Forced to Carry the Burden of Government's Economic Sins!

Recently I ventured into a Tanishq store to explore if I could afford a miniature piece of jewelry to be given as a wedding gift.  There wasn't much on offer that could fit my budget.  It was partly on account of skyrocketing prices of gold and partly on account of steep making charges that account for almost one fourth of the total cost! Why not gift a small gold coin then?  I made inquiries with the salesman and learnt a couple of things.  First is that even gold coins have a making charge though it is much less than jewelry.  It may be okay as they use a single rate for buying and selling.  Hence making charges must at least cover a margin for trading too.  The second fact was that they had no coins to sell!!  A few that they did have were fitted with a hook to make them a pendant - a jewelry!

This was a rather shocking discovery.  The salesman explained that there were directives from the Government NOT to sell gold coins.  There is a news in today's NavBharat Times that says that Post Offices will NOT sell gold coins.  This makes the salesman's explanation sound credible.  This also means that gold coins were selling fast and the government did not want them to.  It is significant that there is no ban on wasteful and expensive gold jewelry and its sale doesn't bother the government.

If gold coins were selling in large quantities, it could not be just for gifting.  People are using it as a store of value.  This a function that money is supposed to fulfill but the the fiat money is failing miserably to do so.  Inflation is high and the government is using pressure tactic to keep interest rates artificially low.  On top of these meager interest rates, the interest income is subjected to high income tax! This means that if you keep your savings in the form of fiat money or even bank deposits, its value is getting continually and seriously eroded.  And the blame for all of this squarely rests with the government.  It is their economic policies that have lead to this bleak situation.  Ordinary citizens facing such predicament cannot be faulted for trying to store their hard-earned savings in gold which is far more inflation resistant and risk-free.

This being the case, denying the option of investing in gold to a common citizen is unfair and unjust. The government is persisting with its bungling, inefficiencies and populism happy in the knowledge that the costs can be forced down the throat of a hapless middle class.  Will the judiciary take notice of this please and can they remedy the situation?  We don't know who else to look to for a remedy.

A Mobile Population and Need for Internet Constituencies

All our governance systems are based on the idea of people being rooted to a place.  So address is an integral part of all documents issued by the government and bulk of government services have to be availed only at the place of domicile.  The most fundamental right of voting is also restricted to choosing from candidates from the constituency where your residence is located and can only be exercised at a designated polling booth near your residence.

This concept of rooted people may have been a workable idea in the yesteryears when most people were employed in agriculture or small businesses at their native place.  Today a large section of society has become mobile.  They relocate frequently in search of better prospects and it is a marathon task to obtain new documents from a government machinery that doesn't think in terms of customer service but only in terms of dispensing favors.

This mobility got a kind of formal recognition from the government when TRAI talked of MNP across circles.  So your mobile number remains unchanged even if you move to another state within the country.  RBI also acknowledged this when it mooted the idea of account number portability across banks and branches.

This increased mobility coupled with the difficulty of getting oneself registered with various government agencies at the new place, including those maintaining the electoral rolls, is a great impediment to democracy.  Many in the working class are not able to cast their vote precisely for this reason.  And then instead of blaming our systems we put the blame squarely on the working class.  The suits the political parties too because they can then afford to ignore the aspiration of this class.

Technology provides an easy solution to this.  Let there be Pan-India Internet Constituencies somewhat like the graduate constituency.  The number of such constituencies may be decided on the basis of number of people willing to register for it and vote through internet.  These people may identify themselves biometrically using their Aadhaar registration and cast their vote online.  An alternate way could be to vote through their registered e-mail id.  The e-mails may be processed by a software program which ensures secrecy.

If this suggestion is implemented a large number of working people who are currently not able to cast their vote will be able to and happy to do so.  This will make the democracy a true and inclusive democracy.

Fight against the cancer of Corruption.

Corruption and the miserable life of a common man are linked together in a vicious circle.  Corruption is an osmotic process that transfers wealth from poor masses to the corrupt politicians and bureaucrats.    I do not think that the rural poor are not for the anti-corruption movement.  It is only that they have been misguided to think that asserting their social identity is the real issue and NOT corruption.  However this delusion can be sustained only as long as they do not attain critical minimum level of education and income.  The astutest amongst the politicians realize this and oppose all policies that can truly uplift the common man and other trodden sections.  And the tool that they have perfected for the purpose is the politics of identity management. This is the reason that all economic reforms have been put on the backburner for such a long time.  What is most unfortunate is that many of the practitioners of this devious politics are from among the downtrodden themselves!

So it is an unfortunate truth that there are few takers for the anti-corruption movement beyond the middle class. And yet this battle against corruption can be fought only by gaining political power and aggressively pursuing policies for the economic upliftment of the masses so that can see the real issue and bring about the change this country so badly needs.  There is no other way.

Anna Hazare is worried about the sky-high costs of contesting elections.  The costs have been deliberately pushed up by our current breed of politicians with a view to keep the entry barrier high.  The communication technologies available today can help pull these costs down.  Televisions, CD players and projectors, SMS, internet connections in e-chaupals can all be leveraged to bring the costs substantially down.  The challenge lies in making the rural and urban poor see that corruption IS the core issue.

I think that Anna's skepticism notwithstanding, Mr. Kejariwal and his team have taken just the right decision.  Many in the middle class will be willing to provide the funding for the low cost electioneering using the tools mentioned above.