Monetization of Assets Pipeline

 

Wither India

With The National Monetization Pipeline

 

What is the National Monetization Pipeline?

The government, and particularly, the finance ministry has announced that a list of public assets will be leased to the private investors for a period of time to raise Rs. 6 lakh crore over the next four years.

What Assets? Only those assets which are already operational, will be leased out to the private investors. 

26,700 Kms highways worth Rs.1.6 Lakh (L) Crore (Cr); - 400 Railway stations and 150 trains (Rs.1.5 L. Cr); - 42,300 Circuit Kms of Power Transmission Lines (Rs.0.67 L. Cr); - 5,000 MW Hydro, Solar and Wind Power Generation assets (Rs.0.32 L. Cr); - 8,000 Kms of National Gas Pipelines (Rs.0.24 L. Cr); - 4,000 Kms Pipelines of IOC and HPCL (Rs.0.22 L. Cr); BSNL and MTNL Towers (Rs.0.39 L. Cr); - 21 Airports and 31 Ports (Rs.0.34 L. Cr); 160 Coal Mining projects (Rs.0.32 L. Cr); and 2 Sport Stadiums (Rs.0.11 L. Cr) etc. for various durations of lease. It is claimed that the funds so generated will be invested in expanding infrastructure.

The assets in creation, in the process of building up will not be included.  These could be considered to be leased out only when the building of these assets is completed.  The building up or completion of, or creation of assets has to be done by the government.

We have already in existence the assets which have been leased out, such as the airports. Adani has been given the Mumbai Chhatrapati Shivaji airport, Thiruvananthapuram airport for the purpose of operation.  And Mundra port in Kutch which had in one of its containers massive quantities of drugs coming from Afghanistan.

The leasing out of the assets means that the ownership of the assets remains with the government but they will remain at the disposal of the investors during the period of the lease agreement.  Once the lease period is over the assets will be handed over back to the Government.

The investors will pay the government lease amount for each of these assets.  This amount may not be the cost of the creation of the assets.  This lease amount will become an income for the government.  The government would like to earn about Rs. 5.96 lakh crore.  As far as the investors are concerned, they will run the assets, eg., the airport, and earn money for themselves.  If the government was running these assets, they would also earn the money for the government. But the time the government would earn the money equivalent to the lease amount, it will take several years.  Leasing the assets will give the government immediately this amount and investors will recover their investment and their profit over a period of time.

The government says by leasing the assets to the investors they will free the capital (investment) stuck in these assets.  The government will immediately get back quite a substantial part of the money invested, (about 14% of the total investment) in these assets from the lease.  The government can invest this lease amount to create new assets and infrastructure. In this manner the National Monetization Pipeline (NMP) will boost the Indian economy.    This will help the economy to move forward. It will generate new employment and new infrastructure.  Further the newly created infrastructure can be leased out to more investment by the private capital leading to government earning and further investing in creation of new assets and creating more employment leading to growth. This pipeline will be a continuous process.

What are the fault lines of this NMP?

1.      First of all, we must understand that the assets being offered for leasing have been created through the contribution of the citizens, all of whom pay either direct or indirect taxes to the government.  The citizens have stakes in the management and operation of these assets.  They have elected a government to govern which means the government and their agencies should operate these assets for the public interest and not to be handed over to the private capital to generate profit for themselves.  The assets offered over the private investors are performing assets which serve the people.

2.      There is a big doubt if the private capital will come forward to take the public assets on lease.  There is a standing offer to them of the sale of Air India.  But there are no takers for this airline.  The buyers have to abide by some stringent conditions which keep them away.  Those who come forward to take the assets on lease will prefer to take most profit-making assets, like airports, harbour and ports.  Finally, only two or three investors like Ambani and Adani will come forward.  This will lead to formation of monopoly and oligarchs.

3.      The governments in the past have tried other means to hand over the assets to the private capital through schemes like “Disinvestments”, “Public Private Partnership”.  These have not worked well.  In the case of disinvestment, the government has sold the profit-making assets for a song, resulting in handing over tax payers’ assets to the capitalists.  The Centaur hotel of Mumbai was sold at a very lowest price.  The buyer sold this hotel within a month making huge profits.  The new buyer is making a roaring business out of it.  Finally, it the public that have lost their wealth to the private capital.

4.      The government will lease out to the private capital assets built by the government from the taxpayers' money.  When these assets, like Airports, Railways, roads, ports and harbours go under the control of the private capital.  They will try to get maximum profit out of it.  When the private capital hands over these assets to the government after the stipulated time we will not be able to know the condition in which these assets will be returned. 

“A farmer buys a young healthy, milk yielding cow.  He leases it out to a milkman for three or four years.  The milkman milks the cow and feeds less to make maximum profit.  After three or four years the farmer gets the cow back in a miserable condition, under nourished and low milk yielding cow.”

5.      If these assets are leased to the cronies of the government as it has happened in the case of airports it will result in monopoly.  If the private players (monopolists) charge the consumers high consumer fees, then the consumer will suffer.  Initially the consumers pay to build these assets through their tax money and the same assets land in the hands of the private capital who further exploits the consumer.

6.      In the year 1991, Narasimha government along with Dr. Manmohan Singh liberalized the Indian Economy.  The economy was liberalized, opened to the world market, for private investment.  This reform has seen a sea change in the Indian economy.  We have a lot of foreign investors in the country.  There was indeed high growth.

7.      But on the other hand, we have seen a lot of petty producers pushed out of production.  The industrial growth has led to the forcible displacement of peasants from their land.  If we take an example of tribal population then we will see that their land holding which had been sustaining their families have been forcibly evacuated from their land and their lands have been taken over by Adani and Vedantas to explore minerals. From 1991 to 2011 the number of cultivators has fallen by 15 million.  These people have been reduced to wage labourers or keep migrating to the cities in search of non-existing employment.  Of course, the economy has seen tremendous growth. We have noticed that the GDP growth and growth in employment is inversely related.  We can see the way auto industries are organized.  The high automation has improved the quality of cars but it has not created proportionately equal employment.  In many cases it has displaced the workers.

8.      The reform in the labour laws have encouraged foreign and domestic investment and industrialization.  But it has reduced the bargaining power of the workers.  There is a widespread practice of contract labour.  Usually the semiskilled workers, as and when needed by the industries, were hired through the contractors.  But now even the highly skilled workers are hired through contract labour.

9.      The three farm laws which the Modi government has introduced will reduce the farmers to the condition of contract farmers.  The procurement and farm market will be controlled by Ambani and Adani.  Farmers will become mere extensions of the corporates who have already built massive store houses to store food grains.  These corporations can even create artificial famine by hoarding food grains, forcing the poor to starve.

 

10.  The real issue we would like to address here is how far the government can go in following this Paradigm of development”? 

 

The state wants to transfer the wealth of the society to the wealthy capital owners and reduce the rest of humanity into mere wage labourers who would have to rely on the wages, having no share in the wealth of the society. The society to be divided into a few oligarchs and the rest of the people into wage labourers having no share in the capital of the society.  By allowing these oligarchs to own the society’s wealth these oligarchs will rule the state.  This will make the government to rule for these oligarchs.  The wage labourers may have houses, three square meals, health care and education but they will have no share in the society and the capital created from their taxes.  The meaning of their lives will be reduced to eternally wage labourers. In India, it is not only the pace of growth that will impress people, but also the pace of their inclusion in it. Those who are being left behind, including tribals, do not want to be mere passive beneficiaries of state handouts and corporate philanthropy. They want to be respected, earning their own incomes and growing their own wealth.

 

11.  Citizenship as wage labourers for the capital:  If after monetizing the national assets the government may invest the proceeds for creation of new assets.  It will give rise to employment opportunities.  But who will be the end beneficiary of this?  This investment will be to create wealth for the private capital. The lives of the wage labourers always hang on the temporary strings.  When the string becomes weak the life becomes precarious and when the string breaks the labourers fall flat on the ground.  We have experienced this during the pandemic.  The labourers were the most affected population of the society.  There were a huge number of people who lost their jobs; the miseries of the migrant labourers have remained on the TV screens long enough to be forgotten.  While the working class was pushed into the depth of poverty and suffering the private capital owners’ wealth grew in multiples.

12.  To prevent opposition or revolt from the toiling masses the state assumed a greater repressive nature, abolishing the right to protest, frequently using draconian laws like UAPA, sedition that goes to deprive the rights of citizenship for people who dare to think and express their opinion.  Reform in the trade union laws which deprive the right of the workers to bargain, demand for fair wages, security of employment.

13.   “A farmer grazing his cattle in the land near the National highway no 7 says, “life has become hard for us because our space has been taken away from us.  This highway which came up right in front of our eyes has taken away so many of our cattle, sheep and goats.  We used to be afraid of tigers which would sometimes take away our cattle.  The tigers have gone and vultures like these highways have come.  Nowadays these highways have been fenced, preventing us from entering the highway roads.  We cannot cross these roads.  Our bullock cart cannot enter the road.”

14.  Nation building is primarily making all citizens feel that this nation belongs to them; that they have a share in the wealth of the nation.  

 

Murder of Fr. Stan because he was a prophet

 

MURDER OF A PROPHET:

 

Father Stan was murdered.  He was murdered because he believed in the truth. He had the courage to speak the truth to the power. But the power did not have the honesty to listen to the truth.  The power was and is wedded to the economically powerful.  The power works for and defend the interests of the economically powerful.

Stan could not have been killed like Gowri Lankesh, Gowind Pansare and M. M. Kalburgi. Stan was living in the midst of Adivasis in Jharkhand area.  The Adivasis’ organized nature was a great protection to Stan, whom they considered as their leader and savior.  The state could not find any ground on which they could arrest him.  They had to plant incriminating documents into his computer to show to the world that he was plotting against the Indian State.  He was linked to the Bhima Koregaon case.  He never went to Bhima Koregaon, nor did he have any link or knowledge about the event there.

Stan Swamy was killed only because he was working with the Adivasis, fighting along with the Adivasis for the implementation of “Forest Right Act” (FRA, 2006) and of PESA (Panchayat Extension to Schedule Area, 1996) that ensured the right of the Adivasis for their self-rule, guaranteed in the fifth Schedule of the constitution of India.

Stan had heavily relied on the scientific understanding of the society.  He has been analysing the economic, political and social structures of the society.

If there is a massive poverty in India it is because there are rich people in India.  Poverty is a direct consequence of the fact of rich having control on the wealth of the world.  The rich not only have the control on the wealth of the society, they have political power to keep them in their position of wealth and power.  The entire economic, political and social system in the country begets poverty.  He used to quote Julius Nyerere, the then President of Tanzania saying.  “Just as when it rains, the water flows from the driest region to the lakes and seas where there is abundance of water the wealth from the hands of the poor flows into the hands of the rich who are already very rich.  The rich not only have wealth but they have power over the lives of the poor.  The economic and political system that exists in the society functions in such a way that the rich become richer and the poor become poorer as a consequence of naturally functioning of the organization of the society.

In the context of the Jharkhand tribal areas, he perceived that the Adivasis who are original inhabitants (indigenous people) of the place were cheated, exploited and oppressed by the urban rich.  These people have right to the land on which they have been living for thousands of years owned that land.  But their land possessed world’s richest minerals.  The Adivasis were the owners of the land therefore they were also the owners of the wealth beneath their land.  The urban sharks, like Adanis wanted to displaced the Adivasis and extract the minerals from the Adivasis’ land.  Several corporations had come to the area with money and technology to mine the place.  The Adivasis were united and they wanted to know what plans these sharks had and how the wealth beneath the soil going to be shared.  They demanded that they should get 50% of the wealth beneath their land.  These cronies had to go empty handed.  Father Stan and the Organization of the Adivasis were the biggest hurdle in the path of the Adanies of India.  Hence it was essential to take Fr. Stan out of their path. 

Stan was booked under UAPA.  UAPA does not allow the accused bale.  Once accused the onus of proving innocent lies on the accused.  UAPA deprives the accused their citizenship.  Going by the treatment Stan received UAPA treats the accused unfit for any human care.

Fr. Stan has been part of the Jesuit Society, a society which has made the largest contribution to India in the field of education.  They have the most prestigious education institutions in which many of our politicians, even from BJP party, have studies.  Fr. Stan did not believe in violence.  Due to his vow of poverty, he did not have a bank account and for his needs he will have to go to his superiors to get money for that.  He was never involved in any conflict or social disturbance. The investigating agency had to fabricate evidences and plant in his computer.  Both investigating agency and the judiciary hatched a plot to kill him exactly in the manner he died.  They have blood on their hands.  There is no way we can explain why he was not given medical care, his multiple illnesses were not taken note of, he was not provided sipper to help him to drink water.  They allowed his health to deteriorate to the point of no return.  They now feel they have no role in his death.  But the world knows that they have blood on their hand.

Father Stan came to Indian Social Institute, Training Centre Bangalore in 1975.  He took over the charge of the institute from Fr. Henry Volken.  Institute Social Institute was known for training social activists from across the country.

The core of the of the training was to understand what is development and what is poverty.  There was not doubt in the minds of the institute, represented by Fr. Volken, Fr. Stan Lourduswamy and Duarte Barreto, that the poor and the rich are the two sides of the same coin.

The direct consequence of this analysis is that we cannot overcome poverty by feeding the poor.  The poor are creators of the wealth of the society.  They are the ones who toil in the land and in the factories creating wealth.  What they get in return is their wages.  Along with many social scientists Indian Social Institute believed that organizing the exploited people is the only way to empower the poor who can fight for their rights.    He had no doubts in his mind that among the toiling masses the Dalits and the Adivasis were the most exploited people.  He opted to work for the Adivasis of Jharkhand where he had spent a lot of time as a young Jesuit.

After his stint of about 15 years, he left to Jharkhand to work for Adivasis.  He was convinced that he was needed in Jharkhand the most.  I have no better words to describe his conviction and commitment to the cause of the Adivasis.  I will quote his reflection on his 50^th year of priesthood.

50 yon 14^th April 2020 started off celebrating Mass with glow                                                         as often as three masses in as many places on Sundays.

But living and sharing life with Indigenous Adivasi People,       accompanying them in their struggles against                                         forcible unjust displacement,                                                                    deprival of their rights over their natural resources,                               denial of their due share in the rich minerals                                                                       dug out literally from beneath their feet,                                                   and to add insult to injury,                                                                          when they stood up to protest against injustice meted out to them, were thrown into jails in umpteen numbers . . .                                      started asking myself what ‘priesthood’ would mean                                     in this heart-rending reality.                                          

What would his sacrifice mean if not his whole life                                 a life that brought him to his death                                                                     killed by the powers that be                                                                 for he stood up against oppression of the poor and the weak.

I then decided to take on the oppressive but mighty State                        filed a case on behalf of the thousands of under-trial prisoners                   most of whom, everybody knows, are innocent                                               it was then the State decided to put me out of the way.

Multiple cases filed against me                                                                    cases as serious as ‘sedition’,                                                                       not a small solace to remind oneself                                                                                         that Jesus was also accused of ‘sedition’                                                    and paid the supreme sacrifice of his life.

Arrest-warrant issued on me, was declared an ‘absconder’,                                            my work-cum-living premise raided three times (August 2018 – October 2019)  all my personal belongings (computer to mattress & pillow) confiscated ! I now have only three things I can call my own:                                            my body, my mind, my conscience.                                                                    If I was not a Jesuit,                                                                                  would be literally on the street.

Life with uncertainties, like a swinging pendulum.                                     in one case, ‘arrest warrant’ is still live,                                                          can be activated anytime                                                                              but for the change in political regime.                                                          In the second case, can be ‘promoted’ (!)                                                     from being a ‘suspect’ to ‘accused’                                                               and thrown behind bars.

But one thing certain,                                                                                 feel privileged to walking the Way of the Cross                                          with Jesus and our people being crucified.                                             Earnestly hoping will share his death,                                                             a death that brought life, a new life,                                                            the life of the Resurrection.

 

Fr. Stand Lurduswamy S.J. was called by God

 

THE CALL OF GOD FOR FR. STAN LOURDUSWAMY

 

Once up on a time a young man was grazing sheep at the far side of a desert.  While he was sitting and keeping watch on his sheep suddenly, he saw at a distance a strange sight. He saw a bush burning but the fire was not consuming the bush.  When he went close to see the strange event, he was told that the place he was standing was holy and he should remove his sandals.  The voice from the bush said, “I have seen the humiliation of my people at the hands of their exploiters and I have heard their cries. Go now I am sending you to bring my people out of their slavery.”

Almost in a similar fashion a young boy from Tiruchirappalli was called by God to go to the tribal region of Bihar/Jharkhand to set His people free.  After his ordination on 14^th April 1970 in the Society of Jesus (S.J.) he left to Bihar/ Jharkhand to work with the Adivasis.

Stan believed that it was not enough to dole out material goods and food relief to the Adivasis.  He should work for their emancipation and development.  The only way to work for the development of the Adivasis would be to educate them to understand their rights and fight for their rights.

After working for several years in Bihar (Jharkhand) he was asked to work in Indian Social Institute the Nation’s premier research, training, and documentation institute in Bangalore.  Through this institute he trained many social workers and youth to work for rural development and nation building. He enabled them to understand the social, economic realities of our society to be able to work effectively with the Dalits, Adivasis and weaker section of the society.

After completing his term at the Indian Social Institute, he went back to Jharkhand to work with the Adivasis.  He knew that the constitution and the legal frame work has enough space for the rights of the Adivasis.  For example, “the 5^th schedule of the constitution” deals with the administration of Schedule areas as well as Scheduled Tribes residing in different states. Secondly in 1996 the central government had passed a law called “Panchayats (extension to Scheduled Areas) PESA Act 1996”.  By virtue of this act the constitution gives to the people living in the schedule area the power of self-governance through traditional Gram Sabhas.  This laws prevent outsiders to enter the schedule area to exploit the people and the natural resources for their private gain. 

The successive government did not have political will to implement these laws which protect the lives and livelihood of the Adivasis.  Fr. Stan was concerned about non implementation of the 5^th Schedule of the Indian Constitution and PESA. 

One does not need rocket science to understand why these laws were not implemented.  The schedule areas where Adivasis are living are rich with mineral resources.  The hitherto practice has been the government would evict the Adivasis from their homes and lands and hand over their land to the corporates and multinational companies to excavate the minerals below their land.  To put in the words of Fr. Stan, “every mine that is dug not only destroys the green forests, fertile lands and water bodies but displaces entire village habitations”.

Perhaps in olden days when Adivasis were ignorant and unorganized they could be easily pushed out of their land.  It is because of this mindless exploitation of the Adivasis and

With sustained work of conscientization by people like Fr. Stan Adivasis have woken up to understand their rights. Through their prolonged struggles PESA Act was passed in 1996. They have started resisting the oppression.  They started a movement called Pathal Ghadi.  They started erecting stone slabs at the entrance of every Adivasi village.  They inscribe relevant parts of the constitution and PESA Act on the slab.  They also inscribe the names of the people who have given their lives in the struggle to protect the rights of the Adivasis. The government has dealt with heavy hand with all the resistance of the Adivasis from their eviction.  More than 6000 youth are languishing in jail without charge sheet or trial.

Fr. Stan has meticulously documented the torture and the sufferings of these Adivasi youth.  Along with other civil right activists Fr. Stan has filed public interest litigations to bring relief to the Adivasis.

In response to this the government filed the case of sedition against Fr. Stan.  The National Investigation Agency has implicated him in Bhima Koregaon violence.  At first, he was only a suspect but now they have accused him of being involved in Bhima Koregao violence.  They have further accused him as a cadre of the Maoist.  They raided his office in Ranchi and took away his mobile phone and laptop.  The most atrocious things the NIA has done is they have planted material in his laptop to prove that he is a Maoist. What is ludicrous is that such material the NIA has planted in many who have been arrested in Maharastra contain the same spelling mistakes and Marathi words.  Since Stan does not know Marathi one wonders how could he use Marathi words in the documents planted in his computer.

Fr. Stan being a staunch Christian and a Jesuit priest does not believe in indulging in false hood let alone using violence.

The real issue is not that Fr. Stan is a Maoist or uses violence.  NIA’s charge sheet will not stand the test in trial court.  The real problem is that Fr. Stan has awakened the Adivasis to understand their rights to their land and homes.  They have started resisting. They are demanding a share in the wealth that lies beneath their land. This creates difficulties for the government to hand over their lands to the crony capitalists for excavating rich minerals from the lands of the Adivasis.

Fr. Stan asks, “why truth has become so bitter, dissent so intolerable and justice so out of reach.

 

 

 

 

 

 

INDIA AS A DEMOCRACY

 

INDIA AS A DEMOCRACY:

 

India is the largest democracy in the world. The world is convinced that democracy has endured in India from the time it became independent. It was only during Indira Gandhi’s rule that Indian went through a period of emergency when the constitution was held in suspension. But soon the elections were held and Indira Gandhi and the congress party were punished for their misdeeds.

 

There have been regular elections to the parliament, to the state assemblies and even to the local bodies, like municipalities and panchayats. It wouldn’t be wrong to say that every year there are elections in India. Now we are witnessing the elections in four states and in one union territory.  How do we view these elections, are they the mark of our democracy?

 Democracy becomes the central issue of governance of our nation.    We are proud that from day one of independence India has adopted universal suffrage that gave right to all adult member of the country to vote and elect a government of their wish.  But this electoral democracy has not delivered much. 

“Even the universal franchise where we give one vote to one person in a country like India it poses a problem. Our way of life has been communitarian.  Either we behave as a caste group or behave as a religious group or we behave as linguistic groups in certain situation.  Our way of life is never based on individualism.  The entire idea of democracy in the west is based on individual rights – my conscience, my belief, my faith, my family.  Whereas in India, it is “I as a Hindu”, “I as a Muslim”, “I as a Brahmin”, “I as a Lingayat”, “I as a Dalits”, “I as a Thakur”!  Therefore, democracy with universal franchise on the one hand and communitarian way of life and outlook on the other hand is the situation in India.  We tent to vote as Brahmins, for example, and not as individuals.  Those who vote as individuals are a tiny minority.  This leads the political parties to field candidates on the basis of castes and communities” (Communalism and Democratic Perspective, Asgar Ali Engineer.)

The essence of democracy does not consist in the casting of vote every five years.  In a nation whose population is illiterate or mere literate, the people have been hoodwinked by the powerful and have defeated the idea of democratic election process.  Our governments have never represented the will of the majority of the people.  In majority elections not more than 50% of the people cast their votes.  And in any election the parties that get barely 30% of votes out of the 50% of the voters, form governments.

The normative core of ideal politics:

The normative core of ideal politics is to create a democratic ethos among both the voters as well as the political leaders.  Voting has to be made one of the most responsible acts that has to be necessarily exercised in crafting the ethos of democracy.  It is needless to emphasise that the future of democracy depends on the creation of such ethos; ethos that is defined in terms of the degree to which the internalization of democratic values takes place among the citizens. Such ethos defends these values by taking a moral initiative without waiting for the lead from political leaders.  Citizens as voters should campaign among themselves for the candidates who can genuinely promise to strengthen such an ethos.

Politics with an idealist orientation is necessary to built the society around the distributive principle of justice and values of equality and dignity.  Making political judgements and decisions commensurate with such ideal, thus, becomes a moral responsibility of both the voters and the political parties.  In fact, parties do have higher levels of responsibility to convert these ideals not only into an agenda for election campaigns but also to involve voters into the collective project of creating a democratic ethos, not just periodically but almost on an everyday basis.  Voters as citizens, however, have their own responsibility to impress upon the leaders to integrate this agenda into their politics of electoral mobilization.  Citizens have fundamental responsibility to seize the deliberative opportunity to not only create and stay with the democratic ethos but also exert necessary moral pressure simultaneously on the political leaders to take qual responsibility to create and participate in the creation of democratic ethos.  Did it not happen in the recently held presidential elections in the United States?

Democracy and ownership:

Further, when the vast majority of the people have no ownership or control on the wealth of the country there cannot be economic democracy.  The poor are offered doles and freebees to make them vote for a particular party or candidate.  The government keeps the poor on doles.  Beyond this there is nothing they benefit from a democratic state. “Parties that invest too much not in persuasion but in creating illusion (abhas) among the people cannot treat illusion as a resource that is permanently available for garnering electoral support.” (EPW Vol LVI 8)  For the rest, the governments implement the agenda of the industrialists and the corporate houses.  The governments take away the land of the people and promise them 100 days guarantee of work.  They are promised employment in place of their land.  But this employment does not last long.  When the rate of profit of the industrialist employers begins to fall, they fire the workers from employment.  This leaves the vast majority of the people out from the development agenda of the state and therefore out of the democratic system.

The Panchayati Raj system and decentralization of power would hold the hope for the nation to be truly democratic.  But the problem is that whatever power the 73rd constitutional amendment has given to the panchayats is often usurped by the state level assemblies and bureaucracy.  

When the citizens are kept in jail without trials or bails because they have expressed views opposite to the views of the ruling dispensation; or because they fight for the human rights and the rights of the Adivasis and Dalits are branded as urban Naxals and are put behind the bars in such situation where do we go to look for real democracy?

“The government has become more intolerant.  We see this particularly in the context of farmers’ protest.  This is so, because these farmers represent a solidarity of conscientious activists across caste, class and gender backgrounds.  This solidarity is rooted in a democratic assertion against incarceration of these activists, as well as challenges the state and party nexus aimed at dismantling the farmers’ protest.  The government, through its action, is inverting the essence of a free and democratic society, where freedom from fear is now a fear of freedom.” (EPW, Vol. LVI NO 8 Feb 20, 2021)

In a capitalist society the state comes in conflict with democracy.  The state stands behind the corporates and big business at the expense of the rights and livelihood of the working masses.  In the case of farmers’ protest, the government is not willing to budge on the farm laws that clearly go against the long term interests of the farmers. These people experience the state as repressive.  “The state’s passive response to violence and, some time, active involvement in such violence against women leads women to characterize the state as patriarchal.  For Dalit women it is not only patriarchal but also Brahminical.  For Adivasis, the state is both coercive and callous. For minorities, the state, led by the right-wing party is necessarily communal.” (EPW January 2, 2021) 

What we have been witnessing in the last seven years is out right denial of even rudimentary democracy.  Use of money and muscle power during elections has become common. As elections are approaching directing enforcement directorate, income tax raids, anti corruption squads against the leaders of the opposition parties have become common. These are used against the prominent leaders of the opposition parties to make them leave their parties and join the ruling dispensation so that the opposition gets rendered powerless.

Sometime elections are rendered meaningless. By using money power and threats the elected majority is turned a into minority and the elected governments are thrown in dustbins.

The idea of the Indian nation revolves around three major principles, secularism, socialism and democracy.  These three are like three lions of our national emblem or three colours of our national flag.  They are not stand-alone elements.  Democracy is meaningless without secularism and socialism.  Similarly, the two principles are hocus-pocus without democracy.

 

THE IDEA OF INDIA

 

THE IDEA OF INDIA:

The character of a nation is defined by the character of its citizens. The nation today is in search of people who will put nation before themselves, who believe that their destiny is intrinsically linked up with the destiny of the nation; the people who do not want to use the nation to build their destiny but build their destiny by first building the destiny of the nation. 

“Citizenship is an attitude, a state of mind, an emotional conviction that the whole is greater than the part.  And that the part should be humbly proud to sacrifice itself that the whole may life.” Robert A. Heinlein.

The subject “The idea of India” is hotly debated during these days when alternative “idea of India” is being put forward by the contending section of the Indians.

They argue that those who are speaking of ‘Idea of India’ think India came into existence only after independence.  They argue that India existed since thousands of years.  But there is a big fallacy in their argument.  This fallacy is because they confuse India as a geographical territory and India as a political entity. 

The geographical land called India existed from, not only thousands of years but also from millions of years. The fact is what existed thousands of years ago in the geographical land, now called India, is not the same as what this land has come to be. It is the history that will tell us how this land has evolved from primitive reality to the modern 20st century India.

Before the British arrives in India there were many war lords, kings, and emperors who rule on difference parts of this land.  There was the Maghad empire, the Marathas ruled over huge territory of India. In the south there was a Chola dynasty, Pallavans, Maharaja of Mysore, Haidar Ali, Tippu Sultan.  From the coming of the Muslim sultans, Babar, Akbar ruled a huge territory of India.  The British arrived in India and they went in war with many of these rulers and defeated them.  They made a treaty with some which allowed them to keep their territory under their control but would owe allegiance to the British rules.  When the British rulers consolidated their hold on the entire territory of India it was in their interest to unite the territory of India. Such united territory did not exist before the British rule.

Emergence of Nationalism:

During the freedom struggle and with the influence of wester education the sentiments of nationalism took roots in India.  The leaders of the freedom struggle were looking for an identity of Nation State as the British was a nation state and empire.  The idea of Nationalism strengthened the freedom struggle.  Under the leadership of Gandhi all people of different origin, cultures, religions and economic classed got united to fight for independence for the British rule.

Hence the idea of India existed from thousands of years is a fallacy.  It is only through the rise of nationalism and finally achieving independence from the British rule that India as a Nation state came into being.

The leaders of the freedom struggle searched for the idea of India.  The founding fathers of our nation inspire and instill in us about the idea of India.   

There was near unanimity among them about how our nation should be moulded.  During the freedom struggle the people of India with every shade of ideology had identified themselves with the Indian National Congress.  The manner in which this movement functioned during the struggle for independence indicated what idea they had for the nation that they had laboured to bring forth.

We are a nation that is blessed with many great people who have fought for great values and dedicated themselves to build the nation along these values.  We should solute to these leaders, Mahatma Gandhi, Pandit Jawaharlal Nehru, Sardar Vallabh Bhai Patel, Maulana Azad, Jyotiba Phule, Babasaheb Ambedkar, etc.

“Men and women in every age and society want to make their own history, but they do not make it in an historical vacuum.  Their effort, however innovative, in finding solution to their problems in the present and charting out their future, are guided and circumscribed, moulded and conditioned, by their respective histories, their inherited economic, political and ideological structure.  Our past, present and future is inextricably linked to it.

By the very definition of making history is in the context of our past and our vision for the future. India set on its path, on its own as it were, after independence, i.e., from 1947.  But this path has deep roots in the struggle of the people for independence.  The political and ideological features, which have had a decisive impact on the post-independence development, are largely a legacy of the freedom struggle.  It is a legacy that belongs to all the Indian people, regardless of which party or group they belong to now; for the force which led this struggle from 1885 to 1947 was not a party but a movement.  All political trends from the Right to the Left were incorporated in this movement.” (Bhipin Chandra, Mridula Mukherjee, Aditya Mukherjee, K.N. Panikkar and Sucheta Mahajan, India’s Struggle for Independence.)

The vision for the future of Indian was set by the Constituent Assembly which with long strenuous deliberation drafted a Constitution for India. At the heart of the constitutional document was the indelible faith in Indian Nationalism.  The visionary founders espoused to deliver the promise of freedom to the masses.  The primary aim of the constituent assembly was fostering the goal of social revolution and this was matched only by an interest in securing ‘national unity and stability’.  The engine of this social revolution emerged from both the pressing needs of the newly independent country and the Indian National Congress’ long experience of anti-colonial nationalism.  The leaders of the Congress successfully transplanted the goals of freedom struggle as constitutional maxims.  According to Nehru, ‘Indians did not default their tryst with destiny’.  The fundamental rights and the directive principles are the ‘conscience’ of India.

Along the history, in the context of emergency of 1975 and in 1992 the demolition of Babri  Masjid, there was increased demand for further democratization and empowerment among the economically and socially deprived.

The founders’ vision of social revolution, national unity, and stability through democracy that formed the ‘seamless web’ continued to both influence and pose problems for their successors.

The country lost its maternal immunity late in the sixties with the decline of the founding generation ...   Approaching maturity in the nineties, its most difficult time lie ahead.

Can India be a great democracy, strong in itself and, in the eyes of the world, so long as so many of its people are denied the promise of the Preamble?

If the constitution of India was the finest expression of Indian nationalism, why did it not enchant two of the most significant communities of India, the Muslims and the Dalits?

The Indian nationalists were at the heart of the founding document, the constitution.  Such nationalists believed in democratizing power, in accommodating differences and in integrated pluralism and, above all sought to uplift the down trodden through a social revolution.

What are the outstanding features of the freedom struggle? A major aspect is the values and modern ideals on which the movement itself was based and the broad socio economic and political vision of its leadership (this vision was that of a democratic, civil libertarian and secular India, based on self-reliant, egalitarian social order and an independent stand as against the rest of the world.

• Democratic ideas and institutions in India:  The Indian National Congress was fully committed to and organized on a democratic basis and in the form of a parliament.  Having experienced the British authoritarian and despotic rule which did not give any space for freedom of speech and press, the national leaders were whole heartedly committed to drive out not only the British rulers out of the country but also their despotic rule and replace it with democracy, freedom of speech and freedom of press. The national movement did not see the democratic values to be practiced only after independence, but these values were built in the functioning of the movement itself.  There were no decisions taken in the congress without thorough discussion and through consensus. Every resolution was put to vote. People were free to disagree and dissent.  Mahatma Gandhi even congratulated those who had the courage of conviction to vote against a resolution.
• From the beginning the nationalists fought against the attacks by the state on the freedom of the press, of expression and of association.  They made the struggle for these freedoms an integral part of the national movement.  The defense of civil liberties was not conceived narrowly, in terms of one political group, but was extended to include the defense of other groups whose views were politically and ideologically different.  Gandhiji thus writes on the total civil liberty, “Liberty of speech means that it is un-assailed even when the speech hurts; liberty of the Press can be said to be truly respected; only the Press can comment in the severest terms upon and even misrepresent matters.  Similarly, freedom of association is truly respected when the assemblies of people can discuss even revolutionary projects.” “Civil liberty consistent with observance of non-violence is the first step towards SWARAJ.  It is the breath of political and social life.  It is the foundation of freedom.  There is no room there for dilution or compromise.  It is water of life.” (B. R. Nanda, Mahatma Gandhi -- a Biography.)

Nehru was known for his deep commitment to civil liberty.  He kept the civil liberty at par with economic equality and socialism.  He wrote, “If civil liberties are suppressed, a nation loses all vitality and becomes impotent for anything substantial.” (S. Gopal, Jawaharlal Nehru – a biography vol. one.)

 

THE CALL OF GOD FOR FR. STAN LOURDUSWAMY

 

THE CALL OF GOD FOR FR. STAN LOURDUSWAMY

 

Once up on a time a young man was grazing sheep at the far side of a desert.  While he was sitting and keeping watch on his sheep suddenly, he saw at a distance a strange sight. He saw a bush burning but the fire was not consuming the bush.  When he went close to see the strange event, he was told that the place he was standing was holy and he should remove his sandals.  The voice from the bush said, “I have seen the humiliation of my people at the hands of their exploiters and I have heard their cries. Go now I am sending you to bring my people out of their slavery.”

Almost in a similar fashion a young boy from Tiruchirappalli was called by God to go to the tribal region of Bihar/Jharkhand to set His people free.  After his ordination on 14^th April 1970 in the Society of Jesus (S.J.) he left to Bihar/ Jharkhand to work with the Adivasis.

Stan believed that it was not enough to dole out material goods and food relief to the Adivasis.  He should work for their emancipation and development.  The only way to work for the development of the Adivasis would be to educate them to understand their rights and fight for their rights.

After working for several years in Bihar (Jharkhand) he was asked to work in Indian Social Institute the Nation’s premier research, training, and documentation institute in Bangalore.  Through this institute he trained many social workers and youth to work for rural development and nation building. He enabled them to understand the social, economic realities of our society to be able to work effectively with the Dalits, Adivasis and weaker section of the society.

After completing his term at the Indian Social Institute, he went back to Jharkhand to work with the Adivasis.  He knew that the constitution and the legal frame work has enough space for the rights of the Adivasis.  For example, “the 5^th schedule of the constitution” deals with the administration of Schedule areas as well as Scheduled Tribes residing in different states. Secondly in 1996 the central government had passed a law called “Panchayats (extension to Scheduled Areas) PESA Act 1996”.  By virtue of this act the constitution gives to the people living in the schedule area the power of self-governance through traditional Gram Sabhas.  This laws prevent outsiders to enter the schedule area to exploit the people and the natural resources for their private gain. 

The successive government did not have political will to implement these laws which protect the lives and livelihood of the Adivasis.  Fr. Stan was concerned about non implementation of the 5^th Schedule of the Indian Constitution and PESA. 

One does not need rocket science to understand why these laws were not implemented.  The schedule areas where Adivasis are living are rich with mineral resources.  The hitherto practice has been the government would evict the Adivasis from their homes and lands and hand over their land to the corporates and multinational companies to excavate the minerals below their land.  To put in the words of Fr. Stan, “every mine that is dug not only destroys the green forests, fertile lands and water bodies but displaces entire village habitations”.

Perhaps in olden days when Adivasis were ignorant and unorganized they could be easily pushed out of their land.  It is because of this mindless exploitation of the Adivasis and

With sustained work of conscientization by people like Fr. Stan Adivasis have woken up to understand their rights. Through their prolonged struggles PESA Act was passed in 1996. They have started resisting the oppression.  They started a movement called Pathal Ghadi.  They started erecting stone slabs at the entrance of every Adivasi village.  They inscribe relevant parts of the constitution and PESA Act on the slab.  They also inscribe the names of the people who have given their lives in the struggle to protect the rights of the Adivasis. The government has dealt with heavy hand with all the resistance of the Adivasis from their eviction.  More than 6000 youth are languishing in jail without charge sheet or trial.

Fr. Stan has meticulously documented the torture and the sufferings of these Adivasi youth.  Along with other civil right activists Fr. Stan has filed public interest litigations to bring relief to the Adivasis.

In response to this the government filed the case of sedition against Fr. Stan.  The National Investigation Agency has implicated him in Bhima Koregaon violence.  At first, he was only a suspect but now they have accused him of being involved in Bhima Koregao violence.  They have further accused him as a cadre of the Maoist.  They raided his office in Ranchi and took away his mobile phone and laptop.  The most atrocious things the NIA has done is they have planted material in his laptop to prove that he is a Maoist. What is ludicrous is that such material the NIA has planted in many who have been arrested in Maharastra contain the same spelling mistakes and Marathi words.  Since Stan does not know Marathi one wonders how could he use Marathi words in the documents planted in his computer.

Fr. Stan being a staunch Christian and a Jesuit priest does not believe in indulging in false hood let alone using violence.

The real issue is not that Fr. Stan is a Maoist or uses violence.  NIA’s charge sheet will not stand the test in trial court.  The real problem is that Fr. Stan has awakened the Adivasis to understand their rights to their land and homes.  They have started resisting. They are demanding a share in the wealth that lies beneath their land. This creates difficulties for the government to hand over their lands to the crony capitalists for excavating rich minerals from the lands of the Adivasis.

Fr. Stan asks, “why truth has become so bitter, dissent so intolerable and justice so out of reach.

 

 

 

 

 

 

Conflict Between Agriculture and Industry

 

Since more than twenty days the farmers from Panjab, Haryana, Uttar Pradesh, Rajasthan and many other states are agitating in and around Delhi.  One Sikh Baba gave his life in support of the agitation.  More than twenty people died in the biting cold of Delhi.  There is no slowing down of the agitation.  The entire world is talking about this agitation as being the world’s largest protest by the Indian farmers.

The farmers are agitating against the three farm laws the Modi government passed under the pretext of doubling the income of the farmers.  The farmers are not convinced.  They see a bigger and mischievous design by the government to hand over the farm sector into the hands of the Indian largest corporate houses.

The gist of the three laws are as follows:

1.     Elimination of all subsidies and minimum support price for the farmers. Eliminate APMC, Agricultural Produce Market Committee and Mandies (APMC Yards).  Now the farmers can sell their product to private traders and corporate houses.  This also means that any corporate house can procure food grains from the farmers and stock in unlimited quantity in their godowns.  Earlier it was illegal for private people to hoard food grains.

 

The farmers will not get the benefit of the system of minimum support price. Government used to fix minimum support price for several farm product to ensure that the famers do not incur losses. Further farmers will not get subsidy such as fertilizer subsidy and on the input for cultivation.

 

2.     Introduction of contract farming.  This means traders and corporate houses can make an agreement with farmers to produce food grains and sell to the corporation.  In case of dispute the farmers cannot have recourse to the court but some local government official can intervene to solve the dispute.

 

3.     These corporations can stock any amount of agricultural produce.  This could result in artificial scarcity and food prices to rise

Background:  Soon after the independence India had a massive food shortage.  The Indian government was forced to import food grains.

Indian farmers were cultivating land under tenancy system where the cultivators were not the owners of the land.  The lands were owned by the zamidars who collected tax from the farmers either in cash or in food grains.  The land owners were not bothered if the drought had made it impossible for the farmers to cultivate the land.  If the farmer failed to pay corvee then the landlord would take the land from the farmer and give to another, more prosperous farmer who could pay taxes regularly.  This let to a lot of farmers becoming landless and were forced to work with other farmers for wages or migrate to the cities to look for employment. 

This system was not able to increase the productivity of land resulting in food shortage.  The government announced land reforms under which the land was supposed to be given to the tillers.  Most of the government officials who were responsible to implement land reform came from the landlord class and they favoured the landlords and little came out by the way of cultivators owning their land.  Then there was a law of land ceiling by virtue of which the land owners could not own more than a prescribed limited acres of land.  This too was bypassed by landlords by registering land on fictitious names.

Indian agriculture moved from the feudal tenancy form to capitalist form of cultivation where the cultivators became owners of their land and they cultivated by employing wage labourers.

This transformation of agriculture into capitalist agriculture did not solve the problem of low level of food production and the farmers continued to remain very poor and exploited.

To over come the precarious situation of farmers and low level of food production the government of India undertook three programmes: 1. Building dams to improve irrigation, 2. Green revolution by modernizing agricultural production and introducing intensive farming in selected areas in the country, such as Panjab, Haryana, Mandya, Kuttanad, Tanjaoor. 3. Farmers’ support programmes such as agricultural cooperative societies, minimum support price and Agricultural Market Committees (APMC).

APMC, is a marketing board established and operated by the state government in order to eliminate the exploitation of the farmers by intermediaries to whom the farmers could sell their produce at minimum support price. This system was introduced to regulate the sale of agricultural products.  APMC was to ensure remunerative prices for the farmers for their produce and timely payment. 

In spite of these measures the farmers were always in distress.  The farmers have committed suicides in large number.

1.     There are relatively high proportion of people involved in agriculture.  60% of the Indian population and 45% of the total labour force is involved in agriculture.  There are high percentage of farmers who are subsistence farmers who barely produce for their livelihood. The middle farmers and the rich farmers employ wage labour, tractors, harvesters and high yielding varieties of seeds and fertilizer and they produce for the market.

 

2.     The fact of the matter is agriculture gives very low return. The farmers do not get the rent on their land as it is not included in the cost of production.  The farmers’ average income per month is around Rs. Six thousand five hundred only. The law of the country does not allow the owners of the land to change the land use for nonagricultural purpose. But when the government decides it will throw out the farmers and snatch their land and give to the industrialist to build their factories.

 

The most significant issue which relates to our present day farmers agitation is against abolishing of APMC and Minumum Support Price.

The preset day farmers’ agitation is an indication that the farming and industry are in conflict with each other.  It is an attempt on the part of the corporates and industrialists to gain control on the agriculture and subordinate it to industrial capital.

The gist of the development that the present-day NDA government wishes to bring into effect is to allow the corporate capitalist to gain control of the agriculture. 

The system of Mandies and the minimum support price is government’s responsibility to intervene in the economy of agriculture to prevent it from going below the level of break even.

Conflict between Industry and agriculture:

The human civilization started with agriculture.  All the non-farm products were produced by the craftsmen who were rooted in agriculture.   Industry came up out of the womb of agriculture

In the feudal society the only economic activity was agriculture. It was under the control of kings and feudal lords as the peasants did not own the land they were cultivating.  The entire wealth of the society was owned by the kings.  People produces only for consumption and for paying to the kings, warlords and feudal lords.  In the womb of agriculture, there existed craftsmen, carpenters, blacksmiths, weavers and oil press mills.

As the productive forces developed in agriculture and with the craftsmen, they started producing surplus.  They began to exchange their product. They used to take their surplus product to the religious pilgrim centers to exchange or sell.  Gradually, these places became permanent local markets.  Gradually the craftsmen who did not need to remain in the rural areas in the midst of agrarian society to product their good shifted to the centres of market places and began to produce and sell in the markets. Gradually these market places and towns became centres of production of non-agricultural goods.  After the industrial revolution the history witnessed emergence of large industries.

Gradually the owners of these industries required large plots of land to established their factories.  They began to encroach on the land of the farmers. The history saw the eviction of peasants from their land to make place for industrial development.

Up to this day we are seeing the process of eviction of farmers, Dalits and Adivasis being driven out from their land for the same of industries, mega projects and urbanization --  the process of extermination of farmers by the rising capitalism.  They were driven out of their land to make place for the emerging industrial capital.  We can truly say that the capitalism was built on the graves of the peasants.

“In the history of primary accumulation, we must regard as epoch-making all revolutions that acted as stepping stones for the capitalist class in course of formation.  Above all, this applies to those moments when the great masses of human beings were suddenly and forcibly torned away from the means of subsistence, and hurled into the labour market as masterless proletarians. The expropriation of the agricultural producers, the peasants, their severance from the soil, was the basis of the whole process.” K. Marx, Primitive Accumulation, Das Capital,

The ultra-Neo-liberal programme of the NDA government:

In the name of doubling the income of the farmer the NDA government is making a way for the Corporate companies like Ambani and Adani to enter into farm business.  There is a report that Adani is buying thousands of acres of land in Haryana and building ware houses to stock food grains.

Once the corporate companies enter into agricultural production and procuring food grains from the farmers, we might anticipate unregulated food grain market.  These industrialist will be free to sell their stock any where in the world where they get maximum prices.

The programmes of agricultural reform adopted since independence have failed to bring about "the required changes in the agrarian stricture.

One report further brings out the truth that,

“In no sphere of public activity in our country since independence has the hiatus (gap) between the precept and practice, between policy-pronouncements and actual execution, been as great as in the domain of agriculture.”  P.D. Ojha

 

I would lie to quote an event that occurred in the year 1775

“In the years between 1757 and 1766 the East India Company received 6,000,000 Pounds from the native of India as gifts.  In the year 1769 and 1770, the English brought about a famine by buying up all the rice and by refusing to sell it again except at fabulous prices.

 

In the year 1866, the one province of Orissa, more than a million Hindus perished of hunger.  Nevertheless, an attempt was made to replenish the Indian State Treasury out of the price at which necessaries of life were sold to the starving people.

This is also very true about Bangal famine in 1942.  Churchil did not accept the fact of famine as Mr. Gnadhi did not die of famine.” 

 

The kind of famine we have seen in the history is a permanent feature of our rural society where huge number of people are living below the poverty line.

The first most important change we are witnessing is that the state has abdicated itself from its role in the market and in the economy as a whole.  It had apparently shown being concerned only about governance.  In reality it turned out to be busy with internal and external “security”.  It meant being busy with the military and security forces to defend big business and multinational capital.  We have seen the use of force to carry forward the programme of industrialization and foreign investment.

To sum up: “The government’s understanding of the farmers’ knowledge in not only flawed but also insulting”.

The major thrust of the protest suggests the government’s steps are not in farmers’ favour but in the favour of big business.  Farmers understand the logic of the market driven by private interests.” (Editor, EPW Dec 5, 2020)