Daily Satire: The showcasing of poor

People have varieties of appetites buried within them. Some have desire to be rich, some to be a rock-star, some want that they should travel around world in-spite of settling down at one place, some would want that sometime they should fly an aircraft or some even may restrict themselves to attain spirituality. Whatever may be the dreams it can be said that people want to do something better than what they are. However, in India, this trend seems to be in an opposite direction.

Indian leaders want to call and to be called as poor. Normally people want to move ahead, a level up from where they are but with Indian leaders this does not seems to be the case. They want to relate themselves to word 'poor', want to be called as a leader serving a poor state and want schemes starting with word 'Garib' (poor).

Bihar is a state of India with a population of about 93 million as per census 2008, and the state's chief minister is crying to grant Bihar a 'special status.' Seems a worthy cry when you read 'special status,' looks like something exciting, at least the name brings some kind of excitement. Now the central government wants to please the chief minister of state even more than what he would have expected.

Special status to any state in India is granted only when certain criterion is met by the state's geography. As per current guidelines, some of the distinctive features for a state deemed to be granted as special status are—

1) The state may have international boundaries.

2) Distinctive or unconventional socio-economic parameters of development.

3) Hilly terrains.

4) Possessing geographical disadvantages for infrastructural development.

5) Relatively low public expenditure, which plays an important role in Gross State Domestic Product of state.
Any state which falls under the above defined geometry may be granted a special status. However, Bihar does not fall in the above said categories but the chief minister of Bihar, Nitish Kumar, is constantly harping on the state’s backwardness. He wants that the state should be awarded a 'backward' status. To his delight for the first time the central government has moved its eye brows to redefine the criteria of 'backwardness' so that Bihar can be called as a ‘backward’ state. What a happy moment it would be for the people of Bihar when they will proudly call themselves as— 'I belong to backward state.' How many people would like to call themselves that way, even if everyone knows that they belong to state with poor economy?

Off-course, falling in a backward category is not something to be called as. The state gets several benefits from it which the state chief minister would want to pass through people. Some of the benefits for a backward state are-

1) Significant excise duty concessions and exclusions.

2) State can raise loans, as they want while central government will only grant those loans.

3) Persuading industries to locate or relocate manufacturing within their territory.

4) Thirty per-cent of the Centre’s gross budgetary support for Plan expenditure goes to special-category states.

5) Upto 90 per-cent of plan assistance is given as grants and only 10 per-cent as loans.

Confucius said that – "In a country well governed, poverty is something to be ashamed of. In a country badly governed, wealth is something to be ashamed of."

Indian leaders defy all the logics behind such a well-said anecdote. Neither India is governed by its leaders in a profound manner nor they are ashamed of poverty. The idea behind adoring themselves with backwardness might be for the well being of people, but the history of Indian politics is not known for building something substantial for its people even with an ideal environment. The central government will evaluate the criteria for backwardness to make Bihar come in backward states. But we know that the motive behind such an action is not for the prosperity of citizens, it is for the prosperity of government which may lack support in the upcoming 2014 election.

If prosperity of citizens would have been the intentions behind granting a backward status, then we would have seen many well executed schemes and plans by the central government or state government other than the political game. Growth is all about will, not about to fit inside a particular category. The exhibition of backwardness is not limited only to states though. Indian railways have also tried to bank on this word. There are several 'Garib Rath' (poor chariot) express trains are running across the country. The fares are comparatively cheap from other trains but on the expense of catering service, space crunch inside the coach of trains to accommodate more cushion-less seats than normal express trains.

How would you define this love from the word 'poor?' What government wants to show to the people of India or to world? Is this some kind of politics with words rather than politics with action? The same idea could have been implemented without the use of 'Garib' (poor). Similarly, there are numerous schemes of the state government or the central government with name starting from ‘garib' or containing 'garib' in between like 'Sahari Garib Awas Yojna' (City Poor’s Home Scheme) of Uttar Pradesh state. When Indians can raise themselves from such mentality, which are tricked by the politicians to make their lives not less than honeymoon.

Sholom Aleichem had said that—

"Life is a dream for the wise, a game for the fool, a comedy for the rich and a tragedy for the poor."

Let us not make it a tragedy for ourselves.

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