DR. S. AUSAF SAIED VASFI wonders how not to laugh at Deputy Chairman Planning Commission Montek Singh Ahluwalia when he says that an Indian who earns `34.67 a day is not a poor fellow.
The seasoned practitioners of lying say there are three varieties of lies: lies, white lies and statistical lies. The data of poverty provided by the Planning Commission on Mar 21 falls in the last category. It wants the plural nation to believe that an Indian who earns `34.67 a day is not a poor fellow.
This set of hilarious statistics is based upon the National Sample Survey for 2009-10. “You can put whatever poverty line you want, the fact is… the decline in poverty is twice the decline in the previous 11 years,” so said Mr. Montek Singh Ahluwalia, Deputy Chairman of the Planning Commission.
Has this dishwater been dished out in view of the ongoing session of Parliament, the oncoming 2014 General Elections or the proposed Food Security Bill? This question comes under sharper focus in view of the time chosen by the Planning Commission.
Mr. Ahluwalia appears to stand firm on his shaky ground and insists his jugglery is a fact, not a fiction. But more than a larger part of the over-a-billion-strong nation holds a different notion. Some analysts of repute have described his essay as a trap, joke and poor joke. How not to laugh at him when he wants us to believe that poverty ends at `34.67?
CURRENT BENCHMARK
A vocal section of the divided Opposition is demanding the Deputy Chairman’s resignation. May be without any ulterior motive, he has misled the nation as well as the world. It would have been possible only after misleading himself. One wonders at the Prime Minister’s mystifying silence on Mr. Ahluwalia’s findings. His data beggars the imagination. His confidant assertion is: `22.43 in rural Bharat and `28.65 in urban India is the current benchmark.
In September last his figures were: `26 and `32. Then too he was laughed at and the Government was also embarrassed. Does it not provoke you into thinking in terms of “sleight of hand”?
Does a Congress-led UPA dispensation approve of this method of earning respectability abroad? Should the gullible sections of the nation too go philosophical with Mr. Ahluwalia? But the problem is that it would not alter the irksome ground reality in the heavy presence of the depressing version of deprivation. The critics unanimously feel this interesting data has been prepared by the arm-chair loving bureaucrats amidst heavy-duty air-conditioners.
Mahatma Gandhi’s greatness was in passing his life in a home-spun loincloth which was never shining. But now Mr. Ahluwalia and the entire nation are living in the age of the Ambanis, the Tatas and the Mittals, to name only a few billionaires. Can the Deputy Chairman agree to give up his push towards the Mahatma’s Bharat, we may ask, sartorially?
EARLIER ESTIMATES
Earlier too the official estimates had caused enormous embarrassment to the Government. No sensible person denies the positive effects of the meagre poverty alleviation measures.
The flagship National Employment Guarantee Scheme and the Pradhan Maruti Gram Sadak Yojna have provided opportunities of earning some money. But what is their worth in the gigantic unemployment scenario?
What is being, however, challenged by all and sundry is the authenticity and the manner of investigation of the said statistics. Poverty is not a statistical issue. It is a human issue demanding responsible attitude in the collection of data. It is here that the Constitutional postulate of “Welfare State” inevitably comes to mind.
After tribal deaths caused by poverty, when a State Government like Odisha argues that the casualty was caused not by poverty but by malnutrition, it does not cover itself with glory. It is an almost annual ritual. But when New Delhi tries to enhance its image in the national and the world view by presenting controversial ‘prosperity’ figures, it just fails to impress anyone.
Respect and dignity are not the values available in the marketplace. They have to be laboriously earned.