O J’s Corner

Rhetorics would not do on the supply side

The Government’s view that the price situation would be okay as there would be good monsoons, promising good crops, would not do good for the people reeling under price rise now. It is perfect optimism that should wire us with steely traps of will-power to face difficulties. But pragmatism demands that we should act here and now.

The Government of India, which is a mega entity among the comity of nations, should keep the supply side well-oiled, even at the cost of heavy losses for securing edible items for the people.

At least a year ago, world reports started showing signs of dearth of edible items like grain, wheat etc. There should have been long-term planning to insulate the country from grain shortage at any given situation. Wheat, rice and needed edible items of anticipated short supply should have been imported in bulk. True, the Left parties, on whose support the UPA Government of Dr Manmohan Singh survives, had objected to imports from the US. The Government should have convinced the Left of the impending danger embedded in the food crisis.

Globalisation and privatization had been given near-free ride assuming that the benefits of freeing the market would naturally flow to the economy and the people. We have seen that distributive justice is not an automatic result of opening up. Strong measures should be taken to carry the fruits of market profits to all echelons of the society. Ignoring the farming sector, which constitutes at least 60 per cent of the total human resources in India, has proved to be a bane for a healthy and prosperous country. Sensex indices may be roaring, Nifty points may be on the rise, but the common man’s bellies cannot be filled with stuff flourishing at Wall Street or Dalal Street.

What we should have ensured was to allow free market to function and to corner a fair share of profits amassed all on a sudden by booming enterprises for the welfare of the have-nots. Why do we have the number of billionaires rising rapidly? All on a sudden the markets were opened up, controls were removed, and they reaped skyrocketing benefits. That is fair enough. But the government should have made provisions to secure from them a fair share for undertaking welfare measures.

Why do the US, UK and other European countries have all-encompassing social security schemes? A single department takes care of the social security by providing ID numbers to the needy and the jobless, incomeless people. The department encourages them to find suitable employment. When we free the markets and allow firms to reap all the profits, the government should get back a fair share from them and this should be provided to the people with distributive justice.