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Mainstream, VOL L, No 29, July 7, 2012

Two Parts of PM’s "Plural India"

Tuesday 10 July 2012

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by NARENDRA SHARMA

The work-report of the UPA-II Government for the year 2011-12, recently released by Prime Minister Manmohan Singh, has been “part of the continuing process of”, what he called, “building a modern, secular and plural India”.

Not much notice has been taken by observers of this new concept of building “plural” India outlined, without expanding it, by the Prime Minister. This, however, does need special attention since he implied that he has been carrying on this process for the last seven years; of course, he did not say this in so many words.
The working people, both organised and unorganised, should be keenly interested to know his version of how Manmohanomics has in practice sought to make India modern and more so plural. As for the ‘secular’ part of India, people in the country need no explanation.

ACCORDING to observers, having closely watched the UPA-II Government’s policy-performance, one part of the so-called plural India can be taken to mean the growth of corporate India which Manmohanomics considers to be chiefly responsible for ensuring the growth rate of the economy, the other part being the multi-million workforce, both urban and rural.

This means that the available work-report pertains to the multi-million working people—for whom the government has made the so-called achievements. It is those people who have been responsible for bringing the Congress-led coalition headed by Manmohan Singh to power through a democratic vote. Manmohanomics, however, considers that since they cannot contribute towards increasing the growth rate, they have to be satisfied with whatever “trickles down” to them through various government social-security schemes. That is what the available work-report means.

Before taking up the available work-report’s achievements, it needs to be stated here itself that the government’s work-report of achieve-ments for the corporate part of plural India may have already reached the concerned section. This is so because captains of the leading business houses of the country constitute the Economic Advisory Council of the Prime Minister. Their votes hardly count but their profits accruing from the growth of the economy do count. And the present regime is of the view that the corpo-rates’ profits and the country’s growth rates are closely inter-connected. They may not have felt necessary or advisable to place the work-report on corporates before the public.

The UPA-II Government’s achievements for the corporate sector of “plural” India are not available for understandable reasons. We have been watching the government’s corporate-centric policy-performance for the last seven years, even more so after the Left parties decided to sever their ties with UPA-I. The Prime Minister has now himself decided to reveal his card rather innocuously, slyly; this he has pursued behind the back of the Cabinet, Parliament, the ruling coalition parties and even the Congress. It is obvious that the Prime Minister, who is also the Chairman of the Planning Commission, and its Deputy Chairman, Montek Singh Ahluwalia, have been closely cooperating in this venture of plural India.

It may surprise many that IT stalwarts have lately criticised the government. Azim Premji, the Chairman of Wipro, says: “We are working without a leader in the country.” And, N.R. Narayana Murthy, the founder of Infosys Technologies, says: “Over the past three-to-four months India’s image seems to have suffered. As an Indian, I feel very sad we have come to such a state.” That probably speaks of another aspect of the Manmohan Singh Government. Therefore about the government’s “corporate achievements” later. First let us see its work-report for the people.

In his “foreward” to the work-report the Prime Minister had presented for the people, he said: “Our first priority has been to ensure security and well-being of the people.” This objective, he said, was pursued by enhancing funds for agriculture, rural development and the social sector and by extending facilities to the common man.

Funds for agriculture have certainly been enhanced but the regime’s policy—based on export of crops—has also to its credit suicides by over two lakh debt-ridden farmers; and these suicides continue to this day.

The work-report says that more than Rs 2.75 lakh crores (years not mentioned) have been disbursed among small and marginal (SM) farmers. P. Sainath of The Hindu had gone into the “essence” of this “achievement”; he revealed after a study that among these peasants were those who had taken loans from Rs 50,000 to Rs 5 to 25 lakhs and they too fell in the category of SM peasants. It is known that the Manmohan Government is all for corporatisation of agriculture. It has refused to take note of the repeated warnings by leading agronomist M.S. Swaminathan that these small peasants were responsible for the 1960-70 Green Revolution and that they produce 40 per cent of foodgrains; ignoring their poor conditions would worsen the food situation when the producers are forced to become consumers.
Another major achievement is the operation of the Mahatma Gandhi National Rural Employment Guarantee Act (MGNREGA) in the country. Incidently, initially even the UN body had considered the scheme unique. Later the ILO, while closely observing it, found it too corruption-ridden. The work-report claims it has reached one of every five households of the country. More than 161 crore person-days have been created at an expenditure of Rs 27,000 crores. More than five crore accounts have so far been opened in over 97,000 post offices in villages. The average wage per day has increased from Rs 65 in 2006-07 to Rs 116 in 2011-12.

Certainly expansion of the scheme has happened, effort has been made to reduce corruption by paying through post offices and daily wages have increased. But the Prime Minister has not informed how much percentage of the employed workers were given 100 days of work a year as required under the scheme and of those who demanded work and were not given after 15 days, how many were paid compensation.

Rajasthan is considered a flagship of the MGNREGA implementation. Social activists Aruna Roy, Jean Drez and others tried to focus on various failings and help the government improve it. It is here that the State’s Sarpanches had held rallies to oppose the constitutionally provided social audit because it revealed that crores were swallowed in the purchases from the market. It was earlier reported that a whistle-blower was beaten to pulp by a swindler of the MGNREGA funds. Recently the CAG has revealed how the Mayawati Government spent MGNREGA funds through an NGO in UP.

Unfortunately, the Left and democratic forces, which had fought for this scheme and its improvement, seemed to have not found time and resources to educate and organise them to oversee its implementation. Even the Supreme Court (as it had done in many cases) can take note that billions are going waste though the scheme is meant for the poor and nation-building, and initiate measures to bring some sense in the corporate-centric government unmindful of encouraging domestic consumption and domestic production.

The work-report pats itself on the back and says foodstocks are at a record level in our country. Therefore, on the one hand, they can now be exported, and, on the other hand, the Planning Commission has removed 50 million poor below the poverty line from the BPL list to reduce the mounting subsidy. The Commission’s Deputy Chairman says their position has improved.

The most important achievement, from the PM’s viewpoint, would be enrolment through Multiple Registrars under the Unique Identification Authority. Twenty crore have already been enrolled. “This will enable them to claim public services facilities in a transparent manner.” Observers believe that this is also part of Manmohanomics’ globalisation scheme like the “plural India” venture.

THE work-report of the government’s achievements for the corporate sector is being reconstructed here; it too is a long one.

One: captains of all major business/industrial houses are on the Prime Minister’s National Economic Advisory Council. Nothing much remains secret about the economic policy-making from the corporates, with the people kept out of the picture.

Two: In contrast, the Manmohan Government refused to talk about, even take cognisance of, the coming together of all the 11 central trade union organisations for the first time in post-independence history and jointly framing a 10-point demand charter. They resorted to all forms protests including general strike. The UPA-II Government did not bother. Their first ever united struggle has been acclaimed by the inter-continental labour movements. But to the glee of the corporates, national and foreign, the Manmohan Government continues to dismiss this united labour movement.

Three: Labour Departments, both Central and in States, have been left paralysed in the matter of intervention in industrial disputes. New unions find hard to get registered. In Gurgaon’s new auto complex, there is stated to be an understanding between the Haryana Government and auto-manufacturers that new unions were not to be registered.

Four: A few Special Economic Zones (SEZs) have been developed and are still growing. Formation of labour unions in SEZs is virtually prohibited. Even the Labour Department Officer cannot enter an SEZ without prior permission of the Collector. These are workers’ ghettos.

Five: Corporates wanted “flexible labour laws”. Despite the existence of laws, they seem free to ‘hire and fire’, ‘enter and exit’ in the absence of the Labour Department’s intervention. It is left to the workers to keep fighting for their rights.
Six: When the Public Sector Bank Employees Forum refused to allow the government to scuttle their public sector status, the government announced that it would allow all industrial houses to start their own banks.

Seven: The government has continued forward trading in foodgrains despite hoarding, black-marketeering, high prices and increasing suffering of the people.
Eight: To make it short. Here is a case of the Manmohan Government’s unbounded liberalism towards the corporate sector. In the seven years between 2005-06 and 2011-12, the total revenue foregone under the corporate Income Tax was Rs 3,95,878 crores, under the Excise Tax Rs 9,55,726 crores and under the Customs Duty Rs 12,22,438 crores. The total revenue foregone “as revealed by successive Union Budgets”—State-ment of Revenue Foregone—came to Rs 25,74,042 crores.
In this backdrop, it is significant that the Prime Minister, while launching the “modern secular plural India” project deliberately chose to put on the shelf the Indian Constitution which clearly states that India is a Sovereign, Socialist, Democratic, Secular Republic. The “Socialist, Democratic India” is an anathema for Dr Manmohan Singh.

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