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Correspondent

23 August 2024 at 4:29:04 pm

Price Spiral

With the renewed conflict involving Iran sending tremors through global energy markets, India once again stares at creeping inflation. Oil prices are rising, the rupee is under pressure and the costs of everyday essentials from milk to transport, are beginning to climb steadily. The question now is no longer whether the geopolitical crisis in West Asia will affect India, but how deeply it will hit the ordinary Indian household. While the government has not announced any fuel hike yet, the...

Price Spiral

With the renewed conflict involving Iran sending tremors through global energy markets, India once again stares at creeping inflation. Oil prices are rising, the rupee is under pressure and the costs of everyday essentials from milk to transport, are beginning to climb steadily. The question now is no longer whether the geopolitical crisis in West Asia will affect India, but how deeply it will hit the ordinary Indian household. While the government has not announced any fuel hike yet, the direction of policy suggests that Central government is preparing for a prolonged period of global economic stress triggered by the renewed Iran crisis and volatility in energy markets. The signals are unmistakable. Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s recent appeal for austerity, fuel conservation and restrained spending was no mere rhetorical flourish. India’s vulnerability is structural. The country imports more than 85 percent of its crude oil requirements. Any geopolitical disruption in West Asia rapidly feeds into India’s inflation cycle and fiscal calculations. For now, oil marketing companies have absorbed much of the pressure. But that cannot continue indefinitely. Even the Reserve Bank of India governor has indicated that prolonged conflict could eventually force retail fuel prices upward. Fuel inflation often behaves like a silent tax on the poor and middle classes. Every truck carrying vegetables, milk, medicines or cement becomes more expensive to operate. The additional cost eventually lands on the consumer’s plate. That process has already begun. Amul and Mother Dairy raising milk prices simultaneously is a broader symptom of mounting input costs across the economy. The increase of Rs. 2 per litre may appear modest to affluent consumers. For lower-income households already grappling with elevated food prices, it matters significantly. The sugar export ban offers another clue into the government’s thinking. Export restrictions are typically emergency tools used when policymakers fear domestic shortages and rising retail inflation. The government clearly believes that preserving local supplies is now more important than benefiting from higher international sugar prices. Likewise, the doubling of import duties on gold and silver is an unofficial sign of nervousness about India’s import bill swelling if oil prices remain high for months. There is a political dimension, too. Inflation corrodes governments more steadily than opposition parties do. India’s leadership understands that rising prices generate public frustration faster than abstract geopolitical arguments about West Asia or shipping corridors. The squeeze is increasingly visible in urban India. Families are postponing discretionary purchases, reducing travel and reconsidering spending patterns. Airlines like Air India are discussing route changes owing to rising aviation turbine fuel costs. Schools and institutions are being nudged to conserve electricity. The greater risk is something subtler but politically potent: a prolonged erosion of purchasing power. Growth may continue on paper even as ordinary citizens feel steadily poorer. India’s economic weather has unmistakably shifted. The real question is how much pain the Indian consumer can absorb.

Sacred Attire

Updated: Jan 30, 2025

The Siddhivinayak Temple Trust’s recent decision to implement a dress code prohibiting short skirts, torn jeans and other revealing attire is a necessary move to uphold the sanctity of religious spaces. Temples are spiritual spaces where devotees seek solace, offer prayers, and connect with the divine. Temples are not mere tourist attractions but sacred sanctuaries. The least that visitors can do is dress accordingly.


The Jagannath temple in Puri, Odisha, and the Banke Bihari temple in Vrindavan have already implemented similar rules, reflecting a growing recognition that religious spaces require a modicum of decorum. In the case of Siddhivinayak, the temple attracts thousands of devotees daily, many of whom have expressed discomfort over attire that they feel clashes with the temple’s spiritual ambience.


Few would question the need for decorum in a courtroom, a government office, or even an upscale restaurant. Yet, when religious institutions enforce dress codes to preserve their sanctity, a chorus of indignation often rises in the name of personal freedom, with such ‘critics’ arguing that such rules reflect moral policing or an imposition of traditionalist values.

But this argument confuses religious sanctity with public space liberalism. No one is being compelled to enter the temple, and those who do should respect the customs that govern it. Even in non-Hindu religious spaces, dress codes are the norm. One does not enter a gurdwara without covering their head, nor a mosque or church dressed in attire deemed unsuitable for prayer. The sanctity of a religious institution should not be sacrificed at the altar of modern whims.


To dismiss this as an encroachment on personal liberties is to misunderstand the nature of such spaces. Religious sites operate under different expectations than public thoroughfares or commercial hubs. They are designed for reflection, devotion, and ritual. While Indian society has rightly evolved towards greater personal freedom in many spheres, faith-based institutions must be allowed to maintain traditions that are integral to their identity. The temple trust has made it clear that its goal is not to impose regressive restrictions but to ensure that all visitors feel comfortable and that the sanctity of the temple is upheld.


Moreover, the argument that religious sites must remain entirely open-ended in their dress codes simply does not hold water. Many of the people who object to these restrictions would scarcely question the need for appropriate attire at a formal event or while meeting a dignitary. The principle is the same -respect for the setting dictates the mode of dress. Those who seek to frame this as a battle between liberalism and conservatism fail to grasp that such measures are about propriety, not repression.


In an era where the lines between cultural expression and decorum are increasingly blurred, it is worth remembering that not every rule is an infringement on liberty. If people can abide by dress codes in secular spaces, they should extend the same courtesy to places of worship.

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