I came across this interesting statistic in a tamil weekly yesterday. Astonishing price rise isn't it?
Yet we see no protests about it anywhere! Price of bengal gram is expected to double in a few days and rice, our staple food, is becoming deliriously expensive. Remember the nation wide protests over food prices during the late 90s? Still worse, people in Chennai protested for a 1 Re. hike in price on city bus fares a decade back.
What do we infer from this scenario? Don't protests happen because people today have the capability to squeeze in these high differences in their monthly budgets?
A few people say yes. They say that the Indian consumer today is fed by svelte super markets which have spoiled him with choice and quality. Prices don't just matter anymore.
Or have we lost appetite for battling?
Some people say yes. They say that the low income group is completely protected from price rise by the rationing system. The main victim here is the urban middle class man, who earns between $200 and $400 a month, works for more than 10 hours a day and spends more than 3 hours in commuting through peevish traffic from workplace to home everyday.
The poor man is tired of facing political bureaucracy and has little energy to protest. Instead, he prefers to fight price rise by skipping those weekend trips to multiplexes and stays home, watching reality shows on satellite television.
