[Marxistindia] Article of Com. Sitaram Yechury in People's Democracy

[news from the cpi(m)]

Article of Com. Sitaram Yechury, to be appeared in Peoples Democracy on 6th
January, 2019.:
 
PM Modi conceals more than he reveals
 
Sitaram Yechury
 
The Prime Minister has fired his first salvo for the 2019 general elections
through a set-up interview with news agency ANI. He claimed that 2018 has
been a 'shining year' for India! The electoral results of the 2004,
following the Vajpayee claim of "shining India" is there for all to see. PM
Modi seems to be reading the 'writing on the wall'!  
 
In an interaction lasting more than one and half hours, the PM did not even
once refer to the promises that he and the BJP made to the Indian people in
2014 and why even a single one of them has not been delivered so far. This
is a post-truth propaganda exercise. In the process there was a large amount
of disinformation that has been doled out.
 
Farm loan waiver
The most callous and inhuman of responses of the PM was to call a one-time
farm loan waiver as a "lollipop". This demand for a loan waiver had arisen
as a result of widespread struggles of the peasantry who are groaning under
crushing debt burdens. This is leading to an alarming rise in the distress
suicides by our kisans. To prevent these unfortunate deaths, a onetime loan
waiver would go a long way to protect our 'annadata'. The widespread
continuing struggles of the kisans all over the country has also been
demanding what the Prime Minister promised in 2014 of declaring a minimum
support price which will be one and half times higher than the cost of
production. All these five years this has not been done. The deepening
agrarian distress is directly due to the betrayal of the assurances given to
rural India. These have impacted on non-agricultural sections as well in
rural India as seen in the fall in rural incomes of the people in these
areas.
 
Demonetisation
Contrary to the entire experience of the Indian economy that has been
devastated by the demonetisation tsunami, the Prime Minister claims this to
be a success! Amazingly he has said that because of demonetisation the
entire black money in the economy has now come into the banking system.
There can be no greater falsification. What the prime minister did was to
favour those who flouted the law and accumulated black money and provided
them with an avenue to convert this black money into 'white money'. He thus
legalized such violation of the law instead of penalizing the violators and
proceeding against them according to law.
 
In the process, demonetisation destroyed the informal economy in our country
which generates the largest amount of employment after agriculture. The
informal economy used to contribute substantially to the country's GDP.
Demonetisation simply destroyed the livelihood of crores of Indian people
who were dependent on cash transactions. The fall in the country's GDP and
the crisis in the economy has been a direct result of this action by the
Prime Minister.
 
GST
The Prime Minister held a special midnight session of parliament to announce
the introduction of GST claiming that this would revolutionise the Indian
economy and lead to a higher revenue through tax collections. He claimed
that the tax net has widened. The number of people filing returns may have
increased but tax collections have drastically fallen. Between April and
December 2019, GST collections averaged Rs. 96,800 Cr as against the
budgetary target of Rs. 1,06,300 Cr monthly. In the next three months GST
collections must average Rs. 1,34,900 Cr to meet the budgetary target.
 
In this interview he continued to defend the GST and claimed that it has
simplified the tax system and provided relief to a large number of people.
This is preposterous. The manner in which the GST was implemented has seen
the crippling of the medium, small and micro enterprises sector (MSME) which
is one of the largest employment generators in the country. Crores of people
have lost their livelihood sustenance. The PM further claimed that the GST
has ensured that more than 500 items attract a zero tax rate. More than 490
of these items were all along in the bracket of zero tax and hence this
claim is also preposterous. 
 
Unemployment
There is not one word on the growing unemployment levels in the country by
the Prime Minister. It was the Prime Minister who assured the Indian youth
that his government would create two crore new jobs every year. By now ten
crore additional jobs should have been created. Instead, what we have is
largescale lay-offs, the destruction of the informal economy, the ruination
of the MSME sector - all resulting in unprecedented growth of unemployment.
It has been estimated that the unemployment situation is the worst that
India is facing today during the last twenty years. Official statistics have
been barred from being made public and the Labour Brueau annual reports have
simply not been published because they would reveal this grim reality.
 
The majority of the Indian population is our youth. During these five years
their future has plunged into insecurity and uncertainty. These youth are
the builders of India's future. Destroying their potential means the
undermining of our future. 
 
Crony Capitalism
There was not one word by the Prime Minister over the loot of the Indian
public sector banks during the tenure of this BJP government. Between 2014
and 2019, the loans taken by the corporates has quadrupled. All those who
have fled the country refusing to pay back loans, the Prime Minister has
promised to get them back. But till date not one of them is back. Instead of
confiscating their assets and returning the amounts to the banks against
loans taken by them, this BJP government has been regularly waiving off such
corporate loans. Additionally, they have been offering the companies against
whom such loans were taken and not returned, through an auction, to the
highest bidder. This is called 'hair cut' policy that the PSU Banks are
forced by the government to follow. Corporates are securing companies by
paying 20 per cent or less than their asset values from the banks to which
they have been mortgaged. And who are these corporates acquiring such assets
at throwaway prices? The Prime Minister and his government's cronies are the
prime beneficiaries of such a 'hair cut' methodology.
 
The banks which have unscrupulously given such loans are now in a crisis. In
order to recapitalize these banks, public money is being infused which again
amounts to the loot of public money. First the deposits of crores of Indians
in the banks is looted by granting such loans and then to overcome the
consequent crisis of the banks public money is once again looted to
recapitalize them. 
 
Rafale Scam
Defending the controversial Rafale deal, the Prime Minister said that the
Supreme Court has cleared this deal, hence there is no question of any
corruption or a scam involved. He claimed that this is a clean deal and
there is no money trail that can be located for a possible commission that
could have been paid out. The money trail can never be located now because
the Prime Minister and his government have amended the laws relating to
funding of political parties and introduced the "electoral bonds". Anyone
can buy these bonds from a bank, give it to a political party, who can then
encash these bonds with no questions being asked and no answers given. The
Prime Minister and this BJP government, thus, legalized political
corruption. That the BJP is the biggest beneficiary of this scam becomes
apparent when out of Rs 222 crore first tranche of the electoral bonds
issued by the banks, the BJP received more than Rs. 210 crore i.e. 94.5 per
cent.
 
If the Prime Minister claims that the Rafale deal was overboard then why the
refusal to set up a Joint Parliamentary Committee to probe the deal? If the
Prime Minister is confident why not let the JPC establish that there was
nothing wrong with the deal? The very fact that the PM and the BJP
vociferously oppose the constitution of the Joint Parliamentary Committee
proves by itself that there is something that is being hidden both from the
Indian parliament and the people. 
 
Reserve Bank of India
The Prime Minister revealed that the RBI Governor sought to resign six to
seven months before he actually did. This only confirms the fact that this
governor handpicked by the PM after the former Governor Raghuram Rajan was
eased out, was himself finding it very uncomfortable to deal with a
government that is undermining the RBI's independence and authority as the
financial regulator.
 
PM and the government are targeting the central reserve fund of the RBI for
withdrawal of huge amounts of money. This has become necessary according to
the government in order to compensate falling tax revenues. After GST, the
annual budgetary fiscal deficit target has already exceeded in the first
seven months of this financial year. Secondly, more money is required to
fully recapitalize the banks. On both these counts the RBI reserve fund is
sought to be encroached upon. This would result in destabilizing the
regulator severely impacting the fundamentals of our economy. This will have
serious consequences on the financial markets that can trigger a new wave of
financial and economic crisis in the country. 
 
Sharpening Communal Polarisation
On the building of the Ram temple at the disputed site in Ayodhya, the Prime
Minister has made a very diabolical statement. The PM says that only after
the Supreme Court verdict in the ongoing case will the government consider
the option of adopting a legal course either through an ordinance or
legislation for building the temple. This is tantamount to pressurizing the
court. In case an unfavourable verdict is given then the government will
take recourse to legal options to circumvent the verdict. What the Prime
Minister did not say is that the government would abide by the court
verdict. What in fact he said is tantamount to declaring that the temple
will be build irrespective of the court verdict.
 
This feeds into the overall campaign of communal polarization in the run up
to the elections which is the mainstay of the government's efforts to
consolidate the Hindutva communal vote bank.
 
This is further confirmed by the Prime Minister's comments on incidents of
mob lynching. While verbally condemning such incidents, the Prime Minister
was completely silent about why the law and order apparatus, mostly in the
states ruled by the BJP, is not arresting or not proceeding against those
who violate laws with impunity. The private armies in the name of cow
protection or moral policing have grown under the sanction and patronage of
the BJP governments in the states. There was not one word by the PM on the
killings of Muslims and Dalits under one pretext or the other by these
private armies. There was not one word by the PM on the spread of this
atmosphere of hate and violence that is leading to the growing incidents of
mob lynching. 
 
There is not one word from the Prime Minister on the growing atrocities on
women, the horrendous incidents of brutal child gang rapes and murders.
There was not one word by the PM on why the legal cases against the
perpetrators of such attacks against Dalits, Muslims and women are withdrawn
by the BJP state governments while the victims continue to be persecuted,
through such legal cases.
 
Triple Talaq & Sabarimala
The PM claimed that the triple talaq bill in parliament was an issue of
gender equality and social justice and that his government was acting in
order to give the constitutional right of equality to Muslim women. But when
the same issue of gender equality was raised in relation to Sabarimala
temple, the Prime Minister claimed that these are matters of faith and in
fact virtually negated the Supreme Court verdict which in the name of the
fundamental right of equality to women allowed women's entry, hitherto
disallowed, in the Sabarimala temple. This double speak clearly reconfirms
the agenda of communal polarization. The BJP at the ground level in Kerala
is doing precisely that by spreading unrest and violence.
 
2019 Polls
The PM made an obvious statement that the Indian people will decide the
course in these elections. Of course, they always do in all elections! It is
increasingly becoming clear that the people in India are looking for a
change and want this government out at any cost. It is this pressure from
below that is forcing all secular parties in the country to come forward and
work for the defeat of this government and the BJP in the forthcoming
elections. This is primarily due to the growing discontent against the
policies of this government and the massive surge in people's struggles
witnessed in the recent past. The forthcoming all India industrial strike on
January 8 & 9 will once again show the unity of the working people in India.
The call given by the kisan and agricultural labour organisations of a
"Gramin Bharat Bandh" on these very days demonstrates the determination of
the people for ousting this Modi government and to bring about a shift in
policies that are pro-people. The Indian people do not want a neta (leader),
they want niti (policies).
 
2019 elections will be a contest between the Prime Minister and his
government and the people of India.
 
As Shakespeare once said, " All the perfumes of Arabia cannot wash away the
blood on your hands", Mr. Prime Minster.  
 
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