UPA's four years in office

Yesterday, UPA government celebrated four years in office threw a lavish dinner party and UPA chairperson Ms. Sonia Gandhi had all praise for the Prime Minister Mr. Manmohan Singh. So far so good. Patting own back has been in our culture since ages and this one thing Ms. Sonia Gandhi has certainly learnt from our culture.

Now let’s look at the ground realities. Let’s start with our economy. That’s because Mr. prime minister is famous economist. I am not an economist so I would not understand all the big numbers and different term/criteria to measure the economic performance but certainly I do understand the extra pressure coming on my pocket. I will start with the prices of essential commodities. Since august 2003 I have been staying in same city and almost in same locality so I guess the prices I consider must not have any external factors to influence. In 2004, one kg of rice (whatever I and my family eat daily) was costing me Rs 19/-. The same quality rice costs me Rs 28/- per kg. Simple mathematics shows almost 50% rise in price. Similarly 10 kg wheat flour (atta) of a particular brand was priced Rs 135/- to Rs 140/- and now it costs me around Rs. 200/- to Rs. 210/- Price rise for mustard oil has been shocking. In 2004 I was buying one liter mustard oil of a specific brand at Rs 52/- per liter and now its simply Rs 82/-. Simple mathematics tells me its price rise of around 60%. Similarly price of almost every essential commodity increased in range of 40% to 60% during the last 4 years and our prime minister celebrated 4 times and some sycophants kept on praising him and patting his back. When this government took over the office, I always thought people like Mr Manmohan Singh as PM, people like Mr. Chidambaram as FM and people like Montek Singh Ahluwalia in planning commission will take our country to great economic path and we need not to be worried about the prices and economy of our country. But unfortunately it proved wrong. I am not sure how the poor people are managing their budget because their salary has certainly not increased in 40 to 60 % range in last 4 years or so. There is a famous saying in hindi “Jyada JOGI Math Ujad” and this saying is perfectly matching this government on economic front. Now come to the security front. Everyone knows how our government is reacting with all naxalite and terrorist threats over the years. There is no concrete plan to tackle the security problems (at least didn’t get visible in last 4 years or so) and in some cases also looked like the government is trying to appease certain section. That is basically compromising with the national security. They were trying to have a nuclear deal with US which might have taken care of some of our energy needs in coming year but that also couldn’t get materialized. Only one thing they can claim is the rail passenger fare which didn’t increase in last four years but then we all know the how the facilities is getting deteriorated in Indian Railways. Almost no minister now travels in rail so they need not to worry about the facilities in train and railway station. We also know that how if you book rail ticket from a computerized centre of a different city; you need to pay extra money. We also know that how much the charges of tatkal booking tickets increased and number of tatkal reservation seats has increased in last four years. Sometime I felt Mr. Laloo Prasad is better economist than PM or FM because he is sneaking in your pocket and you even don’t come to know about that. You always feel that rail fare is not increased.

Apart from rail fare, another good thing was the image of PM Manmohan Singh. He is really an honest person and in current political environment, if you see an honest person at powerful position you don’t loose hope with democracy. We had some hope when we saw several young people won the election and were active in parliament (they were called as BABA log in parliament in 2004) but all the hope were shattered. No one did anything and looked poor copy of their father, mother or uncle who was also the same kind of politician (TANY TANY FISSSSSSS…). They just kept on talking big (in hindi LAFFEBAZI) and are slowly getting converted from young to old with time………..