Giving Minimum income guarantee (NYAY) is a state obligation , Rajdharma

Lost in the fuss and brouhaha surrounding NYAY (minimum guarantee scheme) is an abstruse philosophical wrangle. Should the state relieve the poor of their  misery? Today the question seems daft with the ascendency of welfarism but in the not too distant a past the predominant Hindu socio-politico consciousness was Karma - present existence is an atonement for acts done in a previous birth, hence is to be stoically endured. Only good deeds by self here and now had the potential of ending recurrent  cycles of birth and death to finally liberate the soul from its bodily cage. Look deeper into Ram Rajya , the reign of eponymous Lord  Ram, and one gets feel of a period marked by peace and social solidarity but not of a state in the welfare mould. Therefore, revisiting the question may not be too infantile. 

The archetypal poor embedded deep in the Hindu psyche is the brahmin, Sudama. Born poor, walking through childhood and adolescence in abject poverty, he ,in turn, raises a family living hand to mouth as his parents before him. Though the thought of going hungry was never far from the mind, he bears his adversity with fatalistic abandon brooking no compromises with brahmanic dignity. A non-bhikshu brahmin ‘accepts’ offerings never ‘seeks’ it ;  dole ,therefore ,is anathema. His wife ,however, cannot bear to see her miserable children groan in hunger and keeps badgering him to seek help from his childhood friend, Lord Krishna, divine incarnate and ruler of Dwarka. Reluctantly, he agrees. Krishna is overjoyed to see his poor old friend after a long, long time and greets him with inexpressible warmth and bonhomie. Soon the two get so lost in reliving and sharing each other’s yesteryear that time flies by and comes the time to depart . Sudama overwhelmed by Krishna’s impeccable hospitality quite forgets the very purpose of his visit- seeking financial help. Krishna too overlooks giving parting gifts.  Sudama leaves empty handed but when he reaches home he can’t locate his house or spot his family . In place of his ramshackled hut stands a glittering bungalow and in front stand his welcoming children,  quite unrecognisable in new regal dresses . The stores in the house overflow with provisions, precious metals and gems. His days of demeaning poverty are over. 

This anecdote from Bhagwan Purana exemplifies the all encompassing compassion of God for his devotees. But it is also indicative of the change in nature of Rajtantra between epic period and the age of Puranas. The anecdotal context of the Sudama episode is an earthly kingdom of Puranas, not Ram Rajya . And Sudama is not cast in the traditional mould of a Krishna devotee, rather he comes with the normal expectations of a distressed subject from a ruler. What compelled Krishna to lift Sudama out of his grinding poverty by assistance in cash and kind ? ( some perverse minds will read into the anecdote - a divine sanction for crony capitalism.) Rajdharma bound even godly kings to the same social compact that the elected have towards electors in a democracy- ensuring a better living for the poor. Today, that translates into providing a minimum income , unfettered access to basic public goods like primary health care and education and an ecosystem of equal opportunity for all. Governing elites derive legitimacy from fulfilment of such social imperatives. 

Therefore ,NYAY in any form or wrapping , is a state imperative - not a dole, not an idea to be trashed;  but a Rajdharma to be fulfilled  in the best possible  manner. 

Bow to the cow

No ! Mr Ogden Nash , the cow isn't just a creature of bovine ilk with moo at one end and milk at the other. Indian medical science has gone beyond the moo and milk to the pee and poop of the cow. Shedding thousands of years of apathy native therapeutics has resurrected from the haze of history an unappreciated but complementary branch of Ayurveda - Cowpathy . 

For long denied its rightful honour, it’s slowly but surely finding its groove. Cowpathy, in the end, may even foster antipathy towards mainstream ‘pathies’ like allopathy, homoeopathy, naturopathy. Why would I opt for any other when cowpathy is virtually free, more accessible and offers divine salvation to boot through cow care ? 

A cow at home 

And healthy you roam. 

For the sceptics here are a few ‘demonstrated’ curative powers of cowpathy.

*‘If you rub a cow, from the back towards the neck, it helps cure your blood pressure.’ Sadhavi Pragya

*"Even when he was 120 years old, Lord Krishna looked like a 12-year-old because his soap was made from cow dung", says a cowpath 

*"We make pregnant women eat cow dung and urine paste to ensure a normal delivery," chief, Akhil Bharatiya Gau Sewa. 

*“ A concoction, Panchagavya, cured me of cancer “ confirms Sadhavi Pragya. ( for the uninitiated, Panchagavya is a mixture of five (panch) cow (gavya) products: milk, curd, ghee, dung and urine.).  Shankarbhai Vegad, BJP MP, Guj. lends his weight with “I am witness to it. Cow dung and urine are a 100 per cent cure for cancer.” Amit Vaidya, 38, a cancer survivor vouchsafes “I would drink the (cow)urine I collected and would cover myself with gobar twice a day and stand in the sun,”. Soon medical reports showed the cancer receding.

*’cow dung contains Vitamin B that can relieve you from cough and cold. ‘ Vasudev Devnani,ex-education minister, Rajasthan. 

*One lady smeared panchagavya all over her body and in 21 days her psoriasis disappeared ,asserts a Tamil Nadu Agricultural University,TNAU social post. 

*Treatment of AIDS/HIV with panchagavya is magical, “even though the blood tests will be positive, patients will exhibit no symptoms of AIDS and lead a normal healthy life” TINU 

However, the therapy ‘works’ only if the Indian sense of ‘purity’ and ‘pollution’ is not abused . Use products only from the native bovine stock not foreign breeds or hybrids. Otherwise it will be all gobar ganesh. Additionally, take care what the cow is eating through the day. 

“Look at the cows that roam Mumbai’s streets, feeding on plastic. How will their urine be medicinal?”

Holy cow ! Still not convinced ? You must be a cowhead . And  like a cow regurgitate, chew and digest it all over again. Else , in present antediluvian times many will have a cow .

Doing nyay with NYAY

Every general election since 1977 , says Aaron Purie, is a pirouette on a major theme. If 1980 waltzed around TINA (there is no alternative ), 2014 was awhirl to TIMO (there is Modi only). His pick for 2019 -AOTM (anyone other than Modi) or TATA (there’s a third alternative).  However, if Congress’s sales pitch for NYAY finds traction with voters it may well be NORA ( Nyay Over Rashtravadi Anyay). 

Most sceptics denigrate NYAY as a gross abuse of economic wisdom. And their principal arguments- its impact will be inflationary and that its recipients may be liable to abandon work to live off it, both fallacious. 

As the economy faces a deepening demand dormancy direct cash transfers like NYAY seem the only way out to boost propensities to consume, rekindling growth that presently smoulders at a newly discovered ‘Hindu rate’ of 7% . As sufficient leeway in terms of under-utilised capacities exist, NYAY will be mildly and beneficently inflationary. If no surer ways can be found to kick employment to a higher trajectory, Keynes advised  - ‘government should pay people to dig holes in the ground and then fill them up’. And that is canonical economic wisdom. 

Further, under leapfrogging digital and technological innovations free market dispensations are neither creating jobs commensurate with manpower growth nor equitably distributing wealth. Joblessness and inequality are disrupting age old social solidarities in the midst of remarkable economic growth in western economies , maladies that have already crossed our shores too. That incomes from upsurge in economic activity ultimately trickle down to the poor is now a proven myth, Oxfam reports and Piketty’s outstanding research on growth and inequality bear eloquent testimony to it. The massive investments promised in BJP’s manifesto may generate growth but the hopes of the poor for higher real incomes would be about as realisable as the khichdi in Birbal’s handi hanging high up on the tree to cook from the fire on the ground below. It will take long ,lifelong. 

Is there a moral hazard in direct cash transfers to the poor presumably from ‘evaporation’ of the incentive to work ? Cassandras of doom go as far as to conclude that unearned money in the hands of the poor will induce them to ape  unaffordable ways of the rich, indulge in profligate consumptive splurges making them moral dissolutes and physical wrecks. There is a ring of elitist hypocrisy and entitlement about it, is conspicuous consumption by the rich more productive or morally edifying than one by the poor ? Is a farm loan waiver any different in its economic impact from surgical hair cuts amounting to as much as 90% of bad corporate loans? The poor mismanage loans and lose money, the rich manage loans, yet lose money . The lost lucre in both cases is just as lustreless. The poor can be just as fiscally responsible or squandering as the elite. 

For decades the poor have been beneficiaries of doles in cash and kind, yet from a base of 71% of population being poor at the time of independence , the poverty level is down to 22% . India was among the few countries to achieve the Millennium Development Goal of halving extreme poverty by 2015 . In the decade between 2004-2014 as many as 14 cr people broke free from the stranglehold of poverty. None of this would have been possible if the recipients of state subsidies had stopped working 

So what schemes like, NYAY , are more likely to do in the present times is to motivate recipients to seek a higher quality of work without having to bother daily about putting a meal on the table. That would be a wholesome development not to be decried. 

A measured cash transfer to the poor , not too inadequate like the Kisan Samman Yojna, nor massive enough to disrupt the economy is a good idea. It is a state obligation too. Article 39 of the Directive Principles of state policy makes ,inter-alia, reduction in concentration of wealth a national imperative concomitant of creating a more equal social order.