“So sad, India is a soft state”
“Our government cannot take tough decisions”
“We actaully don’t deserve to be called a developing nation…”
“Govt. doesn’t think about the common people”
“We need to be economically independent and strong nation”…
BLAH BLAH BLAH..
Oh did I hear that you are hearing these statments for the first time ? Then you must not be an Indian.If not then you definitely belong to this nation.
I am fed up hearing all these statements from all my friends,relatives,media that I have only one thing to say “We are a nation of hypocrites”.
First we blame our government for not taking any strong measure for long term develpoment of this country,but when it actually does we are the first to crib and blame in our own ways;thanks to the democracy.The nation wide bandh called tommorow i.e. on 5th July is just one feather in otherwise crowned cap of so many bandhs for stupid reasons.
Our opposition party,especially BJP doesn’t have any valid issue to talk about.Their life starts at Mandir,raam janam bhoomi,hindutava,godhara et al and ends there.They look for means to demean the efforts and pain taken by ruling UPA to bring the nation on the accelerated growth rate for golden future of this country.
As the clouds of economic recession are clearing and undoubtedly we have emerged undisputed winners of this economic tsunami, which can be attributed largely to the economic policies of this govt. which started way back in 1991 largely due to the fiscal measures taken by ManMohan Singh.Don’t you think we should show faith in the same person who thinks for the improvement of India than his own political future.Don’t we want to have a double digit growth by 2012 ?
A man of action is much better than a man of words (Mr. Obama are you listening ? )
The current effort of govt. to free the Oil price from govt. control is a revolutionary step in the right direction.Instead of hailing praise for this heroic effort we are cursing it.
I would like to put forward some stats in front of you:-
a) Our annual Oil import bill is more than 1 lakh crore rupees in terms of subsidies.
b) Our annual diesel consumption is 4 times more than petrol consumption
c) Indians are world’s one of the most reckless users of petroleum products.
d) Developed nations like US,UK ,Japan don’t have a price control mechanism.
e) We didnot have any price control mechanism even during the time of Indira gandhi,it was linked to international prices.
During gulf war even after the price was increased 3 times it was passed on to the consumers.We were agrarian economy unlike
now but still we survived and came back strongly.
f) So called common man’s fuel, kerosene has about rs40/ltr of subsidy and LPG cylinder about rs 280 per cylinder.
g) Top 5 petrol taxing states: Punjab 37.5%, Andhra 33%, Karnataka and Tamil Nadu 30%, Madhya Pradesh 29.75%. NDA 3. UPA 2
It’s no hidden fact that price change of petroleum products in our country have been taken so far keeping in mind the votebank politics instead of economic and social consideration.And this very approach has been making the govt and economy cripple due to back breaking oil bill which squeezes out chunk of our dollar reserves.
Price of oil has minimal affect on actual price of transport and other stuff but the cunning businessmen make the most out of each price hike portraying fault of government measures.
It seems our oppostion parties are too obssesed with bandh that for any trivial issue they call for bandh,chakka jaam,boycott etc.
These politicians sit in the luxury of their homes enjoying on taxpayers money,whereas a common man struggles to make for his daily daal-roti.Bengal and Kerala are already an example of what bandhs & strikes can do to the growth and progress.
Even if one is really interested to show their disgust with any policy of govt. one should show it in other forms,like what I am doing it currently by writing here.
I believe this price hike should be taken in positive stride and we should learn to value this exhaustible and limited resource-to USE JUDICIOUSLY.On the flip side,this may encourage the big business houses to invest more in R&D of alternate sources of energy.With the kind of innovative brainpower we posses, I won’t we surprised if we come out with the cheapest form of renewable energy technology.If there has to be any time to venture in this field,it cannot be better than this time.If we can make NANO we can make this too.
I feel proud that UPA has taken the baby steps to ease off this burden and make us self sufficient as far as oil consumption is concerned.
I am no economist,but I do know simple mathematics.The current price hike for petroleum products will relieve govt. from 23k crore rupees of subsidy bill.But if the bandh somehow succeeds tommorrow,can you just imagine the impact on the finances of our country it will produce ? At least 3-4 times of this amount.Can’t we bear a little bit of this hike for long term growth ?
Rest I leave it to you,whether you want to stay at home and further break the backbone of economy or step out of house and resume our daily routine to contribute to the growth of this nation.
PS: Supreme court had declared Bandh illegal some time ago, I HOPE we all remember it.
While I would probably agree with what you have said because I do not have the facts or the knowledge to disagree in an intelligent way but from my perspective it is important to see the importance of the Bandh from a different perspective.
When Manmohan Singh opened up India’s economy in the early nineties as Financial minister, his job was that of a finance minister under a very strong Prime Minister (P. V. Narasimha Rao) who gave him the free reign and ensured that his recommendations were implemented with no strings attached. But Manmohan Singh as a PM is not that effective because of the pressures of the coalition govt. The rise of food prices in India has been tremendous and it is largely due to the failure of the implementation of certain schemes because our Agriculture Minister is busy running the ICC and BCCI. And with the fuel price rise, they are bound to increase more!
These are probably not the reasons BJP is protesting but it is definitely an opportunity to raise these important questions… and unfortunately the media has become so biased that for the BJP has to do something sensational or irritating just to some attention and airtime in the news channels. The media otherwise is happy to discuss about Dhoni’s wedding for 16 hours a day!
Well argued and yeah, the maths is so simple that most of us miss it. What’s happening in USA, Spain, Portugal, England, et al, amidst George Osborne’s Plan to cut the bill (The austerity bill), Dodd-Frank Bill, everything are results from the huge susbsidies, even of not petroleum! It’s time people stop turning to the govt. for each and every need.This cannot be sustained and we are already, even if the govt. is acknowledging this, in deep shit and defecit is only increasing day by day.
Bandhs will only worsen the situation.After living most of my life in North-East and now, Sringar, I have seen what these bandhs can do. Crippled economy, stunted growth, not just in Bengal and Kerala (We still remember the singur and Tata debacle, don’t we?). are just one side of the coin. It disturbs normal life more than anything else, forget about development.
And yeah, the petroleum increase, it would be good if taxes are removed since most of the petroleum price is made up of these taxes. So, instead of taxing and bankrupting the oil companies, better remove the taxes. This way, price will be deregulated and it won’t hit the people that much.
As far as renewable energy is concerned, yeah your point is right. We need to think about it and take actions as soon as possible. In US, for example, Ethanol is getting popularity (Corn Ethanol, to be precise), but it’s efficiency is forcing the govt. to try n think of other ways. similar encoragement of Bio-Fuels is the need of the hour!
Rajput Sama,
You are a mind reader, just this morning I was wondering if u wuld blog about this. Although in principle, and on paper taking back of subsidies and international market control of prices may be desirable; the end result is always harsh for the masses. What amazes me is that in democracy or for that matter in any other governance system there is absolutely no legal provision for the so called masses to voice their displeasure or resentment and stop the people in power from pushing their agendas.
so the political parties resort to such means to earn brownie points … !!!! the future for the common man in india is really bleak .. u have a government in power which is out to rob and starve him (a few months after the price increase dal disappered from the diets of many families in India).. and on the other hand u have a bankrupt (in all aspects) opposition.
these politicians just know 2 grab attntn of public & nevertheless, 4 theses non-happenings only v r responsible as v don’t want 2 use our mind even when our FM did explain the basics behind this decision, v must cooperate our govt., atleast if it’s genuine& i don’t understand how much spare time people involved in all these rubbish activities have???
@g2
I will like to justify each of your points
a) PM as a failure/soft :
Thats what many think ,coz he is not a good orator like Obama.But he believes in karma.He is doing what needs tobe
done, without self praise.Remember we could weather economic tsunami under his guidance.He may be PM but the
he has strong say in planning commission and finance ministry as far as policies are concerned.
Coalition parties do make strong decision making difficult but in the long run these parties do suffer.See the fate of Left in Bengal and Kerala.
Junta is no blind..just they work like tube light..take some time to enlighten.
b) Rise of food prices:
There are multiple reasons for it viz. poor monsoons,increase in minimum support level of foodgrains,hoarding,Increase in international prices of foodgrains,
food grains used for ethanol production etc.Once cannot blame increase in fuel price as the sole cause of inflation.By the way there was a decrease in inflation data couple of
days back which is likely to come further down.
c) Sharad Pawar is a failure , and luckly he has requested MMS to relieve off some of his duties.
d) BJP and other oppostion parties are frustrated lot since they have no other issues with them and they are hungry for power.Bandh is never a way to protest , there are many other ways
to protest and believe me more people would have joined the protest if it was carried out effectively.
e)Media : Currrently i have only one term for them “HOPELESS”
@Abhishek
You have put the correct examples indeed.Subsidies in any form should be till a certain limit , else they may backfire.
Like what is happening in India.Current step of govt is right direction to make us self sufficient.First few steps are always painful
,hope we all undertand this.
Flaw has been regarding the taxes imposed on petro products.I am sure govt must be working on this. But like to mention that these taxes are
imposed by individual states, so the ones who are making noise should clean their houses first .
@Anand
heheh.. You know me very well 🙂
I dont agree with you buddy that future of common man is bleak.Infact we are inching towards golden future for all.
Current proejcts of about 1.25 lakh crore rupees in pipeline are in the right direction to eradicate unemployment and poverty from India.
Being realistic even if 50% is implemented properly we are game 🙂
Peaceful protests are permitted in our constitution.
@Gayatri
Common man is brainwashed by cunning politicians, who want to make a political mileage out of this.
I wish we all had a modern approach to tackle such situation
It’s great to see some nice discussion here…Yeah, the media is hopeless and the taxes are imposed by the states, but then, most of the common people hardly know, and if they know, hardly understand these.
600 crore loss in one day because of that bandh!! And ironically they say it was of because of mehengaai!!
Phewww
@Lo”v”er boy. Maybe I am wrong, but the loss figures are far greater. Speculations put it in between from a minimum of Rs 3000 Cr to Rs. 10,000!!!
@Lo”v”er boy and Abhishek
600 crores is the figure of Delhi only.If the combined data of entire nation is taken into account the figures will run into thousands of crores as per bodies like
ASSOCHAM,CII,FICCI etc..But the bottomline is bandh has negated the profit of price rise.Common man is worst hit.
Indian image is badly affected as lot of outsourced work is run from India,which got poorly affected.
They say bandh was done for people,damm ;its done for their own vested interests…
@Ravindra. Exactly.
man i do agree with you , these bandh type hypocritical decisions are utterly trivial and also as Supreme court has declared Bandh as illegal then these political parties going for such things shows their attitude towards the law and our democracy.
But i also think that inflation in India is bit more then what it shld be but to show your discontent towards the issue there are some other ways rather then opting for such illogical Bandhs which will rather then decreasing the inflation will increase it.