SABARI GANESH

For the past few days I have been thinking a lot about the influences and causes for depreciation of socialist ideas in modern world politics. As a staunch socialist supporter, I am a failed citizen still unable to come to a conclusion on what I support.

I have written on this earlier, but still I want add few more contemporary examples to this topic.

Few days ago the Indian online community witnessed a nerve breaking phenomenon while they shopped online through Flipkart on its Big Billion Day sale. Flipkart literally showed its middle finger to almost everybody who visited its site on that day and it virtually slapped me on my face.

Why did Flipkart do this? What provoked them to have a Big Billion Day sale?

We all came to know later that Flipkart did this to increase its online market share. It was provoked to take this extreme idiotic step to overcome the threats posed by the other e-commerce companies. Another noteworthy point to mention here is its competitors adopted few excellent and of course successful strategies to counter its move. At the end of the day the entire online drama went to the notice of Commerce Ministry which is yet to take an action against it.

Coming to my point, every citizen in our country is struggling in his/her life to find a path or a strategy which leads them to pursue their goals. In this process, few people are treading the path less preferred and few are going in a wrong way and few more are coming back after realizing it as the wrong path. I guess Flipkart founders took a successful path initially and later made themselves to lay their own road(express way) influenced by the threats of cut throat competition. I think they may reach a dead end if they continue to progress along this path. Of course Flipkart is not a Rajinikanth to have its own தநி வழி రహదారి high way.

As already said, every individual around us strives hard to reach his/her goal. Victory doesn’t matter but finally the path taken matters.

I will give you a relevant, out of context and a weird example in this scenario.

The dissolution of Soviet Union

Post world war II there existed a Cold War between capitalist USA and Communist USSR. Both emerged as super powers racing with each other to become the Supreme Leader. Finally USA and its western European allies emerged as the undeclared winners while Soviet Union was dissolved disgracefully indicating the failure of a socialist economy.

One of the many reasons for the dissolution of Soviet Union is the path taken by them. In order to become the world power, they tried to win over their rival United States in each and every aspect ignoring the welfare of people. It fell into the trap laid by the cunning American strategies without predicting the future and wrongly perceived conditions back at home. When somebody pokes you, just try to keep quiet or throw a gentle smile upon them but don’t go and poke them again. This is what exactly the Soviet Union did. If America goes for improving its arsenal by allocating more resources to its defense systems, USSR should have gone to spend more on strengthening its defense systems provided enough is done for the welfare if its people. Here the Soviet leaders left aside the main ideal of Socialism and the basic ethics preached in the socialist ideology. Their debacle started when their economy was further ruined by a corrupt bureaucracy.

The reason why I cited this example of Soviet downfall is even though USSR had potential to become a super power it failed miserably by choosing the wrong path. It acted against the interests of its people. It deceived its member states in many ways. It was over confident. It failed to maintain its integrity and credibility as a Union of Soviet Socialist Republics. To be more specific, it should not have competed with others rather it should have progressed living by its socialist values.

Coming to capitalist ideology which always confused me, I can say now that it creates an unhealthy competition among players and drives them to go for profits. The THEME of Capitalism is காசு, பணம்,துட்டு, மணி, மணி  காசு, பணம்,துட்டு, மணி, மணி ,KAASU PANAM DUDDU MONEY MONEY, MONEY MONEY…..

Last year there was a ruckus in Indian parliament regarding the 51 percent FDI in Indian retail industry to boost our economy. But after witnessing this online Flipkart episode, I suggest to our policy makers to rethink about this FDI in retail and its grave consequences.

I learnt a very good lesson from this episode and I decided not to visit an e-commerce website ever again, even it offers a Mercedes Benz for ten rupees with 0% EMI. All those offers they make are a part of a conspiracy to make us fools. Eventually we end up showing our middle finger standing in the front of a mirror. Yes, believe me, even though you feel happy initially, at one point of time you will definitely experience that situation along with regrets.

What I perceived here may differ with your perceptions regarding Flipkart but after writing this essay I realized my self that I am a failed socialist personality trapped in an ambiguous democracy.

I am little confused right now, I will be back with this concept soon with more clarity.