Austerity Drive - Ullu ke Paththe

Austerity Drive – Ullu ke Paththe

These are difficult times for the world. Our country is no different.

Drought, Swine flu, Loss of lives. Maoists killings. Pakistani Army/ISI/Terrorist groups infiltration. Chinese closing in on our borders.

Inflation. Recession. Corruption. Inflated Import Bill. Deflated Export Bill. Loss of Jobs. Delays in Infrastructure Development Projects. Industrial Production Slowdown. Airlines slowdown. High Crime rate.

Party Politics.Growing Regional parties. Seperatist groups ( within the party ) ( from other parties ). Raising funds. Fighting elections. Making a list of new promises. Finding an excuse for old promises. To the coalition partners. To the Public at large.

Now if you are a National level party like the Indian National Congress (INC), you have to do something to save your a**e before one of the above catches up with you. So what do you do?

A very interesting analogy comes to my mind and also helps me understand the Indian common man psyche.( everyone who watches television in both urban and rural markets ).

Balaji Telefilms, had launched Kyunki Saas Bhi Kabhi bahu thi and changed the face of ratings on Star Plus. I wondered how people could watch the same gissa pitta saas bahu serials and make money. To me watching bahus decked up with expensive jewellery, designer clothes and bridal make up sitting at the breakfast table at home criticizing saas or playing power games with each other seemed regressive.

Soon, other channels caught up and came up with more regressive ideas. Jis desh mein nikla hoga chand, etc. some of the serials projecting husbands as Gods and women as bhed – bhakris. They did well.

Then came Colors, who unseated Star Plus as the No.1 GEC ( General Entertainment Channel) for many weeks and continues a closely fought war today.

Guess what is their mantra. Regression. Back to India in the pre Independence, pre Sensibility, pre anything. Balika Vadhu ( translated Child Bride ). It has rocked the nation. The glorification of child bride in a multiple episode small town setting series is what the Indian audience craves.

Ab wapas Indian Politics mein laut aate hain.

Politicians have for long promised roti, kapda, makaan, paani, sadak, education, jobs, heathcare, etc. and faltered.

Now, think about their dilemma. What can they do to avoid giving lame excuses to the public for not delivering on promises and winning state/assembly level elections now or getting re-elected?

What is the solution? …Yes you got it this time….Regression. Austerity Drive. The politicians will reduce security, travel economy/cattle class, wont stay in five star hotels and so on and so forth.

You and I can rave and rant that this is just Posturing. Or that how does it matter you spending a few thousands more when actually the corrupt politicians amass wealth in hundreds of crores.

If the Government declares in an open statement that out of Rs.10 allocated to any cause (charity or setting up institutions) only Rs.1 reaches the public, what austerity are we talking about?

I saw some of the politicians from the ruling party ofcourse, defending this drive on National News channels saying this is not an either or situation. That they are going to follow the principle in their working on a day to day basis too.

Hello? So are you saying that till date we elected a Government which was not doing this.

Are you saying that the Government is mindfully spending the Tax payers money on frivolous expenditure both on themselves and on the red tape, corruption that we have to burden our lives with.

So do you think that the Austerity Drive will work? You don’t think so.

Ullu ke Paththe. It will. It has worked for decades.

Now you know when when BJP postured as the Flag bearer for Hindus or Hindutva and carried out Rath yatras across the country they were back in power.

But, in the last Lok Sabha elections ( not the current one), they spoke about India Shining and progress on various economic fronts, they lost miserably.

This article is apolitical and not targeted towards any political party.

It targets people like me who think that they understand Indian Politics.