Yet to see light at the end of the tunnel...

It’s the right time to update the blog. What an un-happening week this has been so far? I had to leave Chennai, Drogba had to flick Tevez, Terry had to slip, they had to win the Champion’s League, Dhoni lets Dravid win and oh so obviously!!! So I guess it’s the right time to stop procrastinating and write about P. Sainath’s latest offering “Of loan waivers and tax waivers”.

Read it, re-read it and read it again. But there is something so incoherent about what Mr. Sainath wants to convey this time. Initially it’s more of a take-off on what he conveyed in his previous article. Then there is this dig at the BCCI and the IPL. Finally there is something to read and this explains why P. Sainath can keep his readers captivated. To witness a person campaigning for a cause done to death and yet bringing life to it; it is an inspirational factor of sorts. One minor glitch is the jibe at BCCI and IPL. To take a dig at someone and fuse it with the opinion on an issue is not easy and this jibe here only adds to the incoherence. It can certainly be done away with or discussed as a separate entity.

During the thought process on this write-up came one more piece of news – SBI won’t sanction anymore tractor loans to farmers. Clearly foreseen; obvious premonition! Why would a financial institution lend money when there are no signs to make profit out of that money or even break-even by way of regaining the money lent? What about all the money the government waived off for the farmers; was the reimbursed with interest to the banks? Was it even reimbursed, leave alone the interest? Though most of the banks are nationalized, they are individual units of business and they need to show profit too.

Based on the CAG report as present in the article, two things are clear. One, the government has not been very transparent and honest (Duh!) in the waiver process. Two, the reimbursement to the financial institutions have received similar treatment from the government. So all this makes the entire process, an obvious sham to profit the only bank they are really interested in: the vote-bank!

The very fact that statistics don’t lie and that suicides are actually increasing even after the waiver clearly indicates the failure of the waiver-scheme in more ways than one and also throws light on the life of the farmer sans the farms and the fields. The farmer has a family to support. Ailing elders, women of the household struggling to meet ends on a low budget, a society that respects a profession purely based on remuneration, intelligent sons and daughters who have to study further despite the rising costs resulting from commercialization of education, medication and so many more things. In a way, any average Indian is suffering from all this. But as clichéd as it may sound, our spirit will never let us down and we will continue to overcome these odds. However, we need to exercise the spirit with caution in order to stop letting the government taking advantage of the spirit by mistaking it to be our tolerance to all the hideous and mercenary schemes they intend to propose.

Agrarian Crisis Looming...

ON the night of March 1st, 2008 en route to a wedding a few kilometers off Chennai, I was forced to discuss stuff with my friend over the phone owing to the fact that the person traveling with me was deep asleep and that i was getting restless and hyperactive.

When my friend on the phone told me that she was very happy because there was something for everyone in the budget and that it was aam aadmi's budget it really made me think. I have this strange habit of adopting a cynical point of view to an opinion of common acceptance to make an internal judgment of whether that opinion really needs to be accepted. Hence i started to think how the Union Budget 2008 was flawed. I could gather quite a few facts about the budget from the day's newspaper. And a few minutes later it was quite clearly visible that the aam aaadmi's budegt was but a big misnomer.

First of all, why the term aam aadmi's budget? One simple phrase to answer it - "32000Crore Loan Waiver for farmers." Everybody's happy? Not Exactly.

SO then i told my good friend, that the package was only going to add to the woes. Given the country's red-tape approach to implement government orders, things were certainly going off-hand. With current levels of corruption, even a hugely understated assumption would say, a poor farmer might have to GIFT 5000 for every waiver he/she is eligible for and that makes the 32000crore waiver only a 20000crore waiver. Simple Mathematics but huge numbers.

OK...TO Hell with the assumptions. Still it is not very lucrative of the Government to waive off such a huge amount. And this can be explained in two broad, very broad categories:

1) WHO IS GOING TO FILL THIS VOID OF 32000Crores IN THE NATIONAL TREASURY?
All said and reviewed by the the elite analysts on the TV channels across the country as a breather, the above question remains a conundrum with an obvious answer. Common Sense and recent happenings will only lead to point out that, the middle class will have to put in extra hours at office, make extra phone calls to meet clients, take extra print-outs to distribute, read extra books to teach, think extra to capture more business, buy extra to keep up the consumerism levels, save extra to be safe for the tougher times, travel extra miles to sell the goods; ALL THIS only to fill in the void.

2)THE FARMER'S PLIGHT AFTER THE LOAN WAIVER...
This is perhaps the worst of consequences. So the farmer's loan has been waived off. The farmer is not going to commit suicide for the time being. The government is concerned that the farmer stays alive because he has to cast vote(s). So what is going to happen to the farmer after the loan-waiver and the election? The farmer knows best how to farm and what is he/she going to go back to? Dry, poorly-irrigated, non-arable lands!!!
AND THE CYCLE BEGINS... The farmer is not able to farm due to poor conditions...The farmer goes to the bank to apply for a loan...The farmer runs from pillar to post to under-the-table to get his/her loan sanctioned...The loan is used in vain to try and grow enough crops to make profit...The burden of loan repayment is unbearable...The farmer simply commits suicide...The bank officers torture the kith and kin of the farmer in the name of loan repayment...The trauma adds on to the pile of woes...The Government will remain silent...The voters will remain ignorant...The time for elections will come...All politicians will rally shouting and unashamedly making false promises...Ignorant voters will succumb to false promises and cinema-artiste (cleavage) glamor...Couple of elections later the Government will waive off the loan given to the farmers...Farmer will go back to non-arable land...AND THE CYCLE CONTINUES...

UNLESS and otherwise agricultural REFORMS are introduced there is no end to this tale of woes. The country is very much in need of a second green revolution in the not so green areas.

So was i right in expanding this much? HELL NO... In cinematic terms "This is just a trailer, The cinema is yet to begin..." Reminds one of SRK mumbling "Picture abhi baaki hai mere dost..." in OSO.

And presenting this picture is none other than Mr. P. Sainath, the man who has best analyzed the situation so far. His version of the picture is available at "OH! WHAT A LOVELY WAIVER" published in The Hindu editorial dated 10th March, 2008.

When he points out to how influential states bully the weaker ones, it reminds me of a small incident. A group of friends were discussing the happenings of a particular sport. One person X who did not have the luxury of watching the sport at home, used to lookup newspapers and websites and catch the action. Now, another person Y with a bunch of bootlickers, who supposedly considers himself superior because he watches the sport in action, deems it wrong for X to comment on team performances because X does not watch the sport in action. People like Y and the bootlickers tend to forget the fact that opinions don't have to be consummated in conformance. Such hypocrites who assume their so-called superiority of opinions tend to become ignorant citizens and ultimately a pain to their neighborhood.

Same is the case of the minister influencing the policies as correctly pointed out by Mr. Sainath. Kudos to him for having painstakingly collecting these facts and trying to tell the ignorant farmers and ignorant hypocrites(Y :-) ) that it is not karza-maafi but in fact it is voter-maafi: an apology to the voters for inaction along with an appeasement package.

A Follow-Up

Government Funding:

"Government's priority has been on bringing education to the masses"- A BIG JOKE. The government has so far never invested on education as much as it should have. If statistics are right, a paltry 4.8 percent of the GDP is being spent on education. God Alone Knows, how much from this paltry sum actually goes to education. In order to appease the masses the Government liquidates the educational system by opening more and more Defunct Schools. Schools with no teachers or teachers who can't teach. Slices lo bread are urbane, bread crumbs are more real. Strengthening existing institutions would be more ideal instead on blind establishment of new institutions.

Daddy Issues:

Freud - classic example of how to make people think. Freud only proposed ideas. He, even changed some of his theories based on constructive criticism he received. Hence, again, teaching is the art of making people think. People can have their own belief and they have every entitlement to do so. But teaching students to choose their own belief is any day better than imposing a personal belief.

People of The World:

One doest not have to read Marcus Aurelius to learn. Some prefer learning by reading, some by working, some by interacting, some by traveling, some by listening. One reads or crams on what he/she is not interested but learns what he/she is interested in. All the learning adds to the knowledge base of a person and this shall be utilized to gain tangible benefits.

Expansion of Schools:

Existing schools should move towards accommodating more students and educate more people. The school which has successfully demonstrated the path to being one of the best by starting from a humble two-room organization can be emulated across various locations. Tangible benefits for students is an idea but unless tangible incentives are increased for teachers, the teaching community will be loaded with irresponsible individuals.

Traditional System:

Science and maths were the roots of our education system. Every kid talks about Aryabhatta and Sushrutha. That they were not discussed properly, is a liability of our caste-system. However, the art was never lost. It has been passed down generations to a selected few. These selected few are slowly opening up to reach out to the entire world and it is high time the education system provides them a solid backup.

Textbooks:

Textbooks and not textbook should be prescribed. Students should be exposed to various opinions on historical events and their thoughts should be shaped by putting before them abstract questions based on reasoning; answering such questions leads to moral autonomy. Hence the key, as correctly pointed out, lies in abstract questions based on reasoning.