FIROZ.T.TOTANAWALA
THE BANGALORE METRO REPORTER
ROTI MEHNGI AND THE MOBILE SASTA
The food has become expensive and gone beyond the reach of the common man, whereas, the electronic communication and entertainment equipment commonly known as the 'gizmos', more particularly, the mobile or cell phones are selling cheaper at the throw away prices. Since childhood we have been bombarded with and made to hear by our elders the watch-words such as 'Roti, Kapda aur Makaan' the 3 essential elements for our survival, not having these would render the life meaningless.
The cheaper 'gizmos'
The successive governments and the power horses air their promises to deliver the essential 3 elements before the gullible poor people prior to their contesting the elections and secure their confidence on that basis, and once having secured their valuable votes, the politicians conveniently fail to remember the promised assurances to be delivered to them. This is what's been happening since the day our country had secured the independence. The governments chose to remain ignorant about the basic needs of the poor people of our country. None of the past or present governments has done anything worthwhile in making the 3 essential requirements available to the common man, whereas by making available the 'gizmos' like the cell (mobile) phone, electronic gadgets, cable TV set-top box, etc. at a much lower prices the governments have set a new standard of living among the people.
The expensive food items
People who are in the lowest or even the middle income strata cannot afford to buy the vegetables like potato, onion, brinjal, lady finger and varieties of greens such as the spinach or even the drum-sticks, because they are sold at sky-rocketing rates ranging from Rs. 15/- (minimum) to Rs. 30/- per kg. The common man's stable food the rice is being sold at over R. 35/- per kg and the prices of the pulses such as the Toor Dal, Urd al, etc. have gone beyond the common man's accessible limit. All these items have become a part of rich-man's palate now.
The dwindling pulse-rate
Whereas, the pulse-rate charged for a minute's talk over the cell phone has dwindled to its lowest to 29 paise from Rs. 17/- which was charged initially when the concept of mobile phoning and the cell phones were introduced and now a certain service provider instead of charging the end-user claims to offer incentives in return if one uses his services, and the offers such of these, no doubt, are irresistible.
When the pulse-rate of Rs. 17/- was charged, the essential stable food item - the rice was sold at Rs. 7/- per kg and now the rice is sold at above Rs. 35/- a kg, whereas the pulse-rate charged is almost nil and the pulses/grains are sold at exorbitant prices and have entered into the items classified as luxury.
The farce-sightedness
Compliments to the farsightedness of the industrial giant the Mukesh Ambani Group, which was instrumental in bringing the revolutionary change into the lives of the common men. The group had made the use of cell phones a necessity and had connected almost all the remote villages of India enabling to communicate with each other a tremendous fete indeed!
The Ambani Group is also into the business of procuring the farm produce, pulses, grains and the rice as well. The Group has its own swanky air-conditioned outlets, which sell these items necessary for the public. It's a fact that the items sold thereat are meant for the people from the higher income group and definitely not for the people those are from either middle or lower income strata. The Group had never indulged in selling the food items at a price, which is affordable by the poorest of poor much against to the way the Group had carved a niche into its communication business. Of course, the Group cannot be blamed alone for this situation.
The theory of 'demand and supply'
India basically is an agricultural nation and necessary schemes should have been drawn and implemented by the successive governments towards improving the agricultural outputs relative to the annual population growth. The ever sky-rocketing prices of the consumables food items indicate that nothing sort of effective schemes were drawn or implemented in the past. The government remains as a mute spectator expressing its inability to control the prices. It's apparent that the food items are in short supply and therefore tend to demand the higher prices.
New watch-words
Finally, one thing is clear that the government or the politicians who run the government cannot ever fulfill the promises made to the people, that is, offering the most sought after the 3 essential elements the Roti, Kapda aur Makaan, but they may replace the watch-words to the 'mobile, computer and TV' instead in the coming days.
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