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Monday, September 21, 2009

"Austerity" and the grand revelation

The more the discussion in the initialization part of anyproject, greater are the chances of the project getting scrapped altogether. Likewise, the more the focus and brouhaha on 'austerity', the lesser are the chances of the same getting implemented. Otherwise, there would be a grand emergence of the 'cattle class' in all modes of transport ( let the cattle forgive me for equating them to humans ). While we would want to call the recent expenditure pertaining to the aerial tourism of Rahul Gandhi amounting to Rs One Crore an 'austerity measure', we would also need to call the 'statueization initattive' of Mayawati as an extreme measure in austerity. But you cannot discount the enormous 'job opportunities' that this Mayawati escapede has resulted in; probably more than even the NREGA initiatives of the Ulta Pulta Alliance govt. It is a matter of great mirth that this' austerity' is being touted as a virtue as if that need not have been followed so far by anybody and that the Congress peole have invented the same as a remedy for the economic downturn. 'Austerity' has always been the halmark of Indian ethos and civilizational values. Never has flamboyance and extravaganza been applauded in the Indian scenario right from earlier days of Chanakya to the days of Mahatma Gandhi. Erstwhile leaders like Kamaraj and Kakkan had used public transport even wneh they held office as the Chief Executives of the state of TN. In fact, when Kamaraj died, his entire bank balance amounted to Rs 32 ( Rupees Thirty Two only ). I don't want to guess what would be the financial worth of the current chief minister and his other ministers as that would be beyond my capacity as I wouldn't know how many 'zeros' to add after 32. The timing of this 'austerity' is really suspicious. Let us look at some of the incidents that took place simultaneously when this 'austerity' dawned on the high and the mighty of this land.

  • Rahul Gandhi paid an 'economical' visit to TN by spending just Rs One Crore.
  • P.Chidambaram returned from the US after a 'damp-squib' trip - after complaining "Mummy Mummy, Pakistan is pinching me daily"
  • China made few incursions into Arunachal, Ladakh and elsewhere after these soldiers painted some rocks in the Indian side 'red' and engraved 'Yellow River' ( a reference to China ) in Cantonese.
  • Krishna and Sashi Tharoor stayed in a 5 star hotel
  • Karananidhi was 'wheel-chair ridden', as usual, attending various valedictory functions and receiving awards in the name of Anna Durai, EVR and Ambedkar.
  • Stalin paid a vist to London for 'routine' medical check-up
  • Prices of essential commodities continued their upward spiral more in line with the trajectory of the PSLV rockets of recent times
  • Elections in Maharashtra were scheduled and farmer suicides continued without any respite.
  • Monsoon failed and therefore drought conditions prevailed all over.
  • Pakistan affirmed for the nth time that India had not provided 'evidence' of 26/11 attacks.
  • Azhagiri contined to hide from questions in the Parliament.
  • Jayalalitha tried to recover from election work related fatigue by continuing to stay in the palatial guest house in the Nilgris ( elections have been over for for than 4 months)
  • Full page advertisements that proclaimed the supposed 'achievements' of the current government continued in news papers. Full page ads cost a bomb, anyways. But the government is practising 'austerity' - you should believe this . Unable to draw any conclusion from the above, I tried to look the other way and landed up on the volumes of 'literature' available in the news papers about the contours and otherwise of the female actors from Bollywood and Kollywood. Then it dawned on me - austerity is being practised by B'wood and K'wood in terms of the dress and attire of female actors. Hence I have come to the conclusion that the film industry is the only one that sincerely follows what M.K.Gandhi preached and practised - austerity ! What a heavenly revelation !!

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