence of key Opposition leaders at Ramlila Maidan and sharing the dais with the yoga guru. The list included BJP president Nitin Gadkari, JD(U) chief and NDA convener Sharad Yadav and Janata Party president Subramanian Swamy, who took the opportunity to slam the ruling establishment. Earlier BJD and TDP had also sent their emissaries to Ramdev’s protest venue.

So can it be said that with the presence of a galaxy of leaders, most of them from the NDA fold, a movement which started as one against corruption has ended with it becoming a movement against the ruling Congress? In this context, can one say that the beneficiary of Ramdev’s movement is the Opposition? Or shall one say that the Opposition is hijacking Ramdev’s agenda?

Well there are obvious reasons why the Opposition parties are inclining towards the yoga guru.

Seeing Ramdev’s massive clout, the Opposition jumped on the bandwagon of the yoga guru, to convert it into a wave against the Congress. With 2014 General Elections round the corner, why would the BJP and the likes miss this opportunity?

With the Centre ignoring him completely, the yoga guru has now said that he will go among the people to spread the following messages:

1. The Congress-led UPA is shielding black money holders. 

2. The government does not want a strong Lokpal Bill.

Since the beginning of his protest Ramdev kept exhorting the government at the Centre to heed to his demands and take crucial decisions but it was not to be. Despite Ramdev extending his fast and giving the government more time, he got only silence from the other end. Did this prompt the movement to turn political?

Remember, Ramdev wrote a letter to Prime Minister Manmohan Singh listing his demands. His demands included bringing back black money stashed in tax havens, enacting a strong Lokpal Bill and making the process of appointment of Election Commission, Director of CBI, CAG and CVC transparent.

So can we conclude that to ignore Baba Ramdev this time around (after sending five union ministers to the airport to receive him last year) was a well thought out strategy on the part of the ruling party?

The government is free to ignore the yoga guru, but it can’t afford to brush aside the issues he raised. But so far the Congress-led UPA has shown no effective, meaningful or visible action to rein in corruption and bring back black money.

The moot question is – Will the grand old party have to pay a price for this in the next General Elections?

Whose vote bank will Team Anna eat into?

Saswat Panigrahi

Political parties must now be a worried lot as Team Anna has announced its plans to make a political debut. But whose vote bank will the anti-corruption group eat into?

Though the two main national parties – the Congress and the BJP – have welcomed Team Anna’s new move, both are chalking out their respective strategies in advance to deal with the pressure group in the electoral battlefield.

The Congress is worried as the Anna movement is directly targeting the party and its government. Anna Hazare and his team have been fighting for a strong Lokpal Bill. The team has leveled allegations of corruption against as many as 15 Union Ministers in the UPA-2 government, among whom most are Congress men. They have demanded setting up of a Special Investigation Team (SIT) to probe the charges. But so far, the Congress and the UPA government have remained unmoved.

On corruption allegations against the ministers, the UPA government and the Congress party have continued to maintain a stoic approach by calling the allegations “wild” and “baseless”. On Lokpal, the government and the party have rather chosen to remain defiant. The UPA government has passed a cosmetic Lokpal Bill in the Lok Sabha, where it has the numbers. But when the bill came to the Rajya Sabha, the government ensured voting was not held. By doing so, the Congress-led UPA has made its intentions clear - it is not bothered about reining in corruption.

Come election, Team Anna will go to people to send the message across. And this is no good news for the opposition BJP either. The BJP has partially failed to put a corruption-tainted UPA government on the mat. While the saffron party has said that Team Anna cannot be an alternative to it but still, the party is worried as it thinks that the pressure group is eating into much of its anti-Congress space.

The Congress party is a master of strategy. The grand old party knows how to shoot down Team Anna. Moreover, the Congress is aware that it has a bigger stake in rural pockets than urban, as the educated middle class normally votes for the BJP and its allies. It is also a fact that the educated middle class has been inspired by the Team Anna movement.

With Team Anna hijacking the campaign theme of the BJP, the saffron party is facing a perceived threat from the pressure group. Team Anna’s political venture is likely to cut into urban support pockets of the BJP rather than the Congress.Despite this, Team Anna will be a toned down version of a political party. They might even lose their deposits in most of the constituencies. Because, running a political party is no child’s play. The Indian National Congress was founded in 1885 as a movement to fight against the British rule. It was registered as a political party in 1947. Similarly, the Bharatiya Jana Sangh was formed in 1951 by legendry Syama Prasad Mookerjee. Later, it was renamed as the BJP in 1980. It took decades for the Jan Sangh to transform into a full-fledged political movement.

In sharp contrast, Team Anna lives in a utopia world. “People will select the candidates. They will decide the manifesto,” Team Anna member Arvind Kejriwal said.

Team Anna which was denigrating the politicians and political parties has now preferred to dive into politics. Without a clear cut idea and agenda, the road ahead for the pressure group hazy. Anna’s party has yet to born. But the BJP has to seriously rethink its strategy if it wants to win the next election.