Edits | October, 2021

(1) Is the pandemic ready over? 

Are we now in a phase where there is no pandemic..? With the shifting trends and people coming out in full swing and the traffic taking its usual toll it appears that in many countries the pandemic stress is almost over. The stock market is booming and election campaigns are humming so, is it over? The dialogue about the third phase in India has almost died down with the mass vaccination, which is quite an achievement for India. It is also an achievement for the political class since they have saved their electorate at the cost of doling out free vaccination. And that has happened all over the world.

What post-pandemic crisis?

With many companies now shut and services abundant there is a new league of companies that are funded in an extraordinary manner. They incurred huge losses and are somehow able to gather very high valuations, which translates into them being able to raise an ending amount of equity for their companies. Most of these ventures are funded on the head of new and young entrepreneurs, who literally become slaves of the funders. It is hardly seen that established business groups or business families are funded by the investors since they cannot be controlled in the same way as the new budding entrepreneurs. This is one good outcome of the pandemic economic crisis, which has led to investments into the young talent of the world.

(2) Have we actually moved on from shopping?

Once you enter a shop nowadays there are two scenes which greet you. One, everybody taking care of the shop is busy with their cell phones without even bothering if a customer has entered their shop. Two, they do it while wearing a mask, so it is not evident whether they are greeting you or mocking you. Also, the young shopkeepers are not very keen on explaining what merchandise to pick and what’s on offer. Usually, they assume that the customer is going to depend on an online search for the product as well as its right price before placing an order in the shop. Question: is the large infrastructure of malls now only for food plazas, hobnobbing, and simply roaming around rather than for shopping. As online portals have moved right into every person’s head, irrespective, what is to become of the shops and their shopkeepers. Malls and markets in central Delhi are now putting up their websites presenting the stores in the market for an online sale.

(3) The Ashram and its mess.

Uttar Pradesh election for BJP is in full turmoil. With only a few months remaining before the election campaign rally kicks in, there are two tragedies which have happened with the BJP. One, the farmers’ agitation has not yet been conclusively bought out. Though PM Modi has announced a few measures in his inaugural speech marking the canvassing for UP elections, nothing much has been concretised, which will put the farmers supporting PM Modi and CM Yogi in their next term for running the largest north Indian state. The last time if you remember, UP won over notes demonetisation of the Indian currency.

At that instance, most of the political parties were left high and dry without any cash available to spend on the ground, as most electioneering is a cash transaction. This time CM Yogi will need substantial support in money as well as in men of the western UP who are sitting all across borders. It was never envisaged that a movement which originated from Punjab will end up being headed by the farmers in UP. Imagine a scenario on the political turf which would have been very different even as the CM of Punjab is being changed by the congress if the farmers’ movement would have been led by Captain Amarinder Singh. One political folly of a young Sikh raising a flag on the Red Fort has cost the community as well as the Congress party its entire strategy to run forthcoming state elections.

It is widely deliberated that BJP and the agitating farmers have had a deal that should come out in the open sometime near the UP elections. But the twist in the tale is the killing of the mahant at the ghats, which was the scenario again never envisaged. It is seldom seen that the chief minister of a state would take an active interest in such a mishap. It appears that the RSS and the BJP stand divided on this issue somehow and the death appears to be a suicide. The truth will never be known as some of the close seers will be hung as scapegoats in this religious-political scenario. Going by history, there was Dhirendra Brahmachari who was quite close to Gandhi Family and at the time of Sanjay Gandhi’s death questions were raised. Many books have been written on conspiracies in India hatched between the religious leaders and their political counterparts, or the other way round.

Will the BJP be able to win the UP elections is a chance that political pundits will have to re-calculate. The party has left with no leader except for one face of PM Modi, under whose guidance a general election can be fought, but not a state election. The high and mighty of BJP took on Mamata Banerjee and we all know the outcome. The same scenario has been repeated earlier in the various state elections, which were all lost by BJP despite mammoth electioneering and budgets.

CA Divesh Nath
Editor
Woman’s Era
LinkedIn: Divesh Nath