Sitaram Yechury
As the Assembly elections draw close, the BJP’s desperation is growing to a high pitch. Unable to face the mounting people’s wrath against the murderous price rise, the BJP’s ridiculous claims of “good governance” is reaching unprecedented heights of incompetence. However, as is its wont, it is attempting to divert attention away from this display of unparalleled ineffi¬ciency by seeking to focus on issues unrelated to the daily survival of the people. Apart from seeking to rouse pseudo nationalist feelings by unsuccessfully resurrecting the Pokhran-II disaster and pseudo Hindu sentiments by falling back on the by now ignominious fiasco of its efforts to smuggle its saffron agenda in education, the BJP has launched an anti-Communist propa¬ganda laced with a litany of abuses.
The union Home Minister, using the occasion of Sardar Patel’s birth anniversary has, once again, heaped abuse on the Communists, particularly the Marxists. This, however, has by now become a congenital obsession with him. This resident non-Indian, while praising Patel for his role in integrating the former princely states with India conveniently forgets the role of the BJP’s earlier incarnations. The RSS and the Hindu Mahasabha, for instance, were the only political forces that sup¬ported the erstwhile `Rajas’, particularly Raja Hari Singh of Kashmir who clearly was not inclined to join the union of Indian states. Such perfidy, however, is this gentleman’s hallmark, which was more than adequate¬ly exposed in recent years, especially in the develop¬ments relating to the demolition of the Babri Masjid.
This, however, is not the first time that the RSS has heaped abuses on the Communists and in the process distorted history. Through these columns, we have refuted every single charge of theirs. And, they do not have the courage to join issues with us on historical facts. Such rabid anti-Communism can be understood by the fact that historically, it has always been the ruling classes that understood more comprehensively the import of Marx’s ideas and liberatory vision. Apart from possessing the advantage of monopolising knowledge and training over centuries, their predatory class instincts made them realise that Marx’s central idea, ironically to use his own words, “when grips the minds of the masses, it becomes a material force”. A material force capable of overthrowing the exploitative class order. A material force capable of achieving the true and complete liberation of humanity. Hence, the ve¬hemence of their attack, the unscrupulousness of their methods.
And, precisely for this reason, the one’s that decry Marx the most are the ones best described by him. His analysis of contemporary events often transcend the immediate to convey a more universal message. Hence, he continues to be quoted (more often deliberately misquot¬ed) than anyone else. The opening of his brilliant essay, “The Eighteenth Brummaire of Louis Bonaparte” has a chilling contemporary relevance. Marx begins this essay by saying, “Hegel remarks somewhere that all facts and personages of great importance in world history occur, as it were, twice. He forgot to add: the first time as tragedy, the second as farce.”
Indeed, the first thirteen-day BJP government was a tragedy, more of course, to the BJP than to the country. This second round, however, has turned out to be a complete farce of governance that is imposing unprece¬dented tragedies on the people and the country.
There has not been a single area where the BJP’s gover¬nance (more the lack of it) has not been an unmitigated disaster. From the handling of India’s foreign policy to the management of the economy, the BJP has displayed a total lack of competence in running a State of In¬dia’s size and complexity. Its pre-occupation has been only to further its communal agenda at the expense of the country and the people. The only area where it shows a determination of purpose is in infiltrating the administrative apparatus and the organs of State power to advance its vision of a rabidly intolerant “Hindu Rashtra”. The manner in which it seeks to re-write and distort history, the revamping of premier research bodies by placing people with dubious academic qualifi¬cations, the attempts to change the syllabi and curricu¬la and the latest attempt to saffronise the education system — all clearly expose the BJP as an enemy of the secular democratic foundations of independent India. Any one of these reasons by themselves would have been sufficient to keep such a political party far away from State power.
However, in addition to all this disservice that the BJP-led government is doing to the country is the economic hardships that it is imposing on the people. As we go to the press, there is not a single item of daily consumption whose prices have not sky-rocketed. The accompanying chart tells only a part of the story.
Prices in Delhi
Vegetables Now 1 year ago
Onions 50-60 6-7
Potatoes 20-24 4-5
Tomatoes 40-45 12-16
Cauliflower 35-40 8-10
Coriander 120-150 12-15
Garlic, Ginger 40-45 20-25
Carrot 30-40 10-12
Spinach 12-15 3-4
Radish 15-25 4-5
Beans 25-30 8-10
Cabbage 30-35 8-12
All prices in Rs per kg
Source: The Asian Age, November 3, 1998
The other and more important part is the fact that the government seems to have no idea of how to arrest, leave alone reverse this run away inflation.
This has been happening due to a combination of factors whose responsibility lies squarely at the doorstep of the BJP-led government. First, the total callous and casual approach that the government continues to adopt towards people’s hardships. Given its pre-occupation with furthering its communal agenda, this government has failed comprehensively to evolve any strategy to combat such unprecedented inflation. Neither does it appear to be interested.
Secondly, the sheer mismanagement reflected at times of crisis has only compounded the problem. For instance, when it was clear that the production of onions would decline this year, the government embarked to export 2 lakh tonnes! Ironically, it is now importing from those very countries to try and offset the shortage. Likewise, when the prices of potatos are soaring, the government has asked its agencies to explore export markets. It is only the impending elections that seems to have prevented the government from going ahead with this decision which would have had a disastrous impact on the price levels.
Thirdly, more importantly, the BJP’s proclivity to protect its social base, the unscrupulous traders and hoarders, has led to such a sharp rise in prices. For instance, the shortfall in production of vegetables, it has been estimated, should have in the normal course resulted in an increase in the prices to the tune of 50 percent. But the prices have gone up by over 700 per¬cent! Obviously, the unscrupulous traders and hoarders are reaping super profits at the expense of the people. Undoubtedly, a share of these may eventually find its way into the election fund of its patrons. The BJP’s patently pro-trader bias reflected itself once again when the Commissioner (Food and Civil Supplies) filed an affidavit in the Delhi High Court (in response to the court’s directive to the union government to clarify its stand in invoking the Essential Commodities Act to prevent hoarding and black marketing, while hearing a public interest litigation filed by the AILU) absolved the trading community of any responsibility for this price rise!
While the people continue to groan under this murderous assault, the BJP churns out pre-posterous theories. The weather God is the first excuse. It is, indeed, a sad commentary that the weather God should have shown such malice towards those who have captured State power through the invocation of Ram! Seeing that this is not cutting any ice, the Prime Minister, more the Finance Minister, have started blaming the policies of the previous governments. Recourse to such excuses are normal to those votaries of the Brahmanical tradition for whom all miseries in the present life of an individ¬ual are due to the sins committed by him or her in their previous birth! Seeing that this is providing hardly any solace to the people, the Prime Minister has made the most outrageous claim that the prices are seeing a “downward turn”!
In any case, it is clear that the BJP has no clue on how to redress the people’s problems. It only has recipies to compound them further. The one measure that can sub¬stantially rein in the price level is strict action against the hoarders and black marketeers. However, instead of moving in these direction, the BJP, early in its innings, had brought before the Lok Sabha a proposal to amend the Essential Commodities Act. These proposals were meant to dilute the punitive action against hoard¬ers and black marketeers. Though the BJP had to with¬draw this proposal in the face of severe opposition, it nevertheless sent a signal to the unscrupulous elements that this government is their protector. The result is there for all to see.
Further, such a price rise is happening at a time when the overall economy is showing a prolonged down turn. A survey conducted by the Confederation of Indian Indus¬tries (CII) for a period between April-September, 1998 comparing it with the corresponding period in 1997 shows that of the 107 sectors accounting for more than 65 per cent of the total industrial output (covering all im¬portant segments) 39 reported a growth of less than 10 per cent and 31, in addition, showed a negative growth. With regard to sales of 71 sectors, 21 reported negative growth rates and 29 had a growth rate of between 0 and 10 percent. With regard to exports, which the govern¬ment claims to be its prime vehicle of growth, out of 53 sectors 23 reported a negative growth while 11 had a growth between 0 to 10 per cent. With the inflation rate hovering around 10 per cent, growth rates of more than this can only be seen positive in the real sense. Given this, it is clear that the Indian economy is in the midst of a severe recession. This, in turn, means that the employment opportunities have already shrunk and will shrink much more in the days to come. And, even these meagre earnings of the vast majority of the people are now eroded by this criminal price rise.
These six months of the BJP-led government, thus, repre¬sent the most serious assault on people’s livelihood that we have seen in many years. The time has come to deliver the country and the people from such a curse and it is this message that the people will resoundingly give to the BJP in these assembly elections; for the sake of bharat, quit.