The leader’s chair

One fine morning, as the leader entered his chamber and positioned his leadership on the chair, the rear left arm of the chair fractured and the leader found him-self on the floor. Unable to get up, he called the chief secretary, who then helped him back on his feet. The leader, laden with anger, gave the chief secretary a severe tongue-lashing and ordered him to file a report on this accident and keep the file confidential.

               Social welfare minister was to visit the leader in the morning but the leader, superstitious as he was postponed the meeting and called in the trade minister instead, the social welfare can always wait, he confided to the chief secretary. The Trade minister was worried about inflation that was caused by the rising imports of essential commodities. The leader told him that there are other organs in the government to bother about inflation and that he should concern himself with trade.

The social welfare minister, who was next to meet the leader, was unaware of the preceding discussion and suggested that the govt. should widen the social welfare scheme to ensure economic justice as the rising inflation is causing distress to the poor. The leader was alarmed again after hearing inflation and suggested the social welfare minister focus on the welfare of the people instead of making excuses.

The agriculture minister had some news that cheered the leader. The nominal income of farmers has doubled, much before the targeted period. The leader was amused and appreciated the Agri. Minister. He inquired into how we achieved this in such record time. The agriculture minister replied that this was due to inflation. The leader was impressed. The minister further explained that with rising prices incomes rise too, and as a result, the farmer income doubled. Excellent! The leader thought. Should we keep increasing prices then?. In a fix, the agriculture minister suggested that the leader should discuss these important matters with RBI.

The leader called the chief secretary and asked if we are funding RBI enough since the agriculture minister told me that RBI is important. The chief secretary informed that it was in fact the RBI who is funding the leader’s government. Such noble and charitable people, the leader thought. He asked the chief secretary if the RBI also funds election. He was of course disappointed by the answer but still wanted to meet them.

The governor of the RBI informed that there was a little concern about inflation but everything is in control. The leader proposed to the governor that he should be a minister. As the leader was aware that RBI is funding his government and could also fund some of his other ambitions, the governor will be guaranteed a ministerial berth in the next cabinet reshuffle. The governor was not impressed but the leader was sure he could be persuaded with the showmanship of intellect.

The leader flaunted his economic acumen and proposed that we keep increasing inflation to double and triple people’s income. The governor cautioned that such knowledge and decisions based on them can be harmful and self-destructive. The leader knew that he has lost the opportunity for a nice clean source of funding and decided to withdraw his proposal, and also his newfound economic theory.

Leader suggested to the chief secretary that something as important as inflation should be handled by ambitious people in his government and not by laid-back governors of bureaucratic fold. The chief secretary counted out multiple demerits of such a step, but one that appealed to the leader was the projected fall in funding from the RBI.

The chief secretary then presented the report related to the broken chair. To his surprise, the prime suspect was the cursed inflation. The leader confused, enraged, and at a loss of explanation called the chief secretary and confronted him about the curious accusations against inflation by all, “is inflation the biggest scapegoat in my government, what happened to the opposition, the terrorists, unfriendly neighbors who were blamed earlier? is there no one and nothing else to blame aside from inflation?”

I am afraid there is not my leader. The chief secretary continued, the suppliers have supplied these chairs at very inflated prices, which has led to the poor quality of the chair. It appears, the more the inflation, the higher the profit for suppliers.

Likewise, said the leader, the more the inflation, the more the income. The leader was unable to reach the root of the problem as in theory; everything appears to be in place. The suppliers are earning a profit, the people are earning income, but still, the chair breaks due to poor quality, and ministers decry of poor policies.

Watching the leader perplexed, the chief secretary explains that they are not the economic giants, but the economic ants who decry inflation. It was the rear left arm, the most silent, and hidden of all the four arms of your venerable chair, which has eventually led to your fall.

The leader complained of a headache and the chief secretary offered him a pill. Is it because of the fall, my leader? asked the chief secretary. No, I think it’s because of the damned inflation, said the leader.