Pepsi versus poverty

There8217;s something deeply disturbing when one compares the Kerala government8217;s abject failure, as reported in this newspaper on Thursday, on implementing the jobs guarantee programme to the prompt proscriptions it had issued earlier against cola companies. Why do Kerala8217;s Marxists find fighting poverty less attractive than fighting Pepsi? The answer can8217;t lie merely in the fact that issuing administrative fiats against foreign companies is administratively easier than implementing welfare programmes. Only two Kerala districts have been chosen among the 150 nationwide for the dry run of the jobs guarantee programme. Given the amount of political capital the UPA has invested in this scheme, the Centre8217;s full cooperation is guaranteed. Resources are not a problem. Assam is not a state known for above-average administrative skills. If it can provide job cards to 68 per cent of the applicants and jobs to 65 per cent of those who asked for employment, why is it that not a single job card was issued until recently to anyone of the two lakh applicants in Kerala?

Suppose for argument8217;s sake we accept the Marxist state government8217;s charge that the preceding regime, led by the Congress, had done nothing. But in the four months or so since the Left came to power in May, why wasn8217;t implementation fast-tracked? Especially because it would have given the state Left a strong handle with which to beat the local Congress.

We are left with no choice but to conclude that the doctrinaire Marxists ruling Kerala genuinely define their own jobs in grand terms. They are there to put up a sterling defence against neo-liberalism. To that end they have questioned the fiscal rectitude law that the Centre and several other states have adopted. Of course action against cola companies is part of that. So are vehement arguments against VAT rates on 8216;luxury8217; goods 8212; although in this case the definition of neo-liberalism has to be stretched a bit. Asking the rich to pay more for airconditioners satisfies an urge left unaddressed by giving jobs to the poor. Bengal used to be like that at one point. Asking America, but not the Soviet Union, to disarm was considered more important than asking industry to stay back. Come to think of it, Kerala8217;s government hasn8217;t yet 8216;intervened8217; in geopolitics. The best is yet to come for Kerala8217;s poor.