Where is the Holistic Understanding?

The hike in Central excise duty on petrol and diesel as well as the two per cent ad valorem increase on non-petro products in the latest Union Budget the Finance Minister presented in Parliament last Friday (February 26) have justifiably incensed the entire Opposition with members from all Opposition parties (from the BJP to CPI) taking the extraordinary step of trooping out of the Lok Sabha in the midst of—and not after—Pranab Mukherjee’s Budget speech. This step was indeed extraordinary and unique; but then a seasoned politician of the experience, if not the stature, of the present Finance Minister should have also been able to anticipate the public, and Opposition, reaction to the measure of fuel price hike, given the intense burden the common people have been already bearing due to the rising prices of essential commodities. It is bound to have a cascading effect in the sense that, as aptly pointed out in The Asian Age, “every manufacturer middle man or retailer… impacted by the rise in fuel costs, will take his pound of flesh from the consumer”. This is the most important point that negates all the arguments of the government spokesmen who are seeking to explain this development as a partial rollback in reduction of excise duties that the government had given as part of the stimulus package.

That The Asian Age, a broadly pro-government publication, has come out openly against this proposal provides a measure of the magnitude of mass opposition to it. And the newspaper has cogently elucidated:

When the government announced the stimulus (package) a year ago there was hardly any inflation, but now, with double-digit inflation, this rollback will take a heavier toll.

That is not all. The daily has further stressed:

While the government has its compulsions in trying to shore up revenue and bridge the burgeoning fiscal deficit gap, it could have tapped other sources, particularly the rich, who have got away scot free. They are the ones who pay Rs 1.5 lakh for a bottle of fine wine and over Rs 1 lakh for a handbag, not to mention lakhs of rupees on a watch, a suit, or a sari.

No wonder this section has been most vociferous in extending full support to the Budget. And it is this section which has been echoing the government propaganda that as the Finance Minister has guranteed huge exemption for taxpayers the public at large will not experience the adverse effect of the fuel price hike. But how many of our people pay income tax? And how many fall within the Rs 8 lakh annual income bracket? What about the aam aadmi whose interests the government loudly defends in public?

The Manmohan-Montek-Chidambaram brigade of neo-liberalisers who are running the show with the full blessings of Sonia Gandhi (who has gone the whole hog with them in refusing to roll back the fuel price hike in spite of opposition from the Congress’ own allies in the UPA as well as parties supporting it from outside) and complete support of Pranab Mukherjee (despite the latter’s proximity to the Left, notably the CPM) has won kudos for the Union Budget from corporate honchos across the board. Why? Because, as P. Sainath succinctly observes in The Hindu, “it enables a grasping corporate world to grab more public wealth” and ensures the “entrenchment of perhaps the most parasitic elite in the planet”.

It is quite natural that in this setting Chidambaram should laughingly forecast the liquidation of Maoists through his joint paramilitary operations across the affected States. And he knows that he has the backing of the entire corporate community as well as influential segments of the media ever ready to take up cudgels on behalf of the corporates at their back and call. Indeed these segments of the media have already launched their tirade against the Maoists and their “intellectual supporters” simultaneous with the unfolding of ‘Operation Green Hunt’. These people, including Chidambaram, beholden to the corporates (to whom they want to hand over the tribals’ land in the Maoist-infested regions for the purpose of ‘development’), are unable to comprehend the huge distance such operations would traverse towards reinforcing the Maoists ideologically, politically and organisationally. They have failed to learn anything from the experience of Salwa Judum—how far it brought grist to the mill of Maoism. Without a political approach Maoism cannot be tackled by military means—this comprehension is sorely missing in the corridors of power in New Delhi today. Of course, the calls for Maoist-government dialogue have evoked some positive response from both sides (although such a response is still at the level of a public relations exercise).

Both the Budget and the attitude towards Maoism betray the government’s narrow mindset and jaundiced vision bereft of a holistic understanding of what constitutes India that is Bharat.

March 4 S.C.