Editorial August 2013

                                                           EDITORIAL

 

                                          THE PRESENT AND FUTURE

All most after SIXTY six years of independence, the citizens of India are nowhere near achieving the object of equal rights for all in a developed and prosperous economy of India. The so called development and prosperity in the present capitalist system followed by the Government of India has resulted in amassing the wealth of nation by the capitalists while subjecting the poor people for severe exploitation. This is because the nature of capitalist development is such that it favours only the rich and harms exclusively the poor.  The government’s policies, in the pursuit of it’s capitalist economy, are determined intending to further the narrow interests of the corporate, the big business, the rich and the powerful, but not the larger interests of the vast masses of the people still live in poverty, victims of hunger and disease, with no education and health facilities and opportunities to earn a decent livelihood. Their social, economic and democratic rights remain severely curtailed. One-third of the world’s extreme poor are living in India. The politics of the country is dominated by money power, muscle power and Communal and divisive forces have a free run.   

Under the rule of the present government, people suffer from ever increasing price rise of essential commodities especially food items; farmers are unable to earn a decent livelihood and there are widespread suicides by farmers, due to the apathy shown by the government towards their plight. Both the government and private land is being increasingly seized by real estate speculators, mining companies and corporate, while crores of people does not have a cent of land. When ever the poor agitate for a piece of land to cultivate for their livelihood or for raising a hut to live in, the government is subjecting them to brutal suppression.  More and more young people find no worthwhile employment and face a bleak future.  According to the latest survey undertaken by the National Sample Survey Organisation, in the two years between January 2010 and January 2012, the rate of unemployment rose by a shocking 10.2 per cent; 45 per cent of the children under five years of age are malnourished; only 16 per cent of children who enrolled in class-I managed to reach class-XII; and medicines and health facilities are going beyond the reach of the common people.

While the people face these miserable conditions, the present government has allowed the loot of natural resources like land, minerals, gas and spectrum by the corporate and big business. The neo-liberal regime under the present government has generated corruption on a large scale, with no sector being spared from corruption scandals. This government has been generous in forgoing taxes of the corporate and the rich to the tune of Rs 5 lakh crore in the last budget and cruelly curtailed the subsidies for petroleum products and fertilizers to the detriment of the interests of common man and peasants. The priorities of this government are to appease foreign finance capital at the expense of the people of this country.  Foreign supermarket chains are being allowed in retail trade endangering the livelihood of a million shopkeepers and traders of our country and also increased the foreign direct investment. There is a regression in social values with the aggressive invasion of market relations and treating women as sex objects. Women are growingly subject to sexual attacks and violence and are denied an equal status in society.  The weak and downtrodden sections of society are denied of their basic rights. The policies pursued by the government are inherently anti-people and have to be opposed and defeated if alternative policies have to be put in place in the interest of the people of our country.    

 To protect the interests of the people of our country we need alternative policies, to replace the present policies that are pursued by the government which are not in the interest of common people. Such alternative policies should consist of the following among others;

           Implementation of land reform measures, distribution of surplus land to the landless, ensuring house sites to each landless household. End to forcible land acquisition. Remunerative prices for farmers, cheap credit and subsidized fertilizers taking guidance from the swaminathan commission report.

            Stepping up public investment for infrastructure and setting up manufacturing and other industries for more employment. Nationalisation of mining and oil resources. Stop disinvestment of public sector shares.

            Plug loopholes in taxation measures and ensure collection of legitimate taxes; regulation of speculative financial flows into the country; stop the opening up of financial sector. No FDI in retail trade.

            Introduction of universal public distribution system for all families ensuring uninterrupted supply of all essential commodities, regularly, at subsidized rates.  Food Security law should be passed to ensure this.  

            To strictly follow the basic principle of secularism as embedded in the constitution and to be firm to take deterrent action to prevent and curb communal flare ups.

            Increasing allocations for education and health.  Stop privatisation of education and health services.  Guarantee implementation of Right to Education Act.

            Firm measures to curb high level corruption; enact Lokpal legislation with independent powers of investigation. Electoral reforms.

           Equal rights for women in all spheres with reservation for women in parliament and legislatures; protection of rights of the oppressed classes of society.

          Rights of the working classes - enforcement of  Right to work for all workers, agricultural, Industrial or otherwise with suitable  wages and social security measures and conditions of work ensuring a decent standard of life and full enjoyment of leisure and social and cultural opportunities. Putting an end to out sourcing of staff, contractualisation and   casualisation of labour. Provision of just and humane conditions of work with 6 hours working a day, 5 days working a week and 2 calendar days of weekly rest.  To strictly enforce all labour laws with out diluting them.

 Let us think over and move towards the goal of securing and enforcing the ideal alternative policies as a step forward in achieving the object of equal rights for all in the said developed and prosperous economy of India.                                            

Thota Hanumaiah.