Rajni In July the country 'celebrated' the cheapest car in the world, while the poor man's food, dal (pulses), sky-rocketed.
With vegetables and meat having gone off the poor-man's diet, now even dals have become unaffordable.
Arhar (tur) dal was around Rs.
34 per kg just after the 2004 elections, Rs.
54 before the 2009 polls, Rs.
62 just after the polls and now at over Rs.
90 a kg it has become unaffordable to most.
It is a clear case of UPA arrogance, with no elections immediately, to raise prices kept under control before the election, due to its brute majority, to allow prices to rise astronomically without any fear of being overthrown or displaced.
This is nothing but the gift of a supposed 'stable' government.
'Stability' has permitted this unbridled loot.
But it is not just dal, all the basic necessities of life have risen by over 25% in the last year.
With people's wages stagnant, or even dropping, this means a 25% drop in the living standards of the people in just one year.
While the government much trumpets the rise in the Wholesale Price Index (WPI) as having gone to a record low of minus.
1.7% recently, at the ground level the consumer price index has been sky-rocketing.
For this we do not need to see the government's much-manipulated figures but speak to any housewife.
They know better the reality.
Potato prices, another common man's food in the North and East, has gone up 200%, from Rs.
5 per Kg last year to Rs.
In Mumbai potato is selling at 90% higher than Oct.
Onion prices zoomed 20% and 40% in Chennai and Kolkota in the last 10 months.
Sugar prices have gone up roughly 40%.
Prices of vegetables have gone up by Rs.
10 per kg in just one week.
The price rise due to drought warning is a fraud.
Of course, a drought will push up prices even further.
But prices have been rising for five years since the 2004 elections.
Take the years between 2004 and 2008 when there were good monsoons.
And in more than one year we have claimed 'record production of grains'.
The price of rice went up 46%, of wheat by over 62%, atta (wheat flour) 55%, salt 42% and more.
By March 2008 the average increase in the prices of such items was already up by well over 40%.
And now, after the elections, they have risen dramatically in the last three months.
The agricultural minister has said the rise in price of tur dal (pigeon pea) is due to black-marketing and hoarding, but was silent on the trade in futures.
In fact the ban on trading in wheat futures was lifted even before the results of the 2009 elections were announced in May.
And existing bans on other items are also being removed.
The price rise since 2004 could be the highest ever, except during the pre-Emergency period.
Food prices may have gone up but airline tickets have come down.
Corporate profits have gone up, even in this period of crisis, while lakhs have been thrown out of jobs.
3 lakh crores of concessions to the corporate world it is not surprising they are still making profits.
But if we want to see the type of windfall profits that business and the traders are making we just have to look at the case of sugar, dominated by the Agricultural minister himself.
Sharad Pawar's NCP controls 70% of Mahrashtra's sugar cooperatives.
These cooperatives have been known to give crores in the elections to their candidates, which is recovered immediately by a hike in sugar prices.
In 2007, a private institute, of which Pawar is President-for-life, published a report which said 70% of them were sick.
As Union Agricultural Minister, Pawar then announced a financial package worth Rs.
400 crores for these 'sick' cooperatives.
Take the present post-election scenario.
Sugar prices which were Rs.
26 in July are now Rs.
35 and are set to go upto Rs.
40 per kg by diwali.
Production of sugar was 150 lakh tones this year compared to 263 lakh tones last year.
Every year the average utilization of sugar is 210 lakh tones.
But, there existed a stock of 80 lakh tones taking the total availability to 230 lakh tones.
This is more than sufficient and shortage cannot be the reason for the phenomenal price rise.
It is nothing but a manipulated situation to give massive profits to the sugar lobby led by Sharad Pawar.
With sales of sugar amounting to roughly to 180 crore kgs the sugar lobby, with a Rs.8 increase in prices, makes an additional profit of a massive Rs.
1,440 crores monthly - over-and-above their normal profits.
This bonanza has to be paid for by the common man.
Not a single political party says a word about this gigantic loot.
The present price rise of essentials is nothing but a massive loot by the semi-feudal agrarian mafia, the loot by imperialism and compradors by trading in futures and artificially hiking up prices and the hoarding and black marketeering of the big traders, linked to the above two forces.
Those who suffer are the peasantry and the consumer; the peasants are still getting a pittance for their produce, while the consumer has to pay huge rates for their daily needs.
*(The author is a Ph.D Scholar, Dept of Sociology University of Jammu).
e-mail-rjnsharma@ gmail.com
