Job´ber`nowl`-ism

Failure to face reality has been, for the last several decades, the trademark of Kerala's enlightened political thinking. We, greatly influenced by the Marxian thought and enamored of the glamour of that school of thinking, chiseled new contours to the concept of rights and

responsibilities of our people. We, with the air of a highly sophisticated society, wanted our government to be a vain and irresponsible dispenser of the meager riches at its command. Thoughts about replenishing the quickly vanishing resources were branded as reactionary. Not
to be outdone by the red variety of politics, the other political combinations also worked furiously to outshine the Communist party in distributing the largesse. At that time everybody was certain that alone was the route to the voter's mind. No sense in blaming them
as New Delhi was also fascinated by the Hindu growth rate. Delhi, typical of a third-world country, interpreted its economics in such a way that making money was always treated as a four-letter word.

The developed world was running away from the rest, making the whole economic interaction a one-way traffic. Once North decided that new avenues have to opened to further their greed, they conceived the grand idea of globalization which for them was another method to squeeze
the juices out of the already dry third world. But to be fair to them, the new wind of globalization and liberalisation carried prospects of rewards for sensible approach to one's economics and its forceful execution. So, soon the third world was divided into two groups- one trying to exploit the new opportunities thrown open to them and the other still continuing to live like the ostrich. It is a sub-group of this species which is seen in the geographical region called Kerala.
The communist movement which was the first to take note of the distressed conditions of a major chunk of our society, naturally began to respond to them in their own creative way and the credit for whatever improvements we see in Kerala's social life now, should go to them.
But unfortunately, economics was not their strong point. They pushed aside economic realities and principles as cumbersome or unnecessary and proceeded in such a way that production was almost completely ignored. And in the process, all that remained soon for distribution was poverty. Even that they could not distribute equitably!

The communist movement like an octopus had its grip on almost all aspects of our social life and through art, literature, theater etc strengthened its control over the Malayali mind. It naturally was easier to tell a hungry man that the government is yours and the treasury
should be yours to be had. Subsidies and relief without any idea about balancing the income and expenditure, ran riot in the Malayali ethos. The intellectuals for varying reasons never put any pressure on their grey matter to study this assault on common sense and developed a
new seminar culture in Kerala. Every detail of our day-to-day life was discussed threadbare with a predominant stress on the makebelieve world of zero accountability.Soon deficits began to mount and we were about to be swamped by our own foolishness of not paying any attention to the basic concept of there being no free lunch. The cruel but efficient economic entities threatened to sweep us off our feet. It was at the national level that the need to correct this folly was realized. But it took quite some time for the states to accept the reality. A patient carrot and stick policy by the Central government was needed to spur the states to give up their populist economic policies, at least partially. And not surprisingly Kerala became one of the last states to be brought around.
Well, that process still has not taken off properly. We still cherish the sweet thoughts of the glorious money-guzzling state enterprises and the callous bureaucracy which still bleed the people.

We as a society, have developed an attitudinal problem which has to be studied in detail and corrected. For the last several decades, we were pampered by the politician. He told us that we have the right to expect everything on a platter without working for it. Why should you work? What is the state here for if not to feed you, dress you and shelter you! Go to the government office and while away your time, get your salary on time even if it is at the expense of the poor whose welfare was given the go by. You even managed to get raises which meant that gradually the ratio of government spending on salary to development expenditure rose to ridiculous levels. To such levels where the government, at least in certain sectors, spent more on the salaries and other related expenses than on the basic purpose for which this structure was raised. Even now when the ship is certain to sink if drastic corrective steps are not taken promptly, we still continue to pretend to be unaware of the impending catastrophe.

The Left is still strong in our minds. It has become a habit to a lot of us. Its tentacles have spread to more areas of activity by which it cleverly manipulates the average Malayali's mind. By no stretch of imagination will I say that Left is bad. No, I very strongly feel that it has got a role to play. It should be there in our minds as a corrective force to rein in thegreedy politician who would not otherwise hesitate to run with the Big business and share the spoils unabashedly. Our society urgently needs such a break inspector because we have on several occasions proved that we were incapable of responding to even life and death situations to protect our interests. Yes, like the Lord who said he would manifest in our minds whenever we tend to go astray, the Left shorn of its Utopian ideas, should live in us to prevent us from becoming slaves to the satanic undercurrent of the money game.