DEMOCRATIC SOCIALISM IS THE ONLY WAY
The Corona
Pandemic, and the consequent authoritarian and totalitarian tendencies
manifesting in almost all countries of the world in the name of containing the
same, once again bring forth the imperative need of systems and values of
democratic socialism in the world not only to efficiently contain such
pandemics but also defeat the nefarious schemes of world capitalists to gain
undue advantage from this gory situation. It is to be noted that whereas the masses
of people everywhere are suffering acutely due to the combined impact of the
pandemic and related unemployment, business and industry losses and market
crises, etc. the number of billionaires in the world has not only multiplied
but their incomes and assets have grown enormously in this critical period.
Some interesting studies by institutions like Charity Oxfam reveal that “Billionaires including Amazon’s Jeff Bezos
and Tesla founder Elon Musk have seen their wealth soar during the COVID-19
pandemic while the world’s poor face years of hardship, charity Oxfam said on
Monday as it demanded steps to tackle inequality.” Reuters has caustically
commented that “COVID-19 has unleashed an economic storm that hit the poor
and vulnerable hardest, with women and marginalized workers facing the worst of
job losses and the World Bank warning more than 100 million people could be
pushed into extreme poverty.” And then there may be some truth in the alleged ‘conspiracy theories’
castigating the Corona Crisis itself as manmade – by the political and economic
elite who have gained immense powers and profits abusing this calamity. Developed
countries like the USA and of the European Union, etc. could devise some
schemes to reach succor to the ordinary people too in this crisis, bowing down
to pressures of public opinion, but the weal and woes of the poor and even
middle classes of developing and poor countries like ours are unmitigated and people’s
plights left to the mercies of their ‘Karma’ (fate) in general. When even the United
States is contemplating imposition of some additional taxes on the super-rich
to bail out the people from such crises, why not we also severely take to task
the greedy super rich profiteers in our country too? On the contrary, we see
even the age-old public sector industries and institutions are grossly
neglected and sought to be handed over on a platter to Adanis and Ambanis in
the name of liberalization, efficiency in management, etc. – this in effect
further enriching the super-rich at the cost of deprivation – even to the
extent of hunger and imminent starvation deaths – of the masses of the poor
people and ruin of middle-income groups. In this background, we once again assert
that our people should not succumb to the evil designs, election bribes and other
temptations by the privileged classes and persons, but earnestly strive for the
achievement of democratic socialism which is the only way to remedy the socio-economic
ills afflicting our society. §§§
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