Why all the parties are wrong over fdi in retail

The last few days have witnessed what now has almost become a regular feature of Parliament. the otherwise disorganized opposition(which suffers from an identity crisis) is determined to score some brownie political points over the ruling coalition which is smarting from a series of high profile scandals,scams, controversies etc. and is battling hard to shed the tag of a government which has lost touch with the voters and the ultimate loser is the Indian democracy which is losing the sheen of being the 'world's largest democracy' by the day and is increasingly becoming an anarchist  state.
The saddest part of this logjam is that in between all the charges and counter charges the real issue has been lost somewhere which is the very important debate on FDI in retail sector which is the apparent(though not the real) cause of this aggression. Firstly, we should take up the stand of the opposition and analyze its legitimacy, the opposition parties are time and again reminding the Indian citizen that FDI in retail will deal a death blow to small kirana shop owners, petty tradesman,  farmers and competition , which leads us to ponder over the question that whether is FDI in retail is such a bright idea overall. But a closer look at the charges levelled against FDI will reveal that most of these charges are exaggerated if not totally unfounded, as far as the small kirana shop owners are concerned they have shown a remarkable adaptability and resilience against all odds to not only survive but surpass all expectations with regard to their functioning and can be compared to cockroaches as far as survival is concerned, yes they may face tough competition from retail giants but Indian public has a strong penchant for shopping with bargaining,credit,home delivery etc. which the retail giants can never ever match. Coming to the so called plight of farmers with the entrance of retail giants , it may actually raise the living standard of the farmer by increasing the purchase cost of the farm products which have only risen negligibly despite the food grain prices almost doubling in the last 4 years , now finally coming to the problems faced by petty traders or middlemen , agreed that many of them may face unemployment or reduction in profits but even then this loss can be compensated by the jobs which the retail players will generate, so we can safely say that the fears regarding the alleged catastrophic effect of retail corporations is over hyped to create a fear psychosis to say the least.So the opposition should have insisted on a discussion on this policy in a helthy manner rather then disrupting Parliament in this highly objectionable manner.
Now coming to the stand of the government, the UPA(or the Congress members of UPA) have taken great pains to explain that the opening up of retail to foreign investment will be an excellent step and will benefit each and every section of the society in long run. The reasons given by government is that it will give the farmer a higher price for its product, create 10 million jobs, reduce inflation,increase productivity and competition among retailers. Tall claims indeed but they need to be taken with a pinch(or perhaps two) of salt, as for the higher price given to farmer it can be safely said that most probably it will give them a better deal but at the same time it may harm food security of India by encouraging farmers to cultivate crops which though giving them a better monetary value may compromise the food production target of India's fragile agriculture.
 As for the 'claim' of providing 10 million jobs to Indians, one is forced to wonder that whether the government is naive,foolish, thinks of the public as foolish or has each of the earlier mentioned virtues, even the representatives of the retail giants have not claimed that the retail sector will cretae 10 million jobs and in fact has kept mum on the actual number of jobs to be created by them, then how is it that the officious  government  in its eagerness to push for this policy pulls a figure of 10 million out of thin air with very little data to back up this claim. Finally the issue of inflation which has become the Achilles heal of the government , eluding all the measures of government and instead of diminishing it has shown a sharp ascent , can it be checked through the entry of retail giants, I have serious doubts over the wisdom behind this argument, we all know that food inflation has become a big problem in last few years and India cannot remain totally immune from its effects, however, what the government can and must do is to streamline the process of food supply and ensure that black marketeers do not rule the roost. Sadly, the government has turned a blind eye to this factor and despite the strong protest of Left parties has allowed futures trading in commodities to continue unabashed which has created an artificial rise in the price of food commodities, in this way the prices of most commodities are artificially increased without any kind of shortage of these products. So the government also does not has clean hands with respect to this sensitive matter.
A much better way forward for government could have been to introduce this policy in parliament followed by a short discussion rather then announcing the policy, stubbornly supporting it and then having to eat the crow(in the process eroding whatever little credibility the government had) and losing the precious time which should have been spent on debating/discussing the major isses before the nation.

Alas! it has become an all to familiar story of Indian politics that the taxpayers hard earned money is squandered on creating a logjam in the Parliament with no accountability , and on this program the government and the opposition seem to have arrived at consensus.

Why the Lokpal Act will not reduce corruption in India

There is huge sense of euphoria, hype and celebration as the UPA government has finally eaten the humble pie and has given in to the demand of Anna Hazare for a strong lokpal act. This  moral victory for corruption free India has been hailed as a ‘watershed’, ‘revolutionary’ and ‘landmark’ by jubilant supporters of Hazare and some commentator compared it with Satyagrah movement of Gandhiji, anti -emergency movement of  Jai Prakash Narayan (In the age of globalistion everything needs to be hyped up) without discrediting anna hazare and all those people who are fighting against corruption and wishing them all the best in their endeavours this celebration may very well be misplaced and means very little or practically nothing in India.

It is often said Corruption is like a cancer  which once spread cannot be contained without damaging the parts of human body although painful it might be,  merely treating it with medications will only lead to spread of the cancer instead of containing it. I might sound pessimistic, retrograde or even regressive  but taking all these risks in my stride I dare say that there seems to be no way that corruption in India will decline let alone removed by the establishment of Lokpal or for that matter any other institution but there are strong reasons for sharing such a gloomy scenario.
 Firstly, corruption in India has become such a common phenomenon that it is present in each and every state,region,city, village  and every other unit, we Indians may be divided on the basis of caste,class, religion, language, state and political ideology but ironically enough there is a very strong bond of corruption uniting each of us. We will pay the policeman 100 rupee note for traffic rule violation to escape the 500 rupee fine which we will have to pay in case we get the challan issued, we will pay bribe(called commission ) to touts hovering around government offices so that we don’t have to take the pains of standing in a queue or visiting government offices to get our work done, we will never buy a product with registered cash slip even if it means having to forego the warranty because that will result in payment of sale tax/Vat/service tax. All this is done round the year by an overwhelming majority of the people who will lose no time in crying hoarse about the enormous corruption present in the country and reviling the family background of the government officials.

The most frightening thing is the fact that we have accepted corruption as a normal facet of life in India which is permissible as long as it is to our convenience and should be opposed only where it hurts our interests. In my interaction with many of my friends whose parents are  government officials with ‘plump’ postings I have been shocked by the coolness(sometimes pride also) with which they declare how much their parents ‘earn’ in addition to their salary, before you could argue with them about the ills of this practice they are quick to remind you about some other colleague of their father/mother holding the same or even lower post who makes ten times the money made by their parents (morality come easy to us even when it comes to taking bribes). I personally know an official who proudly declares that he donates 50% of all his ‘additional’ earnings to the poor and needy and only keeps the rest for him and his family, most of the officials bribe the minister in charge of their concerned department to be transferred to places where they can make truckload of money, successful candidates in civil services etc. before joining their  departments  make a careful career plan about making money in 5, 10 and 15 year span(after all they have given all their lifes pleasure for this opportunity only) I can go on and on without exhausting the instances of corruption in India but that is not my purpose. I only want to underline the fact that no institution, no constitution, no authority or force can root out corruption until and unless the people themselves decide to shun corruption and the chances of that happening are as bright as  Rakhi sawant winning an Oscar. Till then we should celebrate anna’s triumph.