Tomichan Matheikal's blog

Courtesy The Hindu I happened to stop by a wayside dhaba in the fringes of Delhi this evening.  While waiting for someone there, I watched the cooks prepare tandoori rotis and other tandoori items including chicken tikka and paneer puran.  If you actually watch how these dishes are prepared, especially in the summer heat of Delhi, you won’t ever eat it.  Human sweat mingles with the dusty dough and sliced paneer liberally.  One of the tandoor operators approached the cashier and asked for drinking water.  “Order a bottle of mineral water,” he demanded.  Obviously there was no good drinking water in the restaurant – at least not good enough for the insider!  The cashier fumed, “How can I buy water?”  He was not the proprietor, after all.  He was just another employee earning a pittance from the boss who would be riding the bullet train promised by the Prime Minister’s new rail budget. The tandoor operator went back to wo...

Development is the only mantra today for many Indians, it seems.  Making Mr Narendra Modi the Prime Minister would mean putting India on the magical highway to economic development, they argue.  What they fail to understand is that the kind of development that prevailing economic theories and systems can provide is a highly flawed one.  It is good to look back at some classical notions when confronted with crises.  Mahatma Gandhi had some very illuminating views on development.  All of his views may not be relevant in today’s situation and may not be practical either.  Yet it is worth revisiting a few relevant ideas. Gandhi said: “ That you cannot serve God and Mammon is an economic truth of the highest value. Western nations today are groaning under the heel of the monster-god of materialism. Their moral growth has become stunted. They measure their progress in pounds and dollars. American wealth has become the standard. She is the envy of the ...

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 Distributi...

The Planning Commission of India thinks a person in India can live on about $0.6 (in rural areas) or $0.7 (in cities). But look at what people in power are earning. Who drives India's economy? For whom, for what, are they driving it?

This is part of a report in today's [21 Sep 2011] Times of India .  According to the report, the Planning Commission of India has recommended $0.7 (in cities) and $0.6 (in rural areas) as the cut off for determining the level of poverty in India. India is supposed to be the Superpower in 21st century. Who makes the rules of Superpowers? Who decides who is poor? Do you have a boss who sits in an air-conditioned room and gossips the whole day while he pays you Rs32 per day (the recommended rate?)