Arrogant Chidambaram ignores common man’s plight

It seems the electoral defeat in two states, blamed largely on rising prices, was not enough to make Congressmen rise out of slumber. The Rs. 680,521 crore ($ 148 billion) general budget for 2007-08 was expected to address these issues and the issue of common man in general but it seems that the bespectacled Chidambaram is yet to come out of his nattily dressed attire and well-appointed apartment in New Delhi and apathies with the 70% of India’s poor population.
There’s no doubt that the Finance Minister has failed to deliver yet again. His business card identifies him as a senior advocate at the Supreme Court of India and it is high time that he is left to that. If the Finance Minister of a largely poor country looks at the crème 20% to formulate his budget, what else do you have to say? Fact remains that the budget, though having inbuilt populist programs, had nothing concrete in terms of benefiting the common man. Even the benefit to the minorities, much talked about in the context of Sachar Committee Report, has not been elaborated.
Though huge amounts have been given to agriculture, the scenario has reached the nadir already, due to opening of the sector to industrialists and the encroachment of foreign companies in the farmer’s territory. And you believed this country was still agrarian with about 70% of India associated with it. Yes they still are but majority of them continue to live in abject penury with no benefit reaching them.
It is this reason that Chidambaram came under attack from his own party members who blamed his economic policies and failure to rein in inflation for the Congress party’s defeat in elections in two states – Punjab and Uttarakhand. Most of them would have continued with their silence if Chidambaram’s actions had not started adversely affecting their political fiefdoms.
Budget gave a shot in the arm to the ailing BJP whose president Rajnath Singh lost no time in showing that he was skeptical: “The budget proposals do not address the basic issues like curbing prices. This budget will stoke inflation and not reduce it,” he said.
Senior BJP leader LK Advani too dubbed the General Budget as “betrayal of aam admi” saying it showed the Congress had learnt no lessons from its electoral defeat in Punjab and Uttarakhand. He added that the rising cost of food stables brought the fall of the Congress from power in Punjab and Uttarakhand and ridiculed Chidambaram’s proposals to slash prices of pet food.
“At a time today when aam admi finds dal costly, the Finance Minister exults over the fact that he is reducing prices of food for pets like dogs and cats,” Advani said. What Mr. Advani is not aware perhaps is that our Finance Ministry, due to the vagaries of his lifestyle, is more exposed to dogs and cats then the poor man of the country.

Public is there to be fooled

You and I comprise the ‘public’. And it is evident that we, the public, are being taken for granted by those in the high echelons of power. Moral: we are meant to be fooled. In other words, we deserve that we are fooled time and again.
If we are not being befooled, why is it that the election promises are not being honoured and the parties go to polls every next time? If we are not being befooled, why is that the politicians say something at one time and altogether different thing at other instance? Glaring example: Congress that gave support to Mulayam Singh till a day before citing ‘secular’ reasons withdraws support a shade prior to election, citing ‘secular’ reasons once again. But the most glaring example is undoubtedly the mother of most gruesome of all tales – Nithari. Was it because the Government didn’t want to distribute any more cheques of 5 lakh each (already the State was emptied by a huge amount) that the skeleton digging drive was stopped? Was it because they had no more land to give to the families of sufferers? Or was it that they didn’t want any more adverse publicity (already their image has been much sullied)?
However, those who were saying that it is not Samajwadi Party’s fault if an incident of this nature occurs are finding no cover to hide their faces. Accepted that there was no fault of the Samajwadi Party, but who gave orders to stop further probe, after 19 skeletons were recovered from the drains in Nithari.
Raj Babbar is right when he says that some thing is fishy here as well. Says he: “Now after CBI taking over the investigation, not only more body parts were recovered from there; the investigating team also managed to lay its hands on 40 gunny bags containing human organs.” Latest recoveries clearly indicate that the police attempted to dilute the magnitude of the ghastly incident, Babbar charged.
Moreover, Babbar has charged that a sum of Rs. 3 crore is spent on annual cleaning of drains in Noida. He said: “I have definite information that this exercise has not been undertaken during the last three years but Rs. 9 crore has been shown as spent on this head. The Noida authority too has accepted this fact,” he claimed. Babbar seems to be right here as so many skeletons would not have been thrown overnight.
With more and more bags being recovered, there remains no doubt that Nithari was the case of organ trade and not just individual crime like ‘child-abuse’ or ‘flesh-eating’. If this is so, it cannot be the work of just two persons. Who are the others involved? More importantly, who are those who are shielding them even now? A thorough probe is required.