The Monkey And The Fish

The story of the monkey and the fish is an old one - where a well meaning monkey, worried for the fish, ties the fish up in a tree to save it from drowning.

As Atanu Dey points out in his post, 'Beware of Monkeys', the consequences of hanging the fish are real and cannot and should not be ignored:

...Mini-disaster #592: Free electrical power to farmers. Ostensible reason given: To support poor farmers. Consequence: depletion of ground water, water-logging of fields, billions of rupees owed by an already bankrupt State government to the electricity board, regular power cuts in most cities of at least four hours each day.

Surely, it has to be an incomprehending monkey that believes that free power to farmers will improve the lot of farmers. First, poor farmers and peasants have little use for free power. They don