A rural Indian spending Rs. 22.50 a day would not be considered poor by a Planning Commission whose Deputy Chairman's foreign trips between May and October last year cost a daily average of Rs. 2.02 lakh
Pranab Mukherjee's stirring call for austerity tugs at the national tear ducts. Prime Minister Manmohan Singh has pleaded for it in the past and watched his flock embrace it creatively. With the Finance Ministry even acting on Dr. Singh's call in 2009 (economy class air travel, spending cuts), we are now in the fourth year of our noble quest.
There are, of course, several kinds of austerity. My pick would be the variety practised by Planning Commission Deputy Chairman Montek Singh Ahluwalia. No one can challenge Dr. Ahluwalia's commitment to austerity. Look at the way he's stood up to the populist demand for a poverty line that makes sense. No pampering people here. Spend Rs. 29 a day in urban India or Rs. 23 in rural India and you are not poor. He's even asked the Supreme Court to uphold the imposition of such rigour on hundreds of millions of his fellow citizens. One affidavit filed by the Planning Commission defended a line of Rs. 32 (urban) and Rs. 26 (rural) a day. Since then, the Padma Vibhushan awardee and some of his colleagues have stuck their necks out to lower that further.
RTI queries
That Dr. Ahluwalia practises austerity himself is evident from two RTI queries. Both fine examples of RTI-based journalism, but failing to get the attention they deserved. Both exploring the anatomy of his austerity. One was a story in India Today (covering Dr. Ahluwalia's foreign trips between June 2004 and January 2011) by Shyamlal Yadav. This journalist (now with The Indian Express), has done outstanding RTI-based stories in the past as well.
The other, in February this year, came from The Statesman News Service (reporter unnamed). This one took out details on Dr. Ahluwalia's global forays between May and October 2011. In that period, he undertook “four trips covering 18 nights [which] cost the exchequer a sum of Rs. 36,40,140, an average cost of Rs 2.02 lakh a day,” says the SNS report.
At the time this happened, that Rs. 2.02 lakh would have been worth $4,000 a day. (Gee! Lucky for us Montek was into austerity. Imagine what his expenditure might have been otherwise). That is a daily spend almost 9,000 times greater than the 45 cents cut-off point at which rural Indians would be doing okay, in his view. Or over 7,000 times greater than the 55 cents cut-off point for urban Indians that Dr. Ahluwalia would find “normatively adequate.”
Now his spend of Rs. 3.6 million (or $72,000) in 18 days might well have been his personal stimulus to global tourism in that year. After all, the industry in 2010 was still recovering from the ravages of 2008-09, as the United Nations World Tourism Organisation points out. The U.N. agency found, on the other hand, that 2011 saw global travel revenues cross $1 trillion. The largest revenue increases were seen in the U.S. and Europe (where most of those 18 days were spent). The Indian public can rejoice over its money playing a humble part in that recovery even while scorched by austerity at home.
The stats from the Shyamlal Yadav's RTI are fascinating. To begin with, his findings show Dr. Ahluwalia made 42 official foreign trips and spent 274 days overseas during a seven-year tenure. That is “one in every nine days” abroad. And that's excluding travel days. The India Today story found that his excursions cost the exchequer Rs.2.34 crore. However, it points out that they received three different estimates of the costs of his trips and charitably went with the lowest. Also, said the India Today story, “it is not clear whether the figures include the expenses incurred by Indian embassies abroad on frills such as hiring limousines. The actual costs could be a lot higher.”
Since the post he holds does not require so much foreign travel — all of it done, though, with “the permission of the Prime Minister” — this is puzzling. That 23 of the 42 trips were to the U.S., which does not believe in planning (but then, perhaps, neither does Dr. Ahluwalia), is even more puzzling. What were these trips about? Spreading global awareness on austerity? If so, we'll have to spend more on his travel: look at those revolting Greeks killing the Cause on the streets of Athens. And even more on his trips to the U.S. where the austerity of the affluent is striking. CEOs in that country took home billions in bonuses even in 2008, the year Wall Street tanked the global economy. This year, even the media journals of the super-rich in the U.S. write about CEOs destroying their companies, jobs and more — and gaining personally from it. Millions of Americans, including many who suffered home mortgage foreclosures, saw a different kind of austerity. The kind the French increasingly fear and have voted against.
When Dr. Singh pleaded for austerity in 2009, his Cabinet rose handsomely to the call. Each member added a modest million rupees a month thereafter, on average, to his or her assets over the next 27 months. All the while, hard at work as Ministers. (“The Union Cabinet gets healthier,” The Hindu, September 21, 2011). Praful Patel excelled, adding on average, half-a-million rupees to his assets every 24 hours in that period. Workers in Air India, under a Ministry he headed much of that time, struggled to get their salaries for weeks on end. Now with Pranab cracking the whip, there'll be even more austerity going around.
Note the bipartisan spirit of this austerity: in the past few years, Praful Patel (UPA-NCP) and Nitin Gadkari (NDA-BJP) have hosted two of the costliest weddings ever, with far more guests than seen at any IPL final. Gender-balanced Spartanism, too. That was for Mr. Patel's daughter and Mr. Gadkari's son.
Their corporate counterparts take it further. Mukesh Ambani with his 27-floor (but higher than 50 storeys) costliest residence in living memory. And Vijay Mallya — whose employees in Kingfisher struggle for their salaries — who tweeted on May 5: “Having dinner at Atmosphere on the 123rd floor of the Burj Khalifa in Dubai. Never been so high up in my life. Awesome view.” That's probably higher than Kingfisher is flying right now. Both own teams in the IPL. Which body has received public subsidies (by way of entertainment tax waivers, for example). That is, until the matter went to the Bombay High Court. There are other public-funded austerities linked to the IPL — watch this space.
Wall Street model
The corporate world here generally follows the austerity model of Wall Street. There, nine banks including Citigroup and Merrill Lynch “paid $32.6 billion in bonuses in 2008, while receiving $175 billion in taxpayers funds,” reported Bloomberg in 2009. It quoted New York Attorney General Andrew Cuomo's report on the subject: “When the banks did well, their employees were paid well. When the banks did poorly, their employees were paid well. When the banks did very poorly, they were bailed out by taxpayers and their employees were still paid well. Bonuses and overall compensation did not vary significantly as profits diminished.”
Note that Pranab's austerity prayer last week saw the soothsayers of the super-rich raging on TV that the deficit was all due to “one populist measure after another.” That is, stupid things like trying to give people work, reduce hunger or send children to school. No mention of the Plutocrat Populism which saw about Rs. 5 lakh crore (roughly $100 billion at the time) being gifted mostly to the rich and the corporate classes by the same Pranab budget in concessions on Corporate Tax, Excise and Customs Duties. (See “To fix BPL, nix CPL,” The Hindu, March 26, 2012). Sitaram Yechury pointed out in Parliament that these write-offs for the super-rich exceeded the fiscal deficit by Rs. 8,000 crore. But it is the ‘populist measures' aimed at the poor that get panned.
Amartya Sen (The Hindu, Jan. 7, 2012) ruefully asks “why there is hardly any media discussion about other revenue-involving problems, such as the exemption of diamond and gold from customs duty, which, according to the Ministry of Finance, involves a loss of a much larger amount of revenue (Rs.50,000 crore per year) than the additional cost involved in the Food Security Bill (Rs.27,000 crore).”
Indians outside the charmed circle of the meritorious know a different austerity. Food inflation in double digits. Vegetable prices rising 60 per cent in a year. Child malnourishment double that of sub-Saharan Africa. Families cutting back sharply on milk and essentials. Massive increases in health costs bankrupting millions. Farmers unable to afford inputs or access credit. A drinking water scarcity for many, as more and more of that life-giving substance gets diverted for other purposes. How much nicer to practise the austerity of the elite.
Keywords: Montek Singh Ahluwalia, Ahluwalia foreign trips, poverty line, austerity measures, BPL, India story
Brilliant as usual! May your tribe increase.
Thanks Sainath for the incisive piece. So this is where public money goes in the country - fund travel junkets & posh toilets for Mr. Aluwalia while those whose labor sustain our cities who live on the live in Shelters that dont have basic amenities like drinking water, or functional toilets despite High Court orders!
@Yogish
If rich like you have unbounded right over your wealth, poor people also have same unbounded license over their labor.
Will you agree ? If you don't agree you can stop reading what is below and I treat you as worthless as Ahluwalia.
If you agree, then why should the country have laws like ESMA. Since everyone is the owner of his/her own labour he/she has the right not to work.
Now think, if the poor of this country stops working for TWO days the kind of abuses people of your ilk will shower on them. In no time you will demand that GOVT invoke ESMA and force people work.
Why is the government of India the rightful owner of all the labour ?
Sainath need not have power, but he has awakened many through the above article. Not even the "God" you thank can stop them.
They will make the filthy rich like you accountable to the society.
Take care.
Okay, let me get this straight.... Not taxing some good or service used by the well-off at a confiscatory rate is a giveaway.
In Sainath's universe, Government is the rightful owner of all the goods and services produced by society and letting people keep a greater share of their income than Sainath considers appropriate is a giveaway.
Thank God Sainath does not have any real power....
The very first chapter of Sainath's book (Everyone loves a good drought) is full of examples of how badly things pan out when decision making is concentrated in the hands of bureaucrats who have neither the know-how, nor the incentive needed to take correct decisions.... and then, he goes on to criticize economic reforms and market forces for the plight of the poor in the country....
This column follows a similar pattern.... Sainath first explains how the Government spends our hard earned money on junkets for politicians and bureaucrats..... and then laments that they don't steal enough of it.
It is not as if we don't know what happens when a big tax is levied on gold...We have seen this movie before.... It simply gets smuggled in and the Government spends money on (and gains power by) trying to stop it.
But Sainath assumes without explanation that it will be spent on putting food into the bellies of the poor.... Why ?
Gone are the days when leaders and government servants resigned their posts when
charges of wrongdoing were levelled against them . Though it continues to be the expected response in some socially evolved countries it can only be a pipe dream in ours . Classic example being our two educated and erudite Sardars . Charges of impropriety levelled , one is an epitome of stoic silence and the other shamelessly spews nonsense with total impunity. But again why blame them ......... we elected them !!!
A great portion of the government is sponsored by big corporations, so naturally, nearly every act of Congress and the planning commission is done so with the ultimate goal of deregulating industry and maximizing corporate profits at the expense of citizen and consumer rights. These puppets of industry occupying our government and order Montek Singh & planning commission to follow their dictation.we need to crack down on anyone trying to stop, delay or reverse the process by any means necessary.This is what Tyranny looks like and mortgaging our future.
Great article. More power to your pen, Shri P Sainath!
When we do not vote on the honesty, sincerety, dedication, rational policy but vote on the basis of caste, ethnicity we should not question the lavishness of officialdom, the wastage of grain in civil supply godowns, inabilty to make our own defense equipments, the import export unbalance etc. etc.
anita- Go and see another British TV show, Yes Minister/ Yes Prime
Minister. Or see Ji, Mantriji/Ji, Pradhan Mantriji.
Raghavan's fears aren't unfounded. Recently SRK blocked an RTI query
about his travels on the grounds that those were personal matters. I
believe that our revered netas will take inspiration and pass a Bill to
block all such RTI queries. I can only hope that the Govt's SG is
ineffectual enough to be unable to defend the Bill when Dr Swamy or
Prashant Bhushan challenges it in the Supreme Court.
Well done, but have you considered the use? We keep on shouting our lungs out, journalists keep on sweating under pressure of exposing all wrongs, but what happens? Still the same govt is chosen over every other. We have such short termed memories (remember gajini?) that just now when petrol hiked close to 8 rs, we are cursing everyone left right and center. But at the time of elections, the same petrol prices will be lessened just 1 rs, and we will be so stupidly happy, that we will again vote and elect the same govt, forgetting the pain that we are going to get for next 5 yrs, and riches that the ministers are gonna get, out of our sweat! incredible. Y blame them? We are ourselves to blame, because we are afraid to bring revolutions. Who first? that's what we ask. Why not say let me be first, other will later join? and then, even if we do that, we will not stick to it. Any reason, family, money, whatever! If we are sleeping because we want to, who can wake us? no one but us.
The govt. is run by the affluent, those who cheated the people in bringing harmony and happiness. The expose is just tip of iceberg, in fact the entire leadership is involved in such type of dual standards while considering rich and poor.
One hundred and thirty six readers have expressed their opinions and it is now quite clear as to what the people want. Could Dr. Ahluwalia extract from this a gist of the problem and contemplate if something can be done to solve it. It may require a completely new role for Dr. Ahluwalia. May be it is time that we begin to think of a completely new mission for all of us i.e. to work for the HAPPINESS OF ALL. Following the example of Baron de Montesquieu, I mentioned about in my earlier response, can Dr. Ahluwalia plan a massive study as to what is needed to bring happiness to the citizens of our land. May be we can play with an entirely new index : An index representing general level of happiness in the country and call it GNH ( Gross National Happiness). I believe this concept has alredy been enunciated by the King of Bhutan, our small neighbour and some work is already in progress.
well done sir what's happening inside the door on the name of country must be disclosed.sir you have written in excellent way and proved the power of RTI again.it is the work for which indian media is known and journlist like you are respected.we hope that you will continue your work,,,,,,,,,,,,.it must be taken into consideration that approx half of total are struggling for their basic needs,prices are going high and our deputy chairmain is spending Rs 2 lakhs for a single day
. basically we are suffering from such people who are made for themselves.
I'm angry, frustrated and writing this comment in an air conditioned room. Cant even wish death for these slaves who are rulers, for sadly there are no replacements. Congress sucks, BJP sucks more and the Left is lost.
Dear Mr. Sainath,
Well done. I wish you write more frequently. I eagerly await your articles.
People don't like their politicians to be comfortable. They don't like you having expenses, they don't like you being paid, they'd rather you lived in a cave."
Quote from the British political TV show The Thick Of It
Some twenty responses + one of mine will not move our Prez or our Babus & Netas
into austerity zone. They will immediately pass a bill to exclude expenses from RTI.
Leeches like Oxford educated Montek would rather spend good part of their time
abroad in clinical cleanliness at $4000/ day than in dusty Jhumritalaya on Rs 22.50
ps a day.
I have nothing against providing employment to the poor in India and program that provides for nutrition for the poor. But if the employment guarantee scheme does not create productive asset( but becomes a den of corruption) which contribute to wealth of the country in shortest possible time it will lead to inflation and price rise and will cause more misery to the poor for whose benefit the scheme is meant. Rs. 2 a kg rice has made people lazy and it is difficult to find farm labour. So how does it help? Amartya Sen and others who speak about poverty have no direct experience of poverty as this writer. We have to sacrifice for the future of the country but we are carried away by slogans Development With Human Face.
Well, there should be an exercise for 5 days for all Cabinet Ministers. Let's take out all their comforts, give them 29 rs. and see how they can survive for these 5 days.Congress Party,brought lot of populist measures (By Populist here I mean to fulfill pockets of their own People) and now the ballooning 5 Lakh Crore fiscal deposit will be met by increasing Taxes,increasing prices on all essential things.Our Politicians,bailed-out Air-India, otherwise who will give them free Travel and VVIP treatment. A.Raja,Suresh Kalmadi and many more people have done scams.What about recovery of that public money.When that money is going to get sealed and used for Public purposes. 40,000 crore CWG scam isn't a big one?
Sir,your article "The austerity of the affluent" was awesome.India is mainly corrupted by this culprit people.Chetan bhagat rightfully says "Politicianc are dangerous than terrorists,because they destruct roads and rails but they are like virulent atomb bombs silently melting the bones of the people".So bold act to point out Montek Singh Ahluwlia with his astonishing austerity stats.
Some one from the ga-ga land is advising the Planning Commission. Rs29 a daya is above the poverty line? what a joke. I am not grudging the overseas trips and expenses associated with it. As a person holding a Cabinet level position need to stay and entertain people who are his peers in a decent place and that costs money. Granted. But what prompted the eminent minds in the Planning Commission to come with the ridiculous figure. We need to revamp the Planning Commission. The next gem from them will be that our growth projection in the current paln period will be over 10%.
What happens to those frequent flier miles which Montek may have accrued ? Can those miles accrued be diverted for public good ?
The article, though sarcastic and humourous in tone, brings tears to
one's eyes. It puts us all to shame for indifference on our part. Why don't we get together for a purpose and demand our rightful due from our employees?
Kudos to Mr. Sainath for stirring our conscience time and again. It should not stop with feeling bad. We need to do something.
Austerity of an affluent makes very much sense, as the penurious are even losing the right to think. The rich are getting richer and the poor are falling poorer. This is a question to all of us who think we can make a change in the system. Things have gone bad to worse. But our policy makers and the so called ‘intellect class‘ are busy in their lavishing ascetic life. They don’t even realize that all the money they are using belongs to the taxpayer. May be that huge pile of money had made their human sense blunt. We need to change this paternalistic conservative culture and look for a better future.
I shall be surprised that Montek would feel ashamed after reading this article because he is the type of bureaucrat who must be a fan of Queen Marie Antoniette during the French Revolution. Will he pay for these useless foreign trips he made at the expense of the common man? But he does not have such a conscience to pay for his faults!
Why the fuss? Montek has done what our politicians and bureaucrats have been doing all along. He has proudly followed that Indian tradition!! Well done Mr Singh!!
P. Sainath has done it once again.
He regularly keeps on pointnig out the flaws in our current system, and has justified his role as a responsible journalist.
Now its upto the citizens of this country to wake up and try to change the situation.
The situation of the people does not change unless they try to change it themselves.
Mr. Ahluwalia richly deserves to be denuded of padma award if there is any provision which I am afraid there is none though, for his absurd stipulation of poverty limit even while squandering public money at a staggering rate pointed out by the article under comment
Yet, another gem from Mr. P Sainath! How true when one of your Reader
refers to him as the 'spokesperson of real India'! Each of his article
deals with true facts well elaborated for all to comprehend freely.
Take the case of Mr. Despande working as Union Minister even after the
Courts have slighted him for unlawful acts and when the state's
Exchequer was penalized for his acts!!
"There are other public-funded austerities linked to the IPL — watch this space." - I would look forward to this as well. Additionally, may I request 'The Hindu' to publish an article on subsidies that this Government doles out to Industries or indirectly to the Industrialists since majority share holding is by them. I rubbish the argument by reader Shantanu Shukla that one should forego Government ads to qualify for criticizing it!I look forward to the other side of arguments from persons like Suhel Seth on such austerity measures. Kudos to Mr.P Sainath again.
The best solution is to shutdown the planning commission - it has created more poor people then bring them out of poverty by wasting tax payer's money. The politicians and bureaucrats has no regard for tax payer's money and think they own that money by spending it like water.If we shut down it will at least reduce the burden on the tax payer who have to work so hard so that politicians and bureaucrats can sit it Air conditioned office buildings.We can also fire some government employees this will reduce the burden on the country.
Montek S A and Pratiba Patil have led us question why do we need posts
like Dy. Chairman of PC (or PC at all) and President of India.
Excellent article!
biting, revealing, brilliant and thoroughly enjoyable; it should be shocking but alas and cynically, this is par for the course. However, the frightening thing is that India is in a serious economic crisis and has been economically 'fragile' for years. The so-called highgrowth of a couple of years ago was a gas ballon and hiding a grave structural imbalance (rural poor and rural development), which Montek thinks balances out at Rs 23/day.
And God help us to bear their many benevolences.
i really don't understand why people at such higher places are so mean
and self centered, don't they feel guilty about what they'r doing, i
mean i feel so bad if I've done something wrong and here they are driven
by greed and power. don't they realize that their one act of wrong doing
has massive impact on others. Rather then being such losers they should
rethink their acts and make a difference by acting in way that they are
supposed to. Why create misery when they can do much better than this.
I wonder how much of his overseas time was spent on the golf courses ?
Terrific Article. Keep them coming.
Policy makers are sitting in their AC offices and deciding the fate of Indian poor, whether he should be called poor or not. Until unless they really see the reality and feel the pain of poor, they are going to make such ridiculous assessment making 23 Rs/day APL. They should come out of there luxurious life and see the life of Indians fighting to meet one meal a day, then decide who is poor and how to spend those 23 Rs per day. If they can really want to go by austerity measurement of Pranab da, I would give them one suggestion "live only on 23 Rs for a single day", If they can I would happily agree that APL is that only.
Excellent article Mr. Sainath !
Is it justified to compare Montex with ordinary Indian citizen? the answer may b yes by a common man, but the truth is we cannot.if it could b possible to compare him with common man then the average expenditure of a common man above poverty line would certainly would not have been rs.30 a day.......
talk about hypocrisy! And our supposedly non corrupt prime minister's office pitching for increase in rates for Reliance's work in K-6 basin, which already is under question (by CAG).. Is there any hope?
Refers to the cartoon: It seemed like defamation of our elephants by comparing them with the minsters of our nation.
I salute The Hindu and Mr. P.Sainath for such an informative article. I read Mr.P.Sainath's article regularly. But I Still feel He should write more (India together have not been updated for long) so that we the students community can learn a lot on some of the most under reported issues in India. Thanks a lot....!
As Mr. Sainath says in Nero's Guest - the only industry growing in India
is not IT, it is Inequality. True that !!!!
Occupy Planning Commission !
After reading this column, I got little tears in my heart.Our looters are frustrating most of the people in the country.We can put a full stop to this through only REVOLUTION.If a revolution comes about this, it is going to be magnanimous (more than the Libya) one cannot think.
An excellent essay in Indian economics which every management students should read. What a prophecy Markendaya Katju remarks again and again as per your reports, majority of Indian educated are not literates and GOI is asking poor Indians to eat cakes while bread is scarce as said by Marie Antoinette during French revolution. What an insult to indians/india.
It makes great reading again from Sainath on the austerity drive. Montek could stay somewhere outside India to advise Indians better on how to live. As deputy chairman of planning commission, he could think of advices ranging from import of dark glasses and good cotton for the other India to use both in the eyes and ears so that people do not see and listen. Hypocrats thy name is ignorance.
The last section, 'Wall street model' very aptly brings out the irony that exists in our country. Huge corporate tax benefits are appreciated while spending on food, education and healthcare is categorised as 'populist measures'. This article is really an eye opener for people who get swayed away by the common opinion that government spending and benefits to corporate houses are always good.
Very well written! Makes your blood boil!
Feeling very depressed that even the 50 people who remarked above, all educated, good-hearted and with the desire to see better, cannot do anything....other than posting displeasure...
Pathetic situation...
May I point out that the average Indian family is often larger than 5 persons (Dad, Mum, 3 kids is probably below average) when the grandparents are added. If we are to assume 2 (Dad and Mum) work as your maid and gardener (or peon in office) you would normally pay not more than the minimum wage. In Mumbai this is about Rs. 3,300 a month. 2 workers (Dad and Mum) take home Rs. 6,600 (less after deductions for provident fund, ESI, etc, but ignore that - you would try to wriggle out of registering them and paying your share). Even without having members beyond the 5, the per capita income for the family is Rs. 44 per day. This is not much higher than the poverty line in urban areas. Rural workers are often paid about Rs. 50-70 a day (only working days) - you see at poverty line! I would be happy to see the author and distraught, bleeding heart citizens screaming for Montek's blood paying their watchmen, maids, gardeners, drivers and others as they want to be paid.
Great comparisons and nicely articulated. Feeling sad for being not able to anything other than just to read the facts. Even worse, our election system also doesnt help cleansing the bureaucracy !!
Thanks for a fine article.We always knew that our political leaders and
the members of policy making bodies rarely or maybe never practise what
they preach. Now we know for sure that they never apply the same
yardsticks to themselves.
Anyway, on the brighter side,there is still hope for my country as long
as journalists like you and Shyamlal Yadav keep bringing all this to the
notice of the public.
This is another lucid narrative of double standards of our democracy -
where all kinds of atrocities can be committed with impunity in the name
of aam admi. It seems a modern version of Roman empire where innocent
citizens can be fed to the greedy lions in the Yojana amphitheatre for
the free enjoyment of those in power.
@Shantanu - you have a point there. Asking the newspapers to avoid the extravagant advertisements from the government. Just like one shouldn't buy blood diamonds, newspapers too should avoid advt. paying homage to departed leaders. @rajkumar You are right that in this globalized world, travel is necessary. But the point is, the high dependency and investments will be the domain of others like FIPB, external affairs ministry, commerce minister, finance minister etc. Wonder what planning commission got to do in a country which doesn't believe in planning.
I really like Keshav's cartoons. Look at the wheels of the executive
chair!!
"No one can challenge Dr. Ahluwalia's commitment to austerity. "
What a sarcasm!!!!!
Why this KOLAVERI towards Dy.Chairman (Planning Commission)? Why this PS always torments MSA. On the one hand you piously Serve MILK to the head and on the other hand attack the tail as if it is evil.
Big salute to Mr.Sainath for writing such meaningful articles. Only Hindu can give us some meaningful material to read every morning. Keep up the good work.
On the one hand, we see our chief ministers blowing their own trumpets
(till one almost gets deaf) and splashing their (so called) achievements
in leading newspapers in the country and on the other hand, we see the
splendid work of our journalists like Sainath who struggle to remind us
that it's high time we got rid of our useless politicians. Excellent
work Sainath.
Austerity should start from the top.Somebody should demand under RTI the cost incurred by our VVIPs on their foreign excursions .How about starting from the first citizen of the country?
It is a great effort by Mr Sainath, and I wish such stories are to be
published every day and the message has to be carried to common rural
vote bank of the country. More RTI based stories have to be encouraged
by HINDU and probably HINDU can allot exclusive space for such news in
every days paper.It is great loot exposed in a decent way. I wish these
of the issue have to be taken forward in the ensuing elections.
Dear Sainath, You have exposed the hypocrisy and double standards of the
government and the planning commission. A great article which should
have been printed in the front page.
I think that 'Thanks' and 'Thanks a lot' seems feeble for the job done by Mr Sainath. In fact, I am obiliged to you for the analysis and research you have done. The veins start swelling with the speed and the temperature of the blood whenever we get to know these kind of atrocities on ourselves. I am, really, addled by the situation, that inspite of all these happenings, why do the general public, we, decide to elect those people again, who are squandering our money and being sumptuous at the cost of our food. If the general public does not elect, then how can we let anyone else to elect them. If the solution of this problem lies in a civic revolution, why shouldn't we start, it's even worse condition than that in the english age before independence, so why not a revolution again? Why are we lying back and let these 'VAMPIRES' keep sucking the blood of the poor? I really urge all of us to, at least, think for a change which must be altruistic and shouldn't end with a debacle.
So every single point accepted whatever was mentioned in this article. But what rather amazed me was the Hippocratic behavior of 'The Hindu' and other national dailies. On one hand it is assaulting the government with articles on austerity and growing inflation but on the other hand is publishing those exuberant government advertisements on its front page! Where do you think that money comes from for publishing those boastful ads, well it comes straight from the pockets of the tax-payers! And still you are making a mockery of your own self by criticizing the government on one hand and on the other minting a lot of money through those ads! Isn't that a newspaper, which is read by millions across the nation and which has a stellar reputation of publishing articles of 'public interest' have some accountability. Why not mention about the crores public money squandered in the name of paying homage to our departed leaders, which also account for austerity in a big way!
The democracy in India is sham. It is actually a goondacracy. Every minister and elected official is a crook. Life is good only for the top 15% and the above mentioned crooks. The inflation rate is much above the official numbers. Food has become so expensive. The price of food and vegetables as well as housing is comparable the prices in the US after converting $ into rupees. The only difference is that you can get a nice big house in the US for the price you pay for a one bedroom apartment in Indian cities. Nothing gets done without bribing. The Indian motto should be changed to "ASATYAMEVA JAYATHE"
Yet another path breaking revelations from my respected Mr Sainath. The media barons and the vested interests may just ignore this piece. An explosive collection and compilation of the true face of Capitalism and its NGOs by Arundhati Roy in Outlook was largely unnoticed. Dr Manmohan, Montek & co's entry into Indian polity and economy from early 90s become a curse of this vast heterogeneous country.
Marx P Selvaraj
Villupuram.
It is an excellent article. Hope many more such ariticles appear to continue and highlight the problems and expose the currupt individuals and systems. However, the key question is how can India change these corrosive and cancerous behaviours and retrieve India and the Indians to its rightful place? While the journalists such as Sainath can play a useful role it is not sufficient and will not correct the situation. All well meaning Indians need to wake up, become active and implement a strategy that can achieve the desirable end. In otherwords, there must be a mass moment at every village, town and city levels that will have electoral implications. It can be done but we need real leaders.
Amazing article Sainath!
Brilliant piece of journalism. Thanks Mr. Sainath and the Hindu for this excellent work. As long as we have journalists like P. Sainath, there is still hope.
I am in real shock how things work in Indian polity. Looking at day by day happenings and decisions taken by this government, my impression that these politicans actually work to promote the interest of ultra-rich people, corporates and don't just care about the poor has become my belief. Look at another news in today's Hindu:'PMO backing for Reliance on gas pricing draws fire'
If the people who are responsible for saving public interest are serving corporates' interest, what we are heading for?
I think time has come, people are becoming more and more aware, and are getting fed up with these croporate-politican nexuses. Things are going to change, history will never forgive these looters.
Truth will only prevail. Satyamev Jayate.
Perhaps it will be interesting to query the number of days Mr Ahluwalia took off during those trips to play golf. In that case, should he pay back prorate his travel expenses ? Surely a point for the CAG to contemplate.
No words to say...., I love to read The Hindu newspaper due to such a depth knowledged brave honest writers, and admiring news.
An excellent article. These people want to enjoy at the cost of taxpayers money. Mr. Sainath I am a regular reader of your articles but who cares. The people in power want to make money and not doing any thing good to people. Keep writing so that it will be heard. The comments on this article is an indication that a peaceful revolution is not far away.
Maybe we need the French Revolution to be revived in India - off with the head - type solution. Whether one likes it or not, these are the sort of public wastage that will create movements like the Maoists. Maybe the present political leaders should read a few pages from history books to see what does the crystal ball say.
Sainath has brought out the hypocrisy in our rulers very well.If austerity measures are recommended for everybody then it should start from home.All Govt departments should fix their travel budget based on minimum amount of overseas trips.All ostentatious spending at public functions and weddings should be curtailed.The super rich should be asked to pay their dues to the society which helped them become rich .The enforcement branches of the Govt should become totally independent and have the freedom to go after anybody practicing corruption.Do you think any of this is going to happen in the current political climate?Nah,nix,nyet! Speaking about climate,India will see large scale exodus of the rich and famous to cooler climes during the summer months.The ministers and the babus will also suddenly sieze opportunities to attend conferences,seminars,and multiple lateral meetings!God help India,
Outstanding analysis sir. In many areas this Government has been pursuing anti-poor policies. The farmers backbone has been broken, industrial production is down, growth in employment zero; prices galloping. Government has one word for all this - world markets - especially Greece. It is a street magician's trick to divert people's attentions in real failures of administration and economic management Wonder why someone doesn't use the right word for the situation - stagflation.
Sainath Sir is back with bang.When i was reading this article,i was feeling that i am reading a good humorous book.Truths are encrypted in very funny ways.Hope our respected leaders will go through it.
Mistakes done at any level would be analysed on one day. The bureaucrats personal life will say his efficiency in his profession. In a inflated country fixing the meagre amount for fixing the poverty line is wrong.
Here's another angle of the problem - the Indian govt claims to be the govt of the aam admi. One of the best arms that the aam admi has against exploitation at the workplace is a good labor law. And compare the labor laws that the esteemed Sonia Gandhi's 'aam admi' govt has created and those passed by the govt, say, of Switzerland. Pranab Babu's austerity plans are incomplete. Why hasn't he suggested a 10% scaling down of MP's salaries? and a scaling down of perks, together with strict enforcing against misuse of perks and advantages?
very good article. it opens many eyes.you are voice of poor people.
If the article's aim is to prove how the poverty line is lower than it should be (which I believe it is), then it fails to hit the nail on the head. Most of the examples are unrelated and only generate anger amongst readers rather than logically criticising the poverty line. If the author intends to highlight inequality, then, with his juxtaposition of rich/poor examples and emphasis on India's contradictions, one can call him successful. However, from an economist's standpoint, one cannot give it much credibility.
Hat off. Awsome.
During struggle for Independence leaders and people sacrificed everything to attain the single goal Independence, but after that in six decades we have seen that our politicians and bureaucrat have flourished with DA on their salary raising every six months and Politicians salary growing more than 100 times. No wonder they talk about austerity and people being not poor if they earn Rs 26 per day which cannot buy even a litre of milk for the family. No survey or basis of calculation has been given how they arrived at this figure.
They do not know the country as every decision is made out of theatrical and virtual proposals based on statistics furnished by some intellectual who never stepped out of comforts of his AC office room. God only can save the people of this country.
Very enlightened article by Sainath in The Hindu!Really aam aadami have given up hopes from Manhoman Singh and company (stockholding company- India Manmohan-Montek partenersship Private Limited). Since the day Manmohan Singh started his interest in the affairs of the country by making hios companyis serving capitalists -America and European counries.The fiscal condition of India is going down to the drains gradually. Could not we think Manmohan and his other stakeholders like Montek are serving the interst of capitalism, multi-nationals, corporates etc? Who cares for aam aadami? Recent expenditure on foreign jaunts of Montek, who advocates monthly expenditure of urban and rural people living condition in India, has amply exposed his misdeeds and he is playing cruel jokes with over 80 percent people of India!
Big applaud for such articles. such articles are like RTE (eye opener).our 55% of the population is BPL every one out of four is unemployed. but such extravaganza continues.because of such a deplorable situation our economy is going in deep trouble day by day. CBI inquiry should be made against such a huge unnecessary expenditure.
Mr Montek Singh Ahluwalia's commitment to the Indian polity is unimpeachable. Mr Sainath has unfortunately got it wrong this time (most times, he is right) in criticizing Montek here. Does Mr Sainath think it is as simple to make policies for our country, as is travelling in rural hinterlands of Orissa, Andhra Pradesh, Tamil Nadu (some of the places where he works). All the meager expenditure of Montek's foreign travel is justified, otherwise, people with self-interest in education and what not will start shaping our country.
Have no words! Brilliant article again Mr Sainath.
It is really true that "hamara Bharat mahan hai" - courtesy : Corrupt, power hungry politicians and bureaucrats of our country.
Democracy's meaning should be changed to read as "by the people,of the people ,(but) for the politicians. Look at our current President whose name was totally unknown to a large percentage of our population till she became the President of India about five years back (why, even today perhaps morethan 80% of our population would not know the name of their country's President). However, she visit foreign countries with the family members at regular intervals , to establish/maintain cordial relationship with the Governments of those countries. Has any one in the Government bothered to know how much each of these trips cost to the Nation and what benefit the country derives from such trips. Only God can save us from such a situation. However, an AAM AADMI today seems to have given up even that hope .
The only option before the people of India is to severely punish both the Congress led UPA and the BJP led NDA in the next polls. People are urged to inflict a crushing defeat on these 2 enemies of the people.
Those who have been in government for long enough (like me) know how useless are these foreign trips by minister-level personages.No doubt senior officers also go on junkets but in their case there is atleast the requirement of a written report on the purpose of the visit, what transpired and what was achieved for India. Officials do get pulled up now and then for junketing. Minister level people do no such reporting and they travel first class, stay in top hotels and of course imbibe a good deal of liquids, not to talk of their partying as "host". Ultimately unless the PM and the FM besides the Heads of autonomous entities like the Planning Commission have a sense of self-imposed moral discipline things such as pointed out by Sainath will continue. Very rarely minister's overseas visits are turned down by the PM.
What is the need of the planning commission when we truned on the back of the russian style central banking, a fad of the 30s, and fashionable for Nehruvian socialists.
Yesterday night, in a Thamizh TV programme called ' Neeya Naana', two honourable members of parliament Thiru G.Shiva and Thiru. Ramasubbu
explained to the TV audience the amount of sacrifice they have made in serving the people.They are unable to move freely with the common man.The do not have time even for their own family members.Whatever meagre facilities(!) they get is a minscule compensation for their sacrifices. What does Mr.Sainath have to say for this?
Poor Dy. Chairman must be under constant jet lag and why people are not looking at such discomforts ?
Bravo the masters! Do not worry about our cribbing : after all, we have been doing this for over 65 years. Eventually, the child will stop crying!
Excellent article congratulations THE HINDU.Unnecessary waste of
money in democratic set up is a sin.But in our country unlike western
countries like US or CANADA the politicians,ministers,bureaucrates,officers,clerks are licensed to
loot the public.That does not mean these kind of corruption never
happens in western countries.The differrence is how they approach
the problem. In western countries these culprits go to jail;in India
they get 1000.00 Rs garland.
Very good...and to the point Sainath. Please publish more such articles.
In my opinion leaders who fear for their lives should quit public life and should not tax the exchequer for their security.
We really need and miss leaders like Rajaji who was so parsimonious when spending public money
The excellent article exposes the hypocrisy and moral bankruptcy of the
Planning Commission. I, for one, cannot understand how these babus came
up with the figure of Rs 29 as the PL for urban areas. With runaway
inflation the amount would hardly be enough to buy one meal a day. The
ceiling renders the PDS, intended to support the poor and the needy,
essentially useless.
thanks sainath, this is painfully excellent article on the double standard practiced by the ruling class. This planning commission must come to an end,instead we may have a planning minister of cabinet rank who at least attend the Lok sabha and we can enjoy to our satisfaction when grilled by uncomfortable questions by incompetent opposition.
Thanks, Sainath. What goes on our country is a massive rip off. It is
amazing that the ruling class (read politicians and bureaucrats) are
able to carry out such a massive swindle in a democratic country. Even
dictatorships in other countries would have difficulty getting away with
such massive frauds!
An eye-opening article. It truly reveals the hypocrisy of Rich (businessmen and politicians) towards the middle class and poor. Writer rightly pointed out that even recession made rich CEO's even more richer and general public more poorer. Now Austerity measures are already being forced on general public due to high inflation in India. But still rich businessmen and politicians are enjoying there money, no austerity is needed from there side. General public is made more afraid that they can lose everything at any point of time(recession/bubble burst) in this volatile economy. I keep on hearing same statements "we are part of Global economy now, we don't have any control". Why India is totally dependent on FDI , why can't Indian government take more measures to make Indian economy more sustainable on itself and more of production house,exporter rather than only service provider and importer.
I simply cannot comment. I am agape in astonishment at the drain of
billions through puny reasons of expenditure by the meritorious elite
and let the hand to mouth class fend for themselves! I wonder, what
economics did our eminent Prime Minister learn? His economics eludes any
economic theory hitherto propagated by any stretch of imagination. Do
we, the common tax payer, need to endure this insult - we got to ask
ourselves, for, we are the one's who have been diligent enough to vote
these mega economists back to power from a already deflated 2009!
Sainath has brought out well the ever present contradictions between the tall talk of our leaders and their actual practice. No wonder Hegel is said to have termed India as "a land of dream". Let Mr. Ahluwalia himself take up the task of proving Hegel wrong. Yeh kheil katthan hai no doubt, but there are men who have undertaken much more difficult jobs. Baron de Montequieu a For-Life-President of the Parliament of Bordeaux in France was so much pained by the sorry state of society in his country in eighteenth century that he described the ills of the French through the pen of two Persian visitors to France in a novel called Persian Letters in 1921. Then he even gave up his prestigious office and went on tour of the Eureaupean countries to study the working of their governments. The result was The Spirit of Laws' which he published in 1748. It is from this work that all democracies of the world today draw the concept of the separation of powers. We need an Indian Montesquieu today.
There are certain code words which are used in the government. For example a letter is sent to all Public Sector Undertakings that no gifts to be given to members of various Committees on their visits. But the concerned in these PSUs believe that it means they must be presented some gifts otherwise the PSU not doing so may face the music. I feel the directive of "austerity measures" is on the same lines which means spend as much as you can as there is no check whatsoever. The olden day Maharajas were concerned about their people and that is why they are revered even today. Our new Maharajas are concerned about themselves and their near and dear ones. Air India is bleeding because of its masters. A lot has already appeared in the media as to how and who has pushed it to a stage of extinction. But to what result? No investigation, no accountability ?
What an important article this is -- an excellent illustration of the
stark disparity between those who make the decisions and those affected
by those decisions. One wonders when and how will things change? It
almost seems like the rot in the system is too widespread and too deep
to root out.
Yet another populist hatchet job against the pro-reformist in the UPA.
Have we not been seeing this ALL the time.What is so "Special About the Dy.Charman,P.C.
The "Rebate"for high bracket earners have been subject of many comments in these columns of the past but most of them do not get
published.Not even the Apex Court has asked for the Balance sheet of suppliers of Petroleum Products which show profits and the shares of these companies are sold many times over the value BUT
the Govt.is paying them from Tax Payers'money.The irony is that the Tax Payer is ALREADY PAYING HIGHEST Excise on Multipoint collection base.
All these Painstaking Efforts by the RTI journalists will produce NO Change in system.
Will the RTI give info on the OTHER NON PRODUCTIVE/BEYOND LOGIC EXPENSES INCURRED in various heads
In India more than 50 percent of people live in deprived condition
and we are talking about democracy!! Is this the democracy Gandhiji
had envisaged? certainly not. Our representatives are showing their
insanity by giving these kind of irrational statements. It is the
height of brutality. If politicians are not satisfied with their immense
property then how can layman accommodate with only Rs. 29 or 32?? We
have number of temple having million and billion of property in India
and on the other side one may not be having one time meal. In fact India
is the best example of disparity and the reason behind this as all we
know, our politicians as well as bureaucrats. Hence if we want to save
our country, our people, we have to get unite. Time to awake.
An eye opening article. It only shows how our leaders are insensitive to
the problems faced by common man. People should to be educated regarding
these issues.
This is a good article.. but sainthaji has mixed up issues.. while I agree that the norm for being poor is absurd as told by planning commission, the comparison with the tour expenses doesn't make right sense.. the need for foreign tour for a planning commission member has to be discussed completely and the outcome benefits of the same has to be reported before making assumptions related to that.. the fact of the situation in today's world economy is that the governments all over the world are highly dependent on multi-billionairs for investment and industry growth.. look at a situation of zero private investment and hence zero growth, the economies will crumble like the erstwhile soviet states.. when you expect the private players to lead the growth story, you are bound to dole out the goodies.. today even in india the govt led economy as a percentage of gdp is only less than 20% which when translated to job oppurtunities, would show a picture of 80% of indians depend on this privates
A Great article. Point nicely kept and beholded with pertaining examples. Really speaks for the austerity enjoyed by the affluent.
Brilliant analysis! Indeed, the entire talk of these being tough times and therefore all needing to tighten their belts (all refers of course only to the common man) is bogus! Were the times really hard, we'd see even the rich suffering. It is far from that. In fact, they are getting richer at a disgusting rate as the above article so wonderfully shows us again.When will the people wake up and rebel?
"The Hindu"and its journalist Mr Sainath have highlighted the real economic wranglings in India which are the cause of deprivation and woes of millions.As indicated 'austerity' envisaged by Pranab Mukherji must concern savage spending cuts of Montek and alike.Mr Sainath rightly cautions that austerity,like in Europe today,must not cut the welfare programmes.In fact fictious propoor tax rebate granted to the tune of half a trillion dollars to rich and corporatre, since 2005, must be the first target of Pranab Babu austerity, about which he remains silent.These measures were inducted out of 'free market mantra' (Privatization,Liberalization).The author of ,"The Shock Doctrine",terms it economic 'holocaust'. Events since 2008(collapse of Lehman Brothers)and recent events in Greece; loss of 2 billion dollars within 6 weeks by the JP Morgan-guaranteed by the taxpayers,Romney dismissing it as someone gain, indicate economic 'cannibalism' dominating globally,suffocating Indian economic woes.
I'd say, India is in the hands of honest journalists. With journalists covering such facts about faulty officials and politicians, people will always be kept in the light. With so much paid news and biased news papers and channels, what we people get to see is only eye wash. Journalists can save India, as it was rightly said ' A pen is mightier than the sword'. It cannot be more true in today's India. If the pen made use of to its full extent, our country can survive.
Excellent Article. The Hindu deserves a lot of appreciation for publishing valuable articles like this. Unfortunately, most of our media are interested in controversies. Forget about the media, look at the parliament. How many days they wasted discussing a 60 year old cartoon! Why the concessions given to Corporates are not discussed? Politicians are afraid of their election funds and media worried about their advertisements income.
This is a wonderful article written about the reality that is out there. Many have commented on Democracy that is being followed but we dont see that the preachers of the Democracy are all part of the same syndicate, because to loot a country like ours instead of facing over a billion people, you just feed the 500 odd elected representatives and a few others who are like the influencers on policy matters and they will do an excellent job of removing every bit of clothing from the citizenry and give it away. Like morons we will be singing the tune of democracy and wont even realise that our clothes have gone away while we were lost singing. Hope we realize the farce of the whole system and wake up and study Mahatma Gandhi's principles in its original and come up with a self-government that will ensure atleast some clothing is left for the next generation.
Facts of life in India. Only those who are born in middle and lower class families in India will understand. This has always been happening through the years. Centuries ago people who had the most strength, made war and looted other kingdoms. In todays world, then it is our politicians and babus who are carrying out this task. The common man has always suffered and will suffer. Perpetually.
Austerity lies in visting the grass root levels of the state and understanding its problems!!!
What is the use of such informative article, if we cannot hold the people accountable for the poor state of the needy in our country. Nothing to take away anything from the writer, who has (as always) written a excellent article - but when will those responsible for this financial mess, the country is in, be held accountable?
A brilliant piece exposing yet another area of govt insensitivity and hypocrisy, if not downright exploitation and abuse. It is Mother India's shame that these children although highly educated do not seem to have learnt or imbibed much good into their personality! Congratulations and heartfelt thanks, Mr Sainath. Hope you will maintain your focus on the last paragraph. Thank you, The Hindu, a true patriot.
Excellent article!!!!!!!!!!!, Hope,atleast some politicians and bureaucrats understand the gruesome condition of poor.
One more brilliant article from you sir.India is a country where you get to witness the most ironical situations and thanks for enlightening us through such indepth analysis.
Thanks Sainath for another brilliant piece of analysis and writing! It is shocking to see both the dismal state of poverty and deprivation in our country and the horrifying levels of impunity and personal greed in many of our top leaders. If our educated middle class becomes more socially and politically conscious and better informed, maybe we could find solutions to both problems.
Sainath observes: Ceos in that country took home billions in bonuses even in 2008 the year in which the Wall Street tanked the global economy.Today, the Guardian carries an article giving outlines of a forthcoming book . Heist of the century — Wall Street's role in financial crisis". Excerpts: Since the 1980s much of the global financial sector has become criminalised creating an industry culture that tolerates or even encourages systematic fraud. The behaviour that caused mortgage bubble and financial crisis in 2008 was a natural outcome and continuation of this pattern rather that some kind of economic accident. Total fines on banks for their role in the Enron fraud , the internet bubble, appear to be less than 1% of the financial sector profits and bonuses during the same period. Now these western heroes who propagated globalization have caused the financial gloom in countries like ours. And our ruler are calling for austerity from people. What justice?
Respected Sainathji,I think the article lacks focus. The national poverty line is, to the best of my knowledge, not based on or linked to any austerity measure. The national poverty line is based on the minimum amount needed to survive. Linking it with Mr. Ahluwalia's expenses on foreign trips makes no sense. It is true that the action of many top politicians and bureaucrats does not fit into the government's so-called focus on austerity. But dragging the national poverty line into this argument does not make sense.
Elite people, top echelons think that except the top crux others do not deserve to exist.But the market from the lower, lower middle class are to be harvested in full without any cut or making any austerity.
Mr.Sainath is exposing not a contradiction or a double-standard, but simply the irony in the exercise of fixing the poverty line at so low an amount. After all, Mr.Ahluwalia is a sensible person and he isn't actually suggesting that Rs.29 is actually enough to live on, but just that for the purposes of measuring poverty and "keeping score", the poverty line must be fixed at some level rather like how "adulthood"; is fixed at 18, although no one is suggesting that everyone becomes an adult on the stroke of midnight of one's 18th birthday. That said, I did enjoy the satire in the article, the style reminding me of the way the American comedian Jon Stewart frequently exposes the ironies and the doublespeak in his countries' politics.
Taking a bow...so impressed by the hardships our 'leaders' are facing to take into a new tommorow!!
One of the few media person Sri.P.Sainath and one of the very few media,The Hindu takes up the real problems faced by the common man while the statutory agencies formed to protect the interest of the citizens fail to protect them. Instead the very same institutions instead of protecting the citizens frames and implements the policies and programs in consultation with the same stakeholders, who exploit the common man.The two regulators namely RBI, SEBI never consults the depositors or investors while framing their policies or regulations and even the existing regulations are amended to suit the exploiters. RBI abdicated its responsibility of protecting depositors.Interest rates were fixed to help borrowers rather than depositors. CDRs are forced on Banks and unproductive credit made available by easy credit policies giving negative returns to the depositors. SEBI did not take any actions against merchant bankers/Registrars for fixing higher prices on IPOs most of which are quoted lower
I have had this long view that our nation is a multi-layered society each crashing the one below it and fighting to ensure even their(the upper layer)leftover in plates don't go to the crashed. What a fantastic depiction of what is untold truth and and less talked about plights of this poor nation. Our leaders , corporate, the riches depict themselves as the red cherry over cake which in its core hides the poverty and hungry bellies of millions of Indian mouth open for food. Notwithstanding this devilish chasm we see them fighting for their stretched and skewed entitlements. How does it matter even if their exercising of perceived entitlement engulfs commoners' basic rights. Affluent with all their might fighting for DIAMOND, DWELL(Palatial),DECENT DINNER while mercilessly the poor Indian kids are crying for DOLE. And even in dole dispensation those in power fight for their share! Why should not I say they are fighting for DWELL, DIAMOND while we are crying for DOLE.
Thank you Mr.Sainath, you have done it again, that is exposing our 'austere' ministers and government officials. Sir, I feel unless and until all the elected members of parliament rise together and in one voice state that ' Yes, poverty and food insecurity in India is a reality ' there is no hope for us. The first step would be to accept and then realign priorities in governance. Let there not be any more vote-bank specific subsidies, but conscious attempts at creating livelihoods for the millions in the BPL and APL categories so that every Indian citizen will get an opportunity to retain his self-esteem as well as legitimate avenues to earn his livelihood.
The story is a caricature of Government vagrant motive. The most slipshod and annoyed statement is "Spend Rs. 29 a day in urban India or Rs. 23 in rural India and you are not poor",yet I wandered how come Deputy chairman of planning commission is unaware of the inflation rate ? If he is not then, how a person's race getting changed to rich section by mere of just Rs 1 a day more spending than the poor section, who are people spending Rs.28.A family has been spending money not only on food but also on other family expenditure (min basic needs), such as children school fees, medical expenses, house maintenance and many others. Our planning commission is insisting that Rs 29 pittance to make a person rich. Government is time and again making dupe of its citizens. If government wants austerity measure to be implemented, that is good for the economy, lets start with government it self, high society people, strong private bodies as BCCI, film makers and so on not with the hoi polloi.
I agree with most of ur points Mr Sainath. But you are talking about the subsidies given to the industries in name of tax cuts, the same is also enjoyed by common ppl as well. How will the revenues come if we will not support industrial growth for free distribution schemes like PDS and schemes like NREGA? why are you always anti industries?
Absolutely brilliant article; such brazen looting and corruption is going on unreported and unknown to the voters and tax payers. Perhaps if people were made more aware there would be less apathy. I hope this can article can be made to reach the whole nation. I'm forwarding this link to everyone I know.
Your column is excellent in exposing the fraud of political people in the garb of pseudo intellectuals.Seeing the type of increase in defence procurements involving costly imports I doubt if this government cares for the people any more than our adversary !
Mr.Sainath articulates public angst very well and so has been the case this time again. But this time, the article covers many aspects.What is the problem? Mr Ahlu's Rs 26/- proposition / his junkets/corruption in India/corporate austerity? Leaving the preposterous 1st, egregious 2nd let me come to the 3rd.With honest auditors being strangled ,honest officers being crushed and RTI activitsts being thrashed, I wonder where the country is headed.Common man tried taking to streets, that act of his was lampooned everywhere.We have to either stop cribbing that Corruption is the new normal in current India or find a solution beyond an RTI affidavit..A million dollar question is What will that be? What can cure a disease that is systemic?
The government prescribing austerity is like an obese person prescribing low calorie diet to a starving child. It is obscene.
Another great one from Sainath.Although writing articles like these isn't going to change the ground reality, at least someone is out there to voice it. Would be great if all the travel expenses of all our MPs are published so President - 100 crores, montek - 3 crores , others ? Would it not be cheap if we sent all our MPs + President in one flight for these "tours"?
Austerity at it's best, Imagine what would be the scene like without austerity. Only honest governments and corporates sail in tough time,here the case is different. Wondering no hue and cry on cost of living increasing many fold. All said and done, no action taken...Wondering all the losses caused to exchequer due to corruption and no money covered from those who involved in this illegal practices...Such an apathy...God save India...
Rs 29 a day was enough 10 years back. So they should calculate how much it will be after 10 years, then we will get the current rate to fix poverty line.If 60% of our population was still in poverty how is the govt continuing?
Official tour both within and outside the country is one of the popular swindling area. Tours are required; but not for anything and everything. With the modern communication channels available more than 80% tours are avoidable. This is from my personal experience in a renowned government organisation. Daily allowance - tax free, free paid holiday, hospitality from the host industries / institutions, absence from office , taking care of personal interests like constructing house in native place ( visits for supervision ), searching brides / grooms for their offsprings, children's education, support / rapport for post retirement jobs and so on. So there is nothing surprising in Montek's case.
The 'austerity' move has double standards. One for denying the demands of workers, pensioners and employees putting them to a very severe test by the civil servants at the top -if they deploy the same standards in scrutinising the PPP and other infrastructure projects, the nation would save several thousand crores- and now anotehr breed of governmetn VVIPs who go on foreign jaunts costing astronomical amounts to the Treasury. But the same civil servants would issue cirdculars for denying the LTC benefits to employees community on the ground of austerity. People have ben used to such double standards and we cannot escpwe from this obvious happenings.
I have always been fascinated in understanding the great Planning Commission of India, whether it is about giving tax exemptions to the elite, calculating the average daily expenditure for the poor or allocation of budget for different ministries (health, education and food always come last in their plans. They are very generous towards the elite and too generous when it comes to the poor. Maybe they believe in Mahatma Gandhi's ideals when it comes to the poor (i.e., poor should observe austerity). After reading this article, I find it is no use preaching austerity to politicians/bureaucrats who envy the very idea as they enjoy many priveleges. In the case of Mr. Ahluwalia, I am sure his foregin trips are not going to strengthen diplomatic ties between India and other countries. Instead of costing so much to the exchequer he should use a technology like video conferencing for his meetings. This way he can help 6965 urban or 8782 rural poor Indians each day (going by his figures).
Enjoyed every bit of the article. I would like to say one thing here which is very relevant. It is personally your duty as a media person to get these important issues to the fore front. No one cares about such logic and no ordinary person tries to think on these lines at all. The Hindu is one of the handful of media in which some good reporting is done. Please don't lose focus of that as it has been happening in past few months. Awake and arise
Respected Sainath, the point on throwing away potential revenue for industry is serious. we need more discussion on this. It's also a fact that its better allocated with less leakages. While, I support some of the pro-poor policies like NREGA, Universal PDS, etc, we can't deny that these have very high leakages.
Also, after 60+ years, it's time to get out of this paternalistic attitude towards citizenary. Even modern,wealthy parents want kids to own up responsibility & not get pampered. Fuel subsidies, fertilizer subsidies, free power for farmers, etc have to go. We need large amount workforce in the industry. We need to embrace the idea of deploying human resources into more productive purposes. And simultaneously improve farm productivity, we have no hope.
If you pay peanuts, you'll get monkeys. If you need good policy-makers, pay them well. And ranting about stating the fact on BPL is not a crime. No right-thinking Indian wishes the current BPL, but cant live in denial.
Yes,Mr.Sainath is correct.It is like devil preaching scriptures.
This is what a news article is supposed to be. Not reporting on the mundane & obvious. Wish there were more reporters like Mr.Sainath at The Hindu.
Sainath's analysis peels the layers of profligacy in the ruling camp which otherwise does not shy away throwing sermons outside its home. How Congress fails to walk the talk is exposed through irrefutable data. What adds fuel to the fire are the foreign expenses of Prathiba Patel,amounting to 200 crores, coughed up from the national kitty. Of course,one may also get to know the expenses for foreign tours of our Prime minister through RTI enquiry. It is easier said than done.When will the levity come to know of one Caroline Clark, who in Saturday Evening Post wrote as...'What a lot of people are saving for a rainy day is somebody else' umbrella'?
HATS OFF TO YOU SAINATH. OUR LOOTERS WILL NEVER UNDERSTAND THE PROBLEMS OF THE POOR. ONLY A RAVOLUTION CAN TEACH THIS FELLOWS, A LESSON. CONGRATS TO HINDU, FOR PUBLISHING THIS SUPER, SUPER ARTICLE
Brilliant, sustained, irony. The charmed elite circle will not read this nor care.
India is a democracy where individuals hardly have right to question except to vote every 5 years. Government and establishment are so powerful that they can do anything with immunity. We see this every now and then. Police, government and big business are too powerful to stop. System and nexus is such that now no one can break this for at at least next 50 years, I think that this is even getting worse. Any well-read Indian who are following Indian democracy in last 20 years can realize that this is just next to dictatorship. The only difference is that in dictatorship one person rules, and here group of people rules as they want to.Even You, me, human right activist, and similar minded people all together can't change anything in this system. This is not frustration but the reality. Constitution should be written in such a way that citizen should have more rights to question, put these people under judicial scrutiny.
The amount of money spent on security- Z- on VVIPs is also an astronomical figure.The other day I was waiting at the Pune airport to receive my son and I saw about a dozen Black Cats waiting to receive a VVIP, Z security non descript ex congress leader.May be he had a security proble about 15 years back. But to continue with the same security now is just a waste of the tax payers'money.The security risk to every VIP must be evaluated on a day to day basis- or at least on a year to year.
A great article yet again from P Sainath the only spokesperson of the real India. It is amazing to see and hear such lone voices for the faceless, jobless, underfed people that constitute around 70% of the Indian population. In India may be except the state of Kerala all other parts bleeds severely due to poverty, malnutrition, lack of basic needs like primary medical centres, PDS etc. We don't need to spend huge capital to at least provide these facilities to the poor. Our lack of will and negative attitudes of our society which includes politicians, bureaucracy, media, even to an extend the lower judiciary is creating the perception of over spending for the needy. We all are very worried when the stock exchange crashes and looses a few hundred points. Just think the percentage of people investing in stocks, that also mostly surplus funds. We as a society including media pretend to be ignorant towards scores of farmer suicides. This is the time for the country to realise the reality.
Excellent Mr.Sainath. Good comparisons. It is shame on the people on who are spending millions of rupees in worthless travels and dinner /parties /homes/ weddings especially in a country like India.
What a ridiculous amount to decide poverty level; how done wonder-we have Minimum wages act for salary based on basic needs of the labor; correlate this with lowest survival needs of a family of four (kept restricted) - calcualte amount needed for rice or wheat plus one vegetable for them; after food, comes clothing shelter; take lowest value you can get them in remotest village, add them; you will arrive at much higher figure eh! Long ago,in economic forum presided by famed Nani Palkhivala, it was argued that all salaries of bureaucrats and MPs and Ministers must be related to the stipulated/fixed Min wage - say "n" times; and when demand for higher remuneration asked, it would necessitate raising the minimum wage; if done, economic chaos may result ! Our ruler are most selfish and ignore real problems of poor folks. The idea was very well appreciated BUT who will implement it- not our leaders! Highly qualified chaps are least capable in this task; Pity indeed! Time for wise counsel
Please Email the Editor