Comparison with Dubai

And I was thinking that my father spent Rs. 21,800 approx on my engineering education from 1980-84. This amount included the tuition fee of Rs. 18 per month which too, in my case, was pardoned on account of a merit scholarship of the institution, the mess fee, books, paper, pen, ink, calculator, sports shoes, tennis racquet and even the train fare, twice a year, from Ranchi to Warangal and back. It is largely on the back of that education, obviously subsidized very heavily by the government, that I am employed today in Dubai earning over US 120,000 per annum.

Do we really need income tax subsidies on NRI deposits? What exactly has the government of India benefited by subsidizing my education? Why should NRIs not pay taxes? I too want to start a debate. I believe NRIs should pay taxes like their brothers back at home. Of course we need to protect the poor workers. There is enough exploitation of these people here anyway. So let8217;s spare them but the owners of Mercedes, BMWs and the likes must pay income tax.

8212;Shishir Srivastava

A new slogan

Excellent article. In fact I have given a slogan to all political parties: Ameeron ko pyar love the rich Garibon ko maar bash the poor Bharat Sarkar Government of India!

8212;Mahesh

Rich v/s Poor

Shekhar Gupta8217;s rather odd article 8216;Our poor little rich8217; IE, October 8 seems to be arguing for higher taxes on basic amenities and services on the premise than only the rich use these services. If water tax, electricity tariffs, LPG cylinders, school fees etc cost more, does this not affect the less well off too? Surely these are things essential to all Indians? Mr Gupta8217;s argument seems to be that since the poor do not use these services, the services should not be subsidised. But the point is that the poor should, and do, use all of these, but if taxes go on rising, they will not be able to.

8212;Sherna Gandhy

Subsidised moral values

You hit the nail on its head. It is a head-down-bottom-up, . rob-poor-to-make-rich-richer implementation of socialism in India. It benefits the least who are the intended beneficiaries, at least, in the slogans and works as a tool in the hands of the rich and the well-to-do.

Last year, the government announced hike in EPF interest rate. Most of my batchmates earn upwards of Rs 50,000 per month. They were the happiest lot after the decision and there were murmurs of 8216;long live Surjeet8217; everywhere. Everybody started putting their money in EPF. And mind you, these are the same people, who produce fake medical bills , fake hra bills, fake telephone bills, fake lta bills, etc, to save around Rs. 1000 per month in taxes. And these are the same people who will shout from the rooftop about increase in electricity rates.

The people living in my village have not even heard of anything called provident fund. For them the Indian post office savings bank is the only option for a healthy and safe savings. Interest rate is least of their concerns because of the low volumes. All they want is safety and. ease of deposit and withdrawal. So were likes of Mr. Surjeet, Mr. . Bardhan and Mr. Dasgupta, fighting for them?

We are a very poor country. No, not in money. Considering the way our rich and affluent are shaping up, considering the Rs 100 crore property of a civil servant of UP, considering the eagerness of all MNCs to capture the market here, we don8217;t have poverty of capital. We don8217;t have poverty of ideas either. The ingenious way of the implementation of this inverted socialism proves that, the ingenious way our middle class and upper middle class finds ways to subvert the system and our political class compounds that.

What we have is poverty of 8216;ideals8217;, a poverty of 8216;morality8217;. You will be branded a fool, if you pay the full taxes or don8217;t bribe the traffic policeman for jumping red light and instead opt for a chalan. The social acceptance this ealing/robbing/ money laundering finds is unparalleled in any other civilised society. Nowhere you will find people who think it is their moral duty to rob the nation. A nation running on subsidies will naturally have subsidised moral values.

8212;Anoop Saha

Joining the debate

This is an acceptance of the invitation from Shekhar Gupta to 8220;join this debate8212; to question this very uniquely Indian version of Socialism8221; 8220;Our poor little rich8221;, The Indian Express, October 8, 2005. Of course Mr. Gupta has invited 8220;readers to send examples of this kind8221; emphasis added, which implies that examples of other kind may not be acceptable. But in the spirit of true debating I hope views expressed in this article will also find space in the columns of The Indian Express.

Interestingly, though not surprisingly, Mr. Gupta8217;s views find an echo in Ashok Malik8217;s 8220;Socialism on tap8221; The Indian Express, October 12, 2005.

The sum and substances of both these articles, as it comes across to me and I admit that there can be, and must be, other interpretations is that the intended plan of the Resident Welfare Associations RWAs 8220;to stop paying their water bills unless the Delhi Government junks water reforms8221; is unwarranted and preposterous. Both the articles take the controversy over the so-called water reform to a debate between socialism and capitalism.

Ashok Malik8217;s preference is very clear when he attributes all the success in Ivory Coast to handing over 8220;charge of its water utility to a private company8221; and refers to 8220;unending magazine articles by former Booker Prize winners8221;.

To Shekhar Gupta, 8220;the tony rich of South Delhi8221;, the well-to-do, even celebrities8221;, 8220;the most privileged and prosperous section of Delhi8217;s elite8221;, etc. are all 8220;they, them, their8221; I stopped counting after 16 such references, and so are the poor. One of the few references to 8220;us8221; is when he refers to people who have bore-wells 8220;in and around their houses in all of South Delhi, drawing unlimited ground water, unmindful of the drying aquifers.8221;

While Shekhar Gupta8217;s argument that 8220;the poor8221; cannot afford an LPG connection because they don8217;t have a home, a kitchen that can be locked, a gas stove, and deposit for the connection, are all perfectly valid, the implicit assumption that 8220;the poor8221; will be able to 8220;join this debate8221; by sending examples to sgexpressindia.com and also perhaps read the web edition https://indianexpress.com, presumably by going to a cyber cafe8218; seem to be debatable at least, unless of course the debate is open only to the rich. Of course, Shekhar Gupta8217;s suggestion for putting down the 8220;anarchy8221; of the 8220;the tony rich of South Delhi8221;, the well-to-do, even celebrities8221;, 8220;the most privileged and prosperous section of Delhi8217;s elite8221; by putting 8220;them8221; 8220;under a rickety fan in a police lock-up8221; for one night made me wonder what might be the remedy of writing this piece though I guess one should be grateful for the fan, however rickety it might be!

Another interesting parallel between the two articles is that Aquafina, Bisleri, and Kinley seem to be the same three companies bottled water that come to the minds of Gupta and Malik most readily when they are writing about water.

Now to the substance of the issue.

The controversy about the so-called water reform in Delhi is not over socialism vs capitalism. Assumptions that capitalism is the panacea for all problems of every society or that socialism is all evil, are obviously extreme positions which are neither tenable theoretically nor implementable in practice. Even utopia of pure free market does not really exist anywhere in the world including the so-called Mecca of the free market, the US, otherwise there would not be so many regulators in the US. While debates such as socialism v/s capitalism or fundamentalism v/s liberalism are certainly good food for thought, mind, and the soul, they are pretty far away when one is looking for something for the stomach.

I have not heard any of the critics of the so-called water reform in Delhi saying or insisting as Malik says that 8220;DJB is fine8221;. As a matter of fact DJB8217;s inefficiency is certainly one of the root causes of the water problems in Delhi, as is the case with a lot of government-run outfits. The controversy over water in Delhi is based on the questions that while Delhi does have 250 lcpd litre per capita and per day of water which is pretty high by usual standards, why can8217;t the citizens of Delhi get adequate water. However, I really wonder if 8220;private bill collectors8221; is the panacea, as Malik says.

There is no denying that there is a lot of theft of water in Delhi. Are 8220;private bill collectors8221; the best or the most appropriate or the only way to deal with this theft? I don8217;t think so. Private bill collectors function in several sections and in several parts of India-Bihar comes to mind. Do we want a similar situation to prevail all over the country?

Shekhar Gupta hints at the answer when he says that 8220;the state or the political system is persuaded8230; 8221;. The problems with the infrastructure in India are the problems of failure of the State for which the responsibility lies on the surface with the political system but essentially with the citizens for letting the politicians take everyone for a ride. And now when the citizens seem to be trying to take matters into their own hands, a lot of members of the so-called establishment, including the Fourth Estate seem to be getting worried.

8212;Jagdeep S.Chokkar

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