SUNDAY, MAY 19, 2024
Cleofato Almeida Coutinho
The festival in the land of elections is here again! The charismatic leadership and persuasive oratory skills of our PM has mesmerized the nation. No the country has seen and infrastructural push of roads, bridges, airports and ports. Elections are always based upon narratives, optics and perception.
The image of our Prime Minister as a deliverer is firmly etched in our psyche. High marks for building the Ram temple and abrogation of Article 370, but what about roti, kapda aur makhan?
Ours is the fastest growing economy (5th largest economy) with the increasing number of billionaires called the wealth creators. A growing economy had to result in reducing unemployment and reducing inequalities. 1% of the population corners 22.6% (highest in hundred years) of the national income and owns 40.1% (highest since 1961) of the national asset. The income share of 1% in our country is amongst the highest in the world. The share of the wealth among the top 10% increased from 45% in 1961 to 65% in 2023. Growth is always welcome but when the share of the bottom 50% and the middle 40% declines to a new low, there is a problem.
Railways received one crore twenty five lakhs applicants for few thousand jobs. ILO claims that of the total unemployed 83% are young and the share of educated unemployed is 66%. For centuries, our people have migrated for better prospects. Goans have done that for decades but when at war time, India’s young throng to Israeli recruitment centres for jobs in Gaza tell us the pit we are in. The 5th largest economy is ranked 134 out of 193 countries below Sri Lanka, Bhutan and Bangladesh in Human Development Report (2023-2024).
The said report highlights the fact that the low score is on account of economic inequality. Southern states with higher human development have sustained higher economic growth showing that inequality is our bane. We were ranked at 111th of the 135 countries in the Global Hunger Index 2023. Popular eateries now charge Rs 250 per fish-thali. Have incomes grown at that rate? There is also a steep rise in the household debts last year. A low per capita income with household debts only shows the financial fragility. Thomas Piketty in his world inequality Lab report on India states ‘... we did not see this vulgar level inequality even during British rule ’.
Prabhakala Prabhkar is spot on when he says that the poor and disempowered have to settle for 5 kilos of ration as the cronies grabbed five airports!
Millions have also been lifted from extreme poverty as the economy grew, but social disparities are widening, turning India into an unjust society. A call for a financial X-ray ought to have been responded by a report card of the extent to which the farmers’ income has multiplied and by showcasing the total number of jobs added during a decade. But it was met with imaginary ghosts taking away your mangalsutras and assets to be distributed among those producing more children and infiltrates (gahuspaithiya).
This is a communal and hate spin against a community othered to create a narrative. What has been served over the past decade are only the starters, the main course is now coming! Inequality does not permit a society to grow progressively.
At the time of independence, it was an unequal an unjust social order. With wide spread poverty and illiteracy. Despite all that, a democratic society was built and the founders led by Gandhi & Nehru thought of a humane and a compassionate vision of democracy. Amidst killing of a million people and displacement of almost 8 millions (highest in world history), they decided towards a society inclusive in nature.
When food and dress habits, how one lives or whom one worships or whom one loves and the fertility rate of a community is spoken about by the one who is hailed as a national saviour at election time, some may believe that to be a smart politics as the opposition succumbs to the mind game.
But the inclusive nature of our society built in difficult times gets frittered away by hare-brained rhetoric. B R Ambedkar was so prophetic on 26th November 1949 in his last address to the constituent assembly, when he told to shun hero-worship. Whether it is Indira Gandhi or Narendra Modi, we have done exactly the opposite. The adulation and worshiping hysteria have brought a situation where there is no moderation and no place for a civility.
O P Rawat the former CEC claimed that ‘the heat has made it difficult for voters to step out’ in first phase. Elections are all about making everybody’s voice heard and to remain relevant in society. It is not only a right but a responsibility. The right to vote must be exercised as a first step in safeguarding the inclusive and plural society. Voters must brave the scorching heat, stand in line to vote for a place where the mind is without fear and he head is held high.
The main stream media narrative is that this election is a done deal. We are set made to believe that the road to Delhi passes only through Gujarat and UP. The done deal perception did not work out in 2004, when the country was supposed to shine. In 1977, with all her resources and the opposition united in Tihar jail, Mrs. Gandhi could not gauge the mood of the people with the All India Radio in her captivity. Who thought that Raj Narayan would defeat Indira Gandhi by a margin of 55 thousand votes in 1977 and a little known Mamata Banerjee would defeat 10 terms MP Somnath Chatterjee in 1984?
(The writer is a practicing advocate and a political thinker)
