PRAGOTI

Prominent economist/literateur/political activist Ashok Mitra is peerless in calling a spade a spade and a neoliberally inclined demon a savant/god sarcastically as he does in the article linked below to his regular column in the Telegraph. And he combines literary wit, economic theory, political understanding and moral outrage like no other in the writing "business".

Extract - 

 

If in a nitpicking mood, one could have also mentioned that the Yojana Bhavan savant totally ignores the cascading effect of a rise in food and fuel prices on the structure of costs across the entire system; inflationary forces, instead of being checked, will rage like wild forest fire unless controlled by stern regulatory measures. But all that is beside the point. What is at issue is the class question. Rising food and fuel prices, if allowed free rein, will in due course decimate the poor and the lower middle class. Rest assured, prices nonetheless will continue to soar as per the wishes of quarters that matter. Fudged economic reasoning is mainly for the consumption of the gullible. Inflation is a class instrument, it transfers resources from the poor and the weak to the rich and the strong. This is the ruling idea at this moment in this country: plunder the poor to augment the wealth of the rich.

The article can be read here.