Sunday, November 18, 2018

Vox Populi Issue 257


                      The Latest Obsession : Bingeing On Heights Of Statues 

The current tendency to outdo each other on the height of statues is carrying things a bit too far. First it was the Chatrapati Shivaji's statue that was to come up on an island off the Mumbai coast. Then it was Vallabhai Patel's statue that was inaugurated recently by the PM in Gujarat. Lord Rama was not to be left behind and Jogi Adityanath announced a massive statue of the god in Ayodhya. Then it was the turn of the Karnataka government to announce a huge statue of the River Cauvery in the form of a goddess at Krishna Raja Sagar or the Brindavan Gardens near Mysuru. Statues apart from serving the needs of politics serve no other useful purpose. Building them is a sheer waste of money. The Vallabhai Patel and the Chatrapati Shivaji statues along with the complexes on which they are erected are reported to cost in the region of Rs. 3000 crores each. While the government has money for these statues it does not have the funding to support child immunisation programs like polio. Currently the polio vaccine is in short supply and India is dependent on the MNC, Sanofi to supply the medicine and who taking advantage of the worldwide scarcity have raised prices including to India. India though one of the largest users of the polio vaccine gave up in 1990 to put up a plant here for the local manufacture of the vaccine. We are currently running out of supplies which is likely to affect the child immunisation program for next year and the year after that unless Rs. 300 crores is found immediately to be assured of supplies from Sanofi. This situation shows up the lopsided funding and distorted thinking of this government where statues get a higher priority than polio vaccine. However, voices within this government make the right noises like Arun Jaitley saying the other day that high economic growth is essential for poverty alleviation. But in actual practice we are seeing the plans for growth of statues across the country, both in number and following the motto of higher, higher and even higher while ignoring the immediate needs of child immunisation programs like for polio and forgetting the need for poverty alleviation which in any case is too far out in the future. 

                  Arun Jaitley Picking Up On His Math Re GST & Demonetisation 

Arun Jaitley being an advocate by training can be forgiven for not getting his maths right when saying that GST affected the economy's growth 'only' for 2 quarters, which is 6 months and that's half a year. This in economic growth is a 'huge' period as Donald Trump would have said. So half a year gone on the back of an economic slump caused by the Demonetisation exercise is all the more grievous. At least Jaitley has come around to admitting that GST did affect economic growth. He has not got up to the impact of  Demonetisation on the economy since that is a higher order math beyond Jaitley's present comprehensive ability. But one is sure that he will get up to it once he works up to his post-graduation in maths.

              Goa's Price & Quality Syndrome For Food Items That Is Being Challenged

We need to understand the basic issues underlying the contamination of food and other items that come into Goa. It is like the majority of the items that you get on railway platforms and which applies largely to food items that are on sale. This comment is more valid now than it was in the past. Nobody cares about the quality and hygiene of the food items because they know that rarely does the same passenger comes back to complain. That is why anything goes, meaning anything is sold. This principle applies a little differently in Goa where everything is oriented towards the tourist, be it Indian or foreign. Since the tourist is on holiday he does not mind paying a 'little' extra for any services that he uses or items that he buys or food that he consumes. Thus the prices of everything is inflated. Larceny is a way of life in Goa and many a shopkeeper or store makes a virtue out of it. They take advantage of the fact that demand far outstrips supply justifying their penchant to make the extra rupee. It is explained away by saying - Nobody minds.  Now Goa does not produce enough of any items that it consumes like take fish, milk or for that matter any commodity. Everything to a large part has to come from outside the State. Now the suppliers from the neighbouring States are no fools. They have the pulse on Goa's markets. They know very well the 'tourist syndrome'. With this they are confident that anything that they send to Goa will sell. Not only that they will get a good price for the item. So when it comes to trading with Goa in normal circumstances they may supply good stuff but when scarcity reigns and local demand is better, they will send the worst quality stuff to Goa. Given no choice the Goan market has to accept it. The local shopkeepers who have become used to the 'tourist syndrome' apply it with little or no compunction to their local customers also. The products to be bought are offered saying there is no alternative. What does the local Goan do, he either walks away or grudgingly buys whatever is available. In another context, you could say that the scarcity times that used to prevail during Portuguese rule where luxury goods were available in plenty but essential items were scarce has come back to haunt Goa in a new 'avatar'. So having been used to make do with scarcity through generations the local Goan rarely complains and takes a stand. That is precisely what has happened to fish where the suppliers knew that in Goa anything goes, they started to supply fish laced with formalin. We must in fact thank and compliment the FDA for the first raid when the formalin issue was exposed. Since obviously we were eating formalin laced fish all along. The blame cannot be exclusively ascribed to suppliers from outside the State since the wholesale trade in Goa was complicit and to a smaller extent the local fish suppliers also. When word gets around the entire supply chain would be keen to increase the shelf life of the perishable by using formalin to make that extra buck or not lose money. Business has its own logic and morals. That is why it is correct to take a firm stand and have testing labs so that Goans are assured of contamination free fish. In fact the present office bearers of the fish wholesaler's association should be put behind bars on the count of deliberately and knowingly endangering public health in Goa if charges of manslaughter arising out of the use of dangerous chemicals in edible items cannot be brought against them. That is the only lesson that they will remember and as a consequence reform their ways. Whether it be fish or whether it be fruits and vegetables or even milk, the same principle as enumerated above applies. There is a demand in Goa and the market is not insistent on quality and also willing to pay more so send gas ripened fruits or vegetables laced with pesticides that they would not feed their cattle in the home State or supply milk that remains unrefrigerated in transit as well as after it reaches here through the night and until it is supplied to consumers in the morning. The consciousness raised since the fish in formalin Issue is good but we need to remember that the neighbouring States could start squeezing supplies which may lead to scarcity and consequently rise in prices. Therefore unless Goa starts having a large part of its consumption of food items available locally it may lead to a major problem. The maxim to be followed is - Proceed with caution. Proceed with care.

                    Goa In A Complete State of Flux in Governance & Political Terms

Goa is in a complete state of flux in political terms. With no political leadership for the last 9 months or so since Manohar Parrikar fell sick, there has been literally no governance in the State. Every issue drags on interminably until it dies its inevitable death in the public mind after a short while only be replaced by another issue of similar importance. Thus one would feel that the present political leadership that is in charge of the State is completely irresponsible to allow things in Goa to drag on like this. With Manohar Parrikar being unwell, we are all sympathetic for him but should he not be sympathetic for Goa. Instead of establishing a new leadership he has been allowing the situation to not only drag but exhibited tendencies to remain in power at any cost. The fact that the BJP-led government's majority is on a knife edge was not anybody's fault but more akin to acts of God where one after another the ministers fell sick and that too of major debilitating diseases. Recognising this early the BJP should have gone for a mid-term poll by dissolving the present government. Campaigning on a sympathetic plank of health the BJP could as well have come back to power with a better majority. Then there would have been no need to take in the dissenters from other parties like the Congress and create problems within its own cadres as we are now seeing. As for Shirodkar and Sopte jumping ship of the Congress to the BJP there does not seem anything wrong since the Congress apart from their fighting amongst themselves is showing no great resolve or political will to come back to power. Even the call that these turncoats should be defeated in the bye-elections does not have much appeal since ideology based politics at least at the State level is out and does not sell with the electorate who will elect those that they believe will work for them. Thus Goa seems to be deemed to be in a state of stupor for some more time to come. 
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