Conned by one and all

In the last post, Gourang Kodical, narrated an incident that occured in his life,when he got carried away by a stranger’s fast one on him, by getting lured by the prospect of being honoured on foreign shores. I can imagine how he may have been CONgratulated by one and all and then CONsoled at being CONned! Most of us may have been experiencing such situations sometime in life, but in a broader sense, I think we get conned all too often - by statisticians, dieticians, news agencies, academicians, insurance agents, marketing professionals, placement agencies, consultants, investment advisors, astrologers, business partners – and even by our own governments! It is only that we dont realise it!

Almost all of them bank on the single most important factor – that one hopes for better times, better deals, better lifestyles and so on and so forth – and would go to great lengths to have it! How often have we been advised, “Lose whatever you may – don’t lose HOPE!”? So we cling to our hope – so one day we will get all that we need! Sure, Sure.

Like we did before the Union Budget was presented recently. News channels went around asking housewives, industry magnates, rickshaw-pullers, dabba-wallas, office-goers, industry bodies, NGOs etc about what they would want to see in the forthcoming budget? We have a budget every year and TV news channels do keep going around posing this question to passers-by each year. But the guy on the street almost always appears to seem to be lost about what he wants from the budget! Lower taxes, lower prices, better roads, faster trains – just top of the mind needs pop up, whilst actually beaming (for what he wants in life really of appearing on a national channel has already been achieved).

The government says in the way the Gods always did: “Tathastu”. Tax slabs are raised – so you got to be happy! Excise duties, petrol prices are raised – couldn’t help it, folks, we had to roll back the stimulus, now that the ‘recession’ is over! So what the revised tax slabs giveth, the higher duties taketh away! We have bureacrats and ministers who can outwit our best magicians with their conjuring acts! “But at least we have some money in our hands, don’t we?”, we say to ourselves and get back to our work and life. Only to wait for the next year, when we will be conned again!

But come to think of it, isn’t it we who are at fault – to expect anything from a budget, that is? Don’t prices rise or fall without a budget? Doesn’t the government change duties mid-way, like they did introduce the stimulus package some time back, which could not wait for the annual budgeting exercise of the government? So the government justifies this tamasha, by saying that it is time when one ought to take stock of what we spend and what we earn as a government and tweak the budget allocations here and there to make sure we are on course. Good enough, then, we have it then each year.

But why in this land of great minds, do we want reforms to be announced in the annual budget, may I ask? Hey, folks, I am not suggesting here that we shouldn’t have reforms! What I am driving at is that reforms are such a crying need of our country that they cannot wait for the celebratory annual event called Union Budget. Social sector reforms, educational reforms, law and order related reforms, land reforms, agriculture sector reforms – the list is endless.

A government who feels obliged to appear before its citizens on a popular live televised show to tell us that toy balloons and battery chargers have been exempt from duties, may also deem it necessary to appear again some other day to tell us when and how the pendancy of legal cases would be cleared, what steps have been taken to deal with terrorists and militants in our country and all such important aspects of governing our nation (that could run into several hundred pages) that the Union Budget cannot and should not address?

The Government of India could begin with one all day session explaining how much of the budget allocations meant for those intended by several schemes actually reach them? They have thoughtfully named these schemes - like NaREGA- which when they dont reach the poor, they call MaREGA, perhaps?

OK. In other words, I am seeking to be conned more often than just once in a year! After all, we’re habituated to being conned by one and all! To each his own choice of achieving CONtentedness!

Blogger’s Post-Script: In future posts, I may dwell in greater detail how we get CONned by statisticians, dieticians and so on and so forth (please refer Para 1). Of course in separate posts – how else would I con you with my double century of posts? So you can expect a "CON-CON" series of posts. The next best thing to Knock Knock Jokes, i hope - NO even better!