[L-I] [ INDIA ] ML International Newsletter, Sept-Oct 2004 [ Part II ]

ML International Newsletter
September-October 2004

*********************************************************************=
**
An update on news and ideas from the revolutionary left in India.
Produced by: Communist Party of India (Marxist-Leninist) Liberation
international team
*********************************************************************=
**
Website: www.cpiml.org

Email: [email protected]
and [email protected]


Table of Contents

1)       IT Industry in India as Panacea: Illusions and Reality
2)       India's Intifada
3)       Citizens Speak Out Against TADA, POTA and AFSPA
4)       Manipur's Battle Is India's Battle
5)       The Anti-People Budget



PART. II
------------


Movement Against Draconian Laws
------------------------------------



CITIZENS SPEAK OUT AGAINST  TADA, POTA and AFSPA
- Liberation, September, 2004.

It came as a shock to the citizens of the country that in spite of th=
e tall
claims of not having implemented the draconian Prevention of Terroris=
m Act
(POTA) in Bihar, the government, administration and police in the sta=
te have
been using the lapsed law Terrorism and Disruptive Activities (TADA) =
Act, to
imprison and victimise political activists and agrarian poor.  These
violations could be carried out because the government did not withdr=
aw the
TADA cases after it lapsed but instead allowed the states to apply th=
eir own
discretion. This left ample scope for the rich and the powerful to es=
cape
while allowing the police and administration to crackdown upon the as=
serting
poor and those organising them.

Since the National Democratic Alliance (NDA) government introduced PO=
TA
through an unprecedented joint session of the parliament, several pol=
itical
parties have expressed their opinion against POTA.  Though no action =
has
been taken as yet, the United Progressive Alliance (UPA) government a=
fter
assuming power has announced the withdrawal of POTA. However this als=
o been
announced prospectively and not with retrospective effect as has been=
 the
demand of dozens of civil liberty organisation and human rights group=
s who
have pointed out violations in case after case. The fate of thousands=
 of
innocents across the country, who have been booked under POTA, contin=
ues to
hang in uncertainty, particularly in the light of the fate of the TAD=
A
prisoners of Bihar, who found no justice even after the law that they=
 had
been booked under had long lapsed, since the cases against them were =
never
withdrawn.

If 9 years after TADA has lapsed, activists, children and agrarian po=
or can
be picked up and tried under the law, what is there to assure that a =
child
booked under POTA would not be tried under the law 20 years from now?=
 Why is
it that black laws are being served on a platter to the police and
administration, for strangling the democratic voices of those engaged=
 in the
struggle for social change? Addressing these questions a broad spectr=
um of
political leaders from the Left and prominent citizens from all walks=
 of
life including jurists, advocates, human rights activists, academicia=
ns,
artists, writers, journalists and students joined the convention, cal=
led on
6 August 2004, in New Delhi by Forum for Democratic Initiatives (FDI)=
. The
convention endorsed by the speakers and participants called for a nat=
ionwide
movement against the murder of democracy through black laws like TADA=
 and
POTA. Speaker after speaker demanded the repeal of POTA and TADA
retrospectively and condemned the Bihar Government for not withdrawin=
g the
TADA charges against activists and agrarian labourers of Jehanabad, B=
ihar.
The convention also discussed the situation in Manipur and passed a
resolution demanding the repeal of AFSPA, which has left the North Ea=
stern
states under the terror of Army rule.

The convention was chaired by eminent journalist and human rights act=
ivist
Kuldeep Nayyar and addressed by a host of political leaders and promi=
nent
citizens from Delhi.  The meeting was addressed by Communist Party of=
 India
Marxist Leninist (CPI-ML) General Secretary Dipankar Bhattacharya, Co=
mmunist
Party of India Marxist (CPI-M) Parliamentarian Dipankar Mukherjee,
Revolutionary Socialist Party (RSP) leader Abani Roy, Forward Bloc le=
ader
Devararjan, Communist Party of India (CPI) leader Atul Anjan, Justice
Rajinder Sachar, writer and activist Arundhati Roy, Editor of Mainstr=
eam
Sumit Chakravarty, Supreme Court lawyers Nandita Haksar and Prashant
Bhushan, Associate Editor of Economic and Political Weekly (EPW) Gaut=
am
Navlakha, Jawaharlal Nehru University (JNU) Professor Kamal Mitra Che=
noy,
Delhi University teacher Tripta Wahi and those battling POTA, TADA an=
d AFSPA
like DU lecturer SAR Geelani , CPI-ML activist from Jehanabad, Mahana=
nd
Prasad and a representative of Manipuri Students Association of Delhi=
, Seram
Rojesh. The Convention was conducted by Radhika Menon, Convenor of FD=
I.

Initiating the discussion, eminent jurist, Rajinder Sachar said that =
the UPA
government's failure to repeal POTA retrospectively and its attempt t=
o
retain some of its clauses through other laws is an instance of its
'hypocrisy in politics'.

CPI-ML activist and leader from Jehanabad, Mahanand Prasad presented =
a
detailed account of the repression of agricultural labourers by the
feudal-kulak-criminal-police nexus which was enjoying the protection =
of the
state government. He said that this nexus led to the conviction for l=
ife of
14 activists of CPI-ML and implication of 17 others who are still awa=
iting
trial, in a case where the dalits and agricultural labourers led a wa=
ge
struggle and resisted the tyranny of a landlord who forced a dalit yo=
uth to
lick spit.  He described the Arwal TADA case of 1988, in which a disp=
ute
over the harvest of water-chestnut pond became an excuse for booking =
leaders
of agrarian and democratic struggles under TADA. The main accused in =
this
case is Shah Chand, who along with 13 others have been sentenced to l=
ife
imprisonment imposing TADA on innocent citizens arrested at random wh=
ich
included two children aged 13 and 14 years, as well as local by a TAD=
A
court. Shah Chand, is the founding secretary of Inquilabi Muslim Conf=
erence,
and a former mukhiya of Bhadasi village, whose work to introduce inno=
vations
in canal irrigation and free development work from corruption was hai=
led by
the official quarters as the "Chand Model". Shah Chand and 13 others =
are in
jail today, after the Supreme Court upheld the TADA court judgement i=
n which
possession of easily available Marxist and Kisan Sabha literature was=
 cited
as the sole 'evidence' for their being "terrorists"!

Mahanand narrated the events that led to another case from Jehanabad,=
 where
17 agricultural labourers are facing trial today, under TADA. They ha=
d been
charged under TADA in 1989, when they complained to a labour inspecto=
r and
led an agitation against a landlord, who had planted a dead cow outsi=
de the
house of a dalit labourer, and forced another to "lick spit" in publi=
c. He
questioned the intent of the "social justice" government of Rashtriya=
 Janata
Dal (RJD), a key ally of the UPA, which had  chosen to open TADA case=
s
against the likes of Shankar Mehtar, a sweeper, Vijay Paswan and othe=
r dalit
labourers, whose only crime was that of protesting against humiliatio=
ns and
paltry wages imposed by feudal landlords- a matter of shame for indep=
endent
India.  Mahanand notably pointed out that the TADA case, in that very
district of Bihar, against the notorious Ramadhar Singh, the chief of
'Sawarn Liberation Front', a private army of upper caste landlords an=
d the
prime accused in the Sawanbigha massacre was withdrawn by the same RJ=
D
government.

CPI-ML General Secretary Dipankar Bhattacharya hailed the people of M=
anipur
and the rural poor of Bihar and others, who had paid with their blood=
, their
liberty and their lives to make laws like TADA, POTA, AFSPA a nationa=
l
issue. He said it was sustained protests alone that have made violati=
ons a
matter of national concern. He recalled the unrelenting struggle of t=
he
people of Bihar, including those who are today imprisoned under TADA,=
 that
made the police firing on labourers in Arwal a national issue. He sai=
d that
today it was the protests sparked by Manorama Devi's killing that has=
 forced
the horrors of AFSPA onto the consciousness of the nation. He said th=
at the
democratic forces in the country, who had made POTA an issue in the
elections, were now being taken for granted and stressed the need for=
 mass
movements to exert pressure on the govt. He called upon people to
participate in the various campaigns to bring justice to the wronged =
TADA
victims and visit Jehanabad to see the situation for themselves first=
 hand.

CPI-M leader Dipankar Mukherjee, Forward Block leader Devarajan, CPI =
leader
Atul Anjan, and RSP parliamentarian Abani Roy expressed solidarity wi=
th the
struggles against black laws. Abani Roy questioned the definition of
terrorism, saying even Bhagat Singh was branded a terrorist by coloni=
alists,
and today workers and poor peasants are being booked under "Terror La=
ws". He
said that capitalist states did not consider the masses to be humans =
and
capitalists of the world have united through globalisation and have r=
esorted
to newer forms of repression through agreements like WTO. He stressed=
 the
need to fight unitedly against TADA and POTA. Dipankar Mukherjee poin=
ted out
with examples how ordinary corporate laws were becoming terror laws f=
or
workers.

Speaking at the Convention writer Arundhati Roy said that India was s=
howing
the world how laws on terrorism can be used. For the US, terrorism re=
placed
communism as a bogey to justify imperialist aggression. In their view=
,
"terrorism" means those who resist colonial occupation. She said all =
over
the world, poverty, too is conflated with "terrorism".  She drew atte=
ntion
to the machinations of neo-liberal capitalism and its functioning, wh=
ich
imposes one law after another to suppress those who resist it. Taking=
 a dig
at the UPA government's announcements that it would not withdraw POTA
retrospectively, she claimed that POTA may go but mota (intending the=
 Hindi
pun) would be in. She said that to view these laws as mere "human rig=
hts
violations" is to wish away their political implications. The machine=
 that
assaults the poor, the colonised and the minority cannot be reduced t=
o 'Bush
' or 'BJP', said the writer, calling for a movement against the syste=
m
itself.

Supreme Court lawyer Nandita Haksar cautioned against the trend in th=
e human
rights movement to divorce the struggle against such laws from the po=
litics
that surround it.  She said it is to be remembered, that the ruling
political establishment would not guarantee the democratic space for =
rising
in favour of people's interest, even if TADA and POTA were removed. S=
he
reiterated the need to unite in the struggle against black laws.

According to Delhi University teacher Tripta Wahi, state atrocities h=
ave
been directed against minorities, dalits and agrarian labourers in
particular, who do not have the ability to fight cases and circumvent
loopholes in the act. She pointed out that AFPSA had been brought in =
during
Congress rule under Nehru to suppress the nationality question in
North-East. She wondered why the land reform agenda introduced in 192=
9 was
never implemented while those who were asking for its implementation =
were
being repressed.  She spoke of how an Exhibition on the State's lies =
in the
Parliament attack case had been banned in Delhi University and raised=
 the
issue of the thousands of youth of Punjab, Jammu and Kashmir and Nort=
h-East
who have gone missing.

Gautam Navlakha, Associate editor EPW, pointed out that leaders of la=
ndlord
armies which massacre dalit poor are never convicted under "Terror La=
ws",
whereas even lapsed laws like TADA are invoked to sentence dalit land=
less
labourers to life imprisonment and even death. He said, clearly the i=
ssue is
not merely of 'civil liberties' but one of politics - since such laws=
 had
the political intention of snuffing out specific movements.  He said =
the
judicial procedures need to be probed as well, as there have been
three-judge benches which have given verdicts of death sentence again=
st 4
dalit landless labourers, even when one of the judges has said that t=
he
quality of evidence cited before the court was appalling.

DU lecturer SAR Geelani spoke of systematic shrinkage of democratic s=
pace in
India, saying that India could be considered "free" only if it was tr=
uly
democratic. He said laws like TADA, POTA, AFSPA were a threat to each
citizen, not just Kashmiris, Manipuris or the dalit poor of Andhra an=
d
Bihar. Alluding to the criminal nexus between the police and judiciar=
y he
said that black laws permitted statements to be taken from the victim=
s in a
state of duress.

Prof. Kamal Mitra Chenoy of JNU pointed out that the ruling class alw=
ays
brands class struggles as "anti-national", and uses "national securit=
y" as
an excuse to crush dissent. When such laws are contested by the civil
liberties groups in the Supreme Court they have always been upheld by=
 the
latter because of the stated objective of dealing with terrorism. He =
said
that while international agreements like WTO are complied with, there=
 is no
conformance to international human rights laws. The AFPSA, which was =
brought
in as a temporary measure continues to be used even 50 years later. I=
t is
high time that black laws, which lead to human rights violations, be
denounced as anti-national.

Supreme Court lawyer Prashant Bhushan said that most of the cases of =
TADA
were in states like Gujarat, which were not affected by terrorism. Th=
e
arbitrariness of TADA is evident from the fact that only one percent =
of the
arrested was convicted.  Referring to the TADA case where 14 activist=
s of
CPI-ML had been given life sentences, he said his study of the case
indicated that it was completely unfair. He said that even as talks o=
f
repealing POTA were on, there were apprehensions that anti-people pro=
visions
of POTA would be included in the Indian Penal Code to eliminate the n=
eed for
establishment of a separate draconian law like POTA. He pointed out t=
hat the
police and law and order machinery in the country is able to undermin=
e
democracy even without these laws and emphasised the inherent bias in=
 our
criminal jurisprudence, whereby white-collar criminals roam free unde=
r bail
and have their cases withdrawn by buying witnesses and even judges of=
f,
while the poor are implicated in false cases and end up fighting losi=
ng
legal battles for years.

Seram, a representative of the Manipur Students Association, Delhi wh=
ile
addressing the Convention said that the AFSPA which legitimised state
repression is more dangerous than colonial laws. The procedural provi=
sions
of the act like detention without formal charges on the basis of susp=
icion
and admitting confessions to the hawaldar as evidence is unjust in re=
gard to
the accused. He appealed that the law be repealed in toto and not jus=
t
withdrawn from the Central part of Manipur.

Civil libertian and eminent lawyer ND Pancholi, Social scientist Yoge=
ndra
Yadav,  Historian Uma Chakravarty, Film Makers Sanjay Kak, Pankaj But=
alia,
and Shri Prakash, writers Pankaj Bisht and  Pankaj Singh, journalists=
 Latha
Jishnu, Satya Sivaraman, Anil Chamadia also participated in the conve=
ntion.

The Chair, Kuldeep Nayyar concluded by calling for a movement, not si=
mply
against the draconian Laws but against the system which branded the
movements of the poor and marginalised as "terrorism". He appealed to=
 the
leaders of the Left parties, who were supporting the government, to e=
xert a
greater pressure on the UPA government to withdraw TADA and POTA
retrospectively.  He also expressed the feeling that if the governmen=
t does
not pay any serious attention to this issue, they should resign from =
the
Coordination Committee of the UPA in protest against the continued us=
e of
such draconian laws.

The Convention passed a series of resolutions:
=B7         Withdraw all cases of TADA and POTA with retrospective ef=
fect,
remitting sentences against those convicted under these laws.
=B7         Aid and ensure the immediate and unconditional release of=
 the 14
convicted for life in the Arwal case and the 4 dalits sentenced to de=
ath in
the Bara case.
=B7         Harshest punishment for custodial rape and murder by army
officials, as in the case of Manorama Devi.



Movement Against Draconian Laws
------------------------------------

MANIPUR'S BATTLE IS INDIA'S BATTLE
- Dipankar Bhattacharya

Manipur is witnessing an unprecedented mass upsurge. Sixty-two years =
after
the original Quit India movement, the spirit of the freedom movement =
seems
to have truly come alive in this north-eastern state. Indeed, Manipur=
 is
fighting for freedom. Freedom from the draconian military rule that t=
he
Indian state has imposed on this state for the last four and a half d=
ecades.
Manipur is one of those Indian provinces where the armed forces enjoy
special powers and the people are thus forced to live permanently at =
the
mercy of the army in a supposedly free and democratic country.

When the Assam Rifles jawans abducted the thirty-one year old Manoram=
a Devi
=66rom her house, raped, tortured and killed her, and then threw away=
 her
brutalised body, they were merely going through the motions of a rout=
ine
exercise that the security forces have been told is both their right =
and
duty. Yes, this is what the Armed Forces Special Powers Act, is all a=
bout.
The only plea the army has for meting out this treatment to Manorama =
is that
she was an activist of the PLA. Under the AFSPA the army can act mere=
ly on
the basis of suspicion and it enjoys complete immunity from the law o=
f the
land.

It was therefore all routine - perfectly 'legal and constitutional' -=
 for
the army, but the women of Manipur chose to challenge this routine. I=
n the
past, the women of Manipur have waged several brave battles against c=
olonial
rulers, battles that have become famous in Manipur's history as 'nupi=
 lan'
or women's war. In a spirited act of protest, on 15 July a group of w=
omen
reached the Assam Rifles headquarters in Imphal, took off their cloth=
es and
unfurled banners that screamed "Indian Army, Rape Us" and "Indian Arm=
y, Take
our Flesh". This was merely the beginning of one of the greatest mass
movements in 'free' India against the Indian Army and the Indian stat=
e.

The people of Manipur are not demanding merely posthumous justice for
Manorama. They know what the army did to Manorama was not an accident=
 or
aberration.  They are therefore demanding an end to the AFPSA itself.=
 This
Act was passed by Parliament in 1958 after a debate that lasted only =
seven
hours. Like many other features of the Indian state, this Act too is =
a relic
=66rom the colonial era which has been preserved and reinforced by th=
e
post-colonial state. And like most other draconian laws, it was also =
mooted
as a temporary measure with highly restricted applicability. But now =
it has
become a permanent weapon of the Indian state to defend 'public order=
' in
any area it considers 'disturbed'. Introduced for Assam and Manipur, =
over
the years the Act has been applied virtually in the entire North-East=
,
Punjab, Jammu and Kashmir and even Andhra Pradesh.

The AFSPA is the mother of all black laws in India. When the Act was
legislated in 1958 to 'combat' insurgency there was only the Naga mov=
ement
in the north-east. Over the forty-five years the Act has been in forc=
e, it
has only contributed to the rise of more and more insurgent outfits i=
n the
region. While parliamentary democracy requires the army to be kept aw=
ay from
the tasks of internal policing and administration, the AFSPA virtuall=
y
introduces military rule in a democratic garb. Manipur alone has witn=
essed a
series of massacres and 'disappearances' The Army itself says that ti=
ll date
it has had to punish 66 of its men in the north-east as they were fou=
nd
guilty of excesses even though it asserts that only 25 of the 451 com=
plaints
received were found valid in its internal scrutiny.

The fighting people of Manipur and especially the brave sisters of Ma=
norama
and Sharmila (who has been on a protest fast since 6 November 2000) d=
eserve
all our support and solidarity for their exemplary courage and
determination. The central government's response to the Manipur agita=
tion
has of course been typically arrogant. Incidentally, Manipur at the m=
oment
is ruled by a coalition (Secular Progressive Alliance led by the Cong=
ress
and backed by the CPI), which is quite akin to the UPA combination at=
 the
centre. The Centre is therefore also trying every trick to browbeat t=
he
state government and prevent it from recommending a withdrawal of the=
 Act
=66rom the state.

On the eve of the fifty-seventh anniversary of our freedom from colon=
ial
rule, let all of us join the fighting people of Manipur in demanding =
an end
to draconian laws. There can be no place for black laws like AFSPA, T=
ADA or
POTA in a democracy.




Budget Analysis
------------------------


THE ANTI-PEOPLE BUDGET
- Girish Ghildiyal

Soon after ousting the rightwing National Democratic Alliance (NDA)
government from power, the new dispensation called United Progressive
Alliance (UPA) led by Congress and supported by left parties made pro=
mises
to remove deviations of past 5 years. The Common Minimum Program (CMP=
),
though substantially diluting pre- poll promises as given in manifest=
oes of
parties sharing power, still held promise of course correction. Howev=
er, the
maiden budget of UPA has been a shocker - it is continuation of simil=
ar
neo-liberal economic policy recipes.

There was carnage in bourses as soon as the new government took over =
in
April 2004. It was widely believed to be an audacious attempt to scut=
tle
people's mandate by a group of operators at the behest of some BJP le=
aders.
So it was galling to see that the budget as an exercise on part of Ma=
nmohan-
Chidambaram (Prime Minister/Finance Minister) duo to assure markets t=
hat
they have nothing to worry from a government supported by the left. T=
hey
went out of the way to assure markets that there will be continuity i=
n
policy and direction. In doing so they have managed to present a budg=
et
which, shorn of rhetoric, is an embarrassing copy of Jaswant Singh's =
budget
this February.

The budget may indeed allow the UPA to escape criticism from BJP (whi=
ch can
only grumble about infringement of copyright - allocations for women,=
 child
development, space, health, road transport, rural housing, rural wate=
r
supply, agricultural research, accelerated irrigation benefit and muc=
h
more - all are identical to Jaswant Singh's interim budget), it virtu=
ally
calls the bluff about what it is really about. After building hype ar=
ound
"people's budget" for a month and a half, finance minister (FM) read =
a long
list of promises and good intentions about agriculture, employment
generation and rural upliftment.  Paragraph after paragraph of financ=
e
minister's speech was laced with government's commitments on social a=
nd
economic programmes and a "new deal" for agriculture for more equitab=
le
distribution growth. However, it turned out to be long on talk and sh=
ort on
action. For all its priorities FM delivered a meagre additional Rs. 1=
0,000
Crore (1 Crore =3D 10 Million) to Planning Commission towards Central=
 and
State Plans. Planning Commission will, in the meanwhile, conduct an
"exhaustive review" of all government programs and reorient existing =
outlays
in line with common minimum programme (CMP). In this way, all the com=
mitment
of CMP have been reduced to a Rs. 10,000 Crore outlay and imposition =
of Mr.
Montek Singh Ahluwalia as arbiter of it. The verdict of 2004 has been
reduced to streamlining, strengthening and some such administrative
measures. There is no new political program or direction to it.  The =
little
that was provided in budget, it now turns out, has come with plenty o=
f
loopholes in it.

The review itself will take a few months to complete leaving very lit=
tle
time in the current year to spend. So additional amounts for food-for=
-work
program in 150 districts or for cleaning and restoration of tanks and
reservoirs will not be spent. FM has already pointed out low absorpti=
on
capacity of states in relation to such programs. Similarly a 2% cess =
on
central taxes for education and upgrading of ITIs would yield Rs. 400=
0-5000
Crore a year. But HRD ministry has got Rs. 8,225 Crore (again as in i=
nterim
budget) including an additional Rs. 325 Crore for Sarv Shiksha Abhiya=
n
(Education for All) and an additional Rs. 300 Crore for mid-day meal =
has
been provided. What is to be done with rest of the funds is not clear=
. The
reason for this conservatism is not far to seek. Economic Survey poin=
ts that
Government finances were in a worse state last fiscal than they were =
in
crisis year of 1990-91.  Survey says that there is a need for Fiscal
consolidation for 7-8% growth (Fiscal Responsibility and Budget Manag=
ement
Act requires cut in the revenue deficit to 3.1% of GDP. Centre's borr=
owing
to 4.3% of GDP in this year's budget) and says that attempts to elimi=
nate
revenue deficit in next 4 years have to be front loaded .i.e., bigges=
t cuts
in deficit should come this year itself. So, revenue deficit has drop=
ped to
2.5% and Fiscal Deficit to 4.4% in current budget. The people who vot=
ed UPA
to power can wait a little longer for money coming their way - if onl=
y to
enable government to be on the right side of this irrational piece of
legislation. As a result aggregate expenditure budgeted for 2004-05 a=
t
Rs.4,77,829 Crore is more or less the same as the Rs. 4,74, 255 Crore=
 spent
in 2003-04. Since plan expenditure is budgeted to rise by Rs. 24,000 =
Crore,
the Finance Minister has had to budget for an almost equivalent reduc=
tion in
non-plan expenditure from Rs. 3,52,748 crore to Rs. 3,32,239 crore. T=
his
limit in expenditure should be seen with reference to huge increase i=
n the
defence budget that at Rs.77, 000 is up Rs. 16,700 Crore over the fin=
ancial
year.

Employment

Reduction in deficits and increase in defence outlay has as a consequ=
ence
reduced allocations for rural development and employment. There is a =
Rs.
4,000 Crore reduction (25%) in expenditure on Rural Development for 2=
004-05
compared to 2003-04. This hit has taken totally by Rural employment s=
chemes
whose allocation has been reduced from Rs. 9,640 crore in 2003-04 (RE=
) to
Rs. 4,590 Crore in 2004-05 (BE). The reduction in allocation is in li=
ne with
reduction share of rural employment programmes since mid-90's. Spendi=
ng on
rural wage employment programmes has come down from 0.40 percent of G=
DP in
1995-6 to 0.13 percent of GDP in 2000-1. Spending programmes for rura=
l
development as a percentage of GDP has fallen from 0.08 to 0.03 perce=
nt of
GDP. This accompanies deceleration in employment growth in rural area=
s
throughout nineties. The CMP guarantees 100 days of employment at the
minimum wage to one member of every needy family in the country - an
estimated Rs. 45,000 Crore was required to make this program a succes=
s - an
amount which is nearly 10 times the allocation. Instead of funds, all=
 that
has been provided is the assurance a National Employment Guarantee Ac=
t - in
near future.

Agriculture

The case of agriculture is similar to employment. There are promises =
aplenty
but no additional outlay for agriculture and no mention of the growin=
g
crisis on the farm front that is forcing farmers to take their own li=
ves.
There is no plan to increase investment in agriculture - instead effi=
ciency
and competitiveness in agriculture is to be through enhanced credit. =
FM
plans to double the flow of agricultural credit in the next three yea=
rs.
When credit is part of the problem, how will more funds solve the pro=
blem is
not clear.

The problem in agriculture is related to complete absence of assured =
income.
Farm incomes have fallen in the past five years. Rice farmers in West=
 Bengal
earn 28 per cent less in 2002-03 than their earning in 1996-97. Incom=
es of
sugarcane farmers in Uttar Pradesh decreased by 32 per cent and in
Maharashtra by 40 per cent. Farm incomes of north Indian farmers erod=
ed by
10 per cent on an average. The sharp decline in farm incomes is happe=
ning at
a time when incomes in the urban areas are on an upswing.

In India additional problem is of falling consumption. On horticultur=
e front
average availability of horticultural products is around 780 grams pe=
r day.
However, an average Indian has money to eat only 40 grams. Consumptio=
n of
cereals is declining in real terms - from Rs. 1,58,621 Crore in 2001-=
02 to
Rs. 1,24,560 Crore in 2002-03.

Exemption granted to the tractor industry by scrapping the excise dut=
y of 15
per cent will certainly not help farmers. Aggressive tractor marketin=
g has
ensured tractor availability over threshold limit.

Resources

FMs' high hopes of reducing deficit rest partly on increase in tax re=
venue,
which according to the budget estimates will go up by 25%.  Income ta=
x
revenue is budgeted to rise by 26.5 per cent over the revised estimat=
es of
2003-04, even though 14 million tax-payers are out of the tax net.
Corporation tax revenue is expected to grow at an even more phenomena=
l rate,
40.4 per cent. Apart from education cess FM has pinned hopes from
transaction tax. This is tax on trading of securities whose volumes a=
re
quite huge (because of speculators). But there has been a huge outcry=
 from
broker lobby over this tax and it seems that it will be partially rol=
led.
The extent of theft of tax in securities transaction is mind-boggling=
. It is
estimated that over last year there has been an increase in share pri=
ces and
hence market capitalisation to the tune of Rs. 3,00,000 Crore. If tax=
es had
been paid faithfully on these profits government would have received
approximately Rs. 40,000 Crore as income tax from these profits alone=
. Total
tax revenue of government is below this figure. This is the level of
compliance in transactions that are supposed to be transparent, onlin=
e and
untampered.

Conclusion

Were it not for the rather abrasive proposal to raise the caps on for=
eign
direct investment (FDI) in telecom, insurance and civil aviation sect=
or
(where traditional left has presence among employees) the left partie=
s too
would have been comfortable with this farcical budget. In there case =
more
FDI or less of it is clearly a matter of expedience. To the tradition=
al left
it does not matter that there is no departure from the neo-liberal ec=
onomic
regime that has resulted in agrarian crisis, stagnant employment grow=
th,
little progress in poverty alleviation and a sharp increase in urban
inequality.






_______________________________________________
Leninist-International mailing list
[email protected]
To change your options or unsubscribe go to:
http://lists.econ.utah.edu/mailman/listinfo/leninist-international