Of ‘Austerity’

Austerity, when forced, is an insult to the soul of the person for whom such pretence is initiated. Since there is no limit to the pretence of our politicians, as well as to their high rhetoric, and since they have mastered the art of romanticizing poverty to further their political objectives, the ‘austerity’ drive currently under way in New Delhi at the behest of Congress president Sonia Gandhi and to show ‘solidarity’ with the aam aadmi should be taken with a pinch of salt. It all started with the directive to External Affairs Minister SM Krishna and his junior, Shashi Tharoor, to shun their five-star luxuries, though they clarified that they were spending from their own pockets. Then other ministers started to fly economy class. The other day, Sonia Gandhi flew economy class to set an example of ‘austerity’ and inspire others to follow suit and save the taxpayer’s money for mitigating the woes of the poor. And Rahul Gandhi boarded Shatabdi Express to go to Ludhiana like a commoner. The whole focus, as it is made out to be, is on the poor — affected by drought — as also on strengthening the economy battling worldwide recession. However, the simple point that agriculture has remained an extremely low-priority area with no tangible policy formulation to reach out to the farm sector is being missed. So is the fact, too, that economic reforms have only widened the chasm between the rich and the poor, and poverty and backwardness are only pet slogans for the power-hungry politician to hoodwink the gullible rural voter. The charade of austerity, therefore, may look great, but how serious is the politician about the plight of the poor? How genuine is his concern? The poor of course will tell you that; he knows how often he has been cheated. THE SENTINEL