It is well known that Mrs Sonia Gandhi’s strategy is to pamper the poor for votes & don't care much about others - majority of India's 1.1 billion population is poor. Roughly 10% of India is super rich, 20-30%% middle class and they pay most of the taxes to keep up the Government. About 60%-70% are stated to belong to 'poor' section without much incentive to improve - as they are pampered in the wrong manner. Instead of giving hand-outs they must be given chances to work hard towards success.
As part of pampering the poor, free/ subsidised food, cloth, etc is flowing to the BPL (Below Poverty Line) class. For example, a southern state Kerala provides 1 Kg rice for Rs 1/- to the poor class. With average daily wage of around Rs 350 -500/- (monthly income of Rs 10k-15k) in the state, this lopsided socialism is creating undesirable behaviour among the population. It is easy for a labourer earning this level of wage to qualify themselves into BPL category and enjoy free/subsidies. No wonder even the middle class segments in the country is trying to get into BPL category to get benefits. As usual, the lopsided policies of Indian Govt. is not providing any incentives to work hard towards success. Instead, it encourages the population to be BPL.
But the middle class of India which exceeds 250 million exceeds the combined population of several leading European nations including Britain, Spain, France, Germany, etc. and adds a lot to the Indian economy is being ignored. Why? They are not the vote bank just as National Democratic Alliance (NDA), led by the Bharatiya Janata Party, realised in 2003. After putting up a spectacular economic performance, they lost elections .
It is pertinent to note that during 2002-2003 period US kept its interest rate low at 1% and India was able to reduce its rates to record lows as well, thanks to then bold RBI Governer, Bimal Galan and NDA, led by Vajpayee who initiated the world class National Highway program. Compared to that currently, the interest rates in the US is all time low; however current RBI Governer did not reduce the rates to help the business in India. UPA led by Mrs. Sonia is a far cry from NDA led by Mr. Vajpayee. The result is the slowing economy. No wonder Indian Manufacturing data for March 2012 was in negative territory.
Recently Forbes magazine has put out a list of the world's billionaires, of which fifty-five of them are Indians. About half of them belong to Baniya caste (traditionally business class) who comprise less than 5% or 55 million of Indian population. The heartland of India , where most of the quantity (60%-70%) resides, is missing from this list. Bihar, Bengal , Jharkand, Utterkand, Chattisghad, Madhya Pradesh, Odisha, Uttar Pradesh have little or no representation. Remember these are some of the resource rich, mineral rich territories in India. The skillset of the successful indians and poor indians are different. Instead of pumping free / hugely subsidized goods to 60%-70% of the population - that results in huge deficits - Govt must embark upon schemes to improve the skillset.
Some one defined Capitalism as 'wealth shared unequally' and Socialism as 'poverty shared equally'. It seems that current UPA believes in the latter!
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