An Old Story:
The Ant works hard in the withering heat all summer building its house and laying up supplies for the winter.
The Grasshopper thinks that Ant is a fool and laughs, dances, and plays the summer away.
Come winter, the Ant is warm and well fed. The Grasshopper has no food or shelter, so he dies out in the cold.
Indian Version :
The Ant works hard in the withering heat all summer building its house and laying up supplies for the winter.
The Grasshopper thinks that Ant is a fool and laughs, dances, and plays the summer away.
Come winter, the shivering Grasshopper calls a press conference and demands to know why the Ant should be allowed to be warm and well fed while others are cold and starving.
NDTV, BBC, CNN show up to provide pictures of the shivering Grasshopper next to a video of the Ant in his comfortable home with a table filled with food.
The World is stunned by the sharp contrast. How can this be that this poor Grasshopper is allowed to suffer so?
Arundhati Roy stages a demonstration in front of the Ant's house.
Medha Patkar goes on a fast along with other Grasshoppers demanding that Grasshoppers be relocated to warmer climates during winter. Mayawati states this as 'injustice' done on Minorities.
Amnesty International and Koffi Annan criticize the Indian Government for not upholding the fundamental rights of the Grasshopper.
The Internet is flooded with online petitions seeking support to the Grasshopper (many promising Heaven and Everlasting Peace for prompt support as against the wrath of God for non-compliance).
Opposition MPs stage a walkout. Left parties call for 'Bengal Bandh' in West Bengal and Kerala demanding a Judicial Enquiry. CPM in Kerala immediately passes a law preventing Ants from working hard in the heat so as to bring about equality of poverty among Ants and Grasshoppers.
Lalu Prasad allocates one free coach to Grasshoppers on all Indian Railway Trains, aptly named as the 'Grasshopper Rath'.
Finally, the Judicial Committee drafts the 'Prevention of Terrorism Against Grasshoppers Act' [POTAGA], with effect from the beginning of the winter.
Arjun Singh makes 'Special Reservation' for Grasshoppers in Educational Institutions & in Government Services.
The Ant is fined for failing to comply with POTAGA and having nothing left to pay his retroactive taxes, it's home is confiscated by the Government and handed over to the Grasshopper in a ceremony covered by NDTV.
Arundhati Roy calls it 'A Triumph of Justice'.
Lalu calls it 'Socialistic Justice'.
CPM calls it the 'Revolutionary Resurgence of the Downtrodden'
Koffi Annan invites the Grasshopper to address the UN General Assembly.
Many years later...
The Ant has since migrated to the US and set up a multi-billion dollar company in Silicon Valley ,
100s of Grasshoppers still die of starvation despite reservation somewhere in India.
.
.
..AND
As a result of loosing lot of hard working Ants and feeding the grasshoppers,
India is still a developing country...!!!
Friday, October 24, 2008
Situation of India - Ant and Grasshopper
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Looks like you are ranting about socialism, but you are a member of a party that is even more left-wing, wanting more and more government control.
ReplyDelete(Could not use OpenID for some reason)
hmm. I don't think Loksatta is left-wing party. I have listened to many speeches of Dr.JP, and it was more like right-wing.
ReplyDeleteI see it as, Left wing on economic issues, and right wing on social issues.
ReplyDeleteFrom the 50 irrevocable guarantees document:
Example of an extreme left wing economic policy position: #43 Social Security for one Crore Families. There are various such promises, and nothing is said about how these promises are going to be funded. #44. Security for Vulnerable Sections. Vulnerable sections seems to be the grasshopper in your story.
Example of an extreme right wing social position: "Rigorous liquor control". The document talks about liberty, and then wants to interfere on the rights of businesses "#35 Ban on Private Liquor Shops".
The party wants to be a dictator (possibly with good intentions). It wants to rule its citizens, not serve them. While I might still favor the party (seems to be a honest one), I think, its philosophy on governance is flawed.
Now, I got your point. There are many promises in the manifesto, and he did not explain on how he is going to implement.
ReplyDeleteIf I want to start a new business in any area (which does not effect people's health and similar things), then government should not oppose to that, and government should give equal preference to all the businesses. I prefer that kind of government. I don't expect anything else in anyway. I don't mind, if government has businesses in all the areas.
If we take transport in the entire country, it is in the complete control of the respective states, and it is in very very bad shape. The bad transportation is causing many problems like traffic, increase in usage of petrol/diesel, global warming, increase in the travel expenses and many others. Loksatta is promising convenient transport at affordable cost to everyone. To provide that kind of transport to everyone, Government has to allow private people in transportation. Without that, it is very difficult or it cannot serve everyone.
Dr.JP mentioned many times that, without competition, people will not get better service. My understanding is, he is going to allow private operators in many businesses.
That is what I want. And, I feel it is right wing economics.
If i take this post as a joke then i should not write about it.
ReplyDeleteBut when you have names like Medha Patkar and Arundhati Roy in it, with allegations implied in the joke, i can not stop myself.
I recently met Ravi Kuchimanchi (the real hero behind the swades movie) and working for the project AID (Association for India's development), he told us a lot about Medha Patkar.
After that it feels disgusting to read Medha Patkar's name associated in such contexts.
If you want to read this as serious, just remove all the names, and put X, Y, Z in that and read it. I don't know anything about Arundathi Roy, Medha Patkar, Kofi Annan.
ReplyDeleteThe situation (especially in A.P.) is like that only. That's why, I could not resist from posting it.
I have talked to few senior people in Loksatta. They mentioned that, in the manifesto, they have only the principles and the net effect to the people. There is no mention of how they are going to implement. Even if they mention it, more than 90% of the people will not understand, and sometimes too much information may give problems. Not only that, policies change depending on the circumstances. They do not want to bind to a particular policy, but they want to bind to their principles and vision. That's why they did not disclose their policies.
ReplyDeleteIf you read the news of Loksatta (news.loksatta.org), on sunday, Dr.JP talked about extreme right in Education.
Presently in A.P., there is lot of business opportunity. If we encash that, the employment problem would be solved, and all the social security problems would be solved automatically.
Of course, if there is a loss to the people health (like liquor), even I don't prefer to have right wing economic policy.