Gandhian model best suits economy’s revival

India needs to de-globalise its economy. The benefit of it must be taken but it has to set a trend for the world insofar as pricing of commodities and taxes are considered. It also has to look for ways to integrate and depend on the cash economy. Rampant increase in Government spending has to stop and a system of checks has to be introduced on the businesses for fixing prices.

The budgetary processes begin now. The BJP-led NDA Government has to look for ways to break from the past. The budgetary projections would succeed if there remains stability in the market, prices do not rise and bank funds are not swindled away by large borrowers. Banks, having deposits of the average people, have sadly lost money during the past few years to the tune of Rs 240 lakh crore.

Despite prices not coming down there is a demand from the businesses for lowering interest rates. There are also discussions on how to deprive the RBI, which, with its limited powers, has somehow been able to protect the banking system from collapsing. If interest rates are reduced it would greatly harm the depositors and threaten the banking system with danger of further swindling.

The country has witnessed since 1993 that when coal blocks were sold to private companies, the banks have become extremely vulnerable. The private coal extractors have caused harm to both the Government and the banks.

Remember, bank deposits are public money. How could money be utilized for private profits? Nobody has so far asked why these companies, many of which have overflowing reserves, did not put their own money into these ventures.

If public money has to be swindled for privatization, the country today needs to introspect why coal, petroleum or any other mineral should not remain with the public sector. The private sector and multi-national proliferation has not helped the country during the past about 20 years. Prices are on free float. It has no relation to the cost.

Additionally, jobs have not increased. Workers are exploited in the name of labour reforms. Incomes of most families have decelerated. The Government’s Central Statistical Organsiation stated that the average family income is around Rs 7000 a month, and in many cases less than that.

The period, particularly the past ten years, has seen phenomenal rise in profits of all companies and spiralling rise in prices of essential items. The connection is evident. The corporate have gained. Small, medium entrepreneurs, the workers and common man have suffered. People want this trend to be reversed in the next Union budget.

During the licence-permit raj there were a few business families who made enormous profits and the country for their misdemeanor suffered severe inflation leading to destabilisation of the government and severe, at times violent agitations.

The globalization, when introduced by Manmohanomics, was projected as panacea by ensuring that markets would decide demand, supply and price. Instead, it demolished the social control and left everything to the corporate. Even roads, where the common man could trudge freely have become paths to profits. India has the highest toll rates in the world.