The elections of 2009, are special for every reason, apart from the media hype and bundle of promises from politicians, it has failed to generate meaningful and implementable debate among the polity of this country , issues such as terrorism, communal hate speeches , casteism are being once again raised to get the much needed easy votes . But , what is interesting and note worthy is that, the end of 2008 and the beginning of 2009, saw an unprecedented rise in prices of essential food items with inflation in India touching whooping 11% and coming back at a deflationary stage (drastic decrease or a downward movement of prices ) of around 1% or so. even while the world reels under global recession, its political significance at a policy level still looks minuscule going by the ignorance , if not the callous attitude among the political parties in India.
None of our politicians and even their much hyped political honchos have spoken about revitalizing the economy in the face of global recession and the economy's over dependence on the volatile U.S market , barring few statements about its "affects" on the poor ( obviously forming the basis for populist policies ) . the talk or even the idea of economic plan for coming years have few takers in this country.
Outsourcing Backlash and Job losses in India and political ignorance :
there is no doubt, that there exists a direct relation between globalization and its impact on national economies as it is evident from the fact, that it creates Jobs at one geographic location and contention at another location, owing to political backlashes and public outcry over fears of Job loss and its effects on domestic economies . it is a known fact that much of the western hemisphere outsources its work to India in virtually every aspect of Business operations be at technical or functional levels. But with recession in financial markets , coupled with rising unemployment and political pressure in west against outsourcing , especially against cheaper locations such as India, the result could be Bad news for India , if not worst. Already some Lakhs of Jobs have been lost in India , sectors such as textiles in areas like Coimbatore , Salem and Ludhiana are witnessing bad times. the same logic applies to the much hyped India's IT story , which relies heavily on the financial markets of the west for maintainence and repair of their operations especially on the instruments that facilitated the recent credit crisis like the Derivatives. needless to say , many of the home grown vendors like Wipro, TCS et all, have avoided , if not decreased their recruitment plans, which unchecked could lead to stagnation or addition in an already unemployed atmosphere. add to this , some of the U.S based companies , are even considering to transfer / abandon their work from India to create more Jobs on their respective home turfs to help their economies . on the other side some companies have virtually asked their employees in india to leave as they don't have any tangible work to pay them . A recent Economic times report says that , the process of Job losses could continue , even in near future and as much as 100,000 are at stake in cities like Gurgaon, Hyderabad and Bangalore , especially in IT and BPO domains. At a more fundamental level, educational standards in india have been miserably low , owing to poor standards of state universities and lack of innovation in the higher education segment , which tend to supplement or perhaps act as catalyst in increasing unemployment and underdevelopment. the analysis here does not take pessimistic versus optimistic stand , rather it explains a realistic view point of prevailing conditions in India and the degree of callous nature with which political economy exists in India.
No politician , No party has raised critical issues such as unemployment , inflation and the over dependence of India on volatile U.S or western markets at a practical level during this campaign . the very silence and ineffective communication between the average Indian electorate and major parties is a testimony of ignorance on the part of politicians, which is bubble in waiting to explode .
Make your fellow citizens Beggars, they will fetch you Power ! :
A dangerous trend in the evolution of democracy is being witnessed in india, it goes with a saying that " Give someone a fish and you feed him for a day , teach someone to fish and you feed him for a life time " instead of empowering fellow citizens , the political parties are setting a dangerous trend of promises versus delivery formula. this proposition involves , give and take philosophy ideally practiced in India (shrewdly) . cheap promises (culture) that make fellow citizens to expect freebies is being systematically cultivated , thus , making fellow citizens as virtual beggars , who are ready to give votes , when showered with freebies. some of the freebies coupled with populist policies include:
* Rs 2 per Kg rice
* Money for girl child
* free power
* Distribution of Money to praise leaders (politicians)
some states in down south have gone a step further , of promising color Televisions if voted to power . through these cheap tactics , the very basic idea of empowerment and harnessing the power of human resources is being systematically degenerated , by making fellow citizens as virtual beggars and reserving the role of a politician as a person involved in charity.
Given these facts, one interesting fact emerges out that , in today's scenario an average politician's income has increased exponentially , he is now a Arabpati (billionaire ) rather than crorepati (millionaire) . some politicians run colleges, "farm lands", trusts (to generate black revenues) . with their affidavits showing incomes in millions of rupees , what is again note worthy is that , these very super rich politicians never spoke a single word on recession and its impact on the indian economy in the midst of globalization process .
all these leads us to a understanding that , ignorance on part of voters and loop holes with in the system often results in leadership , which can be incompetent and more so unassertive on public policy domain , the end result during election campaign would definitely be narrating sensational stories, creating make belief environments of threat , excessive use of populist announcements to lure voters, instead of holistic approach towards development. Democracy gives everyone the chance to speak his / her mind , but at times in an over crowded atmosphere e, the real issues and its implementation aspect take the worst hit, making political economy the ultimate victim of politics.
None of our politicians and even their much hyped political honchos have spoken about revitalizing the economy in the face of global recession and the economy's over dependence on the volatile U.S market , barring few statements about its "affects" on the poor ( obviously forming the basis for populist policies ) . the talk or even the idea of economic plan for coming years have few takers in this country.
Outsourcing Backlash and Job losses in India and political ignorance :
there is no doubt, that there exists a direct relation between globalization and its impact on national economies as it is evident from the fact, that it creates Jobs at one geographic location and contention at another location, owing to political backlashes and public outcry over fears of Job loss and its effects on domestic economies . it is a known fact that much of the western hemisphere outsources its work to India in virtually every aspect of Business operations be at technical or functional levels. But with recession in financial markets , coupled with rising unemployment and political pressure in west against outsourcing , especially against cheaper locations such as India, the result could be Bad news for India , if not worst. Already some Lakhs of Jobs have been lost in India , sectors such as textiles in areas like Coimbatore , Salem and Ludhiana are witnessing bad times. the same logic applies to the much hyped India's IT story , which relies heavily on the financial markets of the west for maintainence and repair of their operations especially on the instruments that facilitated the recent credit crisis like the Derivatives. needless to say , many of the home grown vendors like Wipro, TCS et all, have avoided , if not decreased their recruitment plans, which unchecked could lead to stagnation or addition in an already unemployed atmosphere. add to this , some of the U.S based companies , are even considering to transfer / abandon their work from India to create more Jobs on their respective home turfs to help their economies . on the other side some companies have virtually asked their employees in india to leave as they don't have any tangible work to pay them . A recent Economic times report says that , the process of Job losses could continue , even in near future and as much as 100,000 are at stake in cities like Gurgaon, Hyderabad and Bangalore , especially in IT and BPO domains. At a more fundamental level, educational standards in india have been miserably low , owing to poor standards of state universities and lack of innovation in the higher education segment , which tend to supplement or perhaps act as catalyst in increasing unemployment and underdevelopment. the analysis here does not take pessimistic versus optimistic stand , rather it explains a realistic view point of prevailing conditions in India and the degree of callous nature with which political economy exists in India.
No politician , No party has raised critical issues such as unemployment , inflation and the over dependence of India on volatile U.S or western markets at a practical level during this campaign . the very silence and ineffective communication between the average Indian electorate and major parties is a testimony of ignorance on the part of politicians, which is bubble in waiting to explode .
Make your fellow citizens Beggars, they will fetch you Power ! :
A dangerous trend in the evolution of democracy is being witnessed in india, it goes with a saying that " Give someone a fish and you feed him for a day , teach someone to fish and you feed him for a life time " instead of empowering fellow citizens , the political parties are setting a dangerous trend of promises versus delivery formula. this proposition involves , give and take philosophy ideally practiced in India (shrewdly) . cheap promises (culture) that make fellow citizens to expect freebies is being systematically cultivated , thus , making fellow citizens as virtual beggars , who are ready to give votes , when showered with freebies. some of the freebies coupled with populist policies include:
* Rs 2 per Kg rice
* Money for girl child
* free power
* Distribution of Money to praise leaders (politicians)
some states in down south have gone a step further , of promising color Televisions if voted to power . through these cheap tactics , the very basic idea of empowerment and harnessing the power of human resources is being systematically degenerated , by making fellow citizens as virtual beggars and reserving the role of a politician as a person involved in charity.
Given these facts, one interesting fact emerges out that , in today's scenario an average politician's income has increased exponentially , he is now a Arabpati (billionaire ) rather than crorepati (millionaire) . some politicians run colleges, "farm lands", trusts (to generate black revenues) . with their affidavits showing incomes in millions of rupees , what is again note worthy is that , these very super rich politicians never spoke a single word on recession and its impact on the indian economy in the midst of globalization process .
all these leads us to a understanding that , ignorance on part of voters and loop holes with in the system often results in leadership , which can be incompetent and more so unassertive on public policy domain , the end result during election campaign would definitely be narrating sensational stories, creating make belief environments of threat , excessive use of populist announcements to lure voters, instead of holistic approach towards development. Democracy gives everyone the chance to speak his / her mind , but at times in an over crowded atmosphere e, the real issues and its implementation aspect take the worst hit, making political economy the ultimate victim of politics.
1 comments:
Well said Vinay . This post is valid in the current scenario and very well written . I hope that the Indian Voter reads this
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