The Ailment – Part 2

As per the statistics published by as per the 8th Edition of the Status Paper on Government Debt released on Jan 19, 2019, the latest data available till September 2018, the total debt of the Central government stood at Rupee  82,03,253 crore, the corresponding amount till June 2014 was Rs 54,90,763 crore, the Finance Ministry’s data on government borrowings shows.

While the same white paper also projected the GDP to hit 7.5%. However, the rising GDP is not to the credit of the Government, Federal or State. So, despite the economy expanding, we still see mounting debt. To put it simply – those who are working hard, are truly increasing their output. However, servicing the union is drastically mounting. Let’s review select findings from the white paper.

1. 35% of the current 82 Lakh crore debt is incurred in the last 4 years
2. Velocity of debt accumulation was .84% from 1948-2014
3. Velocity of accumulation has climbed to 1.14% since 2014-2018

Not sure if the spike since 2014 can be ascribed to devaluation. However, Its not Modi alone, let’s understand, he could not control the spiraling debt, it has been mounting since last 60 years. We and our media tend to be partisan, never issue based and our partisanship drowns our national interest and what we call as nationalism is actually pseudo inflated nationalism.

This is also a reason for the Rupee to depreciate against internal currency basket. That depreciating Rupee obviously makes imports, borrowing and servicing debts costly. Earlier i shared a clip on farmers loans. Unfortunately, farmer and the poor, who occupy the bottom of the food chain, really get squeezed due to these national macroeconomic malady. The unfortunate truth is that we are caught in the sensational and placating democracy model. This model induces the political dispensation to make concessions that in itself incur spiraling stare support for the masses (to win their votes). Consequently, the lure of power or its sustenance as a ruling party draws us further into this debt cycle which gets exponentially exacerbated with the passage of time. What’s the root cause? Of course the cause and effects are admixed above and the video by Justice Markandey.

Political Servitude to Pseudonationalism and Sensational Politicking.

This video from Justice Markandey is old but the facts remain true. We blame China but look at the quality of life, we find wrong when 1 million party workers are punished for corruption (of course there are underlying political reasons too), but corruption is punished, nepotism, communalism all are treated as perverse to the development of the nation. Here, we have pseudo nationalism, pseudo sense of religious identity and pseudo sense of glorious past to cajole us. However, the fact remains that the institutions formed to safeguard the purpose, themselves are under duress from our own sense of tolerance and indulgence. Be it corruption, communalism, nepotism, casteism, favoritism, we have totally devalued and eroded the system with our kind of Governance. Justice Markandey is bold to articulate that pain but rustic and rude to suggest its resolution. The next wave will capture, not our culture but subject us to servile economic conditions due to financial imperialism, mostly from east.

‘Waiting for Godot’ , a play by Samuel Beckett, in which the characters wait for the arrival of Godot (a fictitious character) who is a supposed to be a panacea for their problems. Our 70 year history is no different; we are waiting for the messiah who will help us through this impending economic imperialism. However, like the characters in Samuel Beckett’s novel, we too are engaged in a variety of discussions while we are waiting for Godot.

India’s debt up 50% to Rs 82 lakh crore in Modi era