Tuesday, July 1, 2008

Time to Wake Up Mr.PM


India is a maze of conflicting rules, regulations and corruption that twists democracy to produce a constant squeeze on companies to appease the rules and tossing a bone here and there to the massive welfare state through taxation, employment demands and playing the old game of "west vs. east" in the political and economic arenas. I have always wondered what the current Congress govt has done for the last 4 years or so. I mean what is their real achievement. In a word, NOTHING. They can claim credit for a lot of things, but everyone knows that India's real so called economic boom started long before this govt took office.

The weak central government, which is run by an uneasy coalition between the Congress Party and the Left Front, is solely contributing to the unrest where prices are spiraling out of control and it is getting more and more difficult for the comman man to afford anything really. The inflation has jumped to 11.42% and the prices of food and manufactured products and the govt is unable to take any steps to control it...just blaming rising global oil prices. For five years starting from 2007, the Planning Commission has targeted Indian economy to grow at 9% with the last year delivering a growth of 10% . The current rise in inflation and high interest rates have already left a dent on the industry and the production growth rate of the country has substantially slowed down in the past four months. Inflation was at a modest 3% at the end of the year 2007, and is at present hovering over 11 per cent mark, the highest level in 13 years. This year the forecast for economic growth or GDP has been reduced to 7.3%.

The rising corruption is an new issue altogether that people are being forced to deal with. The 'India Corruption Study 2007', brought out by NGOs Transparency International India (TII) and Centre for Media Studies (CMS), found that about one-third of Below Poverty Line (BPL) households in the country bribed officials to avail a total of 11 services -- from police to PDS. According to the survey, which covered 22,728 households in all states and Union Territories, Rs 8,830 million (Rs 883 crore), in all, was estimated to be paid as bribe by BPL households last year. Its a shame that government officials take bribe from people who cant even make a decent living.

The Govt also has failed on the policy front. With the only aim of staying in power, the govt is totally dependant on all its so called coalition partners who all seem to be more keen on opposing everything that the govt does and threatening to pull out of the coalition. It is sad to see that the politicians are more keen to stay in the headlines rather than tackle the real problems that the country is facing. It has become amusing to read about the nuclear deal and what every party has to say about it. Indeed Mayawati from BSP took the cake when she said the deal is' Anti-Muslim'. Not sure what the deal has to do with religion but it proved there is no end in sight if Mr.Singh wants to please every tom dick and harry in the country before he actually acts. The PM, instead of leading the country is begging the various party leaders for permission to conduct the affairs of the state.

Time to wake up Mr.PM and do something real for the country, even if it means you lose support from your so called coalition partners. The drubbing you have taken in the last 4-5 states should tell you that people are in no mood to put up with the games the Congress is playing.

6 comments:

Anonymous said...

All I can say is nothing because your blog is not interesting to read.

Anonymous said...

Such a nice blog. I hope you will create another post like this.

Anonymous said...

Well for me its better to be more realistic.

Anonymous said...

For us when we visit some blog site our main objective is to ensure that we will be entertained with this blog.

Anonymous said...

I'm thankful with your blog it is very useful to me.

Anonymous said...

Thanks to the blog owner. What a blog! nice idea.