Inflation can kill

Media Watch

This week’s Media Watch is entirely dedicated to the Frontline because its latest issue deals with a burning topic as honestly as only the Frontline can. Inflation. While the Modi government is spending thousands of crores of rupees on building temples, statues and the Central Vista for himself, millions of Indians are being driven to the brink of starvation. India isn’t shining at all except in the grand advertisements put up by Modi’s propaganda system on all sorts of media channels.

More and more Indians are being pushed to the margins of existence, deprived of education, clothing, housing, healthcare, all of which have become luxuries that are out of the reach of many Indians today, says the Frontline boldly. Modi came with big schemes like bank accounts for the poor and cooking gas connections too. The bank accounts went dormant long ago and cooking gas is beyond people’s dreams now. Forget gas, even kerosene is unaffordable. The magazine quotes a man saying, “My wife uses our old kerosene stove to save gas. We no longer get kerosene on our ration card; we buy it on the black market. It’s about Rs.100 a litre and that is if we can get it.”

The magazine blames Modi’s policies for the catastrophic situation in the country today. “This inflation is as much engineered,” says the magazine, “knowingly or unwittingly, as it is imported. Merely adjusting excise duties may not be enough to rein in the runaway increase in prices.”

The article titled ‘Understanding Inflation’ shows how the low- and middle-income countries are the worst affected by the global inflation. “In countries like India, increases in production costs and prices just get passed on to workers,” says the article. In short, the ordinary Indian ends up paying for everything including the luxuries enjoyed by our politicians and the profits amassed by our corporate bigwigs. Mr Modi knows how to keep that ordinary Indian deluded and happy too. Give him hatred to eat. Also tell him that the present hardships are temporary; a great India is awaiting him somewhere in the distant future like a pie in the sky. This is just what the routine Monthly Economic Report of the government released on 12 May did. It told the Indians that their economy was doing well. Well! 

Sukumar Muralidharan of O P Jindal Global University counsels the Modi government that the tradition of nurturing the rich with the money of the poor belongs to the past, the great Indian heritage. But “that clearly is no longer a politically feasible option.”

Navpreet Kaur of Janki Devi Memorial College, University of Delhi, warns us that it’s all going to get worse. Modi government is likely to “target” the public distribution system and also the private market prices of wheat and other food items are likely to rise. According to the 2021 Global Hunger Index, India is at a miserable rank of 101 of the 116 countries examined, in spite of much-publicised schemes like National Food Security Act and the Pradhan Mantri Garib Kalyan Anna Yojana (that name is quite a mouthful!). Effective policies are required, says the professor who writes for this Frontline. Effective policies, not schemes with big names and media hype.

The magazine carries many more articles on the subject written by eminent people who definitely know better than Modi and his bhakts. The former finance minister of Kerala and the present one of Tamil Nadu express their views loud and clear. The latter puts the blame squarely on the authoritarianism of the Modi government. “All institutions have gone under the hammer…. So now you have this unquestioned and unquestionable authority,” says PTR Palanivel Thiaga Rajan (FM of Tamil Nadu). The aggregation of power in Modi’s hands is not what the Constitution says is healthy. One consequence of such power is that the power and control over the system keeps on increasing and the outcome (quality of people’s lives) keeps going down and down. “This will not end well.” He also adds that “Part of the problem is that once you reach that level of power, you will not receive a feedback loop anywhere. You think you are in the know, but nobody wants to give you bad news…. You think your government is doing great. In fact, it is not.” 

PS. Last Media Watch: Shahjahan’s Hindu Blood