Wither Poverty (or Poor?)
THE world is plagued with severe crises economic and political. The country too is struggling to fight corruption, Maoism and a host of other issues and I have decided to write on this trivial issue. Surprising? Shocking?
THREE Cheers for Montek Singh Ahluvalia and his team at the Planning Commission (of course, headed by our beloved, honest Prime Minister). In one stroke, they have improved the economy of Common Man by redefining the poverty in terms of Rs. 32/day and Rs. 25/day respectively for the urban and the rural folk.
NOW they have a bigger task ahead. By the same norm, they should redefine creamy layer by including everyone earning more than Rs. 50/day or more. They should also start taxing income above the bpl limit. This way the government will earn more than it can handle, and so, will have to open account(s) with Swiss Bank.
THEY can also advise the government to decide the salaries and perks of our elected representatives as also the bureaucracy accordingly and reformulate the guidelines for election expenses. They can also confiscate the assets of everybody with moveable/immoveable property, other assets and cash worth more than Rs. One lakh.
Why am I writing all this? The government, under the leadership of our worthy Prime Minister is wise enough to do much more except for curbing the price rise, handling corruption and taking steps against terrorism.
The government is busy. Please don't disturb them by raising petty issues like poverty.
THREE Cheers for Montek Singh Ahluvalia and his team at the Planning Commission (of course, headed by our beloved, honest Prime Minister). In one stroke, they have improved the economy of Common Man by redefining the poverty in terms of Rs. 32/day and Rs. 25/day respectively for the urban and the rural folk.
NOW they have a bigger task ahead. By the same norm, they should redefine creamy layer by including everyone earning more than Rs. 50/day or more. They should also start taxing income above the bpl limit. This way the government will earn more than it can handle, and so, will have to open account(s) with Swiss Bank.
THEY can also advise the government to decide the salaries and perks of our elected representatives as also the bureaucracy accordingly and reformulate the guidelines for election expenses. They can also confiscate the assets of everybody with moveable/immoveable property, other assets and cash worth more than Rs. One lakh.
Why am I writing all this? The government, under the leadership of our worthy Prime Minister is wise enough to do much more except for curbing the price rise, handling corruption and taking steps against terrorism.
The government is busy. Please don't disturb them by raising petty issues like poverty.
The open letter by the Right to Food Campaign mentions that "the affidavit filed by the Planning Commission being “factually correct” needs to be examined against some other facts such as India being home to the largest number of hungry people, people without the advantage of education, and the highest maternal and infant mortality deaths in the world. It is also “factually correct” that India is ranked 67th out of 88 countries ranked by IFPRI in the Global Hunger Index and that nearly half of India’s children remain under-nourished, twice as many as in sub-Saharan Africa.
ReplyDeleteMr Ahluwalia, perhaps you need to reflect more on the fact that during your stewardship of the Planning Commission, India has fallen further behind neighboring and poorer (in terms of per capita income) Bangladesh, in terms of most of the human development indicators."
Even as we write to you, over the next twenty four hours, close to 3,000 Indian children will die of malnutrition related illness. The current ‘revolution’ in agriculture has led to nation-wide agrarian distress, and will see 47 farmers committing suicide in India in the next 24 hours. Further, despite your repeated prediction over the last two years on inflation (particularly food inflation) going down, the expertise of the Planning Commission even on that front has been proved wrong. Despite the indisputable intellectual resources at its command the Planning Commission seems to require a reality check; perhaps spending more time in the villages and slums of this country would have achieved that.