Political irony: it takes courage to be
coward!
Today
we find ourselves in irony of sort. This irony is both on
political level as well as economic level.
On Political Level: The parties who oppose each other and some
sit on the extreme poles from each other find themselves on the same side.
Trinamool
congress of Mamata Banergee is a staunch opponent of the Left
Front. The cadres of CPM and Trinamool kill each
other. But today they speak in the same tune. They oppose
Congress’ reform programme. Similarly, the BJP is an antithesis of
the Left Front, CPM, in particular. But both the parties will be
together in Bharat Bandh on 20th of
September. Sitaram Yechuri spoke in exactly the same language as
L.K. Advani while announcing the date for Bharat Bandh. This scenario speaks for the chaos in our
political situation in the country.
This
is exactly the same scenario we find in the
economic situation.
The
Coalgate scam has revealed that every political party is in involved in this
scam. Starting with the Left Front government, Binju Janata Dal
and ending with BJP everyone has a share in this scam. BJP who makes
a hue and cry of the (perceived) loss in the coal gate did not have any
issue in making the entire monsoon session get washed out in the flood of their
agitations in the house of the Parliament. This loss is a loss to
the public exchequer.
Today
we seem to be in another crisis caused by the so called courageous stand taken by
Manmohan Singh. He has announced the series of reforms to bring the
nation out of crisis and put it on growth mode.
BJP’s
call for National bandh on 20th of September is an irony. In the heart of heart BJP has nothing against
these reforms. They would have carried out these reforms ten years
ago. BJP’s spokesperson Mr. Piyush claimed to the NDTV that NDA
disinvested only loss making Public sector units. This is a false claim as NDA had disinvested
profit making units at rock bottom prices by lumping these with the loss making
units. "Rs. 87 crores shares were sold stood at Rs 34.83, as
compared with the average price of Rs 109.61 realized since then."
"In June 2002, Batra Hospitality Private Limited (BHPL) acquired the
Centaur Hotel at Mumbai airport for Rs 83 crore on a 'slump sale' basis,
involving the transfer of the entire business and property of the hotel to the
buyer. A few months later, in October 2002, BHPL sold the same property to the
Sahara India group for Rs 115 crore. The fact that BHPL could earn a
close-to-40 per cent return on its investment in the matter of four months
makes clear that the original sale price was grossly undervalued."
C.P.
Chandrasekhar has brought out in his most recent article in the Front Line the
irony of growth. Let me quote:
“Judged
in terms of content and not just outcomes, economic reform under
the UPA has involved reshaping the role of the state. Earlier, especially
during the post-Independence years until the 1970s, the role of the state was
seen as that of using the tax-cum-subsidy regime as a means to raise the rate
of investment in the economy and ensure that such investment was allocated
across sectors in ways considered appropriate for maximising growth. This not
only made the state a growth-leader of sorts, but required it to regulate and
also engage in economic activity, including production.
“Unfortunately,
the outcome of this strategy pursued relentlessly by UPA I and II despite the
"lack of consensus" has been quite divisive. While growth has boosted
profits and delivered some benefits to a small upper-middle class, it has
failed to ensure employment and livelihoods for the majority. The results from
the National Sample Survey with reference year 2009-10 suggest that while the
deceleration of employment growth recorded during 1993-94 to 1999-2000 had been
partially reversed in the period 1999-2000 to 2004-05, the record over the five
years after 2004-05 is even worse than it was during the 1990s. Over the
five-year period 2004-05 to 2009-10, employment declined at an annual rate of
0.34 per cent in rural areas and rose at the rate of just 1.36 per cent in urban
areas. In the aggregate, the volume of principal and subsidiary status
employment rose by a negligible 0.1 per cent. This period included the years
when GDP growth was at its highest. But that growth did not generate
livelihoods for the unemployed and the underemployed in the
country.” C.P. Chandrasekhar, “Nation Redefined”, Front Line Sept
21, 2012.
What
Manmohan calls as a bold step and a big risk is in reality an easy way out of
the present economic slowdown. Creating a climate for foreign investment
is not an act of great courage. It is a surrender of a weak and
helpless nation. It does not need courage to make the foreign
investors to come and take over. This approach comes from a false
notion of development.
The
only people who praised this move of Manmohan Singh are the corporates and the
American press. There were no takers of this reform in other section of
people in India.
It
would have taken a great courage on the part of the Prime Minister to bring
about reform in agriculture. It would need a great vision to bring about
land reform and infrastructure development in rural area so that the
productivity and growth in agriculture could be speeded up. This
would generate employment in rural area, stop migration and generate demand so
that we do not need to worship the holy cow of export dependent
economy. Export dependence has another face called import
dependent. These both faces get squared up and in the process the
large population, particularly in the country side get left out of the
development goals.
I
would particularly like to invite the Left Parties to do a little bit of
introspection rather than tail the BJP in participating in their Bharat Bandh
on 20th of September. It is important that they should set for themselves
a task of increasing their influence among people and in the political process
to bring the poor, the oppressed and the exploited to the centre stage of
politics and economic development. They had discounted the
possibility of a Third Front. While this could be right calculation
they should realise that the rightness of this calculation is because the Left
is of no consequence in the political scene of the country. Their hands are soiled with the blood of the farmers who gave their lives in opposing land acquisition in Nandigram and Singur.
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