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
Hari OM
ReplyDeleteWhile the scale and effect on the lower ends of Indian society is acknowledged, I could very well have been reading today's news on the UK economic situation. There are increasing numbers of foodbanks (places for those who cannot afford to buy - supermarkets provide end of day foods and such), fuel/energy poverty is very real here too and more and more people are being forced out of their homes due to unaffordable housing. Each country is facing the consequences that arose from COVID and now the Russia-Ukraine conflict. And governments are all in denial of one sort or another as to doing anything real or practical about it. YAM xx
True, it's a global problem and the Frontline does mention that too. But India can do better if it keeps Rama and Hanuman aside let Babar and Akbar sleep. That's what the magazine is saying in other words. Just see how Modi responds to the toxin of sectarianism that keeps erupting like leprosy lesions. He relishes them.
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