The Current State of Affairs in India!!

Raju Mhatre had a 1 acre land at Panvel near proposed Navi Mumbai International Airport. With the real estate boom, land prices shot up to Rs. 4 crores per acre. He sold his land and got a hefty sum of Rs. 4 crores. He indeed became a rich man. From a marginal farmer tilling a 1 acre land and growing some paddy and other stuff earning pittance, he suddenly became a rich man. Now he became Rajudada Mhatre. 

Then what happened? He got many friends and bought a Mahindra SUV and loads of gold chains, gold rings in all fingers, and gold bracelet, and good costly clothes. He and his friends partied every night in dance bars. Money started flowing in Wine, Meat, and Women. After a few years, Rajudada's gold bracelet, then gold chains, then gold rings, then finally SUV got sold off. He again became Raju from Rajudada. 

By then the real estate developer who bought the land from Raju had constructed a residential complex on that land. Raju now works as a watchman in that residential complex. 

This is not a standalone case of some Raju Mhatre of Panvel, but also some Charan Singh Chaudhary of Gurgaon also, or a Venkatakrishnan Nadar of Chennai or a Balakrishna Gowda of Bangalore. 

Why I am writing this story?

This is because I am reading lot of posts and outrage by liberals that Modi hasn't given any money in hands of poor. They are demanding that Modi must splurge lakhs of crores by distributing it to the poor. Same logic is used by these liberals by saying that temple gold and wealth must be given to poor people and thereby pull them out of poverty. This is a very flawed and senseless logic and has been proved wrong again and again over centuries. If we take 70 years history, we will see that all farm loan waivers and all kind of grants, subsidies, etc hasnt helped farmers in becoming rich. Same goes for all casual labour. The UPA Government with an Economist Prime Minister used NREGA to pay money to poor labour and what happened? He burned a huge hole in the state finances by borrowing money and diverting tax money in feeding poor people and then what happened? Did those labourers become rich? No. They remained as poor as they were when the scheme was launched. What happened to lakhs of crores wasted in NREGA? It failed in poverty alleviation.

The fact remains that you can't remove a person from poverty by giving him money and making him dependent on government and perpetual state support to remain alive.

The series of packages that the government has announced are starkly different from the Congressi socialist way of giving dole outs to poor and keep them perpetually poor and thereby become dependent on a Maai-Baap Sarkar. The current package endeavors to make farming economically viable by allowing farmers to directly access the markets and get a better price, instead of being forced to sell to a cabal of dealers in APMC who are fleecing farmers and making money in intermediation. What is the contribution of those APMC traders in the food chain? What value do they add to the food chain? Answer is No, Nil, Ille, Kacchu Naahi. They make money only because they have licences to operate in a closed circuit oligopolistic APMCs.

We dumped Nehruvian Licence - Permit - Quota Raj in Industry, Imports, and Exports in 1991 and reformed the manufacturing and trading part of economy. But we miserably failed to reform the agricultural economy. Now finally farmers are freed from the clutches of traders who were fleecing the farmers and becoming fatter. 

Farmers cannot become rich by getting one time big money or small sums every day or every year. They become rich when they learn the art and science of earning money and undertaking farming activities in an economically viable manner. For this Government is supposed to create a right market condition for farmers to get a fair price for their produce instead of allowing them to be exploited by traders - who make cheese thick margins without doing anything. 

This is why I believe that whatever Modi Govt has done by reforming agriculture sector is a landmark radical reform that no other politician had the courage to undertake. He is helping poor farmers by teaching them to fish in deeper waters with mechanized boats and fishing equipment, instead of giving them a fish everyday to eat.

Nilesh Roy | emailme@nileshroy.com | +91 982 009 4678.