WILL THE OUTCOME OF ELECTIONS HELP US TO MOVE FORWARD?

WILL THE OUTCOME OF ELECTIONS HELP US TO MOVE FORWARD?

In the current elections we are faced with two options.  Option no one is whole sale Neo Liberal economy or directionless opportunist politics.  In the first option we have two political parties, the Congress and the Bharatiya Janata Party.  In the second option we have all and sundry parties at regional level, which at one time come under third alternative, another time federal front or united front.  We do not know where these parties stand.  While standing alone they are no different from the Congress and the BJP. 

BJD in Odisha, while it has parted company with BJP supports neo liberal policies as much as the Congress and the BJP.  Their support to POSCO, exploitation of mineral wealth, and displacement of the adivasies they are more efficient than these two national parties. 

Chandra Babu Naidu of TDP called himself as CEO of the liberal agenda.  He had totally forgotten the rural masses and paid not even lip service to the interests of the farmers.  He was shown the door by the voters and he is out of power for last ten years.

Nitish Kumar has become a new face of efficient champion of growth model of development.  He was credited to have shown growth more than the national average rate of growth.

Samajwadi party of Mulayam Singh is Samajwadi only in name.  His party rides on politics of caste and minority.  There is nothing that can be said about his achievement either for the weaker section and minorities or for the growth.

Trina Mool Congress (TMC), Bahujan Samaj Party (BSP), DMK and AIDMK fall under the same categories as other regional parties.

All these small and sundry parties are known for their opportunism. There are deep contradictions between them. SP and BSP are opposed to each other as they are in UP; DMK and AIDMK are opposed to each other; TMC cannot stand CPI, CPM and the left oriented parties.  Neither as individual parties nor as an in alliance do they exhibit any strength to come to power at the centre.  Except for Samajwadi party all of these parties at one time or the other, have been in alliance with BJP.  SP has given outside support to the UPA government.  But one does not miss noticing their open hostility to the Congress Party.

All these parties recently opposed UPA for opening a path for FDI in retail.  But that does not characterize them as opposing ‘Neo Liberal Policies’.  There seems to be one character they all share and that is being opportunist parties.  They have always aligned with the winning coalition.  Ram Vilas Paswan has shown this very well.  He was in NDA coalition government under the leadership of Vajpayee.  In 2002 he came out of the coalition under protest because of the killing of Muslims when Modi was ruling in Gujarat.  But he has no problems in joining NDA even though they have projected the same Modi as their prime ministerial candidate.

What is apparent in the political drama that is being unfolded before us is that there is one very strong trend represented by two opposing parties, BJP and INC, i.e. strong support for Neo liberal Ideology.  The only difference between them is that one follows out right communal, Hindu nationalist agenda and the other follows pseudo secularism.  The regional parties reflect the micro image of these two national parties.  But they have a luxury of opposing both these parties and when needed align with any one of these.  This summarises the political drama of our country.

The dream of the common people on the road is different. It is sad to say that all the political parties are playing on the dreams of aam admi.  The people want to see that there is over all development taking place, development that ensures people right to employment, food security, education, health care, right to land and housing.  Nobody wants to live in or see poverty around. All believe that this could be achieved by good governance which can be guaranteed by efficient and corruption free politics.  There is nothing new in this dream of the common people.  But it is a far cry!  Whether it is the opposition parties or the ruling political dispensation, not body has done a mighty little to ensure this to the common citizens.

How does one explain this?  It is not very difficult to find answer to this.  Throughout the history of India since independence, specifically from the second generation politics of our nation, the political system has existed and functioned for the interests of the capitalist class.  Growth has been the mantra of development.  It is believed that once growth is attained the benefits of growth will percolate to the people at the bottom.  By growth we should realise that it is not growth in common wealth over which all have right.  Growth is the growth of the capital of the capitalists.  In other words development is equated with the growth of capital of the capitalists.  Since independence what has percolated to the people at the bottom is absolutely nothing. Now under the neo liberal ideology the government has been shedding its responsibility for social welfare.  We have seen massive drive towards privatization.  Privatization was taken so seriously that NDA had instituted a ministry for disinvestment, (another name for privatization). Education is being privatized, health is privatized in such a way that even in government hospitals the poor have to pay bribe to get health care.  The government is asked to be responsible only for governance.  What does governance means?  It means being a facilitator for the growth of investment, creating mechanism for smooth functioning of capitalism by insuring industrial peace.

As long as we follow Neo Liberal path of development neither the health of our politics will improve nor the health of our nation. 

Our nation is situated at the fringe of the global capitalist system.  Our efforts to develop into a growth oriented economy are taking place in the context of the global economy.  This necessarily gives rise to unequal development both in the context of international economy and also within our nation state.

The growth story of India is fired mainly by foreign investors.  To attract foreign investments the government has to create favourable conditions for foreign capital to function in India.  Creating conditions that would facilitate foreign investment means our government would curtail democratic rights of the workers to organize and fight for job securities, just wages and better working conditions.  There is large scale out sourcing of jobs, employment of contractors who employ people without job security and even without fair wages.  The glorified soft ware professionals do not have any organization, no benefits like bonus, or even security of job.

On the other hand there had been large scale corruption emanating from the corporate.  The 2G scam is fundamentally driven by the corporate who wanted to buy spectrum at easy terms.  Coal gate too was primarily for the benefit of the steel and power industries who wanted to buy cheap coal without any concern for environment.  The attempt to double the price of gas was solely done for the benefit of Mukesh Ambani’s Reliance Company.  It has been argued that since this price rise of gas is on hold it will lead to retard the flow of foreign capital to India.

When there is an attempt to deal with corruption it sends shivers in the spine of the foreign capital.  When the Supreme Court cancelled the 2G licences there was a hue and cry as it would drive foreign capital away from India.

India signed the great Civil Nuclear Treaty with United States of America.  Manmohan Singh had personally attached a great importance to it even at the risk to his Government.  Because of this treaty the Congress lost the valuable left allies once and for all.  But with all the drama that surrounded this treaty Manmohan Singh did not see any investment coming to Indian from America.  The single reason for total failure of the nuclear treaty is Nuclear Liability Act.  When a major liability of disaster is fixed on the suppliers of nuclear equipment the foreign investment shies away.  Like in Bhopal gas tragedy the investors in the nuclear plants want to wash their hands from the consequences to people after nuclear disaster.

Foreign investment has become very crucial for Indian Economy not only for growth. It is also linked up to management of current account deficit or balance of payment.  We need to import goods from foreign countries and we also export goods to foreign countries.  If our import is higher than export then we have negative balance of payment or higher current account deficit. Government tries to meet the gap in CAD by using the flow of foreign capital.  A safe level of CAD is considered to be at 2.5% of GDP.  But this level shoots up to above 5% of GDP.  To correct this imbalance there should be more export and less import.  But our imports shoot above our export.  Hence the foreign trade is unsuccessful in managing our CAD at the permissible level.  Therefore we look to the foreign investments.  But this money that comes to India through foreign investments belongs to the investors.  In times of difficulties this foreign capital flies away from our country.  Foreign investment or flow of foreign capital is so whimsical that every turn of event or even at rumours it tends to fly away from the country.

The impact of being integrated in the global capital puts our economy under pressure from international capital.  We begin to move away from our real economy and take shelter in the very uncertain and risky capital flow in to our country.  Whether it is matter of growth, employment or stability of our economy the whimsical flow of capital in and out does not help.  We need to rely on the domestic wealth to organize our house.  In 1971 Indira Gandhi understood the value of building strong domestic economy.  She declared that her goal was to move away from import dependence to domestic production.  Whether it was in the case of arms or any other commodity our country can become strong by moving from import dependence to self reliance.  If we fail to make this move away from import dependence and foreign investment we will continue to remain under pressure of foreign capital and will put the fate of our population at risk.

To make this shift we require a political will.  But when our political dispensation is stuck in the slush of neo liberal ideology there will not be any move towards that.  The regional parties make a lot of noise but their noise is too opportunistic.

The coming elections do not offer us any hope in this direction.  Almost all the parties have no clue about the path our nation should take.  They cry foul by repeating the curse of licence raj or inefficient and loss making public sector.  They should try to set this system right.  Instead they run after neo liberal ideology.  Our economic advisers are drawn from the United States of America, such as Goldman Sachs, Morgan Stanley.  We are worried about how Moody’s credit rating agency will evaluate our economy.  They not only offer advice to us and rate our credit worthiness; they also dictate to us what kind of government we should have.