For The Poor; Present Economic Development A Hope Or A Hoax?
By Firdous Syed
13 September, 2007
Countercurrents.orgDiscussion on growing income disparities in India in one of the previous columns of 'Straight Lines', had annoyed some friends living in far away places and far detached with the realties of life. It is an irony that the middle class in India has cocooned itself into a goody goody shell of its own where it does not want to confront the hard realties of life. Just published report of the 'National Commission for Enterprises in the Unorganised Sector' may prove an eye-opener for them by bringing them to terms with the plight of the majority in India.
The report point out that the total number of people in India belonging to the poor and vulnerable group having a daily per capita consumption of less than Rs 20 in 2004-05 was 836 million, constituting about 77 percent of the population. Now compare this with the list of the top-100 remunerations in India. Mukesh Ambani, the chairman and managing director of Reliance Industries, tops the list. With the fiscal year ended March 2007, Mukesh Ambani took home Rs 24.51 crores. For the top-10 among the list, Mukesh Ambani, is closely followed by Sun TV CMD Kalanithi Maran and joint MD Kavery Kalanithi, whose annual remuneration stood at Rs 23.26 crores each in 2006-07. Telecom giant Bharti Airtel's CMD Sunil Mittal ranks fourth with a take-home of close to Rs 15 crores, followed by Dr. Reddy's Labs executive chairman K. Anji Reddy at fifth position with Rs 14.4 crores. Hero Honda chairman Brijmohan Lal Munjal and its MD and CEO Pawan Munjal are ranked at sixth and seventh positions respectively with a salary of Rs 13.99 crores and Rs 13.88 crores. Jindal Steel's executive vice-chairman and MD Naveen Jindal is at eighth position (Rs 13.5 crores), followed by Hero Honda's joint MD Toshiaki Nakagawa (Rs 13.44 crores) and JSW Steel vice-chairman and MD Sajjan Jindal (Rs 13.24 crores).
In any capitalist economy, for the private sector it's not a bad thing to earn profit. But what's unthinkable is the owners of top industrialist houses unabashedly pay themselves huge sums of money as pay and perks, apart from the money they make from the profits from their share-holdings of the companies they own! Unlimited availability of liquid funds will undeniably give rise to the spree of spending among the haves without having a scant regard for the social corporate responsibility inciting tremendous sense of deprivation among the have-nots. What a person like Mukesh Ambani or somebody else of his elk earns in a day, anybody among the marginal income group of 836 million, constituting about 77 percent of Indian population, will not be spending during the whole span of his life. At the rate of Rs 20 per day, for a marginal income group person's average 60 year life span, total spending will come around to Rs 4-5 lakhs, which is far less than Mukesh Ambani's per day income of Rs 6.71 lakhs.
All claims about the "enlargement of pie" and subsequent "trickle down effect" to the poor have proved to be farce. A sustained growth rate 8-9 percent for more than a decade now obviously has given tremendous rise to the growth of capital, but the few at the top have grabbed not only the creamy layer but the crust also, leaving a left-over of crumbs in the plate, which is certainly mocking at the theory of "trickle down effect". Without a passionate affirmative action against poverty and hunger, the plight of the poor is not going to change by mere growth of the economy. Challenge is not only to sustain the growth of the economy over a period of time but to ensure equal distribution of resources also - a feat the present set-up of governance has been unable to accomplish so far.
Tailpiece: Does anyone need to be reminded that people of all political affiliations and alignments practice double-standards? A brazen display of deceitful behaviour was witnessed during the recently-held meeting of the Working Group on Centre-State relations when a staunch supporter of so-called separate homeland for Kashmiri Pandits took "strong exception" to Wajahat Habibullah's proposal of Hill Councils for Jammu - separate for plains and Pahari areas. Pandit leader's contention was that the proposal, if implemented, "will divide Jammu region on communal lines."
If two hill councils, one each for plains and one for Pahari areas is division on communal lines, what about the demand for the separate homeland for Hindus within the Kashmir valley, isn't it communal? Hill council for a particular region without a religious or sectarian bias, for the sole purpose of promoting the idea of speedy development as well as equal distribution of the resources may have some justification; but any initiative for the segregation of the people based upon religious and cultural identities is sheer fascism. The rabid communal forces have developed a strange mindset. The privileges and safeguards they want for themselves on the bases of minoritism, they tend to deny others accusing the demand as communal. These opportunistic people with small minds but puffed chests, want to have their bread buttered both ways - have their cake and eat it too. For petty political gains they want to go on dividing people and at the same time continue occupying high moral ground to profess secularism also!
(The writer can be contacted at firdoussyed@ yahoo.com).
Leave A Comment
&
Share Your Insights
Digg it! And spread the word!
Here is a unique chance to help this article to be read by thousands of people more. You just Digg it, and it will appear in the home page of Digg.com and thousands more will read it. Digg is nothing but an vote, the article with most votes will go to the top of the page. So, as you read just give a digg and help thousands more to read this article.
Get CC HeadlinesOn your Desk Top