The Hindu Business Line : Season of politics

The Union Budget is just three weeks away, and elections to a number of key States a few months down the line. Expectedly, the politicians are now hyper-busy in gearing up to woo the electorate so that they can get as many votes as they can at the hustings. It is also to be expected that, once the polls are over, the “people” will be forgotten, in a manner of speaking, and the urge to announce populist policies will abate.

Running after the electorate

There is, of course, nothing new in this. In fact, as we are getting farther away from 1947, and all that it represents, the spectacle of politicians running after the electorate as polls draw near is getting even more pronounced. This will be hotly disputed by those who depend on votes for a living (not all politicians do because, as always, there are honourable exceptions among them), but the fact of the matter is that, in a whole lot of constituencies all over the country, the “people” get to see the vote-seekers only at election time. It is either the case of the latter, attended by three or four of their minions, ringing the doorbell and talking to you for a couple of fleeting minutes with folded hands and a cosmetic smile on their faces before moving on the next door, or creating a commotion on the road outside with a horde of their supporters, looking up at you from their vehicles or while on their feet, the message being “I am here to serve you; so vote for me”.

Political campaigning

This is pre-election political campaigning in its crudest form. There are other, more sophisticated, forms of the same activity, the objective of which, however, is the same, namely, mollify, cajole and humour the voter so that he casts his vote for you — and then take it easy. One example of the fine-tuning of such activity is to be found in the expected increase in the price of oil products, which is long overdue but on which no action has been taken till the time of writing, apart from interminable discussions being engaged in within the Government.

Admittedly, discussing an issue threadbare before taking a policy decision, specially on a subject such as oil price, is just the thing to expect from a caring Government. But delaying action for months altogether when public sector oil companies are burdening themselves with avoidable losses — on the declared ground of preventing hardship for the average citizen of the republic — is an entirely different thing altogether.

Delay compounds a problem

Since, at times, difficult decisions will have to be taken to make both ends meet in a developing society, it does not do credit to a Government to drag its feet on critical economic policy issues on the ground that the people will be affected as far as the cost of living is concerned. Delay often compounds the gravity of a problem. Here, the delay is politically-driven, which makes the situation even worse. And, yet, such decisions cannot be avoided if an economy is to be run on acceptable lines of prudence and in the national interest.

As regards the imminent rise in oil prices, it is now being suggested that, to start with, the prices will be raised straightaway but that the duty rejig will be effected in the Union Budget, the primary purpose of which will be to project to the electorate the image of a people-friendly Budget. Clearly, the exercise can be done in one shot, but then the votes too will have to be garnered. Hence the subterfuge.

RANABIR RAY CHOUDHURY

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