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By:

Correspondent

23 August 2024 at 4:29:04 pm

Festive Surge

India’s bazaars have glittered this Diwali with the unmistakable glow of consumer confidence. The country’s festive sales crossed a staggering Rs. 6 lakh crore with goods alone accounting for Rs. 5.4 lakh crore and services contributing Rs. 65,000 crore. More remarkable still, the bulk of this spending flowed through India’s traditional markets rather than e-commerce platforms. After years of economic caution and digital dominance, Indians are once again shopping in person and buying local....

Festive Surge

India’s bazaars have glittered this Diwali with the unmistakable glow of consumer confidence. The country’s festive sales crossed a staggering Rs. 6 lakh crore with goods alone accounting for Rs. 5.4 lakh crore and services contributing Rs. 65,000 crore. More remarkable still, the bulk of this spending flowed through India’s traditional markets rather than e-commerce platforms. After years of economic caution and digital dominance, Indians are once again shopping in person and buying local. This reversal owes much to policy. The recent rationalisation of the Goods and Services Tax (GST) which trimmed rates across categories from garments to home furnishings, has given consumption a timely push. Finance Minister Nirmala Sitharaman’s September rate cuts, combined with income tax relief and easing interest rates, have strengthened household budgets just as inflation softened. The middle class, long squeezed between rising costs and stagnant wages, has found reason to spend again. Retailers report that shoppers filled their bags with everything from lab-grown diamonds and casual wear to consumer durables and décor, blurring the line between necessity and indulgence. The effect has been broad-based. According to Crisil Ratings, 40 organised apparel retailers, who together generate roughly a third of the sector’s revenue, could see growth of 13–14 percent this financial year, aided by a 200-basis-point bump from GST cuts alone. Small traders too have flourished. The Confederation of All India Traders (CAIT) estimates that 85 percent of total festive trade came from non-corporate and traditional markets, a robust comeback for brick-and-mortar retail that had been under siege from online rivals. This surge signals a subtle but significant cultural shift. The “Vocal for Local” and “Swadeshi Diwali” campaigns struck a patriotic chord, with consumers reportedly preferring Indian-made products to imported ones. Demand for Chinese goods fell sharply, while sales of Indian-manufactured products rose by a quarter over last year. For the first time in years, “buying Indian” has become both an act of economic participation and of national pride. The sectoral spread of this boom underlines its breadth. Groceries and fast-moving consumer goods accounted for 12 percent of the total, gold and jewellery 10 percent, and electronics 8 percent. Even traditionally modest categories like home furnishings, décor and confectionery recorded double-digit growth. In the smaller towns that anchor India’s consumption story, traders say stable prices and improved affordability kept registers ringing late into the festive weekend. Yet, much of this buoyancy rests on a fragile equilibrium. Inflation remains contained, and interest rates have been eased, but both could tighten again. Sustaining this spurt will require continued fiscal prudence and regulatory clarity, especially as digital commerce continues to expand its reach. Yet for now, the signs are auspicious. After years of subdued demand and inflationary unease, India’s shoppers appear to have rediscovered their appetite for consumption and their faith in domestic enterprise. The result is not only a record-breaking Diwali, but a reaffirmation of the local marketplace as the heartbeat of India’s economy.

Dynastic Decay

Few political families have commanded as much reverence or wielded as much unchecked power as the Gandhis. For decades, the Congress party has wrapped itself in the cloak of sacrifice and legacy embodied by the Nehru-Gandhi dynasty. But now, that cloak lies in tatters. The Enforcement Directorate (ED) has filed its first chargesheet naming Sonia Gandhi and Rahul Gandhi as accused numbers one and two in the National Herald money laundering case. It is a moment of reckoning not just for the family, but for the party itself.


The allegations are damning. According to the chargesheet, Sonia and Rahul orchestrated a “criminal conspiracy” to usurp real estate assets worth Rs. 2,000 crores (now estimated at over Rs. 5,000 crore) that belonged to Associated Journals Ltd (AJL), the erstwhile publisher of the now-defunct National Herald newspaper. The vehicle for this alleged act was a private firm, Young Indian Ltd (YIL), in which mother and son together hold a 76 percent stake. The ED charges that 99 percent of AJL’s shares were transferred to YIL for a mere Rs. 50 lakh - an astonishing undervaluation of what were essentially public assets held in trust.


If proven, this transfer was a brazen attempt to turn legacy into loot. While YIL was ostensibly a Section 25 not-for-profit company, the ED’s probe found no charitable activities, no philanthropic outreach and no justification for its existence other than the accumulation of ill-gotten property.


It is worth recalling that AJL was not an ordinary enterprise. Founded by Jawaharlal Nehru, it was a repository of the Congress party’s intellectual and journalistic legacy. What remains today is not a newspaper but a ghost company used to launder influence into asset ownership.


The properties in question, many located in prime urban zones, were meant to serve the public interest. Instead, they appear to have been quietly transferred into private hands, allegedly controlled by India’s most powerful political family.


The Gandhis, predictably, have denied all wrongdoing. So has the Congress party, which has rushed to cry vendetta politics. But that dog-eared script no longer convinces. To cry persecution in the face of legal scrutiny amounts to a cynical refusal to acknowledge the rot within.


The party’s slavish loyalty to its dynasts is troubling. That a party which once governed India for decades cannot summon the courage to debate internal leadership is a testament to its arrested evolution.


Therein lies the deeper malaise. The Congress is no longer a party of ideas or ideals. It is a family trust, run by a dynasty that demands loyalty in exchange for nostalgia. With this chargesheet, the Gandhis lose whatever moral claim they once had to righteousness. The Congress must stop mourning the loss of the old order and start building something new. If not for the country, then at least for its own survival. The Gandhis have had their turn. India deserves better. So does the Congress.

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