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THE FIRST BUDGET of the UPA government provides the first authentic clue to the unfolding real meaning of the Common Minimum Programme. It is a Chidambaram Manmohan Package all the way. The clever Finance Minister has of course told the Financial Times in London that he has devoted as many as 153 paragraphs of his 155-paragraph-long budget speech to the concerns of the communist parties supporting his government! He claims to have presented a ‘caring’ budget for the rural poor and the distressed farmer. A closer study of his budget proposals reveals that nothing could be more untrue.
Indebtedness is acknowledged to be the most important reason driving farmers to suicides. The budget has not announced any package of debt-relief or amnesty. It has merely expressed a desire, without any allocation, to double the flow of credit over the next three years! For farmers faced with crop-failure, there is still no effective crop-insurance scheme. Chidambaram has only cheapened tractors, asked state governments to promote ‘contract farming’ and announced a National Horticulture Mission to increase horticultural production, without batting an eyelid on the all-important question of finding a sustainable market for the agricultural producers. This is precisely the kind of recipe that previous governments have been implementing to disastrous consequences.
As for employment and food security, we have been told that the promised National Employment Guarantee Act would come later and till then food-for-work scheme would be administered in only 150 most backward districts. The budget says nothing about expanding and strengthening the public distribution system, it merely invites state governments to collaborate with the central government to introduce a new system of food stamps for the poor. Meanwhile, allocation for the existing Sampoorn Gramin Rozgar Yojana has been slashed by Rs. 5,000 crore!
Chidambaram talks of shifting the focus from disinvestment to investment. But investment does not mean enhanced public investment, not even in agriculture; it refers almost exclusively to foreign investment. FDI caps have been increased in crucial sectors like telecommunication, insurance and civil aviation. And Foreign Institutional Investors that are already dominating and manipulating the share market have now been offered more opportunities to expand in every branch of the credit, capital and commodities market.
The much trumpeted focus on investment does not of course put an end to disinvestment, not even in the so-called Navratna companies. In a clear ‘creative’ departure from the policy outlined in the CMP, the budget has already announced a 5% disinvestment in the NTPC, a Navratna jewel! The overall disinvestment target projected in the present budget runs to of Rs. 4,000 crore, which is more than the average disinvestment recorded in the last one decade or so. A key task of the proposed Public Sector Enterprises Restructuruing Board would be to guide the government in matters of disinvestment. Evidently, the disinvestment-cum-privatisation campaign would be continued under new names and through newer routes.
To create the illusory impression of offering a new deal for rural India and giving a ‘human face’ to the elitist economic reforms the budget makes a lot of ‘progressive’ and ‘pro-poor’ noise. There is the 2% education cess ostensibly to make education available to all. There is this ‘dream’ proposal to repair, renovate and restore the entire water resources of the country by the end of the decade. There are talks of reducing regional disparities through creation of new funds. There is a new call for ‘gender sensitivity’ in economic affairs. The catch lies in the figures of allocation. The so-called Rashtriya Sam Vikas Yojana, for example, gets an allocation of Rs. 3,225 crore; flood-control gets Rs. 30 crore; defence gets Rs. 77,000 crore (a record hike of 28%) even as we talk peace with Pakistan and China!
The catch lies in the paradoxical priorities: computers and tractors would attract no excise duty, but prices of matches and candles would be sent soaring by enhanced excise! Custom duty on steel has been lessened while excise has been increased so that the domestic steel market becomes more vulnerable to foreign steel giants. As many as 85 items are dereserved from the small scale industries list so that big capital can make greater and easier inroads into the small sector.
Budget 2004 has thus clearly signalled the UPA government’s design of sharpening the neo-liberal economic offensive. It is bound to intensify the prevailing agrarian crisis and the economic insecurities of the common Indian. The people have no other option but to fight these budget proposals and their disastrous impact tooth and nail.
The UPA Government’s first budget is a boon for foreign investors, the corporate sector and affluent consumers. As for the poor, unemployed and toiling Indians, the countryside and backward regions, the present budget can only be described as a betrayal of the spirit of the mandate of the 2004 elections couched in deceptive declarations and shallow symbolism.
The budget just does not address two of the most crucial concerns expressed in the Economic Survey released only yesterday, namely, low tax-GDP ratio and growing unemployment burden. Contrary to the promise of a massive food-for-work programme pending enactment of the National Employment Guarantee Act, the budget has limited itself to a food-for-work scheme for only 150 districts. Instead of expanding and universalising the public distribution system, the budget restricts itself to token tinkering like selective introduction of food stamps for the hungry. Similarly, the grand promise of restoration of all water bodies in five years begins with a pilot project covering only five districts in the entire country.
The rejection of popular trade union demands for raising the Provident Fund interest rate and amending the anti-employee CPF scheme for central government employees exposes the hypocrisy of the government’s pro-worker claims. While the proposed investment commission is evidently aimed at making India more attractive to foreign investors with ceilings for foreign investment being raised considerably in crucial sectors like telecommunication and insurance, the task of continuing the disinvestment campaign has merely been transferred to the proposed Public Sector Enterprises Restructuring Board.
Backward regions including Bihar have been sanctioned only a pittance. The crucial question of flood control has attracted a meagre allocation of only Rs. 30 crore. All backward states of the country are now left to compete for funds from the proposed Backward States Development Fund with a corpus of only Rs. 25,000 crore for the next five years. By contrast, the defence budget for the country has been hiked to a whopping Rs. 77,000 crore. In the context of India’s improving relations with neighbours like China and Pakistan, such a massive allocation in the name of the country’s defence is totally retrograde and unwarranted.
In short, in the name of handing out a new deal for rural India and giving a human face to the economic reforms, the budget has once again given a raw deal to the starving poor and the farmers in distress while the much hyped ‘human face’ is fast turning out to be no more than a hypocritical facade.
All India Agricultural Labour Association (KHEMAS) held a massive 'Mahadharna' on July 10 in Patna to condemn black law TADA and the anti-rural poor budget of the UPA govt. in the center. This was addressed by Comrades Dipankar Bhattacharya, Ramnaresh Ram, Rameshwar Prasad, Satyadev Ram, Vidyanand Vikal and PB member Rubul Sarma among others.
A memorandum was presented to the Governor of Bihar demanding immediate measures at his own level to initiate the resolution of various problems pertaining to the agricultural labour including that of the continuous protection being given to the mafia-feudal forces by the state govt. in an attempt to defeat the growing assertion of rural poor in state's politics.
Comrade Dipankar reiterated this point in his speech by emphasising on the fact that ruling RJD in Bihar, which is a partner of the Congress-led UPA govt. in Delhi, is unwilling to remove TADA cases from those fighting for the rights of the agricultural labour in Bihar in spite of the much hyped propaganda by the govt. in Delhi to repeal POTA. Moreover, none of the leaders of any of the feudal-armies or criminal gangs in the state, be it chiefs of Diamond or Ranvir Senas or the dreaded criminals like Shahabuddin, have never had to face Acts like TADA or POTA. On the contrary, TADA was imposed recently in Jehanabad and Arwal on those fighters of the people who gave away all privileges of life to contribute in the struggles to finish the Ranvir Sena and the feudal oppression in the region. They are the crusaders of the struggle for establishing real Democracy and a 'New Bihar'.
This is the irony of Bihar, he said, that parties like RJD and persons like Laloo Yadav can not dare to side with the struggles of the poor and take risk of losing the convenient socio-economic equation that helps them to remain stuck with the power. Akhilesh Singh is a known Ranvir Sena men in Arwal whom he made an MP on his party ticket and now he is a minister in the centre.
He also criticized the central budget and said that it is agaisnt the interests of agri. labour and poor peasants. No concrete provisions have been made in budget for the agricultural sector despite 400 more suicides by peasants after the UPA govt. came in Delhi.
It was resolved to intensify the mass mobilisations against TADA and POTA as well as the budget proposals. And if govt. refuses to comply with the demands then the indomitable force of the agricultural labour will be mobilised throughout the country to give a befitting reply to the govt. AIALA will also hold massive programmes in the coming month. The dharna was presided over by Pradip Kumar and Ganesh Das, was participated by thousands of agri. labourers who came from almost all the districts of Bihar wielding their traditional weapons, and the banners and red flags.
The main demands which were put forth through the memorandum included implementation of Minimum Wages Act and the Land Reforms Act in the state besides enactment of a central legislation for the agricultural labour. Minimum wage fixed for Bihar is Rs. 52 per day, but still it is given mostly in kind as 2-4 kg. of grains per day - hatai or batkhara system - and whenever there are movements for minimum wages, landlords let loose their reign of terror and state administration victimizes labourers by implicating them under laws as stringent as TADA. It was the movement for the minimum wages in Belsar panchayat of Arwal against one landlord mukhia Vijay Narayan Sharma, started after duly notifying the Labour Inspector of the district, that led to the killing of one agri. labour and imposition of TADA on 16 agri labourers in 1990.
Similarly, one of the AIALA leaders in Purnea Sanjay Mandal is facing charges of sedition for campaigning in favour of CPI(ML) candidate during last Lok Sabha elections. There are clear-cut legal provisions for the withdrawal of such cases but the govt. does not want to comply with the law.
The Land Reforms Act, though amended many times, has never been implemented in Bihar. There are lakhs of landless, and many of whom patta holders, who have been allotted land on paper, but the actual possession of that land still remains with the landlords. The lands belonging to 44 dalit patta holders in Kurkuri village of Terari block in Bhojpur is occupied by the Ranvir Sena men. And when village mukhia Gaurishankar Mahto tried to lead those patta holders, he was arrested by the police under fake charges and brutally beaten up inside the police lock-up. In anothr case, a petrol pump of Vijendra Prasad Singh, the RJD MLA from Sandesh, exists on the lands of 17 patta holders of mushahar caste in Erora of Udavantnagar. Three of these 17 have been murdered.
In spite of the fact that attacks by feudal forces have increased on dalits and agri. labourers in Bihar and govt. is continuously siding with the former in order to curb the growing assertion by and democratic rights of the rural poor, the incidents of mass-resistance have increased in number and intensity as well. This is the reason many AIALA and CPI(ML) leaders have been implicated in false cases. In West Chamaparan district many of leaders including Bihar State Vice President of AIALA Nandji Ram is facing such charges while CPI(ML) leader Virendra Gupta is still behind bars. There have been struggle for land to landless and agri labourers against the feudal estates in the district.
The Mahadharna also criticized the Left supported central govt. for evading the issue of enactment of a central legislation for the agricultural workers in its first session of Parliament.
AISA held a three-day Cadre Convention from 4-6 July in Patna which was attended by leading activists from several campuses of Bihar, Assam, UP, Uttaranchal, Delhi and West Bengal. The Convention called upon the activists and supporters of all progressive democratic student-youth organisations to launch a fresh round of student-youth struggles against the UPA govt.'s betrayal of the people's mandate. The Convention, centered on the issues of education and employment, came out with several resolutions which strongly indicted the Congress-led UPA govt. Main speakers of the Convention were Arindam Sen, Dhirendra Jha, Kavita Krishnan and Sunil Yadav.
Addressing the convention, CPI(ML) Central Committee member and the Director of Indian Institute of Marxist Studies Comrade Arindam Sen said "Economic reforms with a human face is not at all a new preposition. This is old terminology used by the IMF-WB dictated capitalist regimes. Vajpayee has also used this jargon two years back in Copenhagen in October 2002." Dwelling on this theme, he added that the present power regime in centre is dominated by Doon-educated elites and pro-reform economists. It is not only futile, but also self-suicidal to expect from them that they would be giving a pro-poor, pro-peasant and pro-working class shift to the economic policies to build a vibrant employment generating economic system.
Comrade Sen recalled from President Kalam's address to the Parliament where he said that the fulfillment of promises would depend upon the availability of resources. The present government doesn't really want any radical change in the fields of education, employment and health. The two percent cess system is also not going to change the situation. He criticized the UPA govt. for reducing the whole issue of employment to just the talk of employment Guarantee Act which is nothing but only a continuation of already flop employment Guarantee Scheme. "In our country agriculture is the largest employment generating sector, but the govt. hasn't any clear and concrete planning to revamp this crisis-ridden sector. He slammed the Left parties, CPI(M) and CPI - indirect partners of the central government, for giving legitimacy and space to the Congress to pursue the anti-people agenda of the economic reforms and emphasised that the genuine opposition can only be built through mass struggles at grass-roots as neither any section of the ruling coalition nor the opposition is willing to protest the reforms.
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The months of June-July have witnessed a very marked increase in the incidence of violence on women all over West Bengal : in trains and buses, within homes and at places of work, in police custody and at schools, during day and at night. While the perpetrators include police personnel, a teacher, an lawyer, hooligans and CPI(M) activists, the victims included teenagers, children, adult women, a physically handicapped girl, maid servants, women accused as witches, and so on. In protest against all this, the WB unit of AIPWA organised a demonstration in Kolkata on 7 July. Among many slogans and demands, one was: no mercy to Dhananjay Chatterjee, who had raped and murdered teenager Hetal Parekh years ago. This particular demand was raised in pursuance of a decision taken in the 3rd national conference of AIPWA (March 2001) to the effect that in such cases of rape plus murder, the AIPWA should stand unequivocally for capital punishment.
The demonstration, which combined a squatting on the busy Subodh Mallik Square crossing, a procession from that spot to Esplanade and a street corner meeting at Esplanade, evoked deep interest and support among the masses. Speakers included all-India honorary president Geeta Das and Chaitali Sen, secretary of West Bengal unit.
CPI(ML) has demanded to declare severe flood situation in Bihar as National calamity and immediate relief measures at all levels on a war-footing. And to seek a long-term solution to the perennial floods in this part of Bihar govt. of India must initiate talks with Nepal, Party demands.
The Bihar State Committee has said in statement that responsible ministers must stop giving non-serious statement which are a cruel joke on the people of Bihar, the Water Resources Minister has declared that no permanent solution for perennial floods in Bihar is possible and the people must 'learn' to live with the floods. While the 'de-facto' Chief Minister Laloo Yadav terms the floods as 'natural' and does not talk of providing relief to the victims.
B R I E F S:
True to its character, one RJD supported mukhiya of a village in Kanchanpur Panchayat of Obra block in Aurangabad abducted two local KHEMAS leaders Mahamaya Thakur and Ramakant Paswan, who went in the village for a preparatory meeting for the Mahadharna to be held in Patna, and later after a brutal beating for the whole night the police took over them as 'criminals'. This mukhiya had also tried to kill Comrade Mahamaya Thakur, who also contested panchayat election from this village, in an earlier attempt.
When local people and members of KHEMAS encircled the house of mukhiya the next morning after hearing the news of abduction, police came in support of mukhiya and arrested the two. The enraged people then held a militant gheraoed the thana, which forced the police to release the two activists. But the police refused to ledge the complaint against the mukhiya. Later, a massive gherao of thana was held and the road was blockaded for three hours in protest. This, ultimately, made the police to lodge the FIR against mukhiya and his supporters for kidnapping and attempt to kill.
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Similar incidents of police brutality and repression were seen in Jamui district when people punished RJD supported goons who raped two women on May 19. In another incident, on May 24, block Pramukh of Khaira, Prabhu Yadav, tried to capture the lands of the poor. These incidents have initiated tension in the villages of Khalari, Ahradih and Janakpura. Instead of taking action against the rapists and feudal goons the police has come in their open support and false cases have been lodged against a CPI(ML) leader of the district Shambhu Sharan Singh. While the villagers are being threatened by the goons of even massacre if they continue their resistance, local unit of the Party has resolved to intensify the struggle till the criminals are arrested and false cases on party activists are withdrawn.
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Party units in various areas in Patna district held protests on July 12 against the police raid at Party office at Naubatpur and arrest of many comrades. A huge police posse attacked Party's block office in Naubatpur in the early hours of July 11 and arrested area Secretary Mahesh Yadav and committee member Mahesh Ram along with two other activists. Police has implicated them in various false charges. This was condemned strongly through these protests.
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