Those who
know something about economics and finance understand what a cartel means. It is
supposed that capitalism gives rise to competition between various industrial
establishments producing same product or commodity. But the Indian version of
capitalism is not competitive capitalism but crony capitalism which means those
industrial houses close to the political powers get preferential treatment in
the case of allotment of scarce natural resources and cheap finance from
government and governmental agencies. Most of these industrial houses are
working in collusion to exploit ordinary consumers and people at large. The
companies in various industries form their own cartels to jack up prices of
their products and commodities, and elicit maximum profit from the common
people.
Take the example the
cement industry. If production cost of one bag of cement is Rs200 and a company
sells it at Rs250 per bag, their profit is Rs50. If some other company could produce
a bag of the same quality cement at a cheaper rate of Rs190 and sell at Rs240,
even then their profit is Rs50. Then people get the commodity 10 Rupees
cheaper. If a cement company is prepared to forego Rs10 per bag in its profit
so as to increase the quantity of sales and profits, then also the price of a bag
of cement comes down to Rs 240. If yet another company is prepared to sell a bag
of cement at Rs230 with a profit margin of only Rs30 in the hope of substantial
increase of sales and profit, the other companies will have to follow suit or
perish. Thus there will be competition among various cement producing companies
and the ultimate beneficiary will be the consumer. That is what is called
competitive capitalism. Instead of competitive pricing of cement, sometimes the
cement companies may form a union called a cartel. The cartel fixes up a price
of Rs300 far above the prevailing market price and no company in the cartel is
allowed to sell below that rate. Then there will be no competition in the
market and the consumer is bound to cough up Rs300 to buy a bag of cement. Thus
the formation of cartels by companies is harmful to consumers.
I have explained so much
in detail about cartelization of industries only to say that in India the
conventional political parties have also formed their own cartel to cheat the
people and enjoy the fruits of power. The powerful corporate houses act as the
necessary adhesive to stick those political parties in the government and in
the opposition together. The present UPA government is responsible for
corruption to the tune of lakhs of crores of Rupees in 2G, Coalgate, even in
the aborted S band scam etc., etc. Naturally the people of India expect that
when the next government whether NDA or Third Front comes into power after
election, the corrupt ministers and officials in the present UPA Government
will be investigated, charge-sheeted and punished. But I have to definitely say
that nothing is going to happen, nobody will be investigated, no cases will be charged
and nobody will be punished because all parties are hand in glove in cheating
the people. NDA or Third Front will protect UPA ministers while out of power
and when UPA comes back again, they will protect the corrupt NDA or Third Front
ministers. Politics has become a co-operative society of political parties to
shield and protect each other while they pretend antagonism and enmity in
public to hoodwink the people.
Take the example of
Kerala where two strong alliances, United Democratic Front (UDF) and Left
Democratic Front (LDF) are ruling for the past forty years. Various allegations
of corruption had come up in this period against both UDF and LDF ministers and
only one former minister Sri. R. Balakrishna Pillai of Kerala Congress (B) was
prosecuted and jailed. But he spent not a single day in jail and was kept in a
hospital with five star comforts for a few weeks and then released on some
flimsy grounds of health and age.
This
clearly shows that the conventional political parties in India have formed their
own cartel. They are not in competition but in co-operation. They want to get
power to commit fraud and corruption with the knowledge that when the other
party or combination of parties comes to power next time, they will protect the
present rulers. All of them are in
collusion and not in competition. The only remedy before the people is to take
the broom (Aam Aadmi Party’s symbol) in their hands and clean the politics of
India.
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