Bandhs against price rise - Are they justified?

The World Bank head Robert Zoellick warned that 100 million people in poor countries could be pushed deeper into poverty by spiraling prices. Prices have raised sharply in recent months, driven by increased demand, poor weather in some countries that has ruined crops and reduced production area, thanks to an increase in the use of land to grow crops for transport fuels. The sharp rises have led to protests and unrest in many countries all over the world, including Egypt, Ivory Coast, Ethiopia, the Philippines and Indonesia. In Haiti, protests a few months ago turned violent, leading to the deaths of five people and the fall of the government

The BBC World Service global study said that while all nations had felt the burden of the higher costs, the problem was most acute in poorer countries. The Philippines was one of the worst hit of those nations questioned. And while demand grows faster than supply, it will be hard to replenish food stocks, which are currently still at a far lower level, though they have been much lower for almost half a century. Ordinary Indians are facing significantly increased hardship because of the rise in the cost of food.... means people on or below the borderline - hundreds of millions of people - are struggling to make ends meet. This does not mean our leaders resort to acts of hooliganism and take to the streets.

We have all these years only pampered our farmers with subsidies on fertilizers and the common man with subsidies on petroleum products at the cost of our economy. We cannot survive anymore and we have to apply the basics of economics and at the same time educate our ‘netas’ on the basics of economics. Economics is basically balancing two sides of the economy…i.e. Income v/s Expenditure. With the price of crude oil sky-rocketing and India heavily depending on imports, a huge amount of our expenditure goes on imports of crude oil. Now, we have to be very practical and not go on subisidising petroleum products just to satisfy the ‘vote bank’, which is putting our economy in a precarious situation. This has a cascading effect on price rise of all commodities and this price rise is a global threat and not only to India.

Hence our lumpen politicians by taking to the roads and causing grave loss to the economy is only further burdening the poor. Secondly the opposition of frequently stalling the normal functioning of the House and abuse of the Chair is nothing but a blatant subversion of democracy. The least one can expect is that the opposition clearly enunciate their political philosophies and take definite stands on points of principle. But, in the confused contemporary milieu, clouded as it is by pernickety personality problems, principle has been relegated to the backseat. Sobriety has been thrown to the winds.