Manmohanomics via KFC

FROM N.C.’S WRITINGS

Alongwith our VIPs, the Kentucky Fried Chicken outlet at Bangalore now has the privilege of being protected by security guards. Numerous dhabas in North India serving tandoori chicken delicacies do not require security guards but the minimum facilities of a small-scale industry which it is not easy to secure.

In the early days of his structural adjustment salesmanship, one of Manmohan Singh’s pet arguments for inviting multinationals into the country was that this would facilitate the transfer of advanced technology to our country. One is yet to learn what hi-tech has come into this country with Pepsi and Kentucky Fried Chicken. It has only helped to ruin our thriving soft-drink industry, though the KFC has not yet succeeded in ousting the tandoori chicken. Not so lucky has been the Kwality and other indigenous ice-creams which have almost been wholly gobbled up by the multinationals; only the Vadilal of Gujarat is still holding out. The war has gone to the bhujia industry where Pepsi under Manmohanomics is breaking into the Rajasthani bhujia market.

As for the benefits that the multinationals are bringing for our welfare, one has just to look at the case of the older multinational giant in our country—the Union Carbide. This week its lawyer has told the Supreme Court that it would not pay for the special hospital set up at Bhopal for the treatment of the victims of the company’s deadly gas leak twelve years ago. It has successfully cheated in the matter of paying compensation to the victims of the illegally-stored gas—the most hideous of all industrial accidents the world has seen in peace-time. Apart from the blow up of the Soviet nuclear reactor at Chernobyl, the ghastly tragedy at the Union Carbide factory at Bhopal is a landmark of how a giant multinational company dares to misbehave in the Third World. For years, the case against the Union Carbide has dragged on, with no punishment meted out to the company. While politicians dragged their feet, in most cases overloaded with kickback, the compensation to the victims was meagre and now the Union Carbide has the gumption to deny funds for the hospital set up to serve the victims of the gas tragedy of 1984 for which the company was solely responsible.

The example of the Union Carbide gives one a foretaste of how the multinational giants would misbehave in India once they take over its vast market with the help of Manmohan Singh’s subservient economic policy. The violent demonstration against the Kentucky Fried Chicken joint in Bangalore provides an indica-tion of how the common people of this country are going to react as the multinationals are invited under the present government. While the government and its minions have been try-ing to pooh-pooh the swadeshi jagaran movement, they are worried that the infection might spread, spoiling their well-knit plan to invite and instal the multinationals in this country. If one looks round, one finds that the policy of open-door to multinationals which the present government has been so assiduously following, is supported by none of the other major parties, from the BJP to the Communists, from the Janata Dal to the regional parties. However much Finance Minister Manmohan Singh may try to misinform the world, it is clear that on the issue of indiscrimi-nately inviting the multinationals, the govern-ment would face continued resistance from groups and individuals as also from major national parties minus the Congress even after the elections. Such is the strong national attachment to the principle of self-reliance that even a good section of our corporate sector stands up for it from time to time.

Already, the early warnings can be heard. The fishermen’s unique strike demanding the exit of foreign trawlers from our coastal waters, should tell the government about the shape of things to come. The Bangalore incident at the KFC restaurant is another sign of what to expect. The more the government defends such installations to prove its credentials to the foreign investors, the more of such problems will confront it.

International opinion about the disastrous impact of the predatory nature of the multina-tionals is now asserting more and more sharply as the devastation is becoming visible. Four years ago when the Finance Minister and his pack unfolded the policy of open invitation to the multinationals, any economist questioning the wisdom of such a policy would have been made an outcast, as some distinguished ones were actually forced out of the government. Today, the world opinion itself is changing and one hears voices from the West warning about the pernicious effect of the multinationals’ domination over our economy. One wonders what response would now come from those pundits who imposed in indecent haste the World Bank-made economic reforms in our country.

It’s time now for a drastic review of our present economic reforms programme. It appears that the government is scared of undertaking such a review. The manner in which it has shelved the Planning Commission’s Mid-term Appraisal of the Eighth Plan is extremely significant. Since the Planning Commission document has clearly pointed to the negative results of the first three years of the Plan on all major issues, such as, for instance, poverty and employment—debunking the government’s public claims—this official document has been withheld and the normal procedures have been abandoned in dealing with it. For one thing, the document has not been placed before a full meeting of the Commission, since the Finance Ministry has objected to it. Since the Planning Commission has not discussed it, it could not be placed before the National Development Council, as per the normal procedure. And now with the elections round the corner, there is no question of the National Development Council consisting mainly of Chief Ministers from the States, being called. This way the inconvenient Mid-term Appraisal is sought to be quietly buried.

Leave aside the Planning Commission warning, Dr Manmohan Singh is not going to have an easy time in the coming weeks. Despite all the kudos he may have collected from the Davos meeting of the Western investors, he is having an uneasy time at home. The pathetic mismanagement of the economy is to be seen in the spectacular fall in the value of the rupee, while our debt burden has mounted to a dangerous level. The difference between the Finance and Commerce Ministries over the rupee devaluation can no longer be kept away from the public. The economic crisis is running parallel with the political crisis. The importance of being Dr Manmohan Singh is to be seen in the mess that faces the country, both in the economic and political fronts. The public of this country has a very legitimate demand that those responsible for this mess in the economy must quit. The Manmohan brigade should now count its days. With his reputation of a quick-change artiste Finance Minister himself, of course, knows how to jump out of a sinking ship.

(Mainstream, February 17, 1996)