Better to Reign in Hell!

  Better to Reign in Hell!

                                Nidhu Bhusan Das

                       “Better to reign in Hell, than to serve in Heaven”

                                                                       -John Milton

                                                           Paradise Lost, Bk 1(Line-263)

        Is it better to be the master of Hell and be in Hell? Maybe, may not be. It depends on attitude, the way we look at life. Milton composed the epic to ‘Justify the ways of God to men’. We need not be religious to understand the significance of the quote above if we read it with what the Satan tells his fellow fallen angels that precedes it  in lines 159-162:’To do aught(anything) good never will be our task,/But ever to do ill our sole delight,/As being the contrary to his will/Who we resist…’ Besides, we can read the secular meaning of the word in the phrase’ all hell broke’ which means chaos/confusion and the opposite of it being ‘heaven’ or a place or state of happiness. Today ‘happiness index’ is taken into account when it comes to justify the growth in the economy of a country. True, GDP growth isn’t necessarily an indicator of happiness and standard living of all in a country.

     It isn’t contradicted that India has a strong shadow or parallel economy. The existence of such an economy doesn’t speak of a society where law has an absolute and effective sway. The menace needs be fought and removed to ensure a real welfare state. None, possibly, disagrees on this point. Opinion may vary on how to blot it out. No reforms have, so far, been able to do away with the problem. Against this background, the present Government of India has embarked on a demonetization drive. Certain economists like Nobel Laureate Amartya Sen termed this drive as ‘autocratic’. Most of the opposition parties and leaders are up in arms against it and all hell broke in the winter session of the Parliament all through on the issue of demonetization. When economists of the ilk and stature of Amartya Sen decries the drive, I dare not, and I should not contradict. What puzzles people with lack of financial literacy like me is that none so far, not even our law makers, has told us what could be the viable alternative to fight the menace in the economy.

Is it prevarication, especially on the part of our parliamentarians? I was glued to the TV the time Dr. Manmohan Singh spoke in the Rajya Sabha (Upper House) on the issue. He has the credit of ushering in the era of economic reforms way back in 1991with commendable courage and astuteness as the Finance Minister of the Narasimha Rao Government and bringing the economy back to track from the brink of collapse. Even then a part of the opposition vehemently opposed the structural reforms without rhyme and reason. They could not offer any alternative proposal to salvage the economy from dire straits. Dr. Manmohan Singh had been two-time Prime Minister from May 2004 to May 2014 before the present incumbent Narendra Modi took office. I expected Dr. Singh would come up with an alternative which the present Government would not have been able to eschew. I thought Dr. Singh would speak of an alternative because he knows the pain corruption inflicted on him during his tenure as Prime Minister which was sallied by scams involving some of his colleagues in the Council of Ministers. Scams strengthen shadow economy and the climate of parallel economy inspires scams and kickbacks. None should know it better than Dr. Singh in the Indian context with a vast experience as advisor in the Ministry of Foreign Trade, Chief Economic Advisor, Reserve Bank Governor and Planning Commission Head.

     Should we live in a hell where shadow economy should be allowed to reign or should we be rescued to the shores of a sound economy for social justice? Till date ‘social justice’ is elusive to the Indian mass and politics only exhibits ‘lip service’ to this coinage of a noble idea.

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