Trade or Perish

Thanks Devinder for starting a discussion on this very important issue.
In this period of ' Trade or Perish ' I like to quote from Gandhi ( although our politicians and planners have forgotten him).
Gandhi believed that whatever is made or produced in a village must be used first and foremost by the people in the village itself. Trading should only be in what is surplus and in exchange for things that can not be produced in that village.
Today the rulers of this country force on the people just the opposite. They do not want us to produce what is needed here and they want us to produce what is needed elsewhere and this they call development!
Even while I write this farmers in this country continue to commit suicide because of this wrong policy and the associated technology. Now we hear that Reliance has started procuring agriculture products from farmers in Wayanad at prices higher than the market price! which they will sell to the IT professionals in Bangalore through their retail shop.
Apart from the private money lenders, banks and other financial agencies, these neo rich kings will take the life out of our farmers in the coming days and to facilitate this process they are getting certified officers from the public sector itself.

I would like to draw some parallels here.
While the Kerala Government is undecided on waiving of farmerss' loans they have decided yesterday to waive 60crore rupees which the Kerala Agriculture University had to give back to the government. This money was paid to the scientists of KAU in the nineties even before the government approved the UGC scale to them.
Later it was found out by the auditor and asked the university to pay back the money and the scientists were really angry about this 'injustice' done to them.
Government did bow before their strength and once again the farmers have been failed.

--- Usha S, Thanal, Kerala.