It is election time and the vote-bank is confusing!
The rural vote is critical, this time and at anytime!
We want to write of course on the basic and current agri issues and this time it is the latest Ukraine crisis and Ukraine is world’s largest wheat growing area and Vladimir Putin’s armed invasion and annexation of the Crimean part of the Ukraine territory.
This is unprecedented. Considering the year is 2014, for those who have a high historic sense, this is exactly a century of the beginning of the First World War.
So, what the great minds write on this occasion is really worrying. The world in 1914, many have written by now, was almost so terribly peaceful! Isn’t an irony?
This just now predicted peaceful world situation has suddenly turned into a war-like situation!
Is this the start of another sign of a new international crisis?
Words and phrases on such occasions have to be carefully chosen a so we restrain our own language at this point of a tense world situation.
We hope the Russian action is restrained and at the same time resisted by the UN and other international country-groupings like the G* of which Russia is a member and the EU which along with the USA has threatened an akkout sanctions that could hurt the Russian economy and the people.
So, we have to see the other issues. India for its part has stated, correctly we believe that Russia has to follow international conventions and procedures.
Sending army into another territory is the most dangerous step.
Unfortunately, the Russian President had chosen to act in the way he had done is very disturbing.
Ukraine, like other independent states like Georgia, Belarus has much to fear about what Russia would do next.
So, we have to look at the international scene, international trade in grains and also in oil and gas exports in which Russia has great stakes have to be watched further.
Black sea ports are critical for Ukraine’s exports, grain and other exports.
So too the international grain trade movements.
The WTO has been approached by countries like Brazil and Argentina about India’s election-eve-dictated strategy of giving heavy food subsidies for winning the elections. Besides, there is also the big subsidy to raw sugar exports, the two subsidies, the US and other grain exporting countries contend, would distort international trade.
When it comes to winning elections such populism as practised by the Centre and also by states like TN can win votes and help the governments to come back to power once more?
The election scenario is changing faster this time. There is no guarantee the vote-bank elections would become a helping hand. The Congress is certainly set to lose this election.
Rahul Gandhi is now pushed to the wall; he has no clue to the state of affairs in many states. The voters have become disillusioned after 10 years of rule by the UPA.