Who's Interest

In Who's Interest Is It After All?

‘Nuclear Liability Bill’ PM assured on 25^th Aug, is not meant to protect American interests. However even his die hard supporters know, he and his flock of MPs including most opposition MPs do not represent us, but only US and they are not working for Aam Adhmi [common people of India] but only for the Am Adhmi [American people] apart from themselves. Of course the reforms have yielded some collateral benefits for the rich and middle class, but the poor [70%] are being crushed and pushed to the edge. It has only enabled the ‘haves’ to become ‘have mores’ but rendered the ‘have nots’ to ‘have nothings’. It has widened the ‘urban – rural divide’ in to a ‘gash’ and in these nearly two decades, it has become a ‘gorge’ and has added another name to the list of endangered species – ‘farmers’. It is ‘genocide’ going by the proportions. The plight of farmers, Kashmiri youth and tribals of Chattisgarh and elsewhere are immaterial for them. Mind boggling misappropriation of public fund in CW games and Spectrum allocations, the havoc wrought by mining lobbies on environment and lives of tribals are of no concern to them. They only listen to their masters’ voice from across the globe. The common people of India are like dispensable pests. The media, which has been singing Manmohan’s glory – appear of late to have sighted the tip of the ice burg and started questioning his current style of functioning. While the Indian media is mumbling some discontent and their survey finds his approval rating very low, the foreign media is hailing him as the best leader, leaving no quarter for any doubt on whose interest they are working.

The only hope for aam adhmi is the Environment Minister Jairam Ramesh. His saving [at least for now] the billion plus from GM/Bt crops and the tribals and ecosystem of Orisa from the Vedanta group are just the saving grace for the two decades of anti people rule. But even the credit for these, are being misappropriated by Rahul. Of course the pressure from Sonia and Rahul, helped stopping the regime from bulldozing all opposition to wholly serving the interest of US, GM, mining and nuclear lobbies. They have done their bit in pushing for employment guarantee and farmers’ loan waiver also, much against the wishes of PM/ FM and dictates of WB/ US. But to deny Jairam and left parties their due is absolutely unfair. We need more Jairams – a whole lot of them – to fill our parliament and state assemblies.

Massive real progress was achieved during Jawaharlal Nuhru’s rule in every field – industry, agriculture, science and technology, education, public health, grass root democracy, uplifting of down trodden, transportation etc. But the statistics of progress made in Manmohanomics regime are heavily lopsided if not doctored or farce. What little is achieved is also by treading over the dead bodies of a few lakhs of farmers, thousands/hundreds of tribals etc. It is no great economic policy to enable just a few to garner all the wealth at the cost of the lively hood and even lives of many others. Ensuring a level playing ground for all, ensuring weaker and deprived sections also get their due share of development, in other words wider distribution of wealth – wiping out every tear from every eye – only can be called an economic policy. Efforts to satisfy every ones need only, can be called an economic policy and not feeding a few people’s greed. In market economy, profit motive of individuals over rides concerns of welfare of all. This is corporate economics and not national economics. He may be called a great economist by corporate bodies, but not by a nation. Hence it is not just his current style of functioning, but his very basic policy and all that he has done since 1991 that are to be questioned [‘History will be a judge. What we did in 1991 and how it has contributed…’ PM said in parliament on 25^th instant].

The western notion ‘more power and material you consume, the more developed you are’ has led to the disastrous consequences of global warming. The increase in the number of automobiles and consumer durables, swanky malls and shining roads in urban areas are not the measures of real progress. Enabling the hungry man on the street earn his next meal is the real progress.

Switching over from socialistic governance to market economy might have improved forex reserves. It is like scraping dry law for liquor revenue, unmindful of the ill effects on the society. Dollar inflow has impoverished India by a huge margin – PPP value of USD is just about Rs 10/- It is subsidised over 400% by RBI and in turn the non dollar earners. Further we undersell our wares to bring in USD. Contrast this with agro products. Farmers get an un-remunerative price for paddy/ wheat/ sugar cane etc. from the government and they often sell vegetables etc. at prices lower than even the cost of plucking, to the private agents. Effectively, the poor farmer is subsidising the non farming community heavily. Agriculture has become a quagmire. With every crop raised our ‘Anna dhatha’ is getting impoverished and is left with no choice other than committing suicide. Just assigning PPP value for dollar and a remunerative price for agro products will reverse the figures of contribution of farming sector vis a vis dollar earning sectors to GNP and growth of GNP etc. and make the planners accord proper/due priorities. Further replacing the exchange value with PPP value and awarding a ‘Fair Remunerative Price’ instead of ‘Minimum Support Price’, setting up co-operative marketing federations and encouraging farmers to market directly will bring all round prosperity, inclusive and explosive growth, wider distribution of wealth etc. fair and square and pave the way for establishing a just society.

MNCs do not bring FDI to lift the masses out of poverty line, create job opportunities, develop infrastructure or create wealth for us, in short redeem India, but only to siphon away our wealth to their homes. There is no dearth of capital for investment within the country.

Manmohanomics has been voted out twice by the electorate – in 1996 at the earliest opportunity since its introduction and in 2004 as well, since Singhanomics or Sinhanomics were no different. By a quirk of fate the author of the reforms, which wrought havoc on agriculture, killing lakhs of farmers, throwing millions out of jobs, ruined Indian industry and culture and magnified the disparities a thousand fold was handed over the reins in 2004. It was a negation of the verdict. The result of 2009 elections was also not an approval of Manmohanomics, but only the result of the farm loan waiver and employment guarantee scheme, if we concede that the elections were fair in the first place.

Yes, there were some defects/ problems in the public sector oriented economy. But to kill the patient rather than curing the disease makes the handler a butcher and not a good doctor.

Terrorism

Countering Terrorism

(Written immediately after the terrorist attack on London)

September 11^th. A few years and a few million lives later, it is now July 7^th. The date has changed. The stage has changed. But the actors have not. In between, it has been more violence, genocide and blood shed. Though the name is different - Countering Terrorism. They are hitting today, because you hit them yesterday, because they hit you the day before and the story goes on and on. “An eye for an eye will only lead to making the whole world blind”. Sounds familiar? Not Richard Attenborough. It was Mahatma Gandhi’s warning about a century back (Richard marketed – not spread - it globally).

Violent terrorist activities cannot be controlled by more violence. Counter-terrorism [trying to terrorize the terrorists] cannot counter terrorism. And the head count - terrorist killed 5000 plus and demolished 2 buildings on Sept 11^th and the US counter attack killed as many as 2 million (mostly) innocents in Afghanistan and Iraq and ransacked 2 countries. History shows that the number of people killed by the Europeans (British in particular) and the others of European origin (US in particular) as an ethnic group is several folds more (may be more than 10 millions) than those killed by all other ethnic groups put together (may not even be a hundred thousands). The figures include the genocide of natives committed by the Europeans (British, Spanish, French and Dutch) in America and Australia, the genocide by US in Japan (dropping of Atom bomb even after the war was actually over, only to test the atom bomb), the genocide by US in Vietnam, Afghanistan and Iraq, as against the insignificant numbers killed by others in acts of terrorism. In fact all those killed in the many wars after the II world war, also have to go to the account of US, as all these wars were in fact fought by the US by proxy (not just on one side, often it was on both sides) and the sole purpose of all these wars was to dispose the piles of arms stocked up there before the expiry date and not to route out terrorism or install/ instil democracy or establish Dharma.

They said Iraq has weapons of mass destruction. The very phrase ‘Weapons of mass destruction’ is a US invention (coinage). The few weapons of mass destruction ever deployed have all come from the US armoury. The atom bombs dropped on Japan, the chemical and biological agents used in Vietnam and probably recently in Iraq and Afghanistan have all been developed and deployed only by the US. The number of such WMDs stock pilled by the US is several fold more than those pilled up by all other countries (including the allies of US) and terrorists (assuming they have some) put together. The idea of WMDs in Iraq is now known to be a cold bluff. All these lead to the basic question ‘who are the real terrorists? Is it the few disgruntled elements hiding in the Afghan caves or the ones who are claiming to guard the world from terror? Is the most dreaded terrorist ‘Bin laden’ or ‘Presidents of US’ and their allies?

The list of WMDs don’t stop with Nuclear, biological and chemical bombs. They are in fact less harmful as they are rarely deployed, though having the potential to annihilate all farms of life on earth. The 2 other major WMDs which are killing slowly but surely a huge population, are the ‘Cola soft drinks’ and the ‘Cell phones’. I call them the ‘liquid grenade’ and the ‘electronic grenade’. The cola being consumed by millions every day, is not only not having any nutritive value, it is an acid and addictive (even if it does not contain pesticides) rendering a whole generation prone to early extinction. The cell phones are again slowly but surely leading the users and the nonusers (passive) together to cancers and other ailments. It will be no surprise if the humanity stands mutated or even mutilated because of the millions of electro magnetic waves emanating from the ‘electronic grenade’ criss-crossing the human bodies in all frequencies and amplitudes. These WMDs are also the inventions of US as is the CFC.

It should be realised that terrorism is only a reaction to some injustice (action) done to some people over years. No amount of ‘Arming’ can be an adequate safeguard against terror. Only stopping ‘Harming’ others can reduce the proneness to terror attack. England should realise that the Sun has set long back on its empire. It is not British empire or Great Briton, not even Britton anymore. It is just a small island of England (no Ireland even). They were the perpetrators of injustice for centuries and they have been already shown their place thanks mainly to Mahatma Gandhi’s Satyagraha. US should now stop playing ‘Big brother’ and give up its hegemony over the rest of the world and imperialistic intensions. US should first disarm and start caring for the poorer people. This will change the terrorists in to domestic pets. More arms will lead only to more terror. Trying to control the world by ruthless force will only be retaliated by more ruthless force. Even wars don’t solve problems. End of one war is only the seed for the next and more deadly war. And controlling others by brute force is no democracy either which they proclaim to practise.

Whoever is responsible for the London explosions physically, the moral responsibility for all the terrorism today is that of US as they are the cause of it all.

The age old saying ‘Live and Let Live’ should be realised by them. Terrorism has nothing to do with religion. A terrorist is as irreligious as any politician trying to bend religion to his own advantage to achieve his short-term goals. Bush’s attempt to paint the counter-terrorism as a ‘Crusade’ is as bad as the terrorists painting the terrorism a ‘Jihad’.

Market based economy, driving people to insatiable desire for more money and more power can never bring peace in the world. Only a moral based society can ever dream to live in peace.

Asathoma sath gamaya, thamsoma jyothir gamaya, mruthyorma amrutham gamaya’(‘lead us from falsehood to truth, from darkness to light and from death to bliss or sleep to awakening’).

Verdict 2004

Lessons to learn from Verdict 2004

[Written in May 2004]

The dumb millions of this country have spoken again through the ballot buttons. But they are like children. They can only cry without telling in so many words if they are suffering from stomach - ache or hunger or something else. The foster mothers – Political leaders – should come to the correct diagnosis if they have to administer the right solution/ medicine.

Unfortunately the politicians are most likely to come only to wrong conclusions from the results, what ever is their political dispensation. The congress leaders infer that the people have voted for them and their Monmohanomics. BJP leaders infer that the rout is due to regional factors, a negative vote against their regional allies. The regional parties feel the vote is against the BJP, as this was the election for the Lok sabha and not for the state legislatures. Everybody is right and wrong at the same time.

The clue to the correct diagnosis lies in the history.

At the time of the first election after gaining independence, the nation, formed after a long drawn struggle with the mightiest of empires ‘The British Empire’, in its nascent stage had to contend with many problems. India was a largely agrarian society, industrially highly under developed. The Government had to ensure that the different communities coexist peacefully and the aspirations of the deferent classes met.

The Indian National Congress had an edge over other parties, as they had been the torchbearers through the many decades of the Independence struggle. It was easy to identify who will govern best and do good for the masses. Jawaharlal Nehru the political heir of Mahatma Gandhi justified the faith Gandhiji as well as the people had in him. Earlier he (with the blessing of Gandhiji) among many others was instrumental in framing the constitution, which ushered in a Democratic, Socialistic and Secular form of Governance as the norm in India. ‘Jawaharlal’s Government’ is a model for Best Governance.

Congress won the first five consecutive terms and was routed in the sixth immediately following Indira’s emergency. Getting in again in the next election when the people found the alternative was not cohesive enough to give a stable rule, the Congress again lost it after a stint by Rajiv when corruption at high places took the toll. Again the same lack of cohesiveness among the alternatives brought back the Congress. But the total U turn made by Narasimha Rao almost threw the Congress in to oblivion in 1996.

Narasimha Rao dumped once and for all, all that the Congress has been standing for, for ages before him. The socialistic economics with the Nehruvian Democratic Socialism model, the attendant Mixed economy, Joint sector, protected and controlled economy of Jawaharlal Nehru, which laid a very strong foundation to the Indian economy was suddenly painted as the villain by him and the shackles were broken (in Raoji’s words) and a free for all situation was ushered in, which ultimately opened the flood gates for the communal and regressive forces (read RSS – BJP) to gain power.

The High command of the Congress party should realise that Congress lost power in 1996 only because of the bungling of the economic policies by the Narasimha rao’s government – Manmohanomics!? There was just no other issue at that time. The charges of corruption, forgery etc. levelled against him, were trivial as compared to the larger issue of economic policies. The BJP could come in subsequently due only to the TINA factor as acknowledged by them.

The Congress party from the days it started participating in elections well before India got Independence has been basically pursuing socialistic and secular policies which later translated in to the now infamous democratic socialism of the bygone Jawaharlal era. Everyone has to remember that this nation of a billion plus population is a predominantly agrarian society, with majority of the population struggling for existence in the backwardness of rural India. Realising this very well only did Jawaharlal embark upon Democratic Socialism with mixed economy, joint sector and protected and controlled economy policies. He planned to set up capital-intensive large primary industries in the public sector which he called appropriately the ‘Temples of modern India’, which were to catalyse the development of down stream industries in the medium and small-scale sectors by private entrepreneurs. The concept of encouraging small-scale industries, tiny sector and rural industries was to ensure large-scale employment generation and wider distribution of wealth. He initiated building many dams resulting in an agrarian revolution. Even the ‘Green revolution’ and the ‘White revolution’ of later days where all made possible because of the foundation laid by Nehru. To ‘Wipe out every tear from every eye’ and ‘Equitable distribution of wealth’ were the founding principles of the Congress party’s policies then and they wanted to achieve these goals the democratic way. In contrast the Jan sang (the earlier avatar of BJP) was largely a party of Ex Maharajas, traders and other haves and basically a communal out fit, a political wing of the Communal RSS. The communist on the other hand wanted to go the China way or the Russia way trying to achieve the same socialistic goals as Congress, but by the violent revolutionary way as they believed that the ‘Power flows from the barrel of the Gun’.

When Nehru assumed power, the economy was in shambles as a result of centuries of colonial rule. All round development of the nation had to be ensured including industrial and agricultural development, setting up of academic institutions, starting from primary schools to institutions of higher learning, research institutions, hospitals etc. He had to contend with the communal strife, fanned by the RSS on the Indian side of the sub continent. He had to lay a strong foundation for democratic governance, not letting the country drift in to the hands of communists. In fact had he chosen the path of Narasimha rao then, we would have been bulldozed in to communism long back. He was solely responsible for keeping the communist at bay. Further the nation was in fragments, which had to be integrated. That he met the expectations of the masses remarkably well is bourn by the fact that he and his Congress were re elected twice to the office and the party continued to bask in his glory for the 27 years after his demise, getting elected many more times, until they discovered him to be a liability in 1991 after getting elected on his glory and when IMF told them so.

By any measure he is among the greatest of all rulers – democrats, monarchs, dictators or any others – in any part of the world. His achievements are far too many to be listed here. The achievements of the other PMs - Congress or otherwise – don’t measure a fraction of his, even on a pro rata basis and even without taking in to account the fact that they inherited a much more comfortable situation when they came to power than what Nehru inherited from the British.

As long as Congress stuck to these basics of democracy, socialism and secularism there was no alternative. In fact there was no need for an alternative either. When Indira Nehru (The descendants of Nehru dynasty are better referred as Nehrus to avoid tarnishing the image of the Greatest Human being Mahatma Gandhi apart from the fact that Indira’s estranged husbands surname was not Gandhi, but Ghande or some thing like that) went the autocratic way by declaring emergency, she was promptly shown the doors at the earliest opportunity and with that the Congress was out of power for the first time.

When the people found that the Government lead by Rajiv Nehru was deviating from the basics – Governing the rural India, industrial work force and the masses – but was indulging in large-scale corruption and mis-governance he was shown the doors too.

Narsimha Rao gave a go by to the very basic principles of the Congress by going the BJP way. He betrayed the faith reposed by the people in his party, the party of Gandhi and Nehru. His privatisation, liberalisation and globalisation did not do any good to the common masses and the rural population. In fact it delivered a heavy blow to the agrarian society by cancelling subsidies, free power etc. and concentrated on only helping the haves to have more but rendering the have nots to have nothings. The industrial infra structure built assiduously by Nehru was ruined. These only led to the debacle of the Congress and drove it almost to oblivion. They seem to be forgetting all this and started dreaming that the people have voted for Manmohanomics again, not satisfied with the speed of so called reforms of Yeshwant Sinha and Jaswant Singh. In fact in 1996 people must have felt it will be better to try the untried BJP – the original capitalist party – instead of the newly converted capitalist – Congress party – as the new converts failed them miserably with the bungling of the economic policies.

This time around in 2004, they seem to have got disgusted with the communal policies of the BJP adding fuel to the fire of economic (or is it the ‘un economic’?) policies along with mis-governance etc. It should be remembered that this BJP Government did absolutely nothing creditable. A war which could very well have been avoided, testing of Nuclear device which should have been avoided, widening of several thousands of kilometres of a road network which was already wide enough while several villages have no connecting roads to the nearby town, were all not adding to the welfare of the people nor to the glory of the government. In fact the BJP Government did not develop the bomb. It was there for decades. The earlier governments had only avoided showing off the armoury to avoid unnecessarily increasing the tension in the region.

The congress party has now entrusted the formulation of Common Minimum Programme to Mr Manmohan Singh indicating that they can never learn the lesson.

(This article was written before Mr. MMS was nominated to the post of PM)

In fact the almost equal number of seats won by congress and BJP and the substantial increase in the number of seats won by the left parties, indicate that the people have realised that basically there is nothing much to choose between Congress and BJP in the economic (uneconomic) policies and they have only to look up to the Communists to come to their rescue.

Both the incumbent ‘online’ ministries in the states of AP and Karnataka, (Chandrababu Noidu’s and S.M. Krishna’s who have been hailed by the media till the other day for their pro IT reforms) have been put ‘off the line’. IT and other high tech business may lead to marginal generation of employment. But for every job created, it has been throwing out many from employment. Even the benefits of the generated employment is enjoyed by a very few and the high wages to these IT professionals has been leading to heavy inflation which affects every body, particularly the poor millions. Inflation figures can be cooked up to any extent to show lower rates but the common man is concerned about the real inflation in the cost of essential commodities and not doctored figures. He is not concerned about the crash in BSE index. He is concerned about the soaring COL (cost of living) index. He is not concerned about BOP (balance of payment) but about the BHIP (balance in his pocket)

The Congress now vested with the responsibility to form the new government by default should understand basically a few facts.

The verdict is not for the Congress to Govern. It is an anti BJP verdict for practically the same reasons as was the case with Congress in 1996. Narasimha rao’s Manmohanomics has been voted out by the people not just once - in 1996 - but twice - in 2004 as well – as, the Sinhanomics (Yashwant Sinha’s) and Singhanomics (Jaswanth singh’s) were not any different from the Manmohanomics.

In a democracy, the people are the masters and not IMF, WTO, World Bank, Chamber of commerce or media. The government has to do what the people want and what is good for them rather than what is good for World Bank or USA or what they want. In fact the voting being in the region of 55 to 60 %, with the rich, business men, industrialists and elites not caring to vote, only means almost all the votes polled are from the poor, rural, agrarian, industrial workers, middle class and government employees only. Hence the rulers have to cater to those who have voted for them, more than those who do not care to vote.

Hence this blunder of Manmohanomics should not be repeated. We have to revert to the Nehruvian model of economics. In fact Narasimha Rao had no mandate to tamper with the time tested economic policies pursued by earlier Governments. He was elected on the Congress’s policies of the day and not to ruin the country by bungling the economics with his fancies and pledging the country to US. He betrayed the people.

The economists, intelligentsia and media may say ‘the reforms are not reversible’. This is like the alcoholic saying he drinks only for company. He knows he is wrong but he wants a scapegoat. The reforms (deforms?), which have resulted in great deal of harm to the masses of the country, including over 300,000 farmers committing suicide [figure updated], ruining of thousands of industries, rendering several millions jobless and the stagflation, can very well be reversed and must be reversed. Nobody can do it better than the Congress, not only because they only did this blunder of deforms, but since they still claim to have some thing to do with Mahatma Gandhi and Jawaharlal Nehru.

An extract from my earlier writing [in 1992-93] on Rao’s ‘shackle braking, is given below.

“We have to provide jobs to the millions to enable them to earn their morsel of food. If we can create a situation in which, ‘those who don’t get even one meal a day, earn one hence forth, that will be the true development and not making those earning a crore today, earn 2 crores tomorrow’. ‘To wipe out every tear from every eye’ is the need. Realizing these basic socio-economic goals only, Gandhiji and later the Indian Government led by Nehru were concentrating on ‘Employment generation’ and ‘Equitable distribution of wealth’. ‘Cottage and village industries movement’ and ‘Rural reconstruction programs’ by Gandhiji and later Gramdhan & Boodhan movements by Vinobaji, ‘Development of small and tiny sector industries’ by Nehru, were to spur the employment generation. The democratic socialism model with mixed economy policy of Jawaharlal Nehru laid a very strong foundation to the Indian economy, with the capital-intensive heavy industries under public sector catalysing the down stream industries in private sector.

‘Globalisation’ and ‘liberalisation’ are just the reversal of all the efforts of such towering personalities as Gandhi and Nehru. What is the result of over a decade of ‘Globalisation and liberalisation’?

I predicted as soon as the liberalisation and globalisation programmes were announced in 1991 that, ‘within 3 years all small scale industries will be closed, within 4 to 5 years all medium scale industries will be closed and within 5 to 6 years all large scale industries will also be closed, leaving only MNCs to survive. And what will the MNCs produce? Lipsticks and nail polishes?

Unfortunately this prophesy has come unbelievably true. Several lakhs of Indian industries – small and medium, followed by large industries – have been closed, leaving only MNCs to survive. And what do the MNCs produce – only cosmetics. Massive unemployment including premature retirement (voluntary retirement or golden hand shake?) has driven millions to struggle for existence.”

“The only thing that has been globalised is the ‘Coca cola culture’ or ‘M TV culture’ or ‘Consumerist culture’ – call it as you like. I call it ‘The Under Ware Culture of the Americas’.

What can the IT industry do in this situation? Can we live eating the ‘bits and bytes’? Can the flashes on the monitor or the print outs baled out fill even one stomach? (except that of a donkey). All the food we eat, furniture we sit on, buildings we live in and vehicles we travel by, are made by the hard labour of the artisans, farmers, construction workers and industrial work force. Not by the flick of the buttons. The IT industry is at best a ‘De- employing’ industry, the one which is widening the gap between the haves and have- nots. Bill Gates is widening it a billion fold.”

“The very reason why the Asian tigers collapsed while India did not is that we did not blindly try to become another America the way Asian tigers did. The foundation laid by Nehru in the fifties (democratic socialism and mixed economy) is so strong that the attempt from 80s and all the ‘Globalisation and liberalisation’ of the ‘Manmohan Sinhas’, have not yet succeeded in ruining our economy fully, though it is deteriorating fast. They diagnose the reason for the deterioration as ‘not going whole hog at it’. In fact the slower pace only is holding us from total and fast ruin. But they can never realise it as the ‘Harvard, Oxford and Cambridge economics’ they have learnt has taught them to believe contrary to reality.”

RWH

RWH LEGISLATION – TO HARVEST WHAT? (Written in 2003)

A lot has been told about the benefits of rainwater harvesting in the past 10 odd years. Many methods of harvesting the precious commodity – water – have been worked out, tested and established at the micro and macro levels. Now a government in the ‘over ride mode’ (Tamil Nadu government) has enacted a legislation, threatening households of legal action for failure to put up a RWH structure in place, by a deadline.

There are certain realities we have to bear in mind. The quantum of annual rainfall in an area such as Chennai and suburbs – say about 1200 mm per annum, resulting in some 100 crore cubic meters (Some 3500 crore cubic feet) of water – if fully harvested, can almost satisfy the full requirement of water for residential purposes, hospitals, hotels, schools and collages, even after considering the seepage and evaporation losses. Coupled with recycling of used water, treated suitably, for washing and industrial purposes, the harvest can fully take care of Chennai’s water requirement. This is true for many other cities and towns as well to varying extents.

However, this does not mean everyone will get sufficient piped supply of water from Metro water/ Corporation/ Panchayath. The water being let back in to the soil will have to be mined by the individual households by pumping. As of now, at most places the ground water is hardly potable. But with a good recharge of ground water by RWH the quality of ground water can be expected to improve substantially.

However the area covered by all residences in the heart of the city will be hardly 50% and as we go outward it will reduce to less than 10% at the suburbs. The rest of the area are covered by roads, railway tracks, public buildings – schools, collages, hospitals, offices, factories, bus stands, railway stations – parks, rivers, tanks, unused residential plots, beaches etc. Even out of the area covered by the residential premises, hardly 30% to 60% (going from suburbs to heart of city) is covered by the buildings proper. What the legislation is trying to cover now is the 60% of 50% to 30% of 10% area i.e. 30% to 3% area in urban and suburban areas. Even now considerable amount of water falling at the un-concreted area is going back in to the soil only and the excess water from these concreted (30% to 3%) and un-concreted (20% to 7%) areas in residential premises is flowing on to the roads covered by the remaining 50% to 90% public areas under the direct control of the civic bodies. This means practically almost the complete 100% rainwater is at the disposal of the civic bodies, if we assume that the individual residential buildings do not harvest rain.

Many educated and sensible households have already installed RWH systems voluntarily and their response to such a socio – individual cause will be better without legislation, than with legislation. The remaining people, who neither can understand the benefit, nor care for others, are not going to respond the desirable way. They are only going to look for ways to manage (circumvent) the legislation. In simple words the legislation will only end up fattening the pockets of the councilors and other civic body officials. The desirable effect, if any, will be more than offset by the undesirable effects.

Hence instead of harvesting rainwater, the legislation will only end up in making the councilors and civic body officials harvest currency. I leave the amount involved to the imagination of the reader.

If the government means business, efforts should be intensified to harvest the water from the 50% to 90% remaining areas than the built up (residential) areas. Anyway even the un-harvested water from the 50% to 10% residential built up area is only flowing in to the remaining 50 to 90% areas. The water that collects from the overflows from houses in to the road along with that falling on the road it self, can very well be harvested by storm water drains and percolation pits dug at regular intervals. The percolation pits are required in the heart of the city, where the storm water drains have to be lined with concrete. In the periphery and suburbs the drains can be open earth dug up type, which will directly allow percolation. Further the storm water drains on either side of the roads, should be connected at the ends of roads and in turn with the other drains etc. leading to the surplus water draining in to temple tanks and other public ponds. Where there is no such pond (for example T. Nagar area), percolation ponds should be dug at parks and other public grounds (Panagal park etc.). This is not any new idea. This is just reviving the age-old practice of our wise ancestors. Only the greed of the modern man has deprived us of these things and we have to revive the age-old practices at least now, having been driven to the wall. The RWH system in its full form should be implemented at all public premises as listed above. The RWH system for such public premises should be designed not only to harvest the water falling on the roofs, but the complete water falling on the premises. Thus the RWH can very effectively cover almost the whole city.

In addition to these, a very cost effective way to do RWH will be to stop the water flowing through the rivers and nullahs, draining in to the sea, as all the surplus water after whatever is absorbed by earth from the whole metropolis drain in to these rivers and nallahs only. Check dams constructed at a number of places such that water remains stored in the river up to a height of just a meter below the neighboring land mass will ensure immediate increase in water table. Anyone doubting the cost effectiveness of this can just visit a couple of villages near Chennai itself, to see for himself how cost effective this can be. Using just the available rocks and gravel at these places and cheap labour (may be even free labour – shramdan), many such structures have been built in every rivulet and nullah apart from enveloping the hillocks by a water retaining bund. No need to mention the benefit. When the Government says ‘building check dams in Adyar, Coovam and Buckingham canal is not cost effective’, they should only be meaning ‘not cost effective for the ministers, legislators, councilors and officials’.

The Government finds it worthwhile putting up a flying train (MRTS) spending several thousand crores, pouring in millions of tons of concrete, only for a few railway employees traveling with free passes, finds it not cost effective to harvest some 100 crore cubic meters of water flowing through these nallahs, by constructing check dams, spending a fraction of what it costs to build the concrete junk of MRTS. Only people both living and working at walking distances from the stations find the MRTS of any use. Even that diluted by the fact that the frequency of the trains is much lesser than the bus service and the bus service covers a lot of interior areas and we have about 40 to 50 bus stops for every train station and lastly the bus charges are much lesser than the MRTS charges.

Apart from ensuring a very effective RWH as a long-term benefit, the check dam project will give work to a huge labour force for a few months. Needless to mention that such a project should be implemented with maximum use of labour force and absolute minimum of machinery. To make the project even more cost effective, the check dams should be masonry ones initially. They can be concrete lined in due course and in phases. It will be better to entrust this work to NGOs like Ramakrishna matt, Satya sai trust, Exnora, Sarvodaya etc. so that the benefit reaches the poor unemployed labour force and the contractors are not allowed a bumper ‘harvest’. By making it a labour intensive project, the Government can utilise this opportunity to apply a little bit of balm on the gashes created by the World Bank/ IMF regimes, the Globalisation and liberalisation process.

Needless to mention that the check dam building should be preceded by the installation of drainage pipes along the banks of the rivers and to ensure that the river water is not polluted by sewerage. This work is anyway long overdue and the cost of the work need not be considered as RWH cost. In fact after installing the drainage pipes, de-silting and putting up the check dams, the stored water can even be treated and supplied for secondary domestic use initially and even for drinking purpose subsequently.

In fact these RWH at public places will be much more cost effective (for the public) than the RWH at every house. The RWH in every house will mean spending Rs 1000 or so, by some 20 lakh households or so (i.e Rs. 200 crores) just to harvest a fraction of the precipitation, as against harvesting 100% by the RWH in public places costing much lesser than the above 200 crores plus what the government will have to anyway spend for RWH at other places. The benefit will far outweigh the cost.

As for the RWH in rural areas are concerned, quite some work – as mentioned above – have been already done in many places. This work should be further intensified. The government legislation now is calling for harvesting those few liters of water falling on the roof-tops of tiny huts in villages, which is anyway falling on the ground and is getting absorbed by earth. The cost of putting up such RWH structures in village huts as a percentage of the cost of the hut itself will be prohibitive and will yield no tangible result, as the area covered by roof-tops in a village will not be even 1% of the total area.

When in doubt, just ask the elders in the village about watershed management. They will teach our MBAs and IASs, the what, how, why and who of it. No need to refer to World Bank report on this. We have enough local wisdom on this issue as in many others. A conscious effort in this direction may one day even result in eliminating dependence of water flowing down the Cauvery from Karnataka for cultivation. The rainwater falling on the landmass of Tamil nadu, if harvested fully by local absorption – by check dams etc. (not by harvesting roof top water, which anyway falls on the ground and gets absorbed) – may be sufficient for Tamil nadu’s irrigation needs with suitable adjustments in cropping pattern.

The Tharaka Manthra is ‘Look back to traditions for solutions’.

*************

Corporate Governance

Corporate Governance

Even as the Bopal gas tragedy has come back to haunt the victims, the people of India in general and the Congress party in particular, Manmohan Singh’s government is pushing ahead with the Nuclear liability [or is it ‘non liability’] bill which weighs heavily in favour of the Nuclear Equipment Czars and clearly against the interests of people of India. This only goes to confirm my fears that this Government does not represent us. It only represents US. Nuclear power is not green as is being projected. It is blood red. Every nuclear installation – civil or military – is a nuclear time bomb, waiting to unleash a catastrophe while slowly killing thousands. Even the supposed to be safe levels of leakages is dangerously high to call it green. Added to this are the reports of harassment, forcible eviction and hounding out of tribals – labelling them Naxals – from their home lands, without giving adequate and reasonable compensation and proper resettlement, only to allow the American mining lobby’s a free run in the mineral rich areas of Chattisgarh and Orissa and attempts to introduce Bt vegetables only to swell the coffers of the Monsanto and Cargil and unleash a genocide of sorts – a biological warfare on the people of India. It will be too simplistic to say that the Government is acting as a puppet to US government. It is incorrect to call US a democracy in the first place. It is ‘Corporate Governance’ a modern version of ‘Aristocracy’ and the Government of India here [whether it is UPA or NDA or any other jumble of alphabets – only reminds us of a jingle in the 70’s, ‘everything is same except the name’] is only the office of the General Manager of ‘US world wide trade inc’ in charge of their Indian operations. Way back in 1991 when the duo of Narasimha rao and Manmohan singh introduced the ‘Liberalisation, globalisation, privatisation regime, I wrote in jest ‘49% of shares of Indian Parliament have been sold to US. When they buy 2% more they will take over India. The elites of India will rejoice at the idea of American take over, but let me warn, we will not become a state of the US but only a colony’. Alas it is turning out to be more than true.

Caste Cences

It’s time to cast the ‘Caste’ away

Caste Census

The stated purpose for including caste in census is to frame and implement policies targeting disadvantaged – marginalised – groups, to fast track their development. It will however take the form of reservations in professional courses and governmental jobs. The reservations will hopefully be proportional and include all categories of people. The British devised the reservation policy as a tool to divide and rule India and ensured its continuation after they left also, by instigating the disadvantaged classes/castes to demand its continuation.

Ideally every vacancy in educational institutions, offices and factories should be filled by the most deserving – read meritorious/suitable – person only. However the age old disparity among various sections required some correction. The reservation policy offered one way to correct it quickly but not properly. The disadvantaged sections should have been given exemption/ concession in payment of fees, given scholarships, free/ subsidised hostel facilities and food, free coaching for competitive exams, separate schools only at primary level to give special attention to them and may be special extra coaching classes at higher levels enabling them to become competitive. Instead, relaxing standards for admission, recruitment and promotions resulted in many undeserving/ unfit getting in to positions of responsibility and virtually watering down standards of services at all levels in every department – medical, technical, police, administrative, academic, judiciary, even art and entertainment and not to mention politics – sometimes resulting in grave danger to men and materials.

Though the founding fathers of Independent India were initially reluctant to accept reservation policy envisaging the damage it will do to the social fabric, they were almost arm twisted to agree to continue the policy to hasten the transfer of power from the British. The reservation policy of Independent India was initially meant as a ‘handicap lead’ and was to be phased out in 10 years by which time the disparities were expected to be corrected by leap frog one generation of marginalised. This explains why caste was not included in the census in Independent India. The political vested interests however ensured its perpetuation beyond the original proposal of ten years and this has resulted in almost reversing the disparity – some among the erstwhile marginalised gaining unduly and among the erstwhile dominant becoming virtually marginalised. The politicians have made it look impossible to ever erase this scourge of reservation. The un-stated purpose of the caste census now is for the politicians to perpetuate their vote bank politics unbridled.

Even the logistics of implementing a reservation policy to cover each and every caste when the number of vacancies in most cases would be far fewer than the number of castes them selves and not to speak of the weighted total based on proportion of each cast to the total population [which will be a fraction of the population itself – running to millions] will be a daunting task. The British solution of rotation will be unconstitutional as many candidates from smaller groups will have to forgo their chances waiting for their caste’s turn for years, meanwhile getting age barred and thus the constitutional provision of equal opportunities will be violated.

A welcome development in the past 63 years is that education and rational, socialistic, liberal thinking have led to the younger generations becoming almost casteless or insensitive to caste division. Increasing inter-caste marriages and erasure of caste identity/ symbols are just the manifestations of this. However the reservation policy only has been trying to ensure the perpetuation of caste feelings. The right way forward now, as it has always been, is to scrap the reservation policy, scrap all schedules of castes etc., create a casteless, classless, egalitarian society and replace the reservation policy with scholarships and concessions as said above, but to economically weaker sections and not on caste basis. But the political hawks are bent upon keeping the society divided and they will implement the caste census and continue the rule of vote bank politics against all qualified advice and popular sentiments. However they can take at least one step forward even when they are taking 63 steps backward by this caste census. While enumerating, a provision to declare one self ‘casteless’ must be included. Many forward thinking, socialistically minded and rationalists – the Gandhians, communists/ socialists etc. foreign returned/ NRI s, off springs of mixed parentage and unknown parents, test tube babies etc. – will opt for this classification. While providing reservations, this group also must be provided its due share. Needless to say this group will have the maximum percentage – be almost full – of deserving and meritorious candidates for any situation. Ideally this group should expand to become 100% one day. This can be encouraged by giving double the weight-age to this group, leading others also to switch to this group gradually.

There can be no objection to this proposal from any quarter. It will not only be a please all solution, it will be fair to everyone too and will gradually transform the society. In these days of contemplating providing ‘none of the above’ option – a virtual rejection of all contestants – in elections, it should not be difficult to digest the ‘casteless’ option suggestion. However, the ‘caste less’ option should be the first and not the last and the enumerators should be trained to highlight this option to the people.

It is time to cast away the caste system and not to perpetuate the scourge. It is time to unite the society and not divide it further from just four or five categories to a few thousands. If at all any reservation has to be provided, it should be only on economic criteria – reserving a few seats for the economically weaker sections – BPL families – only, irrespective of caste, religion, region, language etc.

Ayodhya

Harmony Park

The settlement of Ayodhya dispute can not be done by any legal verdict or even by passing a law in parliament. Neither ‘Ram’ nor ‘Allah’ [for that matter even Babar] would have wanted their followers or devotees to even hurt the sentiments of the followers or devotees of the other [even assuming they are two different entities] and not to speak of physically hurting them and killing. The people of Ayodhya seem to be peace loving and want to live harmoniously going by the reports in the media. It is only the politicians and politicians in the garb of saints, who have vitiated the atmosphere leading to a lot of blood being shed and causing unimaginable economic loss for the people of the town. The way forwards will be to put up a nice garden with only the statue of Mahatma Gandhi at the centre and christen it the ‘The Mahatma Gandhi park of communal harmony’. No pooja or namas should be permitted there. Only multi religious prayer [bajans etc.] as being conduct at Rajghat and other Gandhi memorials should be conducted every evening. While Lord Ram himself will be pleased to have his greatest devout Gandhi enshrined at his birth place [mythological though] and Allah will be pleased that one of the greatest of exponents of the Qoran has been enshrined and with them all Hindus and Muslims can feel proud of this. Let us remember Gandhiji’s words that he was as much a Muslim and a Christian as a Hindu he was. He was a modern symbol of secularism – a becon to the world torn by communal strife.

Let us also recollect Ramakrishna Paramahamsa’s words ‘‘God is only one. Different people call Him by different name, some as Allah, some as God, others as Krishna, Shiva etc. It is like water in the lake. Some call it as ‘water’, others call it ‘pani’ or ‘jal’. The water is the same’’. Let us also remember the jingle of early seventies ‘Everything is same except the name’.

Honest PM

Of an Honest PM and all the dishonest citizens

The media has relentlessly been trying to make us believe that our beloved PM is an honest man with impeccable integrity. However recent exposures – 2G scam [his inaction part], CWG scam and appointment of CVC among others – have started raising some eye brows. For argument sake let us take for granted that he is the most honest man in this country of over 1.1 billion dishonest people! That raises the questions, ‘Why should an honest man allow his deputies to indulge in scam after scam of monstrous proportions? Why should he preside over such acts and head such a motley crowd and not just step aside if he can not rein them in? Is he convinced that he is the only honest man who can save this nation from the other [unscrupulous] persons waiting to garb the gaddi? Is there any sense in having an honest man just as a figure head who does not answer the questions raised by the media or even the parliament, while his chelas take the country for a ride? Don’t we deserve a PM who will lead us from the front and not hide behind the spokes persons? Even after so many scams have been exposed in such a short time, should he continue to stick to his chair? What are his stakes? What motivates him to continue to hold on?’ The above questions suitably reworded apply to the Congress party [which claims to be honest] and UPA [a bundle of honest parties!!!] too.

In the first place why and how did he become the PM? He came in as a proxy for Sonia [let us avoid calling them as Gandhis which they – Indhira to Rahul – are not, a surname they have just usurped for political/personal gains] who in fact was not allowed to take over as PM by the then President Abdul Kalam, for reasons which is/are anybodies guess, but it was not just that she is not an Indian by birth for sure. Take my guess for that ‘US did not want a descendant of Nehru – a staunch socialist who did not open the huge Indian market for their colas, lipsticks, nail polishes and deodorants – to become the PM again, after getting rid of Indhira and Rajiv and establishing their rule of India by proxy [PVN]’. She was reluctant to enter politics when Rajiv died and presumably entered only to protect the interests of Quaterachy and to get her husband acquitted in the Bofors case, which she has achieved recently and how did she come to assume her present position – President of INC? She just walked in to the party office with some goons and physically bundled out the elected President – Sitaram Kesari – and occupied the chair. And how did Rajiv occupy his chair as PM earlier? The Parliamentary Party was yet to meet to elect their new leader after the assassination of the then PM Indhira when he was commissioned by the then President of the union – Gyani Zail Singh – and appointed PM, reportedly on instructions from Indhira before her assassination. This is the honesty of INC.

What is the justification for the media to believe that the PM is honest? Is it just that he was not a politician but a bureaucrat before becoming a minister? Bureaucrats are the conduits for most of the corrupt deals of politicians in office and off course they get their cut. But is it that he was not a bureaucrat in India but with a world body? Or is it just that they have not been able to unearth any scoop against him?

If one can not find suitable answers to these inconvenient questions, it can only mean the other possibility that he is not honest. Again for argument sake only let us consider this possibility. To suspect his integrity there must be some prima-facie justification. He is not an elected representative of the people of India or a bureaucrat – meaning he is not answerable to the people of India – he can not be voted out, as he never faces the voters, or dismissed. His background of holding some position in World Bank etc. compounded by his tenure as Finance minister in PVN’s cabinet for 5 years and now as PM for the past 61/2 years must have given him world wide contacts at the highest levels. In this age of E banking, you can not rule out his ability to get his Swiss Bank account credited with Dollars and Euros without the knowledge of even his wife and party chief and not to speak of the media. It is possible that he is very much adept in hiding these deals from others. He does not have to get small cut backs from tiny local deals [!!!] [and get caught by the local media] which he has left for others – Rajas, Kalmadis, other ministers, bureaucrats, MPs, CMs etc. – to do. His sponsors are the corporate giants of USA and Europe in nuclear equipment manufacture, GM crop/ seeds, cosmetics etc. In fact his brain child ‘Liberalisation, Privatisation, Globalisation’ [here in after called LPG for short] has benefited those corporations and their countries of origin very much more than India. In short he does not represent us but only represents US.

The recent visit by US President proved this beyond any reasonable doubt to the discerning. Mr Obama probably misplaced the draft of speech to be delivered at Mumbai and inadvertently delivered the speech prepared to be delivered on arrival at New York, at Mumbai itself. He spoke of how US will get 50000 jobs by dumping their wares in India and how it will help reviving their economy instead of what benefits his visit will deliver India. It was pathetic to watch the ‘who is who’ of Mumbai and business and commerce applauding his mis-delivered speech. Further in parliament he offered a gift – Security Council seat – for buying their wares – a Diwali/ New Year sale tactic. He visited India as a sales man – CEO marketing of the American corporate houses – only to book orders for them. In fact it will be more appropriate to call the American system of governance as corporate governance and not as democracy. The US government represents their corporate houses more than the people. Whom does the Indian government represent – we will see later.

The reforms [LPG] regime PM introduced as the FM in PVN’s cabinet, in the past 2 decades may have benefited the rich and middle class [30% of the population] but left the poor and rural populace [70%] in the lurch. It has enabled the ‘haves’ to become ‘have mores’ but rendered the ‘have nots’ to ‘have nothings’. With the introduction of the reforms, the rural – urban divide and the rich – poor divide widened in to a gash and in these 2 decades it has deepened in to a gorge. It has added another species to the list of endangered – the farmers. Over 350,000 farmers have committed suicide since 1991, not able to withstand the onslaught of the LPG regime. A report in 2007 said terrorism has claimed 351 lives in India that year. The terrorists look benign in comparison with the reformer causing death of 17000 – 50 times as many – farmers year after year since 1991. The few aam admi centric programmes introduced during his tenure namely ‘Rural employment guarantee scheme’ and ‘loan waiver for farmers’ were not initiated by him but done reluctantly only under pressure from mainly Left front and to some extent Sonia & Co. In fact introduction of the so called economic reforms – I call it deforms or uneconomic reforms – was a reversal of all that the Indian National Congress stood for from pre independence days well in to Indira congress days and even Rajiv congress days. It was a betrayal of the faith reposed by the voters in the congress party for their socialistic policies and aam admi centric rule, particularly after winning the 1991 elections on the age old socialistic policy plank. The fact that the voters threw out the Congress party from power [in to oblivion] at the earliest opportunity in 1996 and resurrected it in 2004 only under the hope that they have mended their ways from Narasimha rao days only goes to prove that Manmohan singh got everything absolutely wrong. Capitalistic economics or market economy – the new name for that – can not be called a policy at all, it is only a lack of policy as it not only ignores the welfare of nearly 70% population but it stakes the lives of the 70% for the betterment of 30%. To put it bluntly ‘the development of 30% - middle class and rich – has been achieved walking over the dead bodies of over 3 lakh farmers. Is it economics? Can he be called an economist at all? Can an honest person do this? And most importantly, would he have done it for free? Further this policy was not his discovery. BJP and their earlier avatar Jan Sangh have all along been advocating only capitalism as against congress party’s socialism. He only forced congress to switch side. For that his Manmohanomics was voted out by the electorate twice – not only in 1996 but in 2004 also, as BJP – NDA government’s [Jaswanth Singh’s] Singanomics and [Yashwanth Sinha’s] Sinhanomics were no different from Manmohonomics. But unfortunately without realising that, Sonia made him her proxy or was the decision taken across the globe and only implemented through Sonia and Abdul Kalam as was the decision to make him the FM in 1991?

‘Market economy’ driving people to insatiable desire for more money and more power, can never bring peace and happiness to the world. Only a moral based society can ever dream to live in peace and harmony. The rate at which crimes have risen, particularly corruption/ scams and crimes against women and children as a result of the greed fanned by the commercials in the TV/media after the introduction of open sky policy is alarming. The age old value systems have been buried fathoms deep. Normlesness has become the norm of the society.

As far the FDI inflow, they do not come to India to develop India, solve our problems or redeem India in short. They come here to take our wealth to their homes. We welcome them paying over five times the value for the dollars they bring in vis a vis the PPP value [purchasing power parity value of a dollar is less than Rs 10] and get impoverished both ways – export and import. We export at prices for below the intrinsic value of the product/ service, but the exporters get five times the value of dollars in rupees and they are happy. With the dollars thus brought in we import material/ service worth only the PPP value of the dollar [less shipping and handling costs] and not the exchange value as set by this Government. Who pays the difference? Off course ‘the aam admi – common people of India – you, me and the beggar on the street’. When ever the exchange rate of dollar vis a vis rupee falls, the PM and FM [earlier one in particular] mourn[ed], rather than celebrate for the improvement in rupees value. So is the case with sensex. An increase in sensex value may auger well for the business and industry but that leads to higher inflation and the common man suffers – money flows from the common man’s pocket to the rich investors’. When ever sensex drops the PM and FM go all out to prop it up – rather than propping up the common man’s interest. While the dollar earners are subsidised 400% by the aam adhmi, the farmers subsidise the eaters to the tune of 80%. The MSP awarded to paddy etc. is much lower than the cost of producing and the price the cultivator of vegetables etc., get is less than even the cost of plucking the fruits. Agriculture has become a quagmire and the farmer is left with no choice other than committing suicide under LPG regime.

His single point obsession with the passing of the Nuclear Power deal bill – it was not as much to light the homes in India as to keep the lights glowing in the US – the associated drama in the parliament, how he enacted ‘prepared to stake his position’ drama for the sake of the bill [and not for the sake of the welfare of the people of India] and ultimately how it was passed and at what cost [Rs 25 Cr per MP], as well as the drama enacted to pass the nuclear liability bill before Obama’s visit are the clear pointers to his honesty [Loyalty] or otherwise. Honestly, personally I am yet to come across even one person who believes the PM is an honest man. Every one agrees that he must be the most dis honest man in the country today and may be the richest person in the world albeit all his money locked up in Swiss banks. It is surprising how anybody – news magazine editors and correspondents in particular – can be so naïve to believe that he is honest. Going by Jurisprudence ‘unless and until proved otherwise, every one has to be considered innocent’, we have to only ‘consider him, as much as every politician/ bureaucrat, dis honest unless and until proved’ under the present atmosphere of scams. Anyway whether he is honest or not, his continuance in office has become undesirable if not untenable. The difference is only in the word – like sin Vs illegal, what is not illegal can still be a sin and vice versa.

The involvement of military officials apart from politicians and bureaucrats in the Adharsh housing and other land deals in Mumbai recently, taken together with 2G, CWG, CVC appointment etc. as well as nuke deals, attempt to foist GM crops on the un suspecting populace, and mass suicide by farmers – our ‘anna dhatha’ – needs to be addressed immediately. The country has to be saved from these scamsters urgently as otherwise we will slip in to anarchy. Replacing one minister here and another there or for that matter even the PM may be necessary but far from sufficient. Enquiry commissions will take decades to finally only absolve the accused gobbling up more money in the process than the scam itself. Let us remember, in the history of Independent India no politician has ever been convicted by the judiciary in spite of the people knowing by now practically every politician – current breed – whether in power or not is a criminal. Even fresh elections will only throw up some old wine in a new bottle – UPA or NDA, Congress or BJP – reminds me of a 1970s jingle ‘everything is same except the name’. Hence the scam ridden UPA government has to go and a national government with an interim parliament consisting of say 100 MPs from the current Lok Sabha with due representation to all parties and 100 more eminent persons – Chief Justices of Supreme court and all High courts, educationists, industrialists, business men, farmers, IGs, District Collectors, Generals, social activists and very particularly some leading Gandhians with equal voting rights or preferably double the voting rights as politicians, should be formed led by a person of proven impeccable integrity [eg. T.N Seshan, Gopalakrishna Gandhi, Rajmohan Gandhi – the real Gandhis] elected by the above parliament and not by any person just projected as honest. There should be no nomination for the post and each MP should vote for 3 persons and the PM elected by transfer of votes if no direct winner emerges in the first round getting more than 50% votes. This team should not introduce any new project but only speed up all investigations of gross irregularities, corruption/ scams and punish the culprits expediously, apart from running the day to day administration. They must audit the policies of the government in the past 2 decades and re form the policies to benefit the people of this country. This interim national government and parliament should hold office for five years during which even a review of the provisions of the constitution regarding elections including election of office bearers of all political parties should be undertaken and fresh elections conducted for the next normal parliament. The five year holiday for political activities [and scams] will ensure revival of better political systems/ formations and values.

As far the voters, we have to work towards revival of better democratic values. Grass root democracy as advocated by Lok Nayak Jayaprakash Narayan in the seventies to stop the further march of the autocrat Indhira, is the best solution. Christened ‘Citizens for democracy’ it involves formation of street committees of voters who elect representatives from among themselves to the area committees and so on up to Parliament. This will enable injecting fresh blood in to politics by induction of non political representatives from among socially active people – eminent citizens. We still have a functioning democracy [Bihar has proved it again] though not working satisfactorily. If we the people decide, we can save the country from the ‘rule by the scamsters, of the scamsters and for the scamsters’ and stop the country from drowning in the mire of corruption and scams. JP saved the nation from Indhira in the seventies. His inspiration alone can save the nation again from the scam ridden politicians.

Farmers' Genocide

The World Beckons India to Become It’s ‘Anna Data’ 16^th March 2009

Last June the media reported the then US President Bush as holding the prosperity of the 350 million strong Indian middleclass demanding better nutritious food as the reason for the spike in world food prises. But he did not grudge India’s prosperity. He saw ‘prosperity in developing countries’ as an opportunity to sell more of their (US’s) products.

Reacting to this, our ‘nethas’, cutting across party lines, alleged ‘he wants Indians to be malnourished’. ‘India is not a net importer of food, it is an exporter’, ‘only diversion of land for ethanol production in US has triggered food crisis’ they said. But Bush, neither appeared to want Indians to be mal nourished, nor did he grudge the prosperity of India as it is in their (US’s) interest to sell more to India. Then, why accuse him so? Further, if India is a net importer of food, US would only welcome India’s prosperity as they can export more food to us. Only since our curbing food exports now is hurting them, they are a worried lot. Our politicians have obviously misread him. Bush may be wrong 99 times, but not this time. This response is un-warranted.

However, while Bush saw an opportunity in India’s prosperity – our ‘nethas’ claim ‘he does not know economics’ – our netha’s only are failing to see the great opportunity offered by the global food crisis situation. The world needs food, but the developed countries do not produce enough for themselves. Whether they divert arable land for bio fuel or leave it uncultivated is not our concern. As long as they don’t cultivate Ganja and send it to India through the under world, we should have nothing to sulk. We have a huge pool of rural population, nearly 750 millions strong, which is primarily agricultural and badly under employed. With proper policies we can increase food production enormously, feed the ‘over one billion population’ well (nutritiously) and export the surplus to the countries that need them, turning Rural India in to a gold mine. If we stop considering ‘Rural India’ (masses) as lazy, waste, burden on the economy (as the netha’s and the elites do) and realise that it is a great resource – an asset – we can soon become the ‘Anna data’ – Provider of food, a one stop food shop – for the whole world. We have the potential, native knowledge, capacity, infrastructure, manpower and what not. We only lack the political will.

When the oil rich Arabian countries realised in the 60s, that the world – particularly, the oil guzzling western and European nations – depend on them for oil, they grabbed the opportunity with both hands and rest is history. Then why can’t we do it now, when the world needs food from India? The hurdle is only that our netha’s know too much of economics!!!

Our recent misadventures with the economic reforms have driven the rural populace to penury and agriculture has become a quagmire now. An article published in The Hindu dt. 12^th to 15^th Nov. 2007 read, ‘149,244 farmers have committed suicide between 1997 and 2005 as per the National Crimes Record Bureau’ averaging to about 16,583 per year. This has been going on un-abated ever since the introduction (and as a consequence) of the so-called economic reforms by Shri Narasimha rao as PM along with Manmohan Singh as FM in 1991. Projecting for the period from 1991 to 2008, the number of suicides by farmers could be more than 300,000. We have to hold our head in shame. This is a testimony to the great knowledge of economics of our netha’s. No amount of development of the 350 millions can justify the suicide by 3 lakh farmers. We cannot develop a section of the population walking on the dead bodies of our farmers. The reforms may have brought prosperity to the middle and rich class, effectively enabling the ‘haves’ to become ‘have mores’ but it has rendered the ‘have nots’ to ‘have nothings’. The main problem is faulty agricultural policy (or the lack of a credible policy) irrespective of the party in power. The paradigm shift in the view/attitude to agriculture has resulted in the disaster of farmers committing suicide in such huge numbers that we may as well call it ‘genocide’. The ‘Liberalisation & Globalisation’ regime has widened the rural – urban divide in to a ‘Gash’ and in these 17 odd years it has deepened further in to a ‘Gorge’. It has now added another name to the list of endangered species, ‘The farmers’. Now we need to ‘re farm’ to correct the blunders of the ‘reform’.

A news piece in The New Indian Express dt. 29^th Nov 2007 read ‘Terrorism has claimed 351 lives in the year 2007 in India till now, as per the Director (Internal security) of the Union Home ministry’. This raises a basic question, ‘Are the hand full of disgruntled elements hiding in caves and forests trying to remind the civilised world of their existence through sporadic strikes on innocent civilians claiming about 350 lives a year to be dreaded so much or the self centred politicians claiming to protect 1.1 billion people and giving us a welfare government, but delivering a death knell on the rural, farming and marginalized communities, resulting in the genocide of about 16,500 farmers every year, year after year, not realising their blunder even after their misadventures have resulted in such a terrible catastrophe, to be dreaded?’. The terrorists look benign in comparison.

Apart from killing more than 300,000 farmers, the reforms have only resulted in the closure of most of the industries which were in existence prior to 1991, rendering millions of industrial workers jobless, prematurely retiring several thousand experienced hands in banks and PSUs, staggering levels of inflation (stagflation), and accentuating the disparities severely. The number of jobs created since 1991 is a small fraction of those lost. Most the jobs created also are temporary ones transferring data from paper records to E bites – just a pausing phase – not a sustainable productive activity. It is another matter that with the ‘Global economic meltdown’ even the rosy picture painted about the urban India is sadly turning grey. Clearly the polity is not working for India and her people. We are not their masters and they do not represent us. Their masters are elsewhere. UPA or NDA, Congress, BJP or Left – Reminds of a commercial jingle of early seventies, ‘Everything is same except the name’.

Though there was a hue and cry about the increase in prices of some food articles recently, the prices of farm produce have not only not been keeping pace with the other goods and services, they have not kept pace with even the increase in the cost of inputs to agriculture. For example, the retail price of sugar has remained at Rs. 15 to 16 per Kg and rice (say fine variety) at Rs. 22 to 23 per Kg since many years – until very recently when there was some jump – in spite of steep rise in prices of diesel, power, fertilisers and even farm labour wages. Vegetables have been selling at a high of Rs. 25 a Kg for some time every year since 1990 at Chennai. This is in contrast to the over all inflation ranging from 3 to 11 percent per year during this period, as admitted by the Government and much higher actually. Also compare this with the increase in salaries of employees not only in specific sectors, but in Government service as well. Even farm labour wages have gone up over 6 folds since 1994, but price of some varieties of rice went up only by about 85 % in this period – from Rs 12 to 22 till about August 2008 and now it has risen to about 33 still less than 175 % only.

For the farmers the actual cost of production of cereals is much higher than the Minimum Support Price (MSP) at present. The case of vegetables is much worse. Most often the farmer gets a price of only Re 1 to Rs 2 per kg for vegetables, although it may sell at Rs 20 to 25 in cities. The cost of even plucking the fruits is higher than what he gets as the price.

While, the farmer does not get a return to justify his continuing in the farm business (in fact, he does not find justification to even continue living), the middlemen, the wholesale dealers, retail dealer and often the black marketers, make merry of every situation – a bumper crop or a failed crop. Inflation in the prices of food articles if any, is mainly due to hoarding, commodity trading, futures trading etc. and the farmer gets little benefit from the rise in price.

We have to give the farmer his due. Farm produce – rice, wheat, maize, pulses, oil seeds, sugar cane, cotton, vegetables etc. should be awarded a Fair Remunerative Price (FRP) and not just a Minimum Support Price (MSP). Is there any industry in the world selling its produce for minimum support price? Then, why a MSP for farm produce? Why not a FRP?

If alone the farmer is able to get a meaning full return, he will come out of the debt trap and he will not only re invest in the next crop, he will also invest the surplus funds to expand his farming activities as well as diversify in to processing of farm produce and other related activities. Food production will multiply manifold and we can literally feed the world. This will immediately vastly improve the rural employment potential, utilisation of wasteland and the rural economy, obviate the rural employment guarantee scheme and erase the poverty line, leading further to an all round development of the rural areas. The improved rural economy will boost the market for the industrial products too. The market for industrial products will explode, not just expand, leading to the urban and national economy improving in leaps and bounds. The improvement in the urban employment potential will be a by-product. Thus there will be a chain reaction leading to elimination of unemployment and under nourishment. The vastly improved rural and urban employment potential will even obviate a major headache in governance – reservations.

Further the improved economic condition of the villages will lead to their demanding and getting better roads, water supply, power, schools, hospitals and what not? The farmer will willingly pay for all these developments and the government will find their demand justifiable.

We may wonder where to get the extra water, fertilizers etc. needed to increase agricultural production. Use of chemical fertilizers and pesticides is anyway getting reduced with the growing awareness of their harmful effects. Farmyard manure and compost do not need any inputs from outside the farm. The increase in farm production will automatically increase the availability of farm refuse for the manure and composts. With the improvement in the viability and profitability of the farming activity, the awareness level of the farmers and willingness to adopt scientific methods will automatically improve. They will adopt less water intensive farming practices as well as take more responsibility in collecting and storing rainwater.

The Genesis and the Solution

Every industrial product is ‘cost’, taking in to account, apart from the cost of materials and labour, the rental values, interests on investments (not only loans), overheads, stocking cost, marketing cost, provision to cover rejections, wastages and loss in transit, after sales service liabilities, warranty provisions, publicity and creation of brand image. The industrial product is then priced adding a profit margin over the cost. Thus unless the industrial unit is mismanaged, the industrial activity is assured of profitable operation even for a mediocre performer.

Where as in agriculture, rent for the land, return (interest) on investment, labour put in by the owner of the farm and his family members – for cultivation, supervision, guarding the crop from men and animals, reaping the yield, packaging, shipping and selling the produce, go unaccounted. The cost of using own cattle for ploughing (the cost of feeding, washing and maintaining the cattle, as well as the replacement cost) the cost (value) of the farmyard manure prepared from the cattle waste and other farm wastes are not accounted. The water used from his well or the village tank goes unaccounted too.

Further not every crop yields a bumper harvest. Draughts, floods, pest infestations, and non-availability of inputs (seeds, fertilisers, pesticides, labour and water) at the right time, make a good yield a rarity and bumper crops only a jackpot. Even in a bumper harvest year, the prices fall and the net yield to the farmer is only paltry.

In fact, even a farm worker gets a decent wage in most of the places. His main problem is only that he does not get anywhere near 250 days of work in a year as an industrial worker does. On the other hand, the owner of a small holding, is not able to recover even his own labour cost and not to speak of his family members’. He actually works harder and for a longer duration in his own farm, than when he goes out to another farm to work for wages. In effect, it appears to be more rewarding to work as a farm worker than to cultivate ones own land.

If one has to cultivate land not owned by him, he has to pay a share of the yield as lease charges to the owner. When he cultivates his own land, should he not get that much surplus return, as he would have had to pay if it was a leased land? Should he not get the wages for his and his family members’ labour? Should he not get adequate returns to justify the owning and using cattle? Should he not get a price to compensate for the losses incurred due to failed crops?

But, when a farmer takes his wares to sell, he often gets a price, which is far lesser than even the cost of reaping and selling the produce. In the absence of a fair remunerative pricing policy, he is unable to sell the produce at its inherent value, but is selling only at a fraction of the cost of the produce driven by the so-called market forces and un-remunerative MSP. He is in effect subsidising the users of his produce. As his operations yield a net loss, his economic condition deteriorates with every crop and is left with the ultimate decision of ending his life. Farming has thus become a quagmire and every non-farming consumer of farm produce is culpable in his suicide.

While the situation is such in the farming sector, we have an example of what is right at the other end – Milk. At the dawn of independence, we were importing Milk products. But now we are No. 1 in milk production in the world having over taken the long time No. 1 – USA – a few years ago. How did the transformation take place? White revolution? The Amul experiment of establishing cooperative milk production and marketing society in Gujarat became such a smashing success, that it got replicated in all other states too. Today the producer gets a fair price for his produce, while the consumer gets quality milk at a fair price too. The producers get well bread cattle, guidance to rear the cattle and even financial assistance for buying the cattle and run the dairy, from the federation. The federation then collects the milk from various points at remunerative price (to the dairy farmer), processes it to improve shelf life and convert it in to other dairy products, packages and supplies to consumers through its own outlets at affordable prices. It is a win-win situation. The rural economy as well as the nations economy has got a big boost due to this, apart from the producer and the consumer benefiting immensely.

This success story of milk should be replicated for farm produce – cereals, pulses, vegetables, oil seed, cane, spices etc. by forming a ‘Cooperative, Farm Development, Produce Procurement and Marketing Federation’. As for the logistics, we have in place a very well established network for agricultural support. The ‘Departments of agriculture & horticulture’ along with the ‘Agricultural universities’ can take up the costing activity and establish the remunerative prices as above, also advice the farmers on selection of more suitable and profitable crop in each block, while the federation can sanction loans, supply quality seeds, fertiliser etc., guide the farmers to get best yield, collect the yield paying a remunerative support price, process it for better shelf life and value addition, package it and sell it through the federation’s own out lets as well as export what ever is exportable.

This will inevitably lead to the traders – wholesale and retail dealers – of agri/ horticultural products loosing their business. That includes the FCI. But the revitalised economy will easily absorb these people and their infrastructure. The warehouses of the Food Corporation of India can be transferred or leased to the federation and Civil Supplies Departments can procure from the federation and meet the requirements of the BPL sections of the population. In fact the implementation of the above scheme will automatically lead to shrinking of the BPL population and the need to subsidise, as the rural economy will grow in leaps and bounds. We may have to only maintain some level of subsidy for the farm inputs keeping in mind the world market for our farm produce.

Initially the prices of certain items like rice may go up. However, that will be only fair to the farmers producing those items. There will be a ripple effect on the labour wages and hence the calculation of the remunerative price. Subsequently the more organised farming activity will lead to better selection of crops, better inputs, practices, management, waste reduction, insurance, ultimately resulting in stabilising the prices leading to a high level of social justice.

The formation of the federation and establishing fair remunerative prices for farm produce will not only arrest the suicide by farmers, it will also arrest the migration of people from villages to cities and in fact reverse it.

The Government claims that as a result of the introduction of reforms the GNP has been growing at about 9% until recently, in-spite of the contribution of the rural economy – farm economy – being very low at about 1.5 to 2% only and that while the contribution of service sectors to GNP is 55% that of agriculture is only 17%. ‘What an absurdity’. The contribution of farm products to the GNP is many times higher than what is reported. The unjust low valuation of farm produce relative to industrial products and other services only makes it appear so low. If the farm produce, rural industrial produce and rural services are given their due value taking the unsubsidised value of the agricultural inputs and calculating the cost of cultivation the way industrial products are cost and the dollar value is corrected to reflect its true purchasing power (the Purchasing Power Parity – PPP – value of 1 USD is only Rs 10 and not Rs 50), you may find a total reversal of the values of contribution to GNP with the farm sector showing a much higher figure (may be 50 to 60%) while the services and export sector a much lower figure (say 10% only). Not to speak of the real value of the out puts from the two sectors. One is productive, basic and most essential – cannot do without, while the other is just a recording, non-essential, can do without. In fact if the above exercise is done, the result will drive the government to correct the blunder of 1991 (reforms or deforms?) reverse the disastrous course and look at economy in the right perspective.

Apart from farm produce, there are so many other activities going on in the rural India having huge intrinsic value, which are not valued at all. For example, the firewood collected meticulously and used as fuel. Is the effort and fuel value considered while computing the GNP? So is the case with the Hay used as cattle feed, farmyard manure and the water collected and supplied through the irrigation system.

A bumper crop or a failure has a major impact on the overall economy, as no other sector. A good or a failed monsoon reflects in the overall performance of the economy as nothing else. Even the electoral prospects of political parties are influenced by the monsoon heavily. These issues highlight the point that the farm produce are much more valuable than the value assigned at present.

Thus sanctioning a FRP for farm produce and organising a cooperative procurement and marketing federation will be a Sakala Roga Nivarani for all the economic ills of the world. Will our netha’s rectify their myopic vision, make amends for the havoc they have caused by the reforms and realise the opportunity arising out of the global food crisis at least now? But in the current political atmosphere, we do not have any party, except may be the communists, capable of understanding the problems of the farmers and introducing programmes to compensate the farmers for the injustice perpetrated on them in the past 18 years. 70 percent of India’s over 100 crore population is still living in villages, and most of them are still largely dependent on farming. While Manmohan singh and Chidambaram have not taken any serious step to solve the problems of the farmer which were created by them only in the first place, they go all out to save the dollar rate from dropping and the sensex from crashing. Even the waiver of farm loans and rural employment guarantee scheme were introduced by them not by choice but under extreme pressure from the left parties.

The economic policy of Manmohan and Chidambaram at the best may appear to have benefited a part of the 30 percent urban, rich, middle class, industrial and corporate employees and government employees. The 70 percent rural population is a neglected lot and is being treated as second class citizens only. No party can form a government without the support of the 70 percent rural population. Then why should they vote for any of these parties who do not care for them. Even the government agrees today that there are two Indias now – urban India and rural Bharat. While India is moving ahead, Bharat is slipping behind. If alone they [rural Indians] select some good candidates among themselves and send them to the parliament, assemblies and local bodies, we can not only rewrite the fate of rural India but the whole of India and even the whole world.

At the least as suggested above, if a ‘Co operative marketing organisation’ is formed, the farmers become members of the society, eliminate middle men, set up direct sales outlets and sell their produce, private small and large traders of farm produce will get eased out of the system and subsequently farm produce will be available only in the co operative society. At that time it will possible for the society to command a fair remunerative price for its produce and with the income generated, rural economy will under go a revolutionary change. This co operative society should arrange loans for the farmers, give certified seeds and other inputs, say no firmly to GM and BT crops, guide them, insure the yield, set up warehouses, set up sales out lets etc. and thus the rural people ‘Bharat’ can govern themselves in a major way. Their dependence on the Government will reduce and the government can concentrate on ‘India’.

To do this we need not look up to the government or politicians, or expect some one to land from the skies. It is in the hands of the rural – farming – community itself.