tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2128859103258265367.post7857614875116915255..comments2024-03-07T20:42:19.599+05:30Comments on വര്ക്കേഴ്സ് ഫോറം: The Sacred Cowവര്ക്കേഴ്സ് ഫോറംhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/00731641929122914433noreply@blogger.comBlogger1125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2128859103258265367.post-4614703867955493822010-08-25T13:51:07.913+05:302010-08-25T13:51:07.913+05:30"Infrastructure" as a catch-all category..."Infrastructure" as a catch-all category, being made into a sacred cow which must be worshipped by all irrespective of political differences and class perspectives, is therefore a bourgeois subterfuge to pass off the interests of the beneficiaries of the current neo-liberal growth trajectory as the "social interest". True, the development of infrastructure even in this sense may stand society in good stead at some indefinite future date even after the current growth trajectory may have passed. But that cannot be an argument for supporting expenditure on "infrastructure" indiscriminately, for that would mean an abdication of the espousal of the class interests of the oppressed, and an endorsement of the prevailing growth trajectory itself.<br /><br />Once we see "infrastructure" as having a class dimension, we must distinguish "infrastructure" that is in the interests of the people at large and "infrastructure" that uses social resources for the benefit of the few. While economists have been surprisingly chary of drawing this distinction, artists, at least some of them, have been more forthright. The late Habib Tanvir in a play called "Sadak" had lampooned the obsession with expressways, "useless" to the people but of benefit only to the rich or to the State, (reminiscent of the Nazi autobahns), that the country had acquired.വര്ക്കേഴ്സ് ഫോറംhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/00731641929122914433noreply@blogger.com