Hkw[ks Hkkjr dh reUuk! (The desire of hungry India!)
Amar-Akbar-Anthony, a mesmerizing movie; 3 legends who played their role evocatively; I still remember a song of it:
vugksuh dks gksuh dj nsa gksuh dks vugksuh
,d txg tc tek gksa rhuksa, vej vdcj ,saFkuh
You must have seen this movie.
What?
You didn’t?
Ok! You need not to go in flashback. You can watch the remake of it; that too live and exclusive.
Albeit it is just a song but it says impossible can be possible if these three comes together. This time our Amar-Akbar-Anthony has convert it utterly; their role remains same only the masks has changed. They need not any introduction; they are the world renowned and prominent economists; Manmohan-Chidambra-Ahluvalia. The team reserves great appreciation and admiration because it has converted the impossible into possible by feeding and filling the belly of poor India by just Rs. 32 and 26.
Usually govt. embarks that they are committed to transform the country’s poor condition of transportation; air, railway and stations, underpasses and over bridges, roads and subways, markets and surroundings to mark with international standards. Although they work in this direction but they forget the unforgettable poor. Has anyone heard the announcement? The poor of India would also be mark or match with international standard.
Generally we compare India with USA; so let’s have a look on the BPL’s of USA: The poverty line of USA means $ 11,139 or RS. 545811 (@49/$, sept26 2011) annually and approximately Rs. 1500 Rs. Daily (The Indian Exp. P.11 12sept. 2011). The poverty line of India means $ 147 approx and $ 110 or Rs. 7200 and 5400 annually and Rs. 20 and 15 daily. (To the people of towns and villages respectively) The revised poverty line of India means $236 approx and $ 184 approx or Rs. 11,580 and 9,012 annually and Rs. 32 and 25 daily. (To the people of towns and villages respectively) (Don’t ask about source, if asks commit suicide).
Is it possible?
Suicide! Absolutely not!
Is it the line of poverty?
No! Indeed it is the line of starvation.
Only the govt. and planning commission could know how a person can survive with that small amount of money.
The condition of poor has got verse if we look previously. During 8th (1990-1995) and 9th(1996-2001) five year plans, the LOC of BPL was on Rs. 11,000 and 20,000 annually and Rs. 30.55 and 55.55 daily respectively. And today, today they stand at Rs. 25; it means a direct reduction of 122 percent that too with high inflationary last decade. See, the kind of deprivation which we are suffering in India; See how, at what pace, Incredible India is shining. As said, time to time; India is the country of diversities; let’s bring some light on one of the parameter of diversion. One side, condition of poor is getting verse to disgusting; on the contrary our ministers and politicians are getting healthy to wealthier. In India, you can find a person who is not able to spend Rs. 25 daily (below basic needs*) on himself and a person as well who is earning Rs. 5,00,000 daily (above self actualization*) (P. Sainath, The Hindu p.10 21sep 2011). This can happen only in India. As I am not good in math you can calculate the difference in percentage.
(*Maslow, an eminent thinker of management who gave a five step hierarchy of needs; starting from bottom {basic} to top {self actualization})
(*Maslow, an eminent thinker of management who gave a five step hierarchy of needs; starting from bottom {basic} to top {self actualization})
According to Maslow, the basic needs (least stage) of a person are food, clothing and shelter (we leave education and health; albeit both are essential). Can we ask our planning commission for their valuable opinion that how they divided and distributed Rs. 25 in these 3 heads?
It hurts! What hurts the most is not these Rs. 25 theory or number of poor in country but when, a rickshaw puller, a vegetable vendor or even a bagger can understand the minimum daily expenditure, why does it appear elusive to our expert committee? Why they are behaving like aliens and thinks that they are superior to us? Why they seem like the culprits who claims that, their gravity power has become less and now, they can fly? Why our P.M. does needs economic advisory council at all when we have such an entrepreneur cabinet that is growing at a phenomenal rate of 400-800%. Why do we need the IIMs to groom entrepreneurs when we have such entrepreneurs sitting in Parliament who have mastered the art of making money?
Decades ago Pt. Jawaharlal Nehur’s daughter launched a campaign: ‘Poverty Alleviation’. Decades after her daughter-in-law launched a campaign: ‘poor’s alleviation’. See the beauty of communication (I remember Prof. OM). See how beautifully the agenda has changed over time.
The central govt. and planning commission were not agrees upon the 27% of our population lives as BPL; they decided to recount the exact and unbiased no. of people who are BPL; so they constituted 3 committees in the year 2009-10. All these committee’s reports stated, that the exact no. of poor in India is far more than 27%. The interest of our politicians is not in alleviation of poverty or their well being but in a graph which consistently shows the decreasing percentage of poor in country; so that they can signify their political, economic and social policies. Their interest lies in embarking to the world the indicators of Indian economy; GDP, GNP, Economic development rate, GNI, Single person Income and reducing rate of poverty. They think indicators are important than humans. Their interest is in addressing the nation from the rampant of Red Fort, about their achievements, their progresses which they made over time. If once, only once, they state the increasing no. of poor in India, will Tsunami be come immediately or a Hurricane will gulp them?
At the hour of midnight on 14-15 August 1947 everyone was agreed upon 2 goals: one, that after Independence, we shall run our country through unbiased and uncorrupt democratic govt.; two, that the govt. will be run for the good of all especially to the poor and socially disadvantaged groups. The constitution of India also stated the directives on effective policies for economic development and eradication of poverty as prime challenge. And the results, See the repercussions of this; after 64 years of independence; although we are not able to eradicate the poverty, but are able to eradicate the poor. This remains me of something very tragic:
Uk [kqnk gh feyk, uk folkys lue !
?kksMs detksj Fks, ;k lkjFkh ukdkjk ?
Once a foreigner said to me, “If you Indians are not satisfied with rice and roti, you won’t be satisfy with soup also” and seeking for a reply; but I was thinking (you won’t understand my friend, till independence we are not yet able to satisfy all our people with rice and roti), after some moments I gave a smile first then I replied in riddles, “We broke the eggs but burned the omelette”; And second one overwhelmed, “If a body’s vital needs contaminate beyond repair a person won’t survive”. (After that he didn’t ask anything, he was afraid).
A senior journalist (Puspesh Pant) says, the real and gigantic problem of govt. is the bill, ‘Food Safety Bill’ which was taught by the Navratan mandali (National Advisory Council) of Sonia Gandhi to the parliament; what would happen of that? If it is govt.’s responsibility to provide with the food to BPLs, then from where, the resources which required for this will come from? So the well-being of govt. is in developing a knot, which would provide them skulls; so they can hang them up; consequently the no. of BPLs remains negligible which would eligible of govt.’s support. This is the only secret of India’s Rs. 32 and 25 Chamber (Tilism).
I remember a story which I heard in my childhood; the queen of France, Mari Aantoneait; who consistently used to indulge in extravagance and rave parties, asked her courtiers about the tumult and turmoil which was prevailing on streets; a courtier replied inevitable “hungry Francesees are recklessly noising for the unachievable peace of roti” The queen replied delicately, “if they don’t have roti why don’t they to for cake”. The people who are ruling from the throne of Delhi are seeming verse than that queen; they don’t have any relation or connection with the person whose chest they are ruling on; instead they are palpable in thinking that until 2014 general elections they can’t be ruled out. They don’t need to afraid from anyone, or at least from poor masses of India. How can the prince and princes of our country be able to know that the country which they think has the obligation to serve them lavishly also serves a millions of persons who don’t even posses the condition of spending 25 odd rupees on themselves and their family; if unfortunately they pull the curtain of their lavish life; they seems amazed on the suicidal news of a peasant, a milkman or a mason.
They don’t know that between the last 2 decades more than 7 million people for whom cultivation was the main livelihood has quit farming; it suggests that on average, close to 2000 people a day abandon farming in the country; walking on the lush-green grass of India Gate, hearing this news, what spurt from their mouths is only one sentence, “Mind blowing”. In actuality, yes, it’s “mind blowing” because their mind is blowing. They don’t understand. They don’t even want to understand. They don’t know who is responsible for that, who will give the answer of that? Employment data? Certainly not. It only suggests that nobody out of them absorbed in a decent work in bustling cities. I never met a person who says he will become a farmer one day. Have you? Do we know, what would be the consequences of this? If perennially, the farmers will quit at this rate; no green, white or blue revolution could prevent us from massive shortage of food grain. Nobody bother to think; when we will purchase rice and wheat from other countries what impression it made before them, “one of the fastest developing country worldwide can’t even feed its own people”. They will think that Bharat mata is not capable in producing as much milk as she needs to feed her own sons and daughters. Instead what all they bother about is, the dirty politics of: ppkZ ipkZ and [kpkZA
Years past, Suryakant Tripathi Nirala wrote:
“pkV jgsa gSa twBh iRry dgha lMd ij [kMs gq,A
vkSj >iV ysus dks muls dqRrs Hkh gSa vMs gq,AA”
At that time he didn’t have thought that one day it would be the reality in his own motherland. Here the fight is still for that plate; here the fight is still for that pwYgk which has burned itself without even fire; but the butter is still not fleeing; the blood is still not blowing.
A mother of a poor; a sister of a deprived; a daughter of a starved is thinking whether she should mix the water in milk or milk in water. She is thinking that, Where to? To which plate, she should place the only bowl of curd. Who is the next son to whom she should migrate, to transfer the impact of poverty from one to another? The leader of the family is rowing in the direction of Ocean and hoping: neither he shall be fed by the gigantic fish nor a Hurricane will gulp him, and he shall gladly cross the ocean; but he don’t know that the demon of Tsunami is waiting for him in centre; in the form of deprivation (deprived family), in the form of starvation (lead to the death of his loved ones), in the form of malnutrition, (his children); and he? Unemployed, so he is oblige to commit suicide with entire family; by this he is helping the govt. in achieving their mission of alleviation of poor. But these betrayals didn’t remember their promises which they made to him before elections, how they can remember them while parallel they have promised to the Promise market (Vaydaa karoobar, future and Options market)
But they should remember that whenever a force becomes too strong and oppressive, the counter force has to be equally strong. To bring the balance to the golden mean; so when capitalism became oppressive socialism was born, determinism gave way to humanism and Hinduism gave way to Buddhism.
My country is hungry, my beloved India, The dreamland ‘India’, my ‘The paradise of bliss’, is hungry for its 44 percent children who are the victims of malnutrition. The Desire of hungry India is to work as cumulatively: Hindus, Muslims, Christian, Sikhs, Buddhist, Jains, Jews, secular, liberal, maoist, socialist, Gandhian for the sustainable development of 836 million Indians who lives their life on 20 Rs. a day (according to the report of national commission of enterpreises in the Unorganised sector headed the late Dr. arjun Sengupta). Bharat is hungry by all means: physically, mentally and economically. Hindustan is looking to find out the myriad ways to improve the livelihood of its citizens. Sarjameen-a-hind is not begging for food before govt., it is asking for dignity, it is demanding for health sanitation and education, for clean water which absolutely they deserve. My countrymen are hungry for self-reliance and employment. Hkw[ks Hkkjr dh reUuk gS fd fQj nwljksa dh csclh dks viuk gfFk;kj cukus ds fnu vkSj uk jgsasA Hkw[ks Hkkjr dh reUuk gS fd fQj dksbZ Hkw[kk xjhc fcuk diMksa ds QqVikFk ij uk lks;sA Hkw[ks Hkkjr dh reUuk gS fd vk[kksa ds xqykc dks iydksa ds tqykc ls /kks fy;k tk;s rkfd gkFkksa dh gFkdfM;kW fny ds rkj dks rkj rkj uk dj nsaAA
Poverty alleviation is not a task which requires a year or two, it requires persistent, eternal efforts of decades not only by govt. but by citizens also, as it is a mutual task. I am expecting a day on which our govt. won’t insult the citizens. I am dreaming an unprecedented day when independent India, a country of 230000 panchayats and thousands of towns and cities would become a country where nobody dies from starvation. That day would be the greatest of all pilgrimages. We have to ignite our country again and again; A country which is famous for only place on the face of the earth where all the dreams of living men had found a home from the earliest days when man began the dream of existence. We need to accept our religion no other but humanity and a sheer preference of humanity over religiosity is required.
O! my friends, lets take a vow by heart that we, the Guardians’ of the united Bharat will support every hand which will lift for ‘Right to Recall and Right to Reject; so that any minister, any politician won’t think even for once that if he is elected anyhow, he can confine the people from there rights, he can forget his promises which he made before elections, he can give up his conscience and involve in wrongdoings and corruption and can do whatever he wants, and nobody, at least the poor people of India can’t remove him from his seat.
Also we have to be cautious because we are the country; despite educated the world’s second largest pool of trained scientists and engineers, still have 26% (Census 2011) as illiterate. I remember the most beautiful lines of Thomas a Kempis:
Without the way, there is no going!
Without the truth, there is no knowing!!
Without the life, there is no living!!!
As tears giggles in the rain. I am looking at my countrymen like lamps on Gange…………………………
I take this as an uprising of India by an Indian for all Indians………
I commit myself to my country……
Earth to earth
Ashes to ashes
Dust to dust…………..tamanna.!!!
