EDITORIAL OF PEOPLE’S DEMOCRACY DATED 02-01-2011: UNLEASH MORE, MIGHTIER STRUGGLES IN 2011!

PEOPLE’S DEMOCRACY WISHES ITS READERS A VERY HAPPY NEW YEAR.

Unfortunately, these greetings come with our deep sympathies with the people who are groaning under the relentless economic burdens being mounted on them. The continuous rise in the prices of all essential commodities since the return to government of the UPA has grievously eroded the living standards of the vast mass of our people. In a situation where 77 per cent of our population barely survives at subsistence levels, on Rs 20 or less in a day, this wave of cruel rises in the prices is clearly pushing many more into the conditions of dire poverty.

The year 2010 began with abnormally high prices of sugar at over Rs 50 a kg and tur dal at nearly Rs 100 a kg, apart from all other items of daily consumption becoming costlier. Now the year ends with the prices of onions shooting up to over Rs 70 a kg in almost all metros. This has had a cascading effect on the prices of other vegetables and edibles. The government’s argument that this is due to a mismatch between supply and demand is, to say the least, far from being convincing. In Delhi, the onion supply increased by over 60 per cent since 2008, yet the wholesale prices have jumped by over 300 per cent. As with sugar last year, the export of onions was liberalised this year despite indications that this could create shortages and consequently price escalations. In fact, incentives were provided to such exports. India’s onion exports have increased from 7.8 lakh metric tonnes in 2005-06 to nearly 19 lakh metric tonnes in 2009-10. The government has now banned these exports following the public uproar over this price rise. It has now allowed onion imports without any duties, i.e., it is subsidising these imports, to control their prices. Incentives for exports and subsidies for imports clearly provide a bonanza of profits for the same trading companies. As noted in these columns last week, the cumulative value of trade in agricultural commodities from April 1 to November 30 this year was Rs 8,36,605.53 crore. In the corresponding period last year, this was Rs 7,66,133.46 crore. Such a sharp rise clearly indicates that there are super profits to be made through speculative trading. Yet, the government refuses to ban or suspend such speculative trading in essential commodities. Does this not suggest yet another scam at the expense of the people’s livelihood?

Speaking about scams, 2010 has been a landmark year in independent India’s history. The mother of all scams – the 2G spectrum scam – came along with scams connected with illegal mining, land allocations, IPL cricket tournament, the Commonwealth Games, Adarsh housing society scam, etc, etc. The 2G spectrum scam alone was estimated by the CAG to have cost the exchequer more than Rs 1.76 lakh crore. These lakhs of crores of rupees, that are being looted through such large-scale corruption, are depriving our people of a better livelihood standard. If the government could collect these legitimate revenues rather than allowing them to be siphoned off, and spend them on social sector schemes, that would have positively contributed to enhancing the livelihood levels of our people – the aam admi.

This UPA-II government is, however, displaying a callous lack of concern on this score, raising strong and legitimate suspicions of its complicity in permitting such a massive loot of our resources. Its obdurate refusal to accept the demand of the entire opposition in parliament to constitute a joint parliamentary committee (JPC) into the 2G spectrum scam has led to the unprecedented ‘wasted’ winter session of parliament. After the session ended sine die, the prime minister announced that he had nothing to hide and that he was willing to face the parliament’s Public Accounts Committee (PAC). If this very same statement was made in parliament at the very outset of the winter session, may be things would have been different. Further, if the prime minister is willing to appear before the PAC, then why not before a JPC? Both the PAC and the JPC are, after all, joint parliamentary committees. The former, however, is confined to examine, by definition, the accounts only.

What is required in the present instance, however, is to evolve a set of new regulations, and if necessary laws, to ensure that such massive manipulations of our system permitting colossal loots are prevented in the future. This would be the central agenda of the JPC. Recollect that it was only after the JPC recommendations on the Harshad Mehta stock market scam that regulations strengthening our financial sector operations were brought into effect.

All these apart, this year also stands out as one which saw a serious attack on the parliament and the institutions of parliamentary democracy. Apart from the virtual annulling of the winter session of parliament, the functioning of central government agencies like the Central Bureau of Investigation, Central Vigilance Commission etc have also come under clout. As we go to press, there are reports that raids have been conducted by some of these agencies on the prime suspects in the 2G and CWG scams. Raids after the lapse of such a long time are bound to yield very little other than to serve as a public relations exercise for the government.

All these developments have only strengthened the direction of drift of this UPA-II government further. This, in turn, is feeding speculation of political uncertainties in the year to come. Our experience this year shows that if a government has to function effectively, it is not only a question of numbers for a majority in Lok Sabha; to a far greater extent it is the question of a clear agenda based on a vision of improving the quality of life of our people and, thus, creating a better India. On this score, this government is found to be singularly wanting despite the fact that it has been rubbing shoulders at the ‘high table’ with the G-20, or despite the propaganda associated with having the leaders of all P-5 countries paying state visits to India.

These developments define the agenda for our people in the year to come. Unless strong popular pressure is mounted on the government through popular struggles, the desire of building a better India cannot be achieved. We, as a people and as a country, have, in us, the potential to scale greater heights --- both in economic development and social equity. This, however, can be only achieved if the government policies are based on a vision of creating a better India for our people and in preventing the loot of our country’s resources. The government must be made to do so.

Greetings for mightier struggles in 2011 to create a better India for our people!

Source: People’s Democracy

PEOPLE’S DEMOCRACY ON DICHOTOMY IN GOVT’S PROCLAMATIONS AND PRACTICE

THE plenary session of the AICC was held at Burari, in rural Delhi at a time when the Congress-led UPA government is being battered by corruption scandals, one after another. The triumphalist mood engendered by the May 2009 Lok Sabha elections has dissipated. Relentless price rise, an intractable agrarian crisis and narrowing employment opportunities have severely dented the “aam admi” platform of the Congress. The organisation is facing increasing problems -- the revolt by Jaganmohan Reddy in Andhra Pradesh and the failure to achieve any breakthrough in the Bihar assembly elections being pointers.

Faced with the avalanche of corruption and the loss of credibility of the prime minister and the government in tackling such scandals, the Congress leadership decided that offence is the best form of defence. It accused the BJP of hypocrisy while talking about corruption and correctly pointed to the record of the NDA government and the present Karnataka government. However, the political resolution has accused the CPI (M) too of actively indulging in corruption in the states where it runs governments. The Congress party knows very well that not a single minister in the Left-led governments is facing a corruption charge. The speech of the Congress president sought to put the Congress on a high moral pedestal as far as corruption is concerned by claiming to have taken prompt action in removing chief ministers and ministers even before corruption charges were established against them. What is not admitted is that the chief minister of Maharashtra and others had to be removed when it became untenable for them to continue in office in the light of mounting evidence of wrong doing.

There is no sign of realisation that the Congress party has become steeped in corruption due to the nexus of big business and government which has developed under its dispensation. The Congress leadership sees nothing wrong in having its ministers in government promoting the interests of big corporates and getting favours in return. The refusal of the UPA government to have a joint parliamentary committee enquiry into the 2G spectrum scandal stands out as an example of how the Congress refuses to come to terms with the rot that has set in the higher echelons of the government.

Both the political and economic resolutions adopted in the session seek to portray the party as pursuing social democratic policies. This is just a camouflage. The economic resolution talks of the rights of the people as the centerpiece of its policies of inclusive growth. The right to work, the right to education, the right to land, the right to food etc. But there is a curious dichotomy in the proclamation of these rights and the practice of the government. The economic resolution declares that “the right to land has been, by and large, assured to the tiller of the land”. This breathtaking pronouncement ignores the fact that land reforms have not been implemented in most states except in a limited fashion. All over the country the peasantry is being dispossessed of land thanks to the policy of helping the land grab by the corporates and mining companies. The right to food remains a distant dream for the millions who are hungry and malnutritioned. The primary responsibility for this is the central government’s policy of eroding and limiting the public distribution system. The resolution vainly tries to put the blame on the state governments.

The resolution talks of the key role for the public sector when the Manmohan Singh government is busy selling off shares of the most profitable public sector enterprises. It tries to mislead the people by assuring that having 51 per cent equity will ensure government control. The right to education is being curtailed by the new policies of the UPA government which seeks to promote an elite educational system catering to the better off and privileged sections through rampant commercialisation and privatisation.

On the political issues, the political resolution attacks the CPI (M) and the Left by making the false allegation that in West Bengal, Kerala and Tripura there is a cycle of violence for political or electoral advance. In West Bengal, the Congress party is playing the role of a junior partner to the Trinamul Congress in its violent assaults on the CPI (M) and the Left. In districts like Murshidabad and Burdhaman, the Congress party is resorting to physical attacks on CPI (M) cadres. In Tripura, the Congress has the history from the time of Rajiv Gandhi of allying with the separatist forces which have been indulging in terrorist violence just to weaken the CPI (M) and the Left Front. In Kerala, the Congress party does not have any hesitation in joining hands with the caste and communal forces to fight the CPI (M) and the LDF.

The political resolution resorts to a canard by accusing the Left parties of working in tandem with the BJP in opposing the Congress and the UPA. The CPI (M) and the Left are opposed to the economic and foreign policy positions of the Congress and the UPA government. In fact it is the Congress and the BJP that have a common approach of following neo-liberal economic policies and a pro-US foreign policy.

The foreign policy resolution reads like a report card of the external affairs ministry of the UPA government. It seeks to mask the reality that India has moved into the orbit of the United States as far as foreign policy is concerned. One of the Wikileaks cables from the US embassy in New Delhi stated with satisfaction that Indian officials are coordinating foreign policy with the United States, though they are loathe to admit this publicly. The resolution states that “The traditional leadership role of India in leading from the front the Third World and movements for emancipation of Asia and Africa has evolved into a 21^st century leadership for an equitable global order.” If only this were true. There is no doubt that India has abandoned the leading role in the third world and movements for emancipation. What has replaced it is a quest for becoming a “global power” under US auspices.

On the completion of 125 years of its foundation, the Congress party shows symptoms of decay which has set in due to the corrosive effects of becoming an instrument of the big bourgeoisie naked for power and privileges divorced from the problems and issues of the “aam admi”.

(December 22, 2010)

Source: www.pd.cpim.org/