In deflation zone
Deflation (Page 1, November 15) is more dangerous than inflation as the first discourages private business investment, leading to fall in employment, income and output in the economy. That, in October, India’s Wholesale Price Index reflected an inflation of -0.52 % is indeed a wakeup call for economic policymakers. Having said that, it must be remembered that the Reserve Bank of India has been following dear money policy (say, raising the repo rate to 6.5%, for instance) for quite some time now, to control, perhaps, retail inflation. India is a unique country in many respects.
S. Ramakrishnasayee,
Chennai
Fragile Himalayas
‘Development’ in the Himalayas needs to be reviewed as there seem to be a number of accidents, most related to infrastructure, occuring in the region, the latest being the collapse of an under-construction tunnel in Uttarakhand (Inside pages, November 15).
The Himalayan region is sensitive. During the winter season, many temples in the region close, also giving the hills a chance to recover. But an all-weather road has the potential to upset this balance. Residents here understand the importance of the environment and their voice needs to be heard.
Sanjay Daga,
Hatod, Indore, Madhya Pradesh
Caste survey
In the article, “The Bihar caste survey and the social justice agenda” (Editorial page, November 15, 2023), Professor Deshpande proposes four dimensions to what he describes — and I paraphrase here — as Bihar’s exemplary conduct in triggering a social justice revolution on the basis of caste. A state known forever by blemishes that have been dealt to it because of caste politics can hardly be praised for turning demographics into an unveiled foundation for general governance, but Professor Deshpande ventures to paint negative casteism in a social welfare colour.
Prof. Deshpande opines in his crusade against the free markets that four decades of market liberalisation have done little, with only 8% of all jobs in the Indian economy belonging to the formal sector. As a professor of sociology, the educator commits a cardinal sin in what I hope is an unintentional omission. While evaluating a public policy development. we must talk about trends, and rarely absolutes. According to Employees’ Provident Fund (EPF) data, between 2012 and 2022, “the number of regular contributors to the EPF” went from 30.9 million to 46.3 million, roughly a 50% increase. As I mentioned before, a progressive trend has a much better story to tell than a misleading absolute does. If anything, this growth is a testament to the wonders of market liberalisation and hardly an argument against it.
The professor also puts forth the notion that Bihar has suffered from some sort of a forward castes-led embracing of radical Hinduism which inculcates a venomous hatred for Muslims and lower castes. Interestingly, the boogeyman, this hardcore forward-caste monolith, has also rallied behind an “outsider”, Prime Minister Narendra Modi, per the caste and identity calculus Prof. Deshpande considers gospel. It is intellectually dishonest to propagate the idea that a nation where Muslims have more rights (and no, the pseudo-right to lynch blasphemers is not a right, so it does not count) and a higher quality of social and economic life than they do in most Muslim countries such as Somalia, Qatar, or Pakistan is “violently anti-secular”.
As is apparent, Prof. Deshpande packs into one article multiple views that belong to distinct societal and economic issues but have traditionally fit under the same umbrella. The article, a stale and routine regurgitation of the talking points that self-described rebellious leftists beget whenever a people are on a steady march toward prosperity, does not do justice to the profession of academia. It even erodes faith in a group of people we look to for innovation in thought.
Lastly, as a Bihari who refuses to ever compromise on his geographical and religious identities, I lament the misrepresentation of Bihari politics, which in no way is a “counter-assertion of State rights”. A governmental move for self-preservation is not a resistance against some phantasmatic hegemony of upper-caste Hindus in Bihar. I grew up in these parts. This is my home. The professor errs in his judgment and expression. Depicting a strategic move by the ruling parties as a planned rebellion against the “Hindutva” agenda sounds like a grave judgmental miscalculation at best, and classic old bootlicking at worst. Make of this article what you will, but I shall not hold it up as an example of what social commentary from an eminent academic should look like.
Lakshya Bharadwaj,
Patna, Bihar
