Editorial     

Published: October 31, 2023
Updated: October 31, 2023

Inflation dampens Diwali spirit

In the run-up to the fast-approaching Diwali festival, the monster of inflation has once again raised its ugly head. Prices of essential commodities like cereals, edible oils and vegetables have started moving up, multiplying the woes of the common man.

It is ironic that while the government’s revenues are shooting up with GST and other taxes even on the common man’s fare like milk, buttermilk, idli-dosa- upma and sabudana khichdi, the poor and lower middle-class are being crushed under the increasing inflationary price spiral. Call it a tragi-comedy if you will, a so-called welfare state ostensibly dedicated to serving the public is squeezing the common man to fill the government’s election piggy bank ahead of the forthcoming general elections.

With every monthly rise in GST collections, the government turns jubilant — at the cost of the happiness of the common Indian. Ironically, the government’s swollen kitty is then used to sway the hapless Indian voter. But the reality is that this cynical approach is actually killing the dreams of the common man and also crushing his happiness.

Have you heard of a tax on milk for infants? Or a tax on buttermilk, the mainstay source of nutrition for a poor family? Prices of vegetables have shot up to such a high level that it has become extremely difficult for a poor or low-income family to run its modest household. Trust cynical politicians, especially of the ruling class, to divert funds to finance elections at the cost of vital issues like health and education.

Some state governments have in fact slashed funds to universities, forcing the latter to hike their fees. For example, the Hissar-based Chaudhary Charan Singh Agriculture University has increased its fees by 100-150 per cent after the government slashed funding. In such a scenario, how can aspiring poor and lower middle-class families afford expensive fees to educate their children?

For the lucky few in India, inflation is simply a moving point on a graph, an abstraction and a topic for chit-chat in elegant drawing rooms. For the not-so-lucky, it is the mathematical representation of a silent everyday despair that strips away the common man’s dignity and erases his dreams and hopes. From villages to small towns to metropolises, inflation has not spared low-income groups – the story repeated in a million voices, each unique in its private despair but each sharing the same slow fading of hope.

Interestingly, in 2022, inflation peaked at a level unheard of in the last four decades. Prices boomed more rapidly for certain items than others, especially in the case of food, fuel and air fares.

Some of those swings were due to external factors like snarled supply channels, labour shortages, burgeoning consumer demand and the Russian invasion of Ukraine. But the Indian government did not take any imaginative and effective steps to mitigate the effect of these factors. Unfortunately, the worst-hit in 2022 was the school meal scheme. The price of a meal at elementary and secondary schools spiked by a whopping 305 per cent, triggered by the overall hike in food prices.

It is the misfortune of Indians that the government does not think inflation is a problem and is, consciously or otherwise, making the lives of poor and lower-income people miserable. The tragedy is that the government is itself culpable of igniting the inflationary price spiral. If GST on items of day-to-day use is done away with, there would be tremendous relief for the common man.

At another level, there is an urgent need to scrap excise duty, or to keep it at a minimum rate, on petrol and diesel. This will go a long way in containing inflationary pressures in the economy. If the government looks within and ceases to be a profiteer by raising prices every now and then, it would have a salutary impact on the lives of millions of ordinary Indians.