In defence of ‘mehngai’

V. S. Chaudhri

The other day when my wife returned from the neighbourhood grocery shop, I noticed her mumbling something. I asked her to sit down and compose herself. She threw her purse on the sofa, took a long breath and then started speaking thus: “See the rising prices. There appears to be no end to it. No ‘daal’ is less than hundred rupees a kilo. No vegetable is less than fifty rupees a kilo. You purchase a day's provision and a 500-rupee note is gone. There is no respite for the common man. Six months ago, at the time of the Lok Sabha elections, all political parties had promised that prices of  essential commodities would be brought down and ‘achhe din’ would come. Where are ‘achhe din’? It is all hoax, making a fool of people. These politicians are a strange breed. They never mean what they say and never say what they mean.”

When she had finished her soliloquy, it was my turn to speak. I told her, “Look, if prices have gone up, so have the wages and salaries. What did I get when I joined service 50 years ago? A meagre sum of Rs 500 per month. And what did I get 20 years ago at the time of my retirement? Some Rs 10,000 per month. And what do I get now after 20 years of retirement? It is Rs 50,000 a month. The number of bureaucrats and other functionaries getting more than Rs 1 lakh a month may be more than a thousand today.

With the increase in the earnings of all sections of society, the standard of living of people has also gone up. People who had nothing else to eat except ‘roti’ and ‘achaar’ or one vegetable of potatoes or pumpkin now consume beans, bitter gourd and peas. An average household now takes three meals a day. Bread and butter in breakfast, daal , subzi and chapatti in lunch and dinner. In between pizza, pasta or noodles. And tea any number of times during the day.”

Continuing, I said: “‘Mehngai’ was an index of economic development of a nation. It was a reflection of the ambitions and aspirations of people. Inflation was a necessary concomitant of all developing economies”. 

Seeing my sermon to be too long and boring, my wife interrupted me and asked, “If what you say is correct and politicians know that it is not in their hands to control the soaring prices, why should they make tall promises in their manifestoes? Why should they make a fool of people? Why should they play with the sentiments of housewives?”

I said, “I see a point in what you say. I have a suggestion. I will  write to the Election Commission that when he calls a meeting of political parties next time to brief them on the moral code of conduct, he should advise them to add a disclaimer clause in fine print to their manifestoes in the following form: "Nothing in this document is meant for implementation”.