Religion of poverty

Under a new Goverment scheme, Surendar Thakur (pictured above) could score lower than Shah Rukh Khan on the BPL (Below Poverty Level) score card (Pic: OutLookIndia)

So, the middle class folks tend to knock themselves silly over how insensitive they are about Governance etc. This happens shortly after they browse columns by Arundhati Roy and shortly before they walk into a poll booth to push the button for the hand. Then .. all is forgotten. The silly buggers don't even care to look at the most basic issues such as how the Government computes the poverty list.

India's best public policy blog RealityCheck does some investigation:

Every instrument of dispensation of public goods are now being made to serve the grand interest. The Indian state will divide people even for completely secular purposes such as identification of the poor. The actual benefits that accrue to the BPL families from such divisions are not important. [link]

Yes, that's right. According to the new Saxena committee recommendation, Muslims and OBCs will automatically get a point on the BPL score sheet.

Of course, the water carriers of socialism are completely silent on the issue. What happened to the stats they used to throw around at the slightest excuse during the NDA rule? The scary headlines about India being worse than sub-Saharan Africa? Child malnutrition? Not required anymore?

Come to think of it, they could make it even more interesting. How about baselining the Sachar report on how many people qualify for BPL benefits as opposed to how many are actually poor?