Pauls and Peters and the Number Game

Bernard Shaw once said, "A Government that robs Peter to pay Paul can always depend upon the support of Paul". And this remains equally true today. Recently a piece by P . Sainath (Neo-Liberal Terrorism in India: The Largest Wave of Suicides in History, Feb 2009) again proved that how we the fortunate Paul's of the society remain content with our existense and keep on seeking conformity with the dominant model while Peter's continue to be robbed. Alas, global omnivores can seldom understand the problem of market refugees. The number of farmer suicides in India and the creation of refugees keep increasing at the same time when our GDP growth astonishes us. To any sensible and sensitive mind this should be more of a puzzle than astonishment! But often in does not. And largely this is where the number game comes in.

Recently in one of the much celebrated cinema "The Slumdog Millionaire", it has been shown that life is like a game, and a game is somewhat a probability which gives anyone a fair chance to win. As much as we like to believe it, cherish a feel good moment, but is it really so in our real world existence!!! Or is it that, to begin with, the game is set in such a way that probabilities are are nullified! The game of numbers does certainly raise such dilemma.

For years now Sainath has been working with farming communities of India and has been fighting for their cause. He has continued to provide disturbing statistics about the farmers and their suffering, especially which has increased significantly through the waves of neoliberal practices. We see more and more discouraging statistics rather than encouraging ones, and clearly that raises question about the policies that are being formulated or implemented to deal with the issue. Now a lot of academicians have argued that "numbers" are necessary to address a cause or to play the cards of our social and economic policies aptly. Indeed they are at times, but it seems that mostly at times when special interests are involved. Otherwise numbers probably lie within the pages as theoretical and sentimental ramblings. And certainly, until now, farmer suicides does not involve such interests. The uncomfortable parameters are cautiously eliminated in such a way that the game only provides the pleasure of playing or watching it.

Thus the astonishment prevails. In return, we the Paul's keep on offering Governments, policy makers and the game-masters our loyalty as long as they keep providing us our "feel good" numbers.... and the game goes on.