In Iran, there are signs of an unrest that has been primed by some of the very factors that stare India in the face today. Iranians want prices of essential commodities to come down; they want jobs; they are demanding an improvement in their pay. There is widespread unhappiness with Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei and calls for “death to the dictator” and also to president Hassan Rouhani. There are signs that the protesters are not going to back down despite warnings against indulging in violence or causing damage to public property issued by the Republican Guards.
Rouhani, a lawyer, academic, former diplomat and Islamic cleric was re-elected to presidency of Iran in May 2017. Protests seeking economic reform and against the Supreme Leader and Rouhani’s presidency were sparked off in the second largest city of Iran, Mashhad, beginning with small rallies held in the cities surrounding it. US president Donald Trump added fuel to fire by tweeting his support to protesters. One demand that the protesters in Iran are placing before the government is that it should forget looking outward for issues and address troubles that people are facing within the country.
The demand for the governance system to look inwards and not only externally could gain traction in India, too. Going by the turmoil our economy is going through as a result of measures such as demonetisation and GST, the claims that are being made from different quarters that the pace of change is too quick and is damaging the economic fabric of this nation may not be ignored. A Labour Bureau survey has revealed that in the first three months of 2017, 53,000 workers lost their jobs in eight sectors, although the overall job loss figure would be much higher. The government’s efforts have, under the current circumstances, only helped widen the divide between the rich and the poor. It is yet to effectively address the agrarian crisis, with farmers unable to bear the burden of input costs. The returns on investment they receive are poor. Tonnes of food grain and other produce are going waste either as a result of vagaries of nature or as a result of lack of proper storage and marketing facilities. Even if early warning systems are in place in most parts of the country today, a mechanism to help farmers harvest crops at short notice and to move them to safety is lacking. And with people lacking the buying power to purchase produce at the prices they deserve, there is hardly any initiative by the Indian government to address the issue. GST, which was touted as a measure that would bring about big change in the country and benefit both traders and buyers has not shown any major improvement in situation for the common man. The government, in fact, has seen a dip in GST collections over the past two months, after the tax regime kicked in. Revisions in the taxation systems are happening at frequent intervals and it is unclear yet as to how GST will actually benefit people. The Indian government is still to address the fundamental issues of the nation’s populace. They are definitely not going away on a bullet train. And just as Iran is seeing today, it may not be an impossibility that we, too, may face mass uprisings not confined to the ballot in due course.
