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Why should I support this Bandh?
Written By silkboard - 5 July, 2010
Bangalore Politics fuel Complaint Others BJP Bandh
Why should I be forced to support a strike call (bandh) that I don't agree with? Where is my freedom of expression? Why is my office shut? Why is my son's school shut as well? Are the officea and schools shut because they support the bandh, or are they 'scared'? Why can state government not guarantee rule of law on general bandh day? Real shame in today's day and age, such "goonda-giri' driven bandhs are the most farcical tools of public vote in a democracy.
Leaving aside the "how can a ruling party support a strike" thing and talking specifics, what is wrong with total decontrol of fuel pricess to let the market forces rule? Kerosene price rise can be buffered towards a gradual decontrol, but the public needs to alter their fuel usage pattern - shift the burden away from fossils - and energy companies need that push to innovate.
I am not against my taxes going towards subsidies to support the poor. But I don't want that to happen via support for more consumption of fossil fuel. I want to put my taxes towards primary education, rural infrastructure, and alternate energy research so that the poor can gradually afford to buy energy at market rates.
COMMENTS
idontspam - 6 July, 2010 - 17:55
but to complete the picture the diesel for cars also should not be subsidised.
How do you implement that practically?
thanks for diverting from the focus on IMF
Public Agenda - 5 July, 2010 - 12:18
@ IDS & @ SB
Thanks for diverting about organising bandhs and TVs etc,etc
That was not the point
Why cant you examine the serious issues here?
please question the IMF
what if the IMF sitting pretty is the Biggest GOONDA trying to decide (happening in SE Asia, Bangladesh)
It just says that who are the ideological slaves .........
I am straight saying that India withdraws the 10 bn USD to keep the subsidy going
sure the quid pro quo for the GoI was a .0025 ~ increase in the voting share at the IMF with the so called BRICS countries
Whole country is saying no - how do you know?
silkboard - 5 July, 2010 - 10:31
Public Agenda dear (wish you used a proper noun to name yourself), how do you claim that "BTW the Whole Countrry is saying No "?
How do you know? Because the newspapers tomorrow will say so? Is it because the TV channels are claiming headlines like "bandh complete in Kolkata and Bangalore", or "all offices and schools shut in Kolkata, Patna and Bangalore".
It is ironic that we are seeing Bangalore named alongside cities like Patna and Kolkata. Having grown up seeing bandhs everyday at South Bihar (now Jharkhand) where jeep load of hooligans would do the rounds to "ensure" a bandh, same set of folks, for one party today and another party tomorrow, I am susprised to see that Bangalore of today is not that much different.
How the hell does one know whether the bandh has support of people or not? Only people who claim to know the public agenda can say they know (pun inteded Public Agenda sir). I don't.
If any party has the guts, let us have a bandh call without the threat of broken window panes or bones, And then we will see who supports bandhs and who don't.
Transmogrifier - 7 July, 2010 - 01:31
Distribution of rations for the low income groups (that have ration cards) can be through any kirana store, big bazaar, food bazaar or such outlets rather than through the existing overlong supply chain of the govt or govt corpns before it reaches individual BPL families at ration shops.
All you would need is something similar to USDA's Supplemental Nutrition Program. Admittedly, there is always potential to misuse any scheme (I have heard of people continuing to use cards when it is obvious that they do not need it), but atleast it cuts out most of the PDS chain.
@ PublicAgenda, while conspiracy theorists make for good movie-making, it's time (like many here are suggesting) that we look at why we pay so much as in the way of levies (59%?) and much worse, get so little. Let's take two examples:
1. In one of the most capitalistic of societies, federal and state taxes, on average, are about 45.6c/gallon (for petrol) or 16.7% at today's price of unleaded petrol. What do you get for that? For 18.4c out of that (or 6-7%) you get 75,000 km of Interstate system on which you could cover 950km (that's the distance to Chennai... and back...and then back again) in 9.5hrs.
But let's take an example from Europe...where the push to reduce carbon reliancy is much greater...
2. In the UK, 68% of the price of unleaded is attributed to the Hydrocarbon oil duty and VAT, but most of the Hydrocarbon oil duty goes to infrastructure projects (source)...projects that we often draw inspiration from.
Does anyone have actual numbers on the Karnataka state budget (I tried looking but it's hard to tease apart the actual income from sale of fuel) before "market middle-men" take all the glory? Make no mistake, I agree that there's a lot more to oil than meets the eye... but oil subsidies are a problem of our own making. I say we question not just why we have a subsidy but also what happens to our 59%?
And while we're on the subject of conspiracy theories, let's atleast go for the ones that we can address...
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