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.