India has always been a land of contradictions; and it continues to be so. The latest report of Oxfam has irrefutable evidence, backed with facts and figures, to prove it. It exposes the ‘sabka saath, sab ka vikas’ slogan as empty rhetoric and pomposity. It is scary to know that a handful of people thrived here during the prowling pandemic while a majority of them, 84 per cent to be precise, struggled to make ends meet because their income nosedived. The report has yet another startling revelation: The Covid season, for some inexplicable reason, saw the number of billionaires going up from 102 to 142. While the virus ravaged India, a handful of Indians had a merry go-around with a phenomenal rise in their wealth.

The ‘killing inequality’, as the Oxfam report puts it, has hit several vital sectors with a bang. Core sectors like health, education and social security that determine a country’s human development index, apart from many other indices, saw a drastic fall in their budgetary allocation. This is the opposite of what it should have been. With the ‘virus’ leaving lives of millions topsy turvy, the focus of governance should have been to find ways and means to pump in money to support the livelihood of people. Covid time created a bizarre situation for people due to loss of jobs. To keep the body and soul together, there should have been some mechanism to sustain people’s income. But that was not to be.    

Ironically, the richest Indians have prospered enormously, adding billions to their wealth. The Oxfam report is an eye-opener. It has made a revealing comparison that India’s 100 billionaires have seen their wealth increase by nearly Rs. 12.98 lakh crore during the pandemic which is enough to give everyone of the 13.8 crore poorest people a cheque for Rs. 94,045 each. This is a fabulous amount even surpassing the minimum income guarantee of Rs. 72,000 per year per family for 20 per cent of the poorest people promised by the Congress party, if elected to power, in its poll manifesto before the last general elections. The report also states that the wealth of India's 10 richest people is enough to fund school and higher education of children in the country for 25 years. It shows the economic might of the richest in India. Even a partial redistribution of their wealth could have major impact in the economy of the country and the fate of the poor. 

The Oxfam report raises a serious question as to whether the income accumulation in the hands of the billionaires happened at the cost of the poor. Many industrial houses and business establishments had cut salaries of their employees and went in for a kill by retrenching employees in droves. It is to be seen whether such anti-worker policies too contributed to the rising number of billionaires, dragging the poor households further deep into the abyss of poverty. Rising inequality is a sign of improper governance; it is the result of flawed policies and shoddy implementation of programmes. With a degrading and demeaning level of income inequality, the country can never think of entering the comity of developed nations, irrespective of the claims by the political class. It will remain a major stumbling block in the country’s march to the super power club.