Economically and politically, these three words determine the state of India and its people.
By Maharshi Sanket
Roti-kapda-makaan are three evergreen aspects of Indian politics and the economy of India. Unless they are taken care of they will continue to determine the state of India and its people. It matters-if your population has food to eat, clothes to wear, and basic shelter. Why? Because it is the fuel for elections and decisions made by the government and the central bank. It also acts as the fuel for violence and riots, terrorism and to be more relevant-twitter trends.
A sneak-peak into what trends on twitter reveals what people are generally thinking. While some might argue that most of India is not on twitter, I don’t blame them-its true. I am just bringing a different side of the story to light which I think has something to narrate to us. We are a young country and young people are more active on social media than older age groups. A lot of young minds are quite active on Twitter, they participate in what’s happening by hash tagging the alphabets and numbers of the latest trending hashtag. When you see Aamir Khan getting trolled for meeting the First Lady of Turkey, you know that you have a lot of unemployed youth in the country who have way too much energy which remains unused. Then there is the never ending Sushant Singh Rajput case which draws a lot of attention of young Indian twitteratis who abuse whoever they want.
Enough of twitter. Let’s head to politics, it determines so much and is a source of amusement in India, isn’t it? When voters head out to vote and politicians head out to woo voters they both have one similar thought. Roti-Kapda-Makaan. Both Indira Gandhi and Lal Bahadur Shastri coined this slogan which happens to be about three to four decades old. Both of them won elections and served as Prime Ministers of India. This tells us that these three words do have some magic in them.
But how is it relevant today? Modi wins elections without these slogans-his popularity contrasts the grim reality of roti-kapda-makaan. The question of roti- kapda-makaan will be a determining factor now.
Divisive issues will no longer be the bedrock of Modi’s vote bank. While it might seem appalling to some as his popularity does not seem to indicate that. It will take time for this phenomenon to play out just like it did for divisive issues to become the determining authority in elections. But there can be a twist too-if no opposition party pays attention to these three magical words, Modi will, just like he has twice, win the election with a sweeping majority. The vibes in the streets of India tell us that Ram and Muslims sorted, where is my roti-kapda-makaan? Unsurprisingly, Hitler came to power because of the scarcity of roti-kapda-makaan in Germany.
The Bihar elections aren’t very far away. While Nitish’s Bihar Sarkar is busy with the display of Sushant Singh Rajput as a major political factor, the questions on the ground range from the handling of the healthcare crisis to the Bihar floods and of course the three magical words roti-kapda-makaan. All these matter to the labourers who returned to their villages and towns in Bihar. It matters to everybody. The Bihar elections will tell a very interesting story, one that all of us are waiting to hear. The first election after the pandemic and a severe economic crisis has hit us-what happens in Bihar will affect all of us and India in particular.
If any sarkar fails to address roti-kapda-makaan then why isn’t any leader like Hitler emerging in India? Because the opposition is not strong enough and that’s what Modi loves. It is his sarkar until another strong leader who leverages the three magical words emerges.
Economically, roti-kapda-makaan mean a lot. To begin with, it means banks don’t have enough to lend. If people don’t have enough money that they can deposit in Banks for a long duration then the economy has a cash crisis.
Much of the unorganised sector would operate through cash. Demonetisation was an organised attack on this sector in which much of India’s low-income population would make their living. Unfortunately, for the people in this sector, the hope of a better tomorrow which they were looking forward to was wiped out and is still being wiped out now. The ability to provide roti-kapda-makaan for themselves and their loved ones was a sense of pride that catalysed their passion to work harder and dream bigger. This is one of the fundamental reasons there was a glimmer of hope that India would be free from the clutches of poverty- which is a human creation.
To prove my point regarding poverty being a human creation I beg to differ, and take the support of an experience of mine that I find relevant in this context. A kitten would come often to the door of my house making loud voices, trying to explain his dire need of food. When I first saw him, he was frail and weak, unable to hunt and was quite afraid of the stronger and bolder cats in the neighbourhood. Having a cat at home, I had some cat food with me and initially fed him that. Later I purchased some kitten food and fed him that for about two months. And now he is strong and bold, able to fend for himself, and doesn’t come to my house asking for food. The support that he received through proper nutrition helped him become stronger and made him independent.
Similar support is what is needed for India’s poor today. The proud feeling of being able to provide oneself roti-kapda-makaan without having to depend on somebody else is incomparable to anything in the world. We must strive to ensure that every individual in India is independent in this regard. However, the evergreen roti-kapda-makaan seems like an unfulfilled promise that every sarkar has made including the present one. Why is it so? Well, I hope all of us know why many Indian males take pride in ensuring that their wives don’t go to work and why they don’t wish to educate their daughters! And why are amusement parks called amusement parks?
In Belarus, a country that many of us had never heard of until they came into the spotlight for their protests against Lukashenko and his ways, people are protesting and will continue to because of a reason that holds more value than why they are protesting against Lukashenke. Their economy. And why do you think no rich person heads to protest grounds? Because they have their roti-kapda-makaan sorted and perhaps many more things sorted. Social unrest is a bi-product of not ensuring roti-kapda-makaan is accessible to much of the population of a country. Populism thrives during social unrest. Something no sarkar would not want unless they plan on not contesting elections that year.
Cheers to the evergreen three words: Roti-kapda-makaan. And I hope it doesn’t remain evergreen in the near future.
This version of decoding roti-kapda-makaan was a much needed article.