Villains or Superheroes?

November 16 was the birthday of the legendary Superhero Kanta Rao. As per Wikipedia Tadepalli Lakshmi Kantha Rao (16 November 1923 – 22 March 2009) was an actor and producer known for his works predominantly in Telugu cinema. Regarded as one of the finest method actors, Rao starred in more than four hundred feature films in a variety of genres including mythological, social, and folklore. Mainly he was the director of Vithalacharya. During the 1960s he was the director of many Telugu films. As per https://en.wikipedia.org/B. Vittalacharya (18 January 1920 – 28 May 1999) was an Indian film director and producer known for his works in Telugu and Kannada cinema. He was known as Janapada Brahma in the Telugu film industry.

He acted as a rebel against the Villain Rajanala who imposed taxes on every conceivable thing- like a tax on births, tax for infertility, pilgrimage tax, tax on heretics, etc.

Wikipedia says RajanalaKaleswara Rao, known mononymously by his surname as Rajanala, was an Indian actor known for his works predominantly in Telugu cinema, Telugu theatre, and a few Tamil, Kannada, and Hindi films. In a film career spanning more than four decades, Rajanala acted in more than 1400 feature films with a variety of characters. Unfortunately, we have innumerable Rajanalas. But we are yet to find a single Kantarao, a Superhero to resist the evil of oppressive taxation. Villains are becoming Superheroes in India.

Selling out LIC

November 25, 2022, is the deadline for submission of binding bids for RCL (Reliance Capital Ltd) even as LIC is conducting to sell-out. Centre takes not only a lion's share in GST, but it has more ways to fill its coffers- Income Tax, Corporate Tax, and Excise Revenue too. Center is almost collecting Rupees 20 lakh crore annually from the GST. Due to the pandemic, though the collections had receded to some extent, the Centre was able to grab Rs 12 lakh crore from GST alone. In a single month of March, it could garner Rs. 1.23 lakh crore. On average, the monthly collections from GST are Rs. 2-3 lakh crore. Income Tax and the rest of the direct taxes yielded Rs. 12.06 lakh crores. Where has all this money gone? Why again rent out of National resources for a humongous amount of Rs. 6 lakh crore?

The heavy foreign debts

D Narasimha Reddy, Professor of Economics at the Hyderabad Central University explains that the reason for the immense pressure from foreign players to privatize the Public Sector Companies is because of India's dependence on their debts. The Central and State governments care a hoot about the mountains of irredeemable debts that they are accruing recklessly.

This is all concomitant to the fallacious policies that are pursued with an ambition to perpetuate their rule, come what may, without caring for the needs of the country. This is a lethal result of the self-cantered policies of the parties at the cost of teeming millions. This is an appalling state of affairs wherein a sovereign country is surrendering to the demands of foreign powers and economic institutions abroad that protect the western companies' interests.

A few months earlier, the idea of renting out the national resources sprouted because the Central Government couldn't sell the Public Sector Companies. Has the government been ailing with an insatiable thirst for money? The government has taken one lakh and seventy thousand crore from the RBI. Could anyone guess how the government spent this largesse from the Central Bank?

Earlier when the RBI Governor refused to part with the money the government asked for, they changed him. The Government cares less to account for this large amount. Neither it will reveal to the Public nor will it place the accounts before the Parliament.

The introduction of GST is claimed as tax reform. In reality, it is an atrocious tax form. As I writer, after the publication of a book, I paid GST. Such a tax never existed before. Only the book vendors used to pay the sales tax.

Every economic activity and social pursuit is taxed. Under the garb of the sonorous slogan of one nation- one tax, people are deceived by the GST rollout. The GST tax regime aimed to wring the plebeians to the maximum by merging all the State and Central taxes. States are given free hand to tax heavily. The Corporate companies which dole out political funds in thousands of crores anonymously are safe from the crushing tax nets.

Even in the wake of the LPG policy in 1991, where privatization had become the Holy Grail, there was still a policy bind that some key sectors were beyond up for grabs for the private players. Disinvestment has become a euphemism to sell PSUs in installments. A new lexicon was created- Structural Re-adjustment. License Raj was dispensed with but thermal power plants and hydropower plants were allowed to be owned by private capitalists. Indiscriminate privatization was writ large. One example: In Nellore alone, eight electricity companies were allowed to open shops.

The Centre has been trying to reach the end game in completely privatizing the Public Sector that has accumulated vast wealth in the seven decades of its existence. For this final ritual, a new word has been coined: Monetisation.

People understood the slogan 'Minimum Government and Maximum governance' as minimum interference by the government and it would usher in the clean rule. But they did not guess that Railways and railway roads would be given for rent, Airports and oil companies and ports would be sold.

What is the fate of democracy if the country is not saved from the debt trap and the government resorts to selling the public wealth and National resources to private players in installments in bits and pieces?

Democrats want the political parties to be beyond anti-Muslim phobia; they want them not to use religious sentiments to lure voters and once they get into power distorting the economy; they desire that the parties not create hiatus between BCs and other castes; they wish that just for getting votes anti-upper caste, anti-Hindu, and anti-Brahmin hatred should not be spread among the scheduled castes. But it is merely wishful thinking. The Political parties, not one but all the parties are stoking the emotions against others have become the normal way of doing politics.

Garnering votes using the weapon of hatred is similar to Corona Virus. Even though we may get rid of the Virus, perhaps this virus of spreading hatred would endure for a long. Democracy is now infected with a new disease, a novel Coronavirus of politics of hatred.

Apart from the politics of hatred, an atrocious policy of giving rent of the National wealth to the private capital has emerged. People should question this unconstitutional, anti-national and hazardous policy which is detrimental to the economic health of the country.

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