Did Chidambaram likened a Hard Working Indian to a Beggar?

Just when it seemed that everyone had had their fill of cups of chai and rounds of pakodas, former Finance Minister P. Chidambaram joined the chai and pakoda party. In his bid to attack PM Modi, Chidambaram went to the extent of equating a normal hard working Indian to a beggar.

The Story so far:

Prime Minister Modi’s pakoda remark stirred a storm in a tea cup. In an interview to a TV channel the Prime Minister had remarked that if a person selling pakodas earns ₹200 at the end of the day, will it be considered employment or not?

Of course, there was a lot of hue and cry about his remark from the opposition. From protests outside BJP office to absolutely idiotic twitter trends like #Ineedajob were curated and given media coverage. Hardik Patel gave his two cents of knowledge by saying that a chaiwala can only recommend that people sell pakodas for a living.

Chidambaram’s unsolicited wisdom

Taking a dig at the Prime Minister, Chidambaram said that if selling pakodas is a job then, by that logic, even begging is a job and that a beggar should be considered employed as well. Chidambaram went on to allege that the country is witnessing a three-year spell of modest but jobless, growth and the government is clueless about how to create jobs, in a series of tweets from his Twitter handle.

Whether or not the growth has been modest and jobless and if the previous government had a role to play in it, are two ideas that are debatable. Given that three years is too less of a time for any government to fully rectify the economy, one can surely draw the conclusion that much of what we are experiencing now is a result of the policies and actions of the previous governments.

However, the Opposition’s reactions on the Prime Minister’s comment have brought to light their disdain for the informal sector and their skewed concept of ‘employment’.

They refuse to acknowledge a street vendor, who toils day after day, as ‘employed’. So for them, someone either sitting in a 6 by 6 cubicle, working for an MNC is employed or one who digs and fills pits along the roadside under MGNREGA. The rest of us who do not work in fancy glass buildings, between piles of files can be conveniently equated to a beggar?

This lack of respect for much of the unorganised sector has been a major reason for our inability to tackle the problem of unemployment. This is not limited just to street vending but also extends to small scale cottage and handicraft industries which were not given any loans for a long time because they were considered irrelevant.

For these people, a street vendor is akin to a beggar. No, Mr. Chidambaram, a street vendor is someone who works hard, someone whose dedication remains unmoved even when the likes of you compare him to a beggar and this is an unfair comparison.

If you want a fair comparison; that ‘unemployment allowance’ given under MGNREGA is more like alms given to beggars.

While we are at it, let me remind you of the MUDRA scheme of the Modi government under which loans are issued to people in rural India to set up business and move a step closer to self reliance. Compare this to your grand employment generation scheme of NREGA under which people are given allowance if they cannot be given jobs and which just by the way is also a classic example in the study of disguised unemployment in India.

So here is a small advice: Look before you leap.