Edits | December, 2022

MELODRAMA OF INDIAN POLITY

There are three politically noticeable events happening simultaneously in the country. In the down south it is Rahul Baba’s unification of India rally. In the north, it is the MCD elections of Delhi being fought closely by the three parties of national level and in the west it is the Gujarat Vidhan Sabha elections being contested between three major parties, rather than two of last time.

On the economic front, India is not doing well – with the dollar to rupee disparity hitting an all-time low. Still there is more buzz about politics and religion in India than about national economy and livelihoods of the populace.

Joomla of freebies during the election time is on the peak, with most parties offering write-offs to the expenses of voting citizens after their coming to power. One interesting thing that has happened is Anna Hazare has announced to go on Amaran Anshan against Modi, making him commit to all promises he had made to the Indian public since 2014.

The stock market is recovering and the stocks which are related directly to the ruling party are rocketing. Various politically aligned business groups are doing exceptionally well, either on share price of their companies or in obtaining loans from nationalised and other banks in India.

The political vendetta of BJP against various elected representatives and parties continues with raids and confusion being created in the rival camp. The likes of leaders as Sanjay Raut, who had been tamed by imprisonment, are example of how BJP would control any and every party in the country.

No matter what is the rhetoric of the political criticism, the BJP seems to be going ahead full blown and is displaying its capacity of destroying the mass base of political parties, which cannot stand financially or strategically their quest of expanding the sphere of influence.

Then we have example of Satyendar Jain, minister in Delhi’s Aam Aadmi Party government who has been lodged in jail since May 2022, out to display his privileges being enjoyed as a Jail Mantri inside his own controlled prison. The matter is quite hilarious as Arvind Kejriwal is defending him that he requires physiotherapy.

All in all, it can be seen that none of the above parties are any different from the Congress or from any other regional political party that has ever been in power democratically. All of them become same kind of rulers where the pockets of politicians and the party matter the most.

War angle

Going forward, the Ukrain-Russian war has taken a huge toll on Western Europe. Continuing severe recession and price rise in entire Europe are now percolating into the companies operating in India for their European customers. Its cascading effect will be realised in the coming days, as their orders are tapering off and the real recession setting to sink.

With the UK and Germany struggling with a large government expenditure and sustenance subsidy of their population, there seems little grounds to manoeuvre their economies. In the coming four months, when the winter chill freezes Europe while Russia squeezes the neck on the supply of gas, its effect will be felt in all of Western Europe. Its tremors are likely to be felt in Asia and India as well since a large part of our economy depends on exports to European countries.

For the most part, the common man in the middle class is the most affected since they hardly have a voice to raise their woes and live hand to mouth on either the subsidies doled out by the local governments or salaries paid by smaller companies which have no support from the government – either financially or in the form of buying products from them. The government (read BJP and state parties in power) is now interested in buying only from the top 10 or 20 companies and product manufacturers, leaving the MSME and the SME sidelined. Economy stands topsyturvy like an inverted pyramid.

By the time this issue hits the stand, winners of the Gujarat and Himachal assemblies and Delhi MCD elections would have been announced. Then again, as we have seen with the previous governments, the new governments also shall act in the same way and in the same path. Nothing new is going to come out of their agendas and promises.

On a closing note, it aches the citizens of India to see a young girl, who was in a Live-in relationship with a man from a different faith, to be brutally murdered by her own partner and her body dismembered. This tragic episode puts up question on how disastrous urban migration of youth is. Without giving it any religious tinge, it is advisable that the girls need to be a little more cautious about such engagements.

CA Divesh Nath

Editor
Woman’s Era
LinkedIn: Divesh Nath