Wednesday, January 26, 2022

Editorial, "DEMOCRATIC SOCIALISM IS THE ONLY WAY," in 30 November 2021 special issue of LAW ANIMATED WORLD, Vol. 17, Part 2, No. 22 issue

 

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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