Skip to main content

Alms for Aam Aadmi




Finally Ms Sheila Dikshit has spoken the truth: the government exists for the rich; the poor will only get alms.  She has fixed the amount at Rs4 per day per person.  Rs600 will be enough to meet the food requirements of a family of 5 persons, according to didi.  They can buy daal, rice and wheat in that amount.
 
Her party is annoyed with her for speaking the truth about the government’s intentions. We should be grateful to didi for giving us an indication of things to come.

In the neoliberal system which India has accepted lock, stock and barrel, the real rulers are the capitalists.  The government exists only for the sake of formulating policies which will enable the capitalists to take over the resources of the country at minimum rates. The Economic Survey 2009-10 stated without mincing words that “prices are best left to the market.”

There will be no welfare government anymore.  No welfare schemes, no subsidies, no Public Distributions Systems.  Instead the government will deposit a certain amount (Rs600 per family?) in the bank accounts linked with the aadhar numbers of the poor people.  The poor can now rejoice.  They can buy food of their choice from places of their choice with the amount (Rs600) that their government will generously offer them.

What didi is saying in effect to the aam aadmi is this: “Don’t rely on your government anymore; the real rulers are the businessmen.”

Don’t think that it is just the didi’s party that will say this.  Look at the way the SP, BSP or the DMK behaved when the issue of Foreign Direct Investment was brought into debate.  They staged a walk-out in order to hoodwink the aam aadmi while, with the same walk-out, paving the way for passing the bill.  They have all mastered the craft(iness) of hitting two birds with one shot.

Only Didi had the candidness to tell us (the aam aadmi) frankly: “We’ll only be able to give you alms.  We have sold ourselves to the capitalists.”

Comments

  1. "No cake?! Let them have bread instead!" ;)

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Not even bread, Chinmoy. Only roti and daal! A bit of rice, if necessary.

      Delete
  2. My family, as of now, is 4 people. All of us went for registering AADHAR on the same day. Only two us have got the document. Therefore, our monthly entitlement is Rs. 240/-!

    RE

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. My wife and I, as well as many others on the campus, are still waiting for our aadhar numbers, though our photos and fingerprints and so on were taken a year ago. I wrote to the emial id provided in the UID website; but no reply as usual with govt affairs.

      When they made a pilot study in Rajasthan it was found that the scheme of Direct Cash Transfer didn't work successfully (See latest Frontline for details). If they cannot make it work even in a pilot study conducted in a limited area, how will they make it work all over the country?

      Delete
  3. It is not Sheila's fault. Correct me if I am wrong, these same voters never miss a chance to queue up and vote for her while the rich stay back in their palaces or whatever you have. No, I am not favouring the rich, I am only a couple of notches above the Rs. 600 per month slot. But we reap what we sow.

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. The poor man has dreams when he goes to vote. The dreams of the rich don't depend on the govt. That's the difference. Congress or BJP or any party - it will make little difference to the aam aadmi. Shall we vote for Aam Aadmi Party and hope for a difference?

      Delete
    2. Matheikal, the rich are not dependent on the government, true. Only because, they work the government in the lean times, between the elections! You are setting yourself up for a dispiriting fall by depending on AAP. Call me a cynic.

      Delete
  4. .. and alms will be there only before the elections. After the elections aam admi can wait for "socially responsible" business persons to think about their less fortunate brothers and sisters and give them something

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Alms, again, in the name of social responsibility - you're so right.

      Delete

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

Why I won’t vote

From Deshabhimani , Malayalam weekly Exactly a month from today is the Parliamentary election in my state of Kerala. This time, I’m not going to vote. Bernard Shaw defined democracy , with his characteristic cynicism, as “ a device that ensures we shall be governed no better than we deserve .” We elect our government in a democracy. And the government invariably sucks our blood – whichever the party is. The BJP and the Congress are like Tweedledum and Tweedledee though the former makes all sorts of other claims day in and day out. BJP = Congress + the holy cow. The holy cow has turned out to be quite a vampire and that makes a difference, no doubt. In our Prime Minister’s algebra, it is: (a+b) 2 which should be equal to a 2 and b 2 . There is an extra 2ab which is the holy cow. In George Orwell’s Animal Farm , the animals revolt against the human master and set up their own nationalist republic. Soon politics develops in the republic and some pigs become leaders. The porcine

Prelude to AtoZ

  From Garden of 5 Senses, Delhi [file pic] Hindsight gives an unearthly charm and order to the past. There can be pain too. A lot of things could have been different, much better, if only we possessed the wisdom of our old age back in those days. As a writer put it, Oedipus, Hamlet, Lear and a lot of those guys must have thought, “I wish I had known this some time ago.” Life is a series of errors with intermittent achievements. The only usefulness of the errors may be the lessons they teach us. Probably, that is their purpose too. We are created to err so that we learn, I dare to put it that way. I turn 64 in a month’s time. It’s not inappropriate to look back at some of the people whom life brought into my life so that I would learn certain lessons. No, I don’t mean to say that life has any such purpose or design or anything. Life is absurd. People come into your life as haphazardly as vehicles ply on your road or birds poop on your head. Some of these people change the chemist

How Arvind Kejriwal can save himself

Narendra Modi and Amit Shah have a clear vision. Eliminate all opposition. Decimate them or absorb them. My previous post [link below] showed a few people decimated by them. Today let’s look at the others: those who are saved by joining the Bharatiya Janata Party [BJP]. 1. Himanta Biswa Sarma  This guy was in Congress and faced serious charges related to the multi-crore Saradha chit fund scam. He also faced corruption charges related to drinking water supply in Guwahati. His house was raided by the Central Bureau of Investigation [CBI]. Then he switched over to BJP and all his crimes just vanished. It’s as simple as taking a dip in the Ganga and all your sins are forgiven. Today he is the chief minister of Assam. Nothing is heard of all the charges that were levelled against him. 2. Amarinder Singh  This former Captain in the Indian Army was a Congressman until Modi’s Enforcement Directorate [ED] started raiding him, his son and his son-in-law. He put an end to all those raid

The Good Old World

Book Review Title: Dukhi Dadiba and irony of fate Author: Dadi Edulji Taraporewala Translators: Aban Mukherji and Tulsi Vatsal Publisher: Ratna Books, Delhi, 2023 Pages: 314 If you want to return to the good old days of the late 19 th century, this is an ideal novel for you. This was published originally in Gujarati in 1913. It appeared as a serial before that from 1898 onwards in a periodical. The conflict between good and evil is the dominant motif though there is romance, betrayal, disappointment, regret, and pretty much of traditional morality. Reading this novel is quite like watching an old Bollywood movie, 1960s style. Ardeshir Bahadurshah, a wealthy Parsi aristocrat in Surat, dies having obligated his son Jehangir to find out his long-lost brother Rustom. Rustom was Bahadurshah’s son in his first marriage. The mother died when the boy was too small and the nurse who looked after the child vanished with it one day. Ratanmai, Bahadurshah’s present wife, takes her

The Blindness of Superficiality

An Essay on Anees Salim’s novel The Blind Lady’s Descendants Superficiality is a deadly human vice though most people seldom realise it. It is easy to live on the surface of everything from one’s profession to religion. Anees Salim’s novel, The Blind Lady’s Descendants , tells us a story of superficiality as lived by quite many people. Amar, the protagonist of the novel, is 26 when he thinks that life is not worth living. He became an atheist at the age of 13. He had become a half-Muslim at the age of 5 when his little penis was circumcised partly since he ran away in pain during the process. Amar’s atheism, however, is as superficial as most believers’ religion is. What initiated little Amar to atheism is “Dr Ibrahim’s farting fit.” Islamic prayer has to follow many a rule. “If you break wind during namaaz, you break a big rule, and you are to discontinue the prayer then and there, with no second thoughts.” Little Amar was unable to control his giggles as Dr Ibrahim struggled to