'A is five minutes walk from my house so B. R. T. S., local bus service or metro railway station etc. public transport options are available, but we do not use any public transport facility in our house! After walking for five minutes, everyone gets stressed. If I ask my son to bring or put something, he kicks the bike and leaves with a piece of paper, but if I walk a few steps, nothing will break my head.' The dialogue is between a father and son of a middle-class, inflation-stricken middle class. The young son feels that his father is still living in the nineteenth century and laments how expensive petrol-diesel has become. The words or advice of the father who was hit by inflation is not true? Alas, some status-loving people shy away from using buses, trains or even rickshaws, and anyone who does so is ridiculed for being austere or stingy. The cry of inflation is constantly discussed, but the middle class who shout about inflation have thought that who is the major contributor to the increase in the prices of essential items like petrol-diesel? The politicians who keep raising their voices against the increase in petrol-diesel-gas cylinder prices leave their homes and go to office by bus, train, cycle or scooter? Alas, those leaders and their successors do not even use small simple cars. Monster-sized and diesel-guzzling SUVs (Sports Utility Vehicles) are used. However, these types of cars are not only used by leaders or billionaires. The upper middle class, the so-called neo-rich, also do the same to pass off their status to neighbors or the world. Even though there is talk of opposing diesel price hike 'for the benefit of the poor', the loudest voices are those who have used subsidized diesel to feed their luxury. When going to buy a car, consider buying a 'diesel' model, because it is cheaper and we all fall into such people. Some rich gourmets travel for fun to enjoy the famous dishes of a particular place like Gota of Dakor or Misal-paun of Vadodara. Have they ever thought of increasing petrol-diesel prices to satisfy their taste? Now even the luxury car makers are putting more and more models in the market like 'Petrol' and 'Diesel'. Now think that buyers of expensive cars need cheap diesel right? Whenever we raise our voice against the increase in fuel prices, we keep our mouth shut and say, now bus and rickshaw fares will go up, essentials like vegetables and pulses will become expensive. However, this is true, but due to heavy rains in Gujarat, the average price of 50 grams of fenugreek and coriander, 1 kg of onions and potatoes has gone up to 50 rupees, and the budget of some middle class families has been disrupted. No one particularly minded, but the fact that they cannot afford to burn petrol or diesel on long drives during weekends and public holidays increases the outrage of these people. Ministers, wives and children of government 'babus' use government cars to have fun or go shopping with friends, bodyguards go back and forth and go on other cars or motorcycles. They try to build 'car-pulls' to protect the common middle class, against inflation, but have you ever seen two ministers or two government babus, two MLAs or corporators getting out of the same car together? Employees in government or well organized companies get DA in their salaries every month along with inflation. increases. Those who are traders also increase the price of goods, but how many of us hesitate to increase the salary of working women once in two years? Neither you nor I increase the salary of a man who comes to do housework without asking. Raising Rs 100 per month to domestic workers does not wreak havoc on our budget, but if someone does, domestic workers will get some relief. If someone does this, he has to hear, 'You are pushing the workers and ruining the price.' Alas, it is the lower middle class that bears the brunt of inflation. The illiterate poor are victims of shopkeepers' fraud. A one rupee increase in bus ticket fares really disrupts the budget. He is our D. Not to give even a small part of A.? When petrol-diesel prices rise, rich people complain but increase the salary of their drivers? After the hike in movie ticket prices in hotels, restaurants and multiplexes, most of the middle class people have decided to go out and eat once a month. They do not find it a big expense to go out once, but they find it difficult to increase the salary of a worker by a hundred to twenty rupees once in six months. Does inflation affect only the affluent or the rich?
Image Credit: (Divya-Bhaskar): Images/graphics belong to (Divya-Bhaskar).
Our point: Does inflation affect only the affluent or the rich?
