‘A government of the rich, by the rich…’!

 

‘A government of the rich, by the rich…’!

 

At a press conference on 1 February 2024, following the presentation of Interim Budge by the Finance Minister Nirmala Sitharaman, P Chidambaram, former Finance Minister, who presented a record 11 Union budgets, said: “By deliberate neglect over the last 10 years, the government has destroyed the demographic dividend story and dashed the hopes of millions of youth and their families. It is a government of the rich, by the rich and for the rich. The government is either ignorant or callous to the fact that the top 10% owns 60% of the nation's wealth and earns 57% of the national income, and that income inequality has widened significantly in the last 10 years.” He charged the budget is silent on rampant unemployment and falling per capita income. India is behind its neighbors on macroeconomic indicators such as per capita income growth and efficiency of capital. Its per capita income growth is the second lowest in the region. In terms of incremental capital income ratio, India is rubbing shoulders with Nepal and is worse off than Pakistan, Bangladesh and Bhutan.

A study conducted by Omar Karlsson of Duke University, the US, and Rockli Kim, a public heath researcher of Korea, based on the Union health ministry’s survey for 2019-2021, the 'zero-food' children-infants aged between six months and 24 months- who had nothing to eat for entire day, that is 24 hours, account for about 7 million. This is the third highest 19.3% among 92 countries, after Guinea and Mali. The figures are much lower in Bangladesh (5.6 %), Nigeria (8,8%) and Ethiopia (14.8 %). 

 

In his column in The Sunday Express, 26 February,2023, Chidambaram wrote:

 

The bottom 50 per cent of the people own just 3 per cent of the wealth … the Global Multidimensional Poverty Index estimated that 16 per cent of the population of India (22.4 crore) is poor…  in the Global Hunger Index 2022, India slipped from rank 101 to 107 of 123 countries …the widespread prevalence of anemia among women (57 per cent) and child stunting (36per cent) and child-wasting (19 per cent) among children under age 5 … malnourishment is the main cause of anemia, stunting and wasting … the Budget for POSHAN (mid-day meal scheme) in 2023-24 was reduced by Rs.1,200 crore … the subsidy for food has been cut by a humongous sum of Rs.80,000 crore in 2023-24 … the subsidy for fertilizers has been cut by Rs.60,000 cores in 2023-24 … there are 1,17,000schools that are single-teacher schools and nearly 16 percent (16,630) of such schools are in Madhya Pradesh alone ... there are 84,405 vacancies in the Central Armed Police Force … In the 23 IITs there are 3,253 vacant teaching posts … in the 55 central universities, there are 6,180 vacant teaching posts … the posts are vacant because there are no qualified teachers or no money to employ them.  

 

The so-called welfare schemes are a camouflage to cover up the all-round failure of the government. The beneficiaries of MGNREGA and PDS, the schemes supposed to benefit the people at the bottom of social pyramid, are required to digitize their Aadhar Cards to avail the benefits. Consequently, millions of illiterate and semi-literate disposed and deprived sections- the poorest of the poor- who ought to be the fight claimants of the benefits are denied the benefits, because of their inability to understand the process of digitization; nor do they have the where withal required for it. False inflated and fudged figures are thrown up to show how successful are the government’s welfare schemes, like direct benefit transfer (DBT), Ujjwala scheme etc., to name a few. There is no money in the most of the DBT bank accounts. Similarly, much published free LPG cylinders to the BPL families, under the Ujjwala scheme, is a miserable failure, as the people are unable to fill the cylinders due to exorbitant increase in prices.

 

The Indian Railways- the largest national transporter- is mismanaged with lakhs of posts remaining vacant. The ordinary citizens’ travel in the Railways is very pathetic. While the government talks of bullet train and new Vande Bharat trains, and more AC coaches etc. to benefit the better off, the ordinary passengers are traveling in general coaches in appalling conditions. The touts   and the travel agents, in connivance with the railway officials, grab the reservation seats, make a killing due to online reservation racket. The Tatkal booking is just not accessible to the poor and the common man.

 

Rahul Gandhi, who is on a Bharat Jodo Nyay Yatra, has alleged:

 

Amidst a 10 per cent increase in fare every year, loot in the name of dynamic fare, rising cancellation charges and expensive platform tickets, people are being lured by showing them a picture of an elite train that the poor cannot even set foot on, the government has collected Rs. 3,700 crore from senior citizens in three years by snatching away the exemptions to them. The common people are made to languish to give precedence to the trains selected for publicity. A huge public money is spent to create selfie-points at important railway stations to promote Narendra Modi, when the Railways do not have money to provide even basic facilities and improve the passengers travelling condition. And the poor and the middle-class passengers are left out of railways’ priority. While increasing the number of AC coaches, the number of general coaches is reduced (FPJ 4/3).

 

That the Modi government is indeed a government of the rich, by the rich and for the rich is demonstrated by the manner in which the three-day- 1-3 March- pre-wedding ceremonies of the son of a billionaire are conducted. Bollywood and Hollywood celebs and famous persons from various walks of life have all converged in Jamnagar, for the pre-wedding celebrations of Anant Ambani, son of Mukesh Ambani, CMD, Reliance Industries Ltd.  Bill Gates, Microsoft Founder; Mark Zuckerberg, Meta CEO, along with his wife, Ivanka Trump with her family, and the who is who of B-town and corporate bigwigs along with intranational personalities flew to Gujarat for the extravaganza. The Khans of Bollywood- Salman, Shah Rukh and Aamir- set the dance floor on fire. Pop Star Rihana was paid a whopping 5 million sterling pounds for her dazzling performance. It is a display of pump and show - flaunting wealth - by the richest man in a poor country, where more than 80 crore dispossessed people depend on government free ration for survival, who have no access to good public health system and whose children are deprived of quality public education and in a country where the unemployment is all time high, with more than 42 per cent graduates unemployed, facing a grim uncertain future, which is aggravated due to lakhs of posts in  central  and state governments lying vacant. 

 

The Modi government has collaborated with the wedding bash of Anant Ambani and Radhika Merchant. It is a star-studded showbiz spectacle, a display of stinking wealth, and the power of business and entertainment world. The Hindu (2/3) reported that the Jamnagar airport was declared an international airport for 10 days- February 25 to March 5. As global bigwigs descended on the Gujarat city for the three-day pre-wedding bash, the Union Health Ministry, Finance Ministry and Home Ministry, going out of way, have pressed in resources to set up a Custom and Immigration facility at the airport. The Airports Authority of India (AAI) erected a passenger terminal building for the purpose. And the Air Force permitted access to its sensitive ‘technical’ area. A total of 140 aircraft movements were being permitted, as against the usual six movements at the airport. In preparation for the massive inflow of guests, the AAI expanded the size of its passenger building from 475 sq. m. to 900 sq. m. allowing it to accommodate nearly 360 passengers as compared to 180 earlier. The airport also enhanced manpower, 35 housekeeping staff have been added to the existing strength of 16, and ground handling agencies raised to 125 from 65 agencies.  

 

This special treatment of a select few corporates could happen only in Modi’s India. In today’s India, some are special and enjoy special privileges, not available to ordinary folks. They are more than equal and above the law. The nexus between the Modi government and the billionaire Mukesh Ambani is obvious. It is crony capitalism and corporate oligarchy that monopolize and controls practically every domain. This explains, in a way, the monetary power of the ruling party and the unequal electoral battle of the opposition.