LOKSABHA ELECTION: DEFEAT BOTH THE
POLITICAL CLIQUES DECISIVELY
FIGHT
FOR THE ALTERNATIVE
Tapan
Sen
The
country is heading towards the General Elections for the 16th Lok
Sabha. The people have to decide as to how they will exercise their right in
this crucial political battle.
CITU
calls upon the workers and the toiling people in general to seriously reflect
on their bitter experience of sharp deterioration in all aspects of their life
and livelihood through continuing price rise, declining real wages, declining
employment opportunities, attack on their rights at place of their work, both
individual and collective, degradation of quality of employment etc arising out
of brazenly anti-people policies of the Govt at the centre. While exercising
their right to vote, they must assert their urge for a total reversal of the
present anti-people policy regime and express their firm rejection to the politics
of all brands behind such policy regime. The present policy regime is not only
making the life and living of the common people miserable but also bringing
about a severe distortion, perversion and disruption simultaneously in the
entire economy, polity and society at large.
As the political atmosphere in the country is
gradually getting charged with electioneering mode, the
Govt of the day led by Congress as well as the principal opposition BJP are
both seeking to project the need for a ‘strong and stable’ Govt. And they
minced no words. They openly declared for more aggressively pursuing the so
called “developmental” path based on the same disastrous neoliberal policy
regime. The BJP vying for power at the centre is not questioning the basic
framework and direction of the policies at all being followed by the present
UPA-II Govt, but arguing that the country needs a strongman like Narendra Modi
with absolute power to strongly push through the same so called “reforms” more aggressively and
with more determination.
Both Congress & BJP: Working on
Same Project
On
the one hand, the hot pursuit of the policies of deregulation, liberalization
and privatization under UPA-II rule promoting the interests of corporates and
big-business houses, both domestic and foreign, and big-landlord and hoarders’
lobby is going on. This, while bringing miseries to mass of the common people,
is also bringing about a gloom and decline in the economy as a whole. On the
other hand, the BJP led camp is attacking their political rival in governance,
the UPA-II regime, for so called policy-paralysis, i.e., for not pursuing the
same pro-corporate/big-business policies more aggressively. And through such
exercise in the process of electioneering, both the political combines, one led
by Congress and the other by BJP have been jointly working on a single
fraudulent and deceitful project. The project is one of making the neoliberal
policy regime an unavoidable destiny for the nation, thereby putting the
national economy on auction to the interests of the corporate and big-business,
both domestic and foreign and simultaneously throwing the mass of the populace
in fiercer exploitation and deeper miseries in perpetuity. The project is one
of loot and plunder on the people and the national resources of our country in
the name of development. To both the political combines, development means
adding to profits and surpluses of handful of corporate and big-business, both
foreign and domestic, windfall gains for the foreign and domestic speculators
through ups and downs of the stock market and commodity exchanges-- all at the
cost of fast deteriorating level of livelihood and lives of millions of people.
Both
these major political combines, one led by Congress and the other by BJP might
still have followings among the common people, but they are operating at the
behest of corporate interests, of the interest of international finance capital
while striving to legitimize their project of crime on the national economy and
the mass of the people through the forthcoming General elections. They are
trying to engineer such fraud on the people by creating an illusion among the
people, as if the neoliberal reforms of deregulation and privatization etc are
the only means to improve their lots. And the most active facilitators of such
fraudulent and deceitful exercise is the corporate-run media, both print and
electronics. It is not without any reasons that almost all the leading national
print media have started publishing their own manifesto on policies to be
followed by the forthcoming government which prescribes the same disastrous
policies in order to build public opinion in its favour.
The
working class movement must have to act in exposing such nefarious game plan of
both the corporate-serving political combine—the UPA and the NDA, led by
Congress and BJP in collaboration with corporate-run media in order to make
people assert for a total reversal of the present policy-regime. We must fight
for people-centric alternative policies
and decisively defeat both the corporate serving political combines
perpetuating deception and fraud on the people, on the economy and on the
society as a whole.
*** *** *** ***
Fraud & Deception on People
Crucial
task begins with exposing the fraud and deception being played by the both the
political combines led by Congress and BJP while touting for the neoliberal
policy paradigm.
In
their neoliberal project of economy management, growth is simultaneously
accompanied by stagnation, suppression and decline in wages and social security
benefits and faster growth of unemployment finally pushing the growth rate to
decline, creating gloom and crisis in every aspect of the economy. Common
people become the victim of the worst kind while handful of rich and the
big-business make windfall gains, both in white and black. Is the democracy meant
for such brazenly unjust system ?
Growth: Poverty for Millions and Gains
for handful
The last three decades of under neoliberal
policy regimes, more particularly during NDA and UPA rules have witnessed GDP
growth of above 5 to 6 per cent on the average and during some period as during
the 11th Plan period (2005-10), above eight per cent plus annually. The
workers and working people, despite fully contributing to such growth of
production and wealth generation (in fact without workers, no production of
goods and services or wealth generation is possible at all) are being
consistently looted and deprived. The real wages have gone down through the
entire period. Labours’ share in value added in production in the organised
manufacturing sector, which was 30 per
cent in the late eighties, have come down to around 10 per cent in 2010 while
profit’s share have increased more than three-fold from 20 to 60% plus. In
services and informal sector situation is more precarious. This means that the
entire gains in production or GDP growth have been appropriated and looted by
the employers and big-business. The Government and the administration in centre
and most of the states, both under UPA and NDA facilitated that loot through
pro-corporate policies, suppression of minimum wages level and repression on
trade union movement. The workers and working people, who are creating growth
in the economy, revenues for the exchequer and profit for the employers are
being subjected to inhuman exploitation through drastic cut in regular
employment, cut in their wages and social security, mass scale
contractorisation and casualisation of work and brutal suppression of their
struggle with the active support of the Govt and administration. Violation of
all laws of the land relating to labour with the active support of the
law-enforcing machinery has become the hallmark of the neo-liberal reforms
regime.
In
agriculture sector, involving more than half of the country’s population, the
situation is even worse. More than two lakh peasants have committed suicide
during the UPA rule alone. Landlessness is increasing alarmingly demonstrating
the loot on land-asset by the Govt in favour of corporate and business. On the
other hand the small and marginal farmers who account for more than two-third
of the farming community are thrown in a
totally unviable situation and got severely indebted to private money
lenders who are practically looting their produce at throw away prices and this
is promoting private hoarding of
foodgrains and black-marketing in a big way. The agricultural workers are not
getting even 70 days work in a year. On the other hand average man-days of work
under MNREGA remained well below 50 days instead of 100 days as per the Act.
The Govt saves money allocated for MNREGA while millions of people in rural
India go destitute and hungry. Such a tragic situation haunts rural India
despite the agricultural sector marking an improvement in production
consecutively for last three years at least.
Continuing
price rise of all essential commodities including food is further adding fuel
to fire. And the price-rise is not just happening as claimed by the Govt but is
being deliberately made to happen as an integral part of their policy regime to
keep the speculation lobby happy. While people are being compelled to buy
foodgrains at a high price in the market, the direct producers of the
food-grains in agriculture are not getting even one third of that market price
for their produce to cover up the cost of production and on the other hand the
hoarders and traders in food-grains are making windfall gains through
speculation. To facilitate this process, speculative trade is being allowed in
food crops both legally and illegally and the Govt is continuing to hold a big
stock of food-grains in the market much above the buffer norm (for PDS and
emergencies) while allowing the private money-lenders and hoarders also to
hoard in a big way just to keep the price level high and corporate traders make
fortune at the cost of hungry millions.
The
net outcome for the mass of the people under this neoliberal regime, both under
UPA and NDA, is further worsening of the poverty situation, a bigger squeeze in
the purchasing power of the common people, which in turn is generating gloom
and slowdown in the market, in the economic activities, deceleration in investment
and employment generation, pushing the economy towards further decline and
gloom. The loud claim of the Govt in lifting 130 million people above the
poverty line is nothing but an unalloyed bluff. Fact remains that as per NSSO
data, 73 per cent of the people or 87.6 crore people do not have access to
official poverty line of 2100/2200
calories and this very situation explodes their fraudulent claim.
The
situation is made more precarious by systematic cut in public expenditure and
subsidies on peoples’ welfare and basic utilities like health, education,
irrigation, housing, water-supply etc, and pushing those sectors for
exploitation by private business interests--all on the plea of containing
fiscal deficit, making the daily life more difficult and costlier for the
common people at large. And the manner the Govt is making its expenditure-management
clearly exposes the gang-up between the corporate/big-business and the
Government administration to suck the common people and the national economy
for their private gains. It is not without reason that despite a GDP growth
rate of above 5 per cent during last three decades, India’s rank has gone down
among the developing countries in terms of human development indices published
by UN agency. In the matter of almost all human development indicators like
literacy, infant-mortality, maternal mortality, anemia among women and children,
availability of potable water, incidence of hunger etc, India’s position is by
no way respectable and does in no way match with its GDP growth standards. And
at the same time handful of major corporate and big-business groups has amassed
huge wealth in unprecedented pace taking brazen inequality in the society to an
obscene level. Number of dollar billionaires in India have more than doubled in
a span of last four year, and as reported by Hindustan times, eight top
billionaires in India got their wealth multiplied by more than 180 per cent and
four of them got their wealth increased by above 300% on the average.
Deceit through Budget
Promoting
Pilferage from Exchequer by Big-Business
Such
a situation also exposes the fraud being played upon the mass of the people by
the present regime. Almost all the budgets of the UPA Govt, the UPA-II in
particular, every year demonstrates a fraud on the people. The budget every
year allocates funds for rural development, health, education and other welfare
programmes for the social sector, of which only a part is spent. They make big
noise in claiming credit while making allocations in the budget but silently
under-spend which is nothing but a deceit. At the same time, it deliberately
allows the defaulters in big-business, both foreign and domestic not to pay
their due taxes and this is continuing year after year. As per the budget
papers presented at the time of last interim budget (2014-15), which happens to
be the pre-election one, the UPA-II Govt has drastically cut the expenditure
budgeted in 2013-14 by around Rs 66000/- on rural development, health,
education, social services etc-all relating to common people. But at the same
Govt preferred to allow a default on payment of corporate tax and income tax
alone of a huge amount of Rs 5.1 lakh crore as on December 2013, of which around
Rs 75000 crore/- is not under any dispute as admitted by the Govt itself. How a
Govt so concerned about fiscal deficit could allow year after year a direct tax
default ranging from Rs 3.5 lakh crore to 5.1 lakh crore (last four years) of
which Rs 50000 crore to Rs 75000 crore were undisputed claims ? Is it not
cutting expenditure on welfare and development of aam-aadmi while allowing
pilferage in public exchequer by the khas-aadmis to the Govt, the corporate and
big-business group? What else can expose the brazen anti-people bias of the
corporate servant government, making so loud noise on “inclusive growth? In
fact this is a regime of the Corporate-big-business-Govt gang-up to exploit the
mass of the populace for private gains of foreign and domestic business groups
and also private gains of those in governance actively facilitating that
process of loot on the people. If this is not corruption in governance, then
what else ?
The
explosion of big ticket corruptions during last ten years, both in centre and
states, both under Congress and BJP rule are the inevitable reflections of this
shameless pro-rich-corporate bias in the governments and administration.
Besides huge tax concessions, accompanied by huge tax-defaults increasing every
year being actively aided and abetted by the Govt, these big ticket corruptions
of 2G, CWG, KG-basin, iron-ore-mining, Adarsh housing scam, Chit-fund scams etc
are also instruments of pilferage in national exchequer and resources by
big-business houses in complicity with the Govt machinery. This process cannot
be separated from the very neoliberal policies and processes which both the
Congress and BJP combines are vying to promote more forcefully.
Negative Impact on Society
Such
anti-people bias in governance under neoliberalism is also getting reflected in
the society as a whole in an utterly negative manner. When the entire
governance is busy in single-minded project to serve only the handful of vested
interests in corporate-big-business lobby neglecting the concern of millions of
common people, it is bound to have degenerating impact in the governance,
polity, society and human values as well. The criminalization in politics is
one such reflection. Consents and consensus and many-times political support
are being sought to be manufactured forcibly by using all dubious and
disruptive means including money power. It tantamount to commodisation of
politics, manufacturing of opinions etc undermining and sometimes distorting
the democratic process as such.
It
is bound to have negative impact on the society in various ways. Spread of
crime, incidence of crime among youth, increasing violence against women
including alarming rise in incidence of rape etc are the disastrous reflections
of such degeneration. Such negative features are raising their heads with
greater arrogance in the midst of frustration and desperation sprang in the
society from total insensitivity and neglect towards common peoples’ miseries
and their basic right to lead a humane living on the part of those who run the
governance. When market is being worshipped as god and determinant of policy
decisions, everything including opinions and consents are being weighed and
priced like commodities, truth is being bartered with opportunities and returns
on the same, the human values and dignity also become a
victim of the said market philosophy facing distortions, perversions and
degeneration. While we have to fight
against those degenerations and perversions in values and resultant crimes in
the society uniting the people against those negativities, we must also to
expose the character of the regime that provokes and promotes such
degenerations as an integral part of that battle.
Communal and Divisive Forces Vying for Power
Another
crucial aspect which deserves pointed attention is the danger of the communal
and divisive forces raising their heads taking advantage of the crisis that has
engulfed the economy, polity and the society, its impact on the people and also
in the face of increasing isolation of the political combine in governance. The
irony is that the present day crisis is the inevitable outcome of the
neoliberal policies being pursued by the UPA-II Govt, and the other political
combine led by the Communal BJP vying for power is also an ardent rather more
aggressive votary of the same policy regime. And that is why as the BJP combine
projected Narendra Modi, present Chief Minister of Gujarat as the Prime
Ministerial candidate, it received warm welcome from the corporate and
big-business circles including various foreign agencies. And Narendra Modi is
being projected by their combine as well as the media as ”Bikash Purush”, i.e.,
the man of Development citing his performance as Gujarat Chief Minister. The
nefarious role of that State Government of Gujarat under Narendra Modi in
patronizing rather promoting the mass massacre on the minorities in the state
following the Train-blaze in Godhra, killing several thousands of men, women,
children alike, which can only compare with the mass annihilation programme of
Hitler in the concentration camp in terms of inhuman criminality, is being
sought to be pushed under carpet. And the corporate-run media, in its agony and
anxiety of protecting the interests of corporate serving neoliberal policy
regime, has been deliberately underplaying and whitewashing the communal
fascistic face of Modi-led BJP combine.
Any
prospect of BJP led governance will mean a grave danger for the country as well
as democracy. The governance has already been hijacked by corporate interests
under present neoliberal regime. In case of BJP’s coming to power, the whole
system and machinery of governance is fraught with the danger of getting
communalized too. And what may happen thereafter is understandable from what
has happened at the time of post-Godhra massacre in Gujarat and subsequent
communal progromes on minorities engineered by the same clique. The communal and divisive forces of all hues
will get added advantage in weakening the unity of the people and national
integrity with the communal force-led combine occupying power at the centre.
The unity of the working people will also be threatened with disruption in the
divisive atmosphere fuelled by the communal force in governance. It must have
to be resisted by defeating the communal and divisive forces in the forthcoming
electoral battle.
Modi Model of Development and the
People
At
the same time, it is important to lay bare some of the myth on so called
development of Gujarat under Modi regime. It was also the same neoliberal
trajectory subjecting the common people to fierce exploitation. No doubt,
Gujarat had attracted more foreign and private investment as a result of the
aggressive corporate friendly policies pursued by both the central govt and
also the liberal concessions and giveaways by the state govt. Gujarat ranks 5th
in attracting FDI among the Indian states and in growth rate of state domestic
product Gujarat performed well compared to other states in the country –it
being above the national average. But again what does it mean for the common
people of Gujarat. It has been the same commentary of gains of growth being
totally appropriated, rather in a more aggressive manner.
Some
highlights can be given here. As per NSSO report 32% of the state’s population
was below poverty line in 2001 which has jumped to 39.5% meaning thereby that
along with GSDP growth, poverty also got widened and as per the same NSSO data,
reduction of poverty is the lowest in the state particularly during 2004 to
2010. Despite comparatively higher growth of GSDP, growth of employment
remained negiligible during last ten years. Gujarat ranks 20th (the
bottom) among the 20 major states in the percentage of women with severe
anemia, 15th in malnourishment in children, 16th in
children’s anaemia (Human Development Report, 2011-12). Close to half of the state’s children under
the age of 5 (44.6%) are known to be suffering from malnutrition. 70 per cent
are said to be anemic while 40 per cent are underweight. (Source: Planning
Commission report – 2012-13). Health expenditure by Gujarat has fallen down
from 4.25% in 1990-95 to 0.77% in 2005-2010. Gujarat occupied second position
from bottom in terms of allocation of health in state budget. (Source: planning commission report-2012-13
and National Health Profile – Central Bureau of Health Intelligence).
This
highlights the precarious conditions the toiling people in general are facing
in the state despite their signal contribution to state’s GSDP growth. Added to
that, is the discrimination being faced by minorities in the state by the
Hindutva brigade Govt. Just few examples among many: As per Human Development
Report, 2011-12, poverty headcount ratio among the muslims is highest in the
state of Gujarat; as per report of the Ministry on Minority Affairs, Govt of
India, (2011-12), the central scheme on scholarship for minority students, with
75% funding by the centre was allowed to lapse owing to state Govt not sending
proposals to centre, thereby depriving around 52000 minority students in that
year. There are many more examples of such discrimination.
Therefore,
fighting against the communal forces and their allies in the forthcoming
political battle of General Elections is of crucial importance; it is not
merely a battle for defeating the communal forces in occupying the power at the
centre, it is integral to the struggle for defending the unity of the people
and integrity of the nation from the assault of communal fascists supported by
the international corporate interests in alliance with the domestic big-business
as junior partner.
*** *** *** ***
The
working class is faced therefore with a crucial task in the run up to
forthcoming Lok Sabha election. We must fight for a decisive defeat of the
anti-people policy regime being carried forward by Congress led UPA and BJP-led
NDA who are serving and destined to serve the interests of the rich and
big-business class, both domestic and foreign, while playing fraud and
deception on the mass of the populace.
This fraud and deception game, both by Congress
and BJP needs to be thoroughly exposed. Illusions and myth being sought to be
created around the anti-people policy package being practiced and touted by
both Congress and BJP both by themselves and the corporate serving media need
to be totally exploded with the contempt it deserves. Their deceptive
camouflage of “aam-admi chanting” and “inclusive-growth” postures need to be
torn asunder bringing forth the real face and machinations of their policies
and programmes so that enemies to people and the nation can be recognized by
the people in their true colour. And simultaneously, alternatives to the
present anti-people policy regime, a truly inclusive and sustainable growth
strategy with the peoples’ right and welfare at the centre which is being
formulated through united struggle of the working class against the grievous
fall out of the anti-people policy regime must be put forth. The Left parties
have been consistently fighting for such alternatives and already formulated
the programmes of the alternative policy platform. The working class movement
must throw its might in support of the Left and also in support of that
alternative platform which unequivocally voiced the basic demands of the
workers and their trade unions and the people at large. That is the only way, the fight on the
demands of the working people can be heightened to the fight against the very
policies bringing miseries on their lives and livelihood and also against the
nefarious pro-corporate politics behind those policies. Offensive has to be
mounted for total rejection of such politics for carrying the nation to
pro-people truly inclusive and sustainable trajectory of development.
Let
us unite and fight for alternative to anti-people anti-nation neoliberal
policies, defeat the corporate serving politics of neoliberalism which also
includes the communal fascist forces.
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