Who benefits..monkey or one of the cats?

In this particular blog, I do not know what stand should I take. The industry (first cat) or the normal junta in the society (second cat).

While at one hand there is salwa judem which more or less is intended at the demise of the tribal culture and their rights, on the other hand we have industrialists who are forced to shell out so much money and are still not guaranteed of the benefits that they can reap.

Let me start on a pro-capitalistic tone.

Power plant developers have seen their worst nightmares come true in the last year. While they are banging their heads about how to overcome the fuel crisis to run the power plants, Govt. is running amuck with the licenses given to them. Billions of dollars worth of investments are lying idle or the progress is halted becuase Govt. has taken back the licenses that are earier given to the developers. On top of that Govt. wants 10% of the energy generated from power plants at free of cost to Govt. What nonsense!! If this is not sufficient, Govt. wants the power developers to give 30% of the energy generated at variable cost to Govt. Which means that the power developers are left with only 60% of their production to get the returns from their plant. On top of all this, the power developers have to acquire the land at the rates determined by the individual land owner and are also forced to give 25% of their profits to the land owneres from which they have acquired the land. Farmer protests against land acquisition have created more ruccus to the whole drama. Along with this, they have to await the power transmission lines to be laid, which is at the mercy of the Govt. itself. On an overall basis, the power developers are in a state of huge dilemma whether to even setup the plants.

Now getting back to Socialism!

Take an example of Vedanta group, which has epitomized the corporate anathema towards the under privileged. They perhaps belong to a class of people who believe in turning their dreams into reality, while depreciating the other's dreams completely. Alas, they don't understand that the dreams cannot be depreciated and on the contrary, as was the case with tribals in Niyamgiri hills, only get appreciated.

So, is it the case of each trying to bring the other person down, or is it that the middle man alone is profiting while keeping both the parties at bay? Looks like the case!!

In all the cases it is the Govt. rather the political body which is acting as the intermediary between the corporates and the junta. While the corporate-political nexus is undeniable, it is the nexus between the ruling and the opposition parties which hasn't come into limelight.

If a power plant has to be setup, the ruling party will have to be pleased. At this point the opposition politicians go and instigate the villagers to protest against the plant. When the ruling and the opposition parties change, they also swap their roles. Thereby, the political parties have ensured that their benefits are completely addressed.

In this case political parties range from the local sarpanch to the MLA to 10 janpath or the equivalent. Each and every person in that huge supply chain of politicians have ensured that their benefits are addressed, while the cats have been fighting out each other.

So, no wonder the monkey is still runling the cats!