When the agitation was going on for Jallikattu in TN, I was one of the votaries for the same and I sincerely felt that there is a concerted move by the vested interests to kill the local cattle population and increase the jersey cattle population. The agitation took totally a different turn and direction in the last two/ three days leading one to suspect that the age old separatism is rearing its head in Tamilnadu. Otherwise, there was no need for such blatant and open derogatory posters against the CM of the state and the PM of the country. It is high time the political masters understand the undercurrents in such agitations and take appropriate actions in time to nip the same in the bud so that such anti national sentiments do not get propagated so openly.
Now there is another move in the state; to ban all the soft drinks being made and marketed by MNCs in the country. It is rolling back to 1975 when Coca Cola and IBM were thrown out of the country and it took 16 long years for the government to woo them back into the country. Though the soft drinks do not subscribe to the health of the country, it generates, employment, revenue and add to the GDP of the country. This cannot be wished away. There is an argument that the soft drinks majors take away the foreign exchange out of the country and also the exchange rate of the Indian Rupee is very much skewed thanks to these.
Let us look at a similar scenario. Almost all cars in the country, except Tata and Mahindra, are manufactured by MNCs. Two of the most popular brands, Maruti and Hyundai apart from Honda, Ford, Skoda, Volkswagen etc. are the market leaders and the Indian brands are nowhere near them. If the people stop buying these MNC cars, then the value of the Rupee will go up substantially as the royalty transferred by these companies on the sales will come down with the reduction in sales of the vehicles. Isn't it so? Can we extend the same logic to other things from our morning paste for brushing out teeth, to morning cup of tea or instant coffee, to noodles, medicines etc.? Will we not be able to increase the value of the Rupee substantially going by these logic? What will happen if these companies either in automobile manufacture or in FMCG have a serious reduction in sale? They will reduce the workforce. Isn't it? Then it will increase the unemployment. Will not affect other areas? YES; of course; it will affect.
Let it be aside. Let us look at a totally different picture that has emerged recently in the last five to ten years in the state of TN. The parties had vied with each other to provide liquor at every street corner by opening outlets owned by a corporation set up by the state. The revenue and the profit had crossed all reasonable estimates in the last count. What has been done in the last decade with this very high ever increasing revenue? The parties who came to power tried to overdo the other by providing freebies to the BPL public. It is just not essentials like rice, lentils, and provisions etc. It reached such proportions, everything that a middle income person in the country can think about from his hard earned money, be it a fan, mixer grinder, television set etc., was made available to the BPL public totally free. Even after all these high revenue from liquor sales the government coffers were filled with loans and today the TN government is reportedly sitting on a quantum of close to two lakh crores in loans carrying varying rates of interest payable to different agencies. What economic activity started in the last decade to increase the revenue to support the government is a moot question that I leave it. One of the major auto makers who set shop has taken his expansion plan to Gujarat. The greenfield airport planned for Chennai is still in paper only. No further action seen on that. The area surrounding the original site identified is now filled with residential buildings. This will jack up the cost of acquisition of land for the greenfield project. No new industry has come to the state despite tall claims made by the parties in power in the last decade. Forget about industry. Even in drinking water management the state had done nothing in the last decade. When the city of Chennai was marooned last year, it was expected that there will be plans to improve the water storage for long term solutions. But it was not to be. The very next year the state is going around with a begging bowl to the neighbouring states for water. There had been little done to improve the water management like de-silting the lakes, tanks, water storage dams etc during lean season and use the storage for maximum storage during better seasons. These ideas seem to be alien to the executive and also to the political class in the state. Among the states,if a survey is done, possibly the state may find itself somewhere in bottom regarding the corruption index. When no new major economic activity is started in the state in the past decade, no industry has invested either for expansion or new capex, existing agricultural economic activity is given go by, the state is on a sliding board with every inch is accelerating the downward slide.
In this bleak economic scenario if the fringe elements as stated earlier have a free run in the state, then the day is not far off when the state will be comparable to the BIMARU states, three out of four in that are already out sickness and show exemplary growth both economically and socially.
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