Saffronites And The Left
By Sushovan Patrais
27 November, 2014
Countercurrents.org
2011 Assembly Election in West Bengal is a flash point in the annals of political history of the state. A decisive political paradigm shift took place in favour of a rabid right wing combine with the Maoists, a Left wing disorder, and with apparently overseas dimensions: The Trinamool Congress (TMC).Nandigram and Singur from where the TMC rose like a raven in the garb of a nightingale but there were several other reasons which trigged this paradigm shift. Mainly they saddled the seat of power by deceit and pretension and surely on a negative vote. By this span of three and half year’s time, people of Bengal have enough reasons to believe that, they have been fooled by so called ‘Poriborton’. A very pathetic condition prevails in this choppy politics of West Bengal which has been having a downward slide since. All organs of the state that keep the state going are either destroyed or made dysfunctional. Police have become serfs under feudal culture as the rule of law is clocked backwards. Lumpens are let loose in that space where sanctity of women is in stake attaining thefirst position in National Crime Record Bureau. The Human Rights Commission is shut with a police man on the head. The education sector is lost in the fiefdom. By unprecedented terror the elections in the Panchayat and in the parliament, TMC brought the state without opposition. On the other hand close association of TMC with Saradha Chit Fund Scam is getting exposed by each passing day. When democracy is a casualty, the state is showing ill possibilities of caste and religious based mobilization. With the further decline of the Left , it is easily understandable that with strong hype and tide, BJP will not let any stone unturned to mark a significant political dominance in West Bengal. It is quite clear from recently concluded two bye elections that both TMC and BJP is well capable and have already started the religion based polarization in state electoral politics. Going by the example of similar nature of policies in Uttar Pradesh this may even worsen the economic and political condition of the state. Realizing the significant difference between the rise of BJP between the 90’s and 2014, the Left must have the special responsibility to save the polity from dangerous track being perpetrated by both the parties. Pro-corporate BJP has to be politically resisted on the ground of communal plank and anti people economical policy and the TMC by its pseudo secularism and bizarre political track record.
MEGA SALE
Coming Christmas will be unlike any other in recent times, not for the common people of India but for the rich corporate, in and outside the country. Before the winter session of the Parliament commences cabinet committee has agreed to dilute equity to the extent of 10% in Coal India (which is expected to yield Rs.23,600 crore), 5% in ONGC (Rs.19,000 crore) and 13.3% in NHPC (Rs.3,100 crore) and other PSU such as SAIL, HAL, PFC. The process when completed like to yield a sum almost equal to the Rs.48,425 crore. Allowing another additional Rs.15,000 crore from “divestment of government stake in non-government companies”, or those in which the government has a minority stake, the projected sum receipts from sale of public equity could go up to Rs.63,425 crore over 2014-15. Considering that the highest annual receipts from disinvestment since liberalisation began was Rs.25, 890 crore in 2012-13, [1] this itself qualifies to be labelled as ‘MEGA SALE’. When the name of the India’s largest oil and gas sector conglomerate is Reliance Industries, there is no point guessing the strategic importance of such obsession to sell. This hypocrisy of the newly formed NDA govt can be better exposed by quoting from their manifesto which writes- “...We have to strengthen the Public Sector for providingefficient services to our citizens...” Congress trade union leader Vayalar Ravi correctly said “RSS stalwarts such as Dattopant Thengadi and Bharatiya Mazdoor Sangh [BMS] leaders such as Hasmukh Bhai Dave made bold attempt to criticise disinvestment moves during the NDA government [1998-2004] led by Atal Bihari Vajpayee. But those voices have got completely suppressed now.” A BMS leader, on condition of anonymity said “after the way Modi’s election campaign gathered momentum between January and April we had no doubt that this would be a clear pro-corporate overdrive.”[2] But Mr. Modi would not be happy to know that from Margaret Thacher’s land of TINA (There is no alternative) itself, there is a serious hue and cry about “reclaiming” the railways from the capricious private owners.
ATTACK ON MNREGA
Central’s decision to dilute the largest public employment programme of the world has raised some eyebrows among the political pundits and economists. Centre has defended their stands by sighting a report from the economists Jagdish Bhagwati and Arvind Panagariya. These reports justify this dilution by saying; this scheme is “unprofitable” and “corrupted”. Actually it is indeed very difficult to understand the definition of ‘profit’ by the crude yardstick of free market economy. In 2013-14, 74 million individuals in 48 million households in rural India were employed under the MGNREGA by spending only Rs 39,000 crore yearly or barely 0.5% of GDP or 50 paisa of government earning of Rs 100 to be precise [3]. In 2011 World Bank has reported MNREGA is one of the most successful social welfare schemes in independent India. International Food Policy Research Institute has reported that India’s underweight child birth is reduced by a mammoth 13% in between 2005-6 to 2013-14 as compare to global hunger index.[4] Jean Drèze and Amartya Sen in their book ‘An Uncertain Glory: India and its Contractions’ write, “There has been a major slowdown in the growth of real agricultural wages in the post reform period: from about 5 per cent per year in the 1980s to 2 per cent or so in the 1990 sand virtually zero in the early 2000s. It is only after 2006, when NREGA came into force, that the growth of real agriculture wages picked up again, especially for woman.” In a different paper ‘Equilibrium Distributional Impacts of Government Employment Programs: Evidence from India’s Employment Guarantee’, Clement Imbert and John Papp write, “The introduction of the program, public employment increased by .3 days per prime-aged person per month (1.3% of private sector employment) more in early districts than in the rest of India. Casual wages increased by 4.5% and private sector work for low-skill workers fell by 1.6%.”[5] Yes, there are issues which need to be addressed. There are indeed many major problems in the design and administration of the programme. Corruption does occur. Nonetheless, none of them can claim to constitute a fundamental questioning of MGNREGA. There is an obvious ideological direction about resistance to MNREGA. The scheme has significantly improved the economical condition of rural poor and thereby permits a degree of empowerment. The decision to dilute the programme must be to ensure that the source of strength is cut at the very root. Dilution of MGNREGA is required to destroy the modest efficiency to pose questions to their establishment by the common people.
DANGEROUS GAME
Notwithstanding Mr. Modi's charismatic speech on the floor of the historical Red Fort for a 10 years deadline on regionalism, caste-ism and communalism the minute observation of BJP's functioning in the ground level will leave one perplexed. Starting from telecasting of the RSS chief’s voice live in Duradarshan from Nagpur on the occasion of Vijayadashami, deliberately injecting love jihad poison in UP just before the by poll elections suggest that, saffron brigade has quickly gone back to its old game of double speak and deceit. This NDA Government is nothing but unalloyed combination of pro -corporate liberalization in economic sector and pushing the delicate communal agenda in the vein of national politics. BJP is quick to realise despite their land slide victory in the recently ended General Election, it will be difficult to retain 40 million first-time voters which it attracted with its development rhetoric and strategically muted ‘Hindutva’. So J&K and West Bengal possess some strategic importance to BJP’s foreign policy, cross border as well as national politics. These two states are among the few states in the country where the BJP has not yet secured a substantive foothold. J&K‘s assembly election is due in November-December this year. But going by the political orientations of the valley it seems a tough nut to crack for BJP, even they are likely to increase their vote share in Jammu with their prolonged communal line. On the other hand West Bengal's assembly election, due in one and half year later, would be a litmus test for BJP and may well define the direction of their ‘Hindutva’ politics. But it has always been an uphill task for the party to break into Bengal, mainly because of dominance of radical class-based politics in the state for last three decades. However, the past few years are different. It may sound oversimplification of the fact but state has experienced a noticeable communal polarization in political dynamics as well as in the public sphere. It is substantially backed by a short-sighted fawning to Muslim fundamentalism by TMC and the inability of the Left Front to rediscover its class-based politics. The BJP has used the opportunity given to it to catalyse a communalisation of politics in the state. As far as ruling TMC’s election tactics is concerned they would be more than happy to lay back and allow the communal polarization to be wider. It is evident that they have managed to increase the poor Muslim vote share at the expense of either the Left or the Congress in such circumstances.
In 2005 Rajinder Sachar Committee has correctly pointed out the poor condition of the Muslims of West Bengal. Levels of unemployment, indigent condition of their education and health and marginal representation in government jobs were the catalyst to massive erosion of Left Muslim vote share. But recent surveys indicate that very little has changed since then. It goes without saying that by and large, West Bengal has been the one state, is known for its communal harmony. While the country as a whole witnessed the 1984 Sikh riots, 1992 Babri Masjid demolition, 2002 Gujarat genocide and even the horrendous burning alive of pastor Stains and his sons in neighboring Orissa – this state remained remarkably peaceful at the programmatic and pragmatic level. The left parties can be credited with a principled stand on secular issues. Even during the days of Great Calcutta Killing of 1946, Left were able to resist against communal propaganda with their limited support base. But many things have changed since then. The secular voice of Left got weekend to some extent in the context of electoral vote bank politics. But it’s a high time for Left to revive their Secular values. It’s high time to come out with viable political direction for Bengal as well as in the National level. It’s high time to reconstruct and act quickly. It’s high time to combat upcoming ruthless saffronites. It’s high time to prevent them from playing with fire.
Sources
‘An obsession to sell’, Frontline 31st October,2014
‘End Of Debate’ , Frontline 31st October,2014
‘Why This Attack on MGNREGA? Economic & Political Weekly 1st November,2014
Ananda Bajar Patrika, 31st October ,2014
Wrong numbers: Attack on NREGA is misleading, http://riceinstitute.org, 10th November 2104
------------
Sushovan Patrais a Research Engineer based in Delhi
Contact - [email protected]
.
Comments are moderated