It is tragic an insensitive government doesn’t learn lessons from such fiasco. On October 30,Delhiwitnessed another sports spectacle, the Formula One motor race launched from the Buddh international circuit. The three-day entertainment for the elite will cost around  Rs 2000 crores.  This time the funds come from private players and not tax payers. Yet at display is the nation’s quest for grandeur.

In every such instance of wastage of precious resources, the day of deliverance of the masses from grinding poverty gets postponed. When the country signs agreements for massive purchase of arms to gain parity withPakistan, the same is the impact. Pride prompts a nation to buy guns to fight than to procure food to feed the hungry.

But the process can not continue indefinitely. The growing inequalities will some day lead to explosive situations. It is happening in nations that are supposed to be prosperous and impregnable. The ‘Occupy Wall Street’ movement in the US and in some European nations is an indication of things in store.

Formula One

Television channels and newspapers are full of details of the forthcoming spectacle and the stars who would be participating. Such events are made crazier by the volume of glamour and fulsome praise showered on them by commentators, advertisers and the corporates. The media had been having a gala time with the commencement of the Commonwealth Games, then there was the Anna Hazare show and then the Modi parade.

In all these, the media is giving a false picture of the national scene and often catering to the tastes of a leisurely middle class that is craving for entertainment. The channels and the print media have another pet subject: cricket and cricketers.

There is a section of people in this country obsessed with national pride and they keep on drumming into our ears that the nation is soon going to be a superpower. We have the best athletes, best cricketers, best technocrats, best educational institutions, our brains are better than those of the Americans, our culture and our religions are superior so goes the boast. We have the Taj Mahal, the Bollywood and our millionaires and billionaires are buying up the industrial empires of theUSandUK.

What we would like to hide are the shanties, the slums in the metropolitan towns where our brothers and sisters live almost like dumb animals. Basic amenities like safe drinking water, education and nutritious food are beyond their reach. To claim that we are a super power while a large majority live on Rs 26 to Rs 32 a day is an affront to the poor of this land.

Reordering

More than an anti-corruption campaign we need to reorder our development priorities so that we provide a level playing field that would lift up the poor and weaker sections.

Malls, huge airports, highways and flyovers and residential complexes with modern  facilities for the middle class are being developed at a feverish pace while basic facilities like shelter and cheap transport are unavailable for those living below the poverty line.

And the corporate houses and multinationals are exploiting the Indian market to amass wealth for themselves. The balance sheets of multinationals and giant enterprises are sophisticated instruments that hide the fact of their getting fattened at the expense of the masses. We have luxurious cars overflowing our streets and skyscrapers dotting the skyline. But millions go to bed hungry in this same nation.

At one time under a false socialism we encouraged a licence-permit raj promoting corruption within the bureaucracy in a big way. Today under a liberal economic policy we are encouraging corruption by the big corporates and multinationals who with their army of professionals maximize profits and rob the common people of their legitimate share in increased productivity. Thus the rich getting richer and the poor getting poorer has a parallel to what is happening in theUS.

InIndiawe never had a level playing field because the caste system managed to keep large masses of people oppressed and deprived of ordinary rights and privileges.

Wall Street Stir

The Occupy Wall Street Movement in theUSand elsewhere is a protest against such lopsided development and inequalities. Some people said the street protesters are losers who are jealous of the smart guys in suits who beat them at the game of life. It is not anger over having lost. The government is siding with the richand their institutions.

Ordinary people have to borrow their money at market rates. Big institutions like Lloyd Blankfein and Jamie Dimon get billions of dollars for free, from the Federal Reserve. They borrow at zero and lend the same money back to the government at two or three percent, a valuable public service otherwise known as “standing in the middle and taking a gigantic cut when the government decides to lend money to itself.”

Or the banks borrow billions at zero and lend mortgages to the common man at four percent, or credit cards at twenty or twenty-five percent. This is essentially an official government license to be rich, handed out at the expense of prudent ordinary citizens, who now no longer receive much interest on their CDs or other saved income.

The creation of special economic zones, tax concessions to new businesses and land acquisition from farmers and others for public projects have led to protests in our country as the government is seen as helping the rich to get richer at the expense of th  poor.

The materialism of the rich taking the form of greed and exploitation of the weak is an infectious disease that calls for spiritual healing. There are reports that faith communities are also taking part in the agitation against ‘Wall Street’ or what it stands for. The upper rich and upper caste classes in our own nation has not given a good account of themselves when it comes to ensuring distributive justice. Both communism and capitalism had failed to answer the call for justice, equality and righteousness. And economics without ethics could prove disastrous in the long run.

Source: Praise The Almighty
Date: November 17, 2011