The current inflation can turn out to be too dear for UPA

For any country like ours, which houses the maximum number of poor households, any form of price distortion in basic commodities invariably remains a sensitive issue. And probably it is for this very reason it has been observed that citizenry has historically pardoned various elected governments of poor overall governance but has never pardoned any government for general prices mismanagement. And that is all the more reason, it becomes even more intriguing to analyse as to why the current UPA government has allowed the inflation to go beyond control and that too, at a point in time when the elections are ‘round the corner. On the face of it, it looks like that two reasons, i.e. complacency and miscalculation had been the villain of peace for the ruling UPA. For they could never pre-empt that the crude oil prices would spiral to this extent, and even if they had, then they had blatantly avoided it by thinking that they would be able to tide over the situation riding on the growth plank. This is also evident from the statements that are being issued from the Finance Ministry, wherein the onus of the inflation is put on crude oil prices!...Continue

Prof. Arindam Chaudhuri