CHAOS, DAMN CHAOS! 

SUNNY THOMAS 

(onionlive.com) 

Democracy is all about creating chaos. With too many cooks (read crooks, if you prefer) spoiling the broth, what else do you expect? And politics is all about solving problems politicians themselves have created purely in national interests.

The Indian parliament is the showcase of Indian democracy; the showcase of how not to work but disrupt and enjoy all the privileges, including heavily subsidized food at rates much below people living under the poverty line are entitled to. One suspects the BJP and Congress MPs do not hate each other as much as they are shown on television. These MPs pounce at each other on the screen like a pack of wolves, but in private put arms around each other in perfect understanding. The victim of their latest understanding is the Lokpal Bill, which is log-jammed in Parliament, daring Anna Hazare for another fast. Team Anna is already doing a cost-benefit analysis, and if it decides on a fast, some of its members could be on the Forbes list of Super Rich, due this January.

Every time Manmohan Singh acts in his economic wisdom, UPA is jittery; the allies (so-called) blow hot and blow cold; and poor Pranab Mukherjee will have work to do. Incidentally, India’s golden shooter is not Gagan Narang, Abhinav Bindra or Rajyavardhan Rathore as many think but the golden trouble-shooter Pranab Mukherjee. But this time around, Manmohan played a masterstroke in giving a near-green signal to Walmart (but held back till UP elections): those opposing Walmart are not farmers but middlemen, who are politicians and lobbyist, pretending to protect farmers but bleed them to suicide.

The great crusading journalist, P Sainath, has brought out stunning statistics about farmers’ suicide. The villain among states that have registered an alarming rise in suicide rates is Maharashtra (+1294) while the record of West Bengal (-436) and Kerala (-221) is impressive. The performance of Kerala is all the more impressive considering that the state farmers have opted for cash crop whose prices are volatile (vanilla prices crashed from Rs 4,000 a kg to Rs 80 a kg!). These farmers are at the mercy of human sharks called middlemen. But the hidden message is too ugly to be told: the union agriculture minister comes from the state that tops in farmer suicide rates!


Andhra Pradesh        1590            2301           +711

Assam                        155              291           +135

Karnataka                 2259           2123            -136

Kerala                      1292            1071            -221

MP+ Chatisgarh       2304           2829             +525

Maharashtra             2508           3802             +1294

Tamil Nadu                992             866             -126

Uttar Pradesh             640             531             -109

West Bengal             1426             990             -436

Source: NCRB accidental deaths & suicides in India reports 1995-2010

From time immemorial, human civilization has flourished by the riverside; water is life and the river, the spring of life. Even a 5-year-old child knows her 110-year-old granny cannot walk without a walking stick. The whole world knows it, except perhaps Jayalalithaa who insists that the height of reservoir of the 110-year-old Mullaperiyar Dam which is reportedly leaking should be raised to 142 feet (43 m) even if it endangers the lives of 5 million farmers who are not her votaries. But the safety of half a million people around Kudankulam matters because they are her votaries.

Located adjacent to the confluence of the Mullayar and Periyar rivers, the dam is called Mullaperiyar. Flowing west, the Periyar runs its full course entirely through Kerala, and the dam and the reservoir, too, are exclusively located in Kerala. Tamil Nadu collects water from this reservoir by a tunnel to the eastern side of Western Ghats.

On October 29, 1886, a lease indenture for 999 years was made between Maharaja of Travancore, Vishakham Thirunal, and the Secretary of State for India, after considerable pressure on the former. The lease granted the then Mardas state (under British rule) the right to construct dams and irrigational works. Travancore gave 8000 acres of land for the reservoir and another 100 acres to construct the dam for a tax for Rs 5 per acre per year.

When India became independent, the lease got expired. Attempts to renew the agreement in 1958, 1960, and 1969 failed , but succeeded in 1970 when C Achutha Menon was the chief minister. According to the renewed agreement, the tax per acre was Rs 30, and for the electricity generated Rs12 per kw per hour. But this was without the consent of the Kerala legislative assembly. This agreement, too, expired in 2000. But Tamil Nadu still uses the water and the land, paying for the past 50 years Rs 2.5 lakh as tax per year and Rs 7.5 lakh per year as surcharge for electricity.

The first dam built by the British was washed away by floods and a second dam was built in 1895, with stone and surki ( a mixture of sugar and calcium oxide).

Tamil Nadu proposed an increase in the storage level of the dam from the currently maintained 136 feet (41 m) to 142 feet (43 m) but Kerala opposed the move. More than 5 million people will be wiped out from the face of earth, should the dam breach. To fish in troubled waters, an enterprising movie maker produced a $10-million 3D Hollywood movie based on a dam breach in China, and titled it Dam 999 – some suspect he got it banned to make it a super hit! The movie is a damn squib and will have no audience unless some school children are forced to watch it by their Principals.

In 2006, the Supreme Court allowed the storage level to be raised to 142 feet (43 m). However, the Kerala government promulgated a new ‘Dam Safety Act’ against increasing the storage level of the dam, which was objected to by the court. Tamil Nadu challenged it on various grounds. The court issued notice to Kerala to respond but did not stay the operation of the Act. The court then advised the two states to settle the matter amicably.

Just imagine, the same river was flowing entirely through Tamil Nadu and diverted to quench the thirst of Kerala farmers. Five years ago, the height of the reservoir was reduced, caring for the lives of exactly 5 million people living nearby. Tamil Nadu promises to build a new dam in a couple of years and then restore the reservoir height, but Kerala refuses to budge presenting a here-and- now argument.

You could well visualise the tantrum Jayalalathaa – who lived all her life acting – will be throwing for the television cameras always looking for action pictures. All the television editors – Arnab Goswami, Prannoy Roy, Rajdeep Sardesai, Rahul Kanwal and Rahul Shivshankar – would be congratulating their camera men for getting such excellent shots!

GANDHI LOVES 

WALMART!

(onionlive.com)

SUNNY THOMAS

Of late, Gandhi has changed so much! You may not even recognize him if by chance you met him on the street. The other day, I saw a true Gandhian, with a true Gandhi cap and in true khadi getting out of a Mercedes Benz car. He was coming after a televised fasting in the capital, which even President Obama and the First Lady Michelle Obama watched from the White House. Our Gandhian owns no Mercedes Benz, but simply got a lift from a friend who runs a foundation that gets funds from well-wishers abroad. The crowd was taken aback when this foundation man was shouting, ‘Bharat Mata ki jai’ instead of ‘American Mata ki jai’!! 

Welcome to Walmart (Wal-Mart till 2008) to the land of Gandhi, which is being Americanized by the hour ever since the IT Revolution. It is often said in South Bloc in whispers of course that if Obama catches cold, Dr Manmohan Singh will sneeze.When Sam Walton opened a retail store in 1962 at Bentonville, Arkansas, he had no idea that it would one day do business in 15 countries, opening 8,500 stores, and be the largest grocery retailer in the US.

But what worries India’s sensible people is the impact it would have on the ‘mom and pop’ stores of the small towns. An Iowa State University study by Prof Kenneth Stone has warned that small towns could lose almost half of their retail trade within ten years. However, shopkeepers who can adapt will thrive on new opportunities thrown open by Walmart.  

Another study by Global Insight found that food-at-home prices were 9.1% lower between 1985 and 2004 in the US because of the impact of Walmart. Washington Post reported (2005) that Walmart’s discounting of food alone boosts the welfare of American shoppers by at least $50 billion per year. An MIT study (2005) said the poorest segment benefited most from the existence of discount retailers.

To balance good news with bad ones, two professors from Pennsylvania observed that poverty increased in counties with Walmarts rather than in counties without Walmarts. This could be due to displacement of workers from higher paid jobs in retail business, which disappears as Walmart opens stores. Dr Raj Patel, the author of Stuffed and Starved, brings forth the tale of two Walmart stores in Nebraska, one just launched and the other well established. The first cut prices to the bone to drive out competitors whereas the second was charging 17% higher. 

Each week, about 100 million customers, nearly one-third of the U.S. population, visit Walmart stores because of low prices. Walmart Express is a smaller discount store with a range of services from grocery to gasoline service. The concept is focused on small towns.

Walmart had to bite the dust in Germany and South Korea, known for fierce competitive spirit. In Germany it captured just 2% of the food market in 1997 and remained a second  behind Aldi with a 19% share till 2006 when it finally withdrew. But it is doing well in the UK, and its Asda subsidiary is the second largest chain after Tesco.Entering the South Korean market in 1998, it withdrew in 2006.

In China, Wal-Mart hopes to succeed by adapting the Chinese way. The Chinese consumers prefer to select their own live fish and seafood; stores began displaying the meat uncovered and installed fish tanks, leading to higher sales.

Wal-Mart is governed by a fifteen-member Board of Directors, notable among them were Hillary Clinton (1985–1992) and Tom Coughlin (2003–2004), who was later caught in a

fraud and tax evasion case and sentenced to 27 months of confinement and damages worth $411,000.

There have been charges that Walmart is anti-woman, anti-labour, anti-environment, none of which has been proved in a court of law.