Editorial
C P Aboobaker
1.
Very recently our honourable Prime Minister was addressing the nation in the background of certain economic measures his Government had introduced. I should particularly mention that these measures were not reforms as claimed by the PM, they were aimed at introducing heavy burden upon the shoulders of the people. They include the hike in the price of diesel, reducing the subsidy on the LP gas for household use and the introduction of foreign houses of trade in the field of retail trade in India.
Our PM was very much pleased to state that all measures he was talking about were intended to make the life of the people good. Surely, this must be the aim of any government. However, was the PM justified in claiming that his measures were aimed at the welfare of the people? We fear he is not. At the outset, let us examine the kernel of what he spoke. He was saying that the country needed money for progress, and there is no tree in the country where we can pluck money. By this the much learned economist that he is, he was saying that our nation is a pauper and it has to get money from foreign countries for which we are to obey certain norms (We do not use the word dictates because we respect our Prime Minister) the foreign bodies suggest.
Our country is independent, at least we are given to believe that we are independent, and as such we have to pursue our own path of politics and our path of economic development. We should not be approaching foreign capitalist nations with bowl for their much acclaimed capital. We should have ourselves developed into a powerful economy instead of wandering with a bowl for the pitchers of the foreign nations at the cost of our self-respect and dignity. What, unfortunately, is our position in the comity of nations? We are the much trumpeted democracy that permits every foreigner to enter our markets, educational institutions, and even the national defence institutions. Our democracy is feared to maintain profuse access to foreign capital to all spheres of our life. And our Prime Minister believes that this is the best way of our development after 65 years independent existence.
And so, we need money, we don’t have trees to pluck currency, we have to find out where we can gather as much money as we require, therefore we have discovered that foreign capital is only willing to be supplied in our market; at least our Prime Minister and the Finance Minister and the Planning Commission Vice Chairman have realized this fact; they are all learned men and they have decided to sell whatever we can to foreign capital so that we get sufficient money without searching for trees to pluck money from.
We don’t know whether to be ashamed of ourselves or to surrender our sovereignty to the former colonial masters or the like again. Free market economy was thrown away by mankind in the backdrop of the great depression 1928 -32; how the nonsense monopoly capital, private as well as foreign, gained a new dignity after 1980 is yet to explain; Hobsbawm in his monumental work on the making of modern world has categorically ruled out free market economy as an elixir for the economic ills; and he is no incapable a doctor that his words should not be heeded to.
We need not write a lengthy essay on what is going plain before our eyes: diesel price has gone up by RS. %/- a litre; cooking gas subsidy is restricted to six cylinders a year and any excess would cost RS. 918/ per cylinder; it may be borne in mind that that unlike petrol and diesel, gas is produced indigenously. The price is decided indigenously and the supply limit is decided indigenously. We are answerable only to ourselves and why do we raise its price or restrict its use? So, electricity is dear, gas is dear, other forms of fuel are dear, so naturally the quantum of food to cook is to be dwindled considerably. This is a good logic the Govt may use to reduce the supply of food grains, cereals and the like.
And at last the Govt have decided to raise diesel price at the tune of RS 5/- per litre again and also to allow foreign capital in the field of Insurance at the tune of 49%.
A great country whose first prime minister was bold enough to define neo-colonialism as colonialism not visible in the geographical map is all too willing to allow new colonial masters to carve out invisible colonies in our beautiful country. Yeah, we are concerned over the gradual erosion of our sovereignty.
Are we to mourn the demise of our independence or to smile at the great quanta of money we are going to get for that and to wait for the next time when we are going to get convinced how we are betrayed by our rulers?
2.
As editor of the ezine, I have always been cautious not to make any amendments to the writings of my esteemed contributors. I have great respect for them. Moreover, I feel that any ideas or opinions expressed by them are their own and they are respobnsible to these ideas and opinions.
CP Aboobacker
Editor
C P Aboobaker - C.P. ABOOBACKER, editor of thanalonline, belongs to Calicut in Kerala. His interests include writing, publishing poems, essays, and many more literary things. Latest writing is about Channels and Globalizations. He is a retired professor of history.
e-mail: cpaboobacker@gmail.com
