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Vol. 74 No. 11 Current Threats to the Constitution April 7, 2019 Prashant Bhushan Modinomics = Falsonomics: Part II Sixty nine years ago, we framed a Our constitution also guarantees Neeraj Jain constitution and founded a republic. various fundamental rights to all Islamophobia, Theirs and Ours The foundations of this republic are citizens and some to even non Apoorvanand a democratically governed society citizens. The most important of these And Now, It's Lohia's Turn! with various fundamental rights is the right to life and liberty which Prem Singh guaranteed to every citizen and the is guaranteed to citizens and non The People of Palestine Are establishment of institutions which citizens alike which has been held on the March will preserve democracy and the by the Supreme Court to include Vijay Prashad rights of citizens. not just the right to a bare life and Tosepan: Resistance and Though we founded a bare liberty but also a life of dignity Renewal in Mexico representative democracy where and thus having all those amenities Alex Jensen people do not have a direct say in and facilities which allow for a life Aurat March Still Faces government decision making or of dignity such as food, shelter, Never-Ending Backlash and law making, but it is implicit that education, healthcare, a healthy Threats of Violence in Pakistan for democracy to be meaningful, environment, a corruption free Raghuram Rajan Says Capitalism the people must have adequate society, etc. is ‘Under Serious Threat’ information about what is happening The right to liberty also requires in society, how the country is being a freedom from oppressive and Editor : G. G. Parikh governed, what kind of law and draconian laws which jeopardise policies are being proposed, so that the liberty of citizens. In the other Associate Editor : Neeraj Jain they can discuss all these issues and civil rights guaranteed by the Managing Editor : Guddi express their opinion about them. constitution is the freedom of speech It is also necessary in the and expression which has been held Editorial Board : functioning of democracy that power to include the right to a free media as B. Vivekanandan, Qurban Ali and in particular financial power is well as the right to information and Anil Nauriya, Sonal Shah not so unevenly distributed, so that therefore the right to be informed Amarendra Dhaneshwar, a few people will be able to in Noam about the functioning of all public Sandeep Pandey Chomsky’s words “manufacture authorities and institutions. We have consent” by using their power also been guaranteed the right to D-15, Ganesh Prasad, to advertise and influence public equality and therefore the protection Naushir Bharucha Marg, opinion. of minorities from an assault on their Mumbai - 400 007. Email : [email protected] This is the text of the Krishna Bharadwaj Memorial Lecture, delivered Website:www.janataweekly.org by Prashant Bhushan at Jawaharlal Nehru University on March 14, 2019. 2 JANATA, April 7, 2019 rights by a communal majority. In the first 64 years of our to privacy, etc). Various institutions have been republic, our representative There was also some created by the constitution and democracy made some progress improvement in the protection the laws to guard the functioning and some regress as well. The breath of Dalits and minorities with the of democracy and also to protect and depth of education did improve creation of a Minorities Commission fundamental rights of citizens. These overall during the first 64 years, and an SC/ST Commission. Several include an independent judiciary, thereby making way for a more rights based legislations have also which has been tasked to protect educated citizenry. been enacted especially in the first fundamental rights and to ensure The advent of the Right to decade of the 21st century, such as that the executive and the legislature Information Act in 2005, also led to the Food Security Act, the Forest remain within the bounds of the a substantial advance in the progress Rights Act, the Rural Employment powers laid out for them by the of democracy as people got greater Guarantee Act, and the new Land constitution. access to information about the Acquisition Act of 2013. These went An Election Commission has functioning of public authorities. a long way to expand and strengthen been created to ensure free and fair A robust right to information the rights of poor and marginalised elections and all that is necessary campaign ensured that the RTI sections of society. for that. A Comptroller and Auditor Act was used substantially leading The first 64 years also saw a General has been set up to do to greater transparency of public strengthening of several institutions, financial and performance audits of institutions and authorities. The including the judiciary, which every part of the government which Election Commission also became become more independent and uses public funds. Special laws have more independent and robust, which robust in general, despite other been made to set up an independent led to freer and fair elections. institutional failures of being Central Vigilance Commission However, economic inequality inaccessible to the majority of the which is supposed to not only of our society grew particularly people, being lethargic and also accord vigilance clearance to public after economic liberalisation, unaccountable and corrupt. Despite servants, but also to supervise the with policies focussing on GDP all these problems, its independence functioning of the CBI and act as the growth at any cost. This increasing improved as the selection of judges nodal agency to receive complaints economic inequality led to more was withdrawn from the government from whistle blowers. and more wealth in the hands of and vested with the judiciary itself. The Lokpal Act was brought in fewer people at the top who could Though that led to slightly more to set up the apex anti corruption then use it to influence elections independent judges being appointed, ombudsman and the CBI Act to create and thus our polity came to be it did not necessarily lead to more an anti corruption investigating controlled increasingly by large honest or more competent judges agency. There are also various corporates and policies were tailored being appointed. laws and institutions to protect the for the economic interests of large The first 64 years also saw, freedom of the press. A Salutary corporates rather than the people. strengthening of the independence Whistle Blower Law was also This also led to the phenomenon of as well as institutional depth of the passed. manufacturing consent as Chomsky Election Commission as well as of If we do an audit of the called it. the CAG. Despite both these bodies functioning of our democracy, the On the front of fundamental being appointed by the government, health of fundamental rights of rights, the first 64 years also saw this happened because of the growth citizens and the health of institutions some expansion of rights particularly of these institutions themselves and created to protect all of this, it might by the Supreme Court through an the breath and depth that was added be useful to divide all that into what expansive and creative interpretation to them, as well as an institutional happened in the first 64 years and of the right to life (which was held to embedding of their functional what has happened in the last five include a right to live with dignity) independence, which gradually years since Independence—since as and the freedom of speech (which seeped into the consciousness of we will see the last five years have was held to include the right to the individuals who came to man been a watershed in many ways. information, a free press, the right these institutions, especially in the JANATA, April 7, 2019 3 last 30 years. to be partisan and decided by the and not making laws to ensure that The Supreme Court also chipped government. parties and candidates receive and in to order changes in the method Officers from Gujarat who are spend money only through banking of selection of the Director, CBI, said to have been close to the channels (cashless transactions the Central Vigilance Commission Prime Minster and Amit Shah have which the PM wanted to impose on and the Police Chiefs in order to been appointed to the Election the country through demonetisation), make them more independent. The Commission, with the present Chief three retrograde changes in the law of institutional changes directed by Election Commissioner not only election funding have increased the the court in the police organisations being from Gujarat but also one who role of money power and corporate were such that if they had been figures in the Radia tapes where he hijacking of elections. properly implemented it would led talks to her about an acquaintance The Foreign Contribution to a sea change in the functioning who claimed that he had paid 9 crores Regulation Act, brought primarily of the police, at least with regard to to obtain a favourable judgement to prevent parties, candidates and its independence from the political from the then Chief Justice of the public servants from getting and executive. Punjab and Haryana High Court. being influenced by foreign funds, Unfortunately, however, many He was at that time perhaps heading has now been amended to allow of those salutary changes ordered Air India. receipt of foreign funds through which included the establishment That such a senior officer did subsidiaries of foreign companies. of a Police Establishment Board not bother to report this serious The limits on corporate donations for transfers and postings of corruption of justice to any authority, to parties and candidates which police officers, the creation of but quietly mentioned it in gossip was earlier 7.5% of their profits has Police Complaints Authorities for with a corporate lobbyist Nira Radia, been removed to allow unlimited entertaining complaints against speaks volumes about his character. corporate funding. Police Officers and a minimum It is because of the erosion of public Worst of all, a new anonymous tenure for field level officers, have confidence in the independence of instrument of political funding been frustrated by an obdurate the Election Commission that people has been introduced through the executive in most states which have become very nervous about instrument of electoral bonds which want to have the police as their the integrity of the electronic voting are bearer bonds and which allow handmaiden, to be used for their machines and there is now therefore anonymous funding of political political ends. a persistent demand, especially by parties even through banking the opposition, to go back to paper channels. Thus the path has been Assault on democracy ballots. cleared for payment of bribes by The last five years have been Elections in the last five years are corporations to the ruling parties a watershed in the functioning of now being increasingly influenced through the device of electoral bonds our democracy, the protection of by money power. This is partly which guarantee the anonymity of fundamental rights as well as the because the Election Commission their donors. It is not surprising health of institutions. These years has failed to enforce the limits on therefore that the BJP has received have witnessed an unprecedented spending by political parties. But about 95% of the approximately assault on various elements of also because parties and candidates 2,000 crore of the funding through democracy, on rights and institutions. have begun to get unlimited amounts electoral bonds in the last 2 years The last few years have seen a of money from their corporate since they have been introduced. steady erosion in the independence cronies. It has been estimated that All the above amendments of the Election Commission, and one lakh crore would be spent of electoral funding have been after many years we are finding by parties and candidates in the achieved by the dubious device of that important decisions of the 2019 elections, out of which eighty smuggling these amendments in Election Commission, especially the thousand crore would be spent by the through a Finance Bill, which avoids announcement of dates of elections BJP and its candidates alone. the amendments being taken to and and the enforcement of its model Apart from not fixing limits voted in the Rajya Sabha where the code of conduct, increasingly appear for spending by political parties ruling party doesn’t have a majority. 4 JANATA, April 7, 2019

The device of the Money Bill to tens of lakhs of crores of unpaid on any influential person who bring about amendments to various debt to our banks. Many of them criticises the government or the PM laws which have nothing to do with have been allowed or made to flee by bombarding them with abuse and the consolidated fund of India has the country and have comfortably threats, on their phones, on social been increasingly resorted to by ensconced themselves in London or media platforms, etc. This is also the present government, making tax havens like Antigua or Bermuda, sometimes picked up and amplified a mockery of the Constitutional while our government makes a show by those sections of the mainstream requirement of bills being passed by of searching for them or seeking to media which have become lapdogs both houses of parliament. extradite them. of the government. Parliament itself has seen a Consequently economic Dalits and minorities have steady erosion in the number of days inequalities have grown enormously especially borne the brunt of lynch it meets, the time spent in discussions and the GINI index that measures mobs as they have been sought to and particularly the time spent to economic inequality is perhaps be bludgeoned into submission by discuss laws which are passed. In the highest in the world for India. assertive saffron mobs who are the last five years, not even 10% It was recently reported that the secure in the confidence that the of the slotted parliamentary time wealth of the nine richest Indians government and police will not act has been spent in any meaningful is equivalent to the wealth of the against them. Documentation of discussion and perhaps not even bottom half of our population. cases of lynchings have shown three 1% to discuss the slew of laws that All this, coupled with the control stark facts: have been passed amidst shouting of few corporations over large 1. Almost all of the hundreds of and confusion. sections of the mainstream media, cases of mob lynching have been Thus, far from making has accentuated the manufacture of directed against Muslims and Dalits; democracy more participatory, even consent in India. 2. In almost all cases, the in terms of allowing prior disclosure perpetrators are associated with of Bills proposed to be passed or Erosion of rights assorted saffron groups who are allowing any public participation in The last five years have also connected with the BJP/RSS or at the laws to be made, even the present seen an unprecedented assault on least enjoy their protection; nominal representative democracy the freedom of speech and the right 3. The police rarely act against has been steadily emasculated. to dissent. Persons critical of the the perpetrators unless compelled to During the last five years, government have been assaulted by courts and often act against the the Right to Information Act has on the streets by saffron lynch victims themselves. also been eroded by throttling the mobs which are patronised by False information or fake news Information Commissions and the government and a complicit which is designed to generate hate not appointing people to man the police; in many cases they have against Muslims in particular is vacancies. Even when the vacancies been charged with sedition, despite being generated and spread on a are directed to be filled by court the fact that the Supreme Court mammoth scale by the social media orders, pliable bureaucrats have been had injuncted the use of this law organisations affiliated with the BJP appointed without any transparency for a situation where there is no and its assorted lapdog and media in the selection. Simultaneously, incitement to violence or public portals. This has created a feeling crony capitalism has grown disorder. of hopelessness and helplessness with policies being increasingly Those who escape the lynch among large sections of minorities in controlled by large crony capitalists mobs or sedition have had to face particular as well as Dalits, especially who ensure that policies and the wrath of an organised lynch when they see the administration, government decisions are tailored mob on the social media, which including the judicial administration, for their economic benefit and to the as Swati Chaturvedi pointed out in being reduced to bystanders. detriment of the common people. her book I Am a Troll are organised The use of draconian laws Our banks and financial and controlled by none other than like UAPA and NSA, particularly institutions have been plundered the Prime Minister himself. These on hapless sections of minorities by crony corporates who now owe trolls descend like a pack of wolves including Dalits, have accentuated JANATA, April 7, 2019 5 the injustice and the climate of fear the government has refused to will completely stultify the law by among them. appoint inconvenient judges whose saying that any whistleblower who The condition of the poor appointments have been reiterated provides any more information about and the marginalised has become repeatedly by the SC collegium in corruption in the government than even more helpless with massive gross violation of the law. what an ordinary citizen can obtain unemployment and job loss in For the first time in more than under the Right to Information the last five years and increasing three decades, fingers are being Act, would lose his protection as a agrarian distress wherein agriculture pointed at the independence of the whistleblower and would be liable has become a losing proposition Election Commission and the CAG. to be prosecuted under the Official and thousands of farmers are being In the audit of the Rafale contract, Secrets Act. forced to commit suicide every year. the government predicted in advance Instead of repealing the colonial India continues to steadily plummet in a note given to the Supreme Court, Official Secrets Act, this government on the Human Development Index three months before the CAG report now threatens to use it against as well as other indices designed was finalised, that the report would journalists who have published to measure the well being of the redact the details of pricing. This documents exposing the corruption, majority of society. All of this has led indeed happened three months later violation of rules and the interference to a degradation of human rights as when the CAG report on the Rafale of the PMO in the Rafale contract. well as a degradation of democracy purchase was finalised and given to Apart from using the Official Secrets in the country. the PAC. Acts, this government and its officers The most serious and long The redaction of pricing details have also sought to use Contempt of lasting assault on our republic has from a CAG report is not merely Court as a weapon to intimidate however been on account of the unprecedented, it is contrary to activists and silence criticism of the assault on our institutions. These the CAG Act which requires the government. include constitutional bodies like the entire report of the CAG to be The CBI has been degraded judiciary, the Election Commission, tabled in parliament. The fact that further from being a caged parrot the CAG as well as statutory bodies the government knew three months to blood hound of the government. like the CVC, the CBI, Lokpal in advance that the CAG would When a CBI Director, whose and also universities and other bow to this illegal demand of the tenure was protected, threatened to educational institutions and bodies. government to redact pricing details investigate the Rafale contract he There has been a concerted from its report, demonstrates the was ousted in a midnight coup by the attempt by this government to erode extent to which the independence of government and one Nageshwar Rao the independence of the judiciary, the CAG has been compromised by was appointed as Acting Director, in which it has succeeded to some the government. who affected 40 transfers in the extent. Even after the attempt to bring Despite the Lokpal Act being CBI within a day at the behest of the back the executive into the role of passed more than five years ago, the government. selecting judges through the Judicial appointment of a lokpal has been The Central Vigilance Appointments Commission was steadily stonewalled and even the Commission is headed by an officer scuttled by the Supreme Court, we inclusion of the leader of opposition who played a key role in suppressing have seen this government brazenly from the selection panel of the incriminating documents recovered scuttling appointments of judges Lokpal has been obstructed for in the raids on the Sahara and the recommended by the collegium five years by this government, Birla Group of Companies which by just sitting on those names that which amended the Lokpal Act with showed the PM and BJP Chief it finds inconvenient; in particular, alacrity to exempt public servants Ministers as recipients of large sums recommendation of judges from from making their asset disclosures of unaccounted cash. among minority communities have to the government. Another gentleman appointed as borne the brunt of this assault by the Also, for more than five years, Vigilance Commissioner had been government. the Whistleblower Act has not indicted by the CVC itself for having Apart from sitting for years been notified, while an amendment fabricated the confidential report on several recommendations, has been brought to the Act which of his subordinate senior officer of 6 JANATA, April 7, 2019 a bank of which he was Chairman policies and institutions which are the part of a very large and broad for destroying the career of that necessary to reclaim the republic section of our civil society activists, officer. and democracy and for fundamental movements and other concerned Universities and educational rights and regulatory institutions to citizens. The stakes are high for all institutions and regulatory bodies survive in this country. of us and I hope we can all rise to have particularly been in the Pushing through these reforms the occasion. cross hairs of this government. would be a massive undertaking and (The author is a noted Supreme Virtually every appointment of would require a major campaign on Court advocate.) Vice Chancellor in universities has been made of people who are Modinomics = Falsonomics: Part II associated with the RSS or have been close confidants of the present Neeraj Jain rulers. Thus, many appointments of Vice Chancellors as well as It is not just GDP data that the concepts, the NSSO standardised other educational regulatory bodies government is fudging. It is fudging the concepts and definitions of have been of people who have no or is blocking the publication of labour force, employment and academic qualifications for their jobs every kind of data related to the unemployment, which were then but have been placed there only due functioning of the economy that adopted in quinquennial surveys to their saffron links. shows that the economy is not doing (large sample sizes of over 100,000 Such persons have systematically well and which therefore puts the households) on employment and not only crushed dissent but also BJP in a bad light. unemployment which have been dismantled the spirit of inquiry and conducted regularly since 1972–73 critical thinking in these educational Employment–Unemployment in rural and urban areas. institutions. Suggestions have been Surveys Scrapped The quinquennial surveys made by these persons to put up tanks Thus, for instance, the served as an extensive source of in the premises of their universities to government has discontinued the information pertaining to not only the instil “nationalism” among students. quinqennial NSSO Employment– levels of labourforce participation Some of our finest universities Unemployment Surveys (EUS) rates, work participation rates and like JNU, BHU and Hyderabad conducted by the National Sample unemployment rates, but have University have especially borne the Survey Organisation (NSSO) provided rich information on brunt of this assault. under the Ministry of Statistics the levels of under-employment, and Programme Implementation as different categories of workers, their Reclaiming the Republic well as the Annual Employment– living conditions and contractual The republic founded by our Unemployment surveys conducted status (self-employed or wage constitution makers is therefore by the Ministry of Labour and employed and their types), level of under siege today. Reclaiming it Employment. wages and earnings, occupational would require a slew of several The NSSO–EUS, like all the structures, status of informal labour fundamental and wide ranging other NSSO surveys embodied the and several other indicators of the reforms in our laws, policies and idea with which the organisation quality of the workers and the non- institutions. Many of these have was instituted in 1950 by Professor workers. been suggested in a document Mahalanobis, widely regarded as the In all, there have been a total of titled “Reclaiming the republic” father of Indian statistics. His vision ten rounds of these surveys which prepared by a group of concerned for the organisation was to obtain and provide validated and internationally and eminent citizens of this country quantify comprehensive information comparable long term statistics from among academics, activists, on an annual basis on the socio- pertaining to the Indian labour lawyers, judges, etc. economic, demographic, sectoral markets. After the 68th round that In this document, we have tried and other profiles of the country, occurred in 2011–12, the next to put together a list of the most both at the national and state levels. round was due in 2016–17, but the essential and urgent reforms in laws, After trying different approaches and Modi Government has discontinued JANATA, April 7, 2019 7 it. No public announcement was truth about the disastrous impact delay in the release of the report, made about the reasons, the survey of demonetisation and GST on though the NSC itself had officially was scrapped silently. Probably the employment situation in the cleared it. A newsreport quoted one its scrapping had something to country to come out. Several private of them as saying, “The commission do with the uncomfortable data surveys have revealed that these is being sidelined, neglected. We felt from the fifth round of the Annual policies have caused enormous job that the NSC was not doing its job Employment–Unemployment losses—for instance, the Centre for and we were not being involved in Survey of the Labour Bureau Monitoring Indian Economy (CMIE) key decisions. The NSC’s job is to (discussed below), after which this reported that 1.5 million jobs were restore trust in official statistics and survey too was discontinued by the lost during the first four months we were not serving that purpose.” 6 Modi Government.1 after demonetisation (January–April The resignations of India’s The Annual Employment– 2017). 4 top statisticians created a furore in Unemployment Survey (EUS) was the media. Soon after, on January begun in 2010, to make available Statisticians Rebel 31, 2019, the Business Standard some data annually, and was The government came under newspaper obtained and published conducted by the Labour Bureau. immense criticism for its failure important details from the report. The The report of the fifth round was to come up with a new survey to leaked data indicated that the survey released in September 2016. As per estimate the employment situation in had found India’s unemployment this report, the unemployment rate the country. So, it instituted another rate to be at a 45-year-high of 6.1 in India shot up to a five-year high employment survey, the Periodic per cent in 2017–18.7 This report of 5 per cent in 2015–16. The survey Labour Force Survey (PLFS), to tallies with another CMIE report that reported that about 77 per cent of be done by the NSSO. This survey suggest a terrifying situation, with the households were reported to be was conducted between July 2017 job losses amounting to 11 million having no regular wage or salaried and June 2018. It was important for 2018.8 person.2 as it was the first official survey of True to form, Union Minister Following the release of this the country’s employment situation Jaitley, who is more of a blogger report, the Modi Government decided after Prime Minister Narendra Modi than a minister, immediately issued to discontinue not just the Annual announced the demonetisation a rebuttal from his hospital bed in Employment–Unemployment of high-value currency notes in the United States, claiming it was Survey but also the NSSO’s November 2016. Despite the an “unverified draft”, while back in quinqennial survey. The latter survey National Statistical Commission India, NITI-Aayog Vice Chairman is a more in-depth survey, and (NSC) approving the release of the Rajiv Kumar held a ‘damage control’ would have revealed in greater data—and the NSC is the apex body press conference on the very same detail the serious employment crisis that coordinates India’s statistical day to assert that the NSSO report gripping the economy, especially activities and is autonomous5 — was not final as the government had after demonetisation. The ostensible the Modi Government decided to not approved it yet. When asked by reason given for scrapping these withhold its release. Unfortunately reporters as to who in the government surveys is that they make available for the government, its attempt to was supposed to approve the report, data after a lag, and so do not help give this report a quiet burial failed, he fumbled, “I suppose the Cabinet in policy making.3 But the real because India’s statisticians finally will approve. I don’t know.” Both reason lies elsewhere is obvious revolted. They had had enough. these statements were rubbished from the fact that following the On January 28, 2019, the only by experts. P.C. Mohanan, who had scrapping of these surveys in 2016, two non-government members of the resigned from the Chairmanship the government has made no data National Statistical Commission, P.C. of the NSC just a few days ago, available about the unemployment Mohanan (who was also the acting lambasted Jaitley’s and Kumar’s situation in the country for the past chairperson of the Commission) claim that it was a “draft” report and three years! The only plausible and Delhi School of Economics asserted that it was the “final report” conclusion that can be drawn is that professor J.V. Meenakshi resigned and needed no further approval. the government does not want the from the Commission to protest the Former Chief Statistician Sen, when 8 JANATA, April 7, 2019 asked if it was a practice to get the had stated that around 90% of the its methodology because of which Union Cabinet’s approval for NSSO loans fell in the lowest category of a majority of farmer suicides got reports, emphatically stated, “It has under Rs 50,000. Clearly, this amount shifted to new or revised categories never happened. No. Never.” 9 too measly for any serious, even if in NCRB data tables. Because of And Bibek Debroy, chief of small, entrepreneurial venture, and these new parameters, the number the Prime Minister’s Economic so obviously, job creation under the of farmer suicides in 2014 fell to Advisory Council, declared recently MUDRA scheme about which PM 5,650, which was less than half that a new national sample survey Modi himself has been making such their 2013 figure of 11,772. On the will be conducted by the government tall claims must be negligible.12 other hand, there was a spectacular to show there is substantial job Given the audacity with which increase in suicides recorded under creation—a chilling and open the Modi Government has been the category “Others”, from 24,809 admission that the government would manipulating / suppressing all in 2013 to 41,216 in 2014. But even window-dress national employment uncomfortable data, it is obvious that with these new diluted parameters, data.10 What brazenness! But it is the MUDRA survey results would in 2015, the number of farmer reflective of the mentality of the have also told a similar story of job suicides crossed the 8,000 mark, entire Modi Government—that they losses and joblessness, and so the recording a whopping increase of are accountable to no one, and can Modi Government has suppressed 40% over the 2014 figure of 5,650 subvert any institution in the country this report too. suicides. After that, further release to further their agenda. After suppressing all these of data on farmers’ suicides stopped! official surveys that would have On December 18, 2018, Union Even Mudra Job Survey Goes revealed the distressing state of Agriculture Minister Radhamohan Underground unemployment in the country—to Singh unashamedly told parliament More recently, it was reported give just one anecdotal evidence, that the NCRB, which collects such in the media that the government around 1.9 crore candidates, data, has not published figures of has suppressed the publication of including some with PhDs, applied farmer suicides since 2016.14 yet another employment survey: by when the Railways advertised Likewise, the Modi Government the Labour Bureau on the number of 63,000 low-level and mid-level jobs got the Reserve Bank of India (RBI) jobs created under the Micro Units last year13 —the Prime Minister and to suppress data about the quantum Development & Refinance Agency his cabinet ministers are now giving of demonetised currency that had (MUDRA). This survey by the speeches all over the country making returned to the banks. The RBI Labour Bureau covered an estimated wild claims about millions of jobs normally releases data on cash with 97,000 Mudra beneficiaries who having been created during the past the public in its fortnightly bulletins. took loans between April 8, 2015 and five years. If indeed this is true, Indeed, it did so until mid-December January 1, 2019. A report published what was the need to suppressing 2016, after which it has suddenly in the Indian Express quoted sources the survey reports—by statistical found itself incapable of completing as saying that the report will not bodies that are considered to be the task of counting the cash returned be made public for another two among the best in the world (that in demonetisation; it kept claiming months, that is, till after the Lok is, before the Modi Government set that it was still counting the notes Sabha elections. The official reason about destroying them). that had returned. Finally, after more cited are “errors” and “anomalies” than 20 months, it finally declared on in the methodology used for the jobs Does the Govt Care About Data August 30, 2018 that the counting survey.11 Integrity Anymore? had been completed and that 99.3% The MUDRA programme Another important statistic that of the junked Rs 500 and Rs 1,000 was launched in April 2015, and the government has manipulated / notes have returned to the banking provides loans at low rates for suppressed is farm suicide data. First, system.15 people to set up small business and soon after coming to power, in 2014 This manipulation of statistical in order to generate jobs through itself, the Modi Government got data by the Modi Government self-employment. Last August, the the National Crime Records Bureau has gone to such extremes that on Department of Financial Services (NCRB) to make major changes in March 14, 2019, a group of 108 JANATA, April 7, 2019 9

eminent economists and social “in the camp that has no idea what the February 1, 2019, https://scroll.in. scientists from across the globe statistics are at this point.” He stated 9. “Jobs Data Report ‘Final’, NSSO issued an open statement expressing that “a revamp” was needed “to really Reports ‘Never’ Cleared by Cabinet: concern about it. They emphasise figure out what India’s true growth Experts”, February 1, 2019, https:// the fact that economic statistics are rate is”, and called for an impartial www.newsclick.in; “Jobs Dipping a public good. Policy formulation body to look at the numbers.17 Amid 7.5% Growth?": Arun Jaitley Junks "Unverified" Report”, Febr will become difficult and faulty in Unfortunately, we have a uary 1, 2019, https://www.ndtv.com. the absence of data or when the data government at the Centre that is 10. James Wilson, op. cit. is wrong or insufficient. Not only not concerned with integrity of 11. “Even Mudra Job Survey Data Put that, credible economics statistics data anymore, so it is not bothered in Deep Freeze”, March 14, 2019, are a vital necessity for informed about the true growth rate, or the https://indianexpress.com. public discourse in democracies true unemployment rate, or the true 12. “How Many Jobs did MUDRA where citizens seek accountability poverty rate . . . Create? Modi Won’t Tell You Before from its government. They go on to Elections”, March 14, 2019, https:// say: “For decades, India’s statistical References www.newsclick.in. machinery has enjoyed a high level 1. Sona Mitra, “The Indian 13. Devangshu Datta, “Voters Need of reputation for the integrity of Employment–Unemployment Jobs, Not Leaked Jobs Data – And the data it produced on a range of Surveys: Why Should it Continue?”, that is BJP's Real Problem”, op. cit. 14. “Centre Has No Farmer Suicide economic and social parameters. August 13, 2018, http://www. Data Since 2016, Minister Told It has often been criticised for the cbgaindia.org; Rosa Abraham, Janaki Shibu and Rajendran Parliament”, December 20, 2018, quality of its estimates, but never Narayanan, “A (Failed) Quest to https://www.ndtv.com; James were allegations made of political Obtain India's Missing Jobs Data”, Wilson, op. cit.; P. Sainath, “The interference influencing decisions February 1, 2019, https://thewire.in. Slaughter of Suicide Data”, August and the estimates themselves.” 2. “Survey Discontinued, Centre 21, 2015, https://frontline.thehindu. However, lately, Indian statistics Clueless About Unemployment”, com; “Farmer Suicides Soar 42% and the institutions associated with it March 6, 2018, https://www. to Over 8,000 in a Year, State Tops have “come under a cloud for being dnaindia.com. in Deaths”, January 6, 2017, https:// influenced and indeed even controlled 3. Rosa Abraham, Janaki Shibu and timesofindia.indiatimes.com. by political considerations. . . . Any Rajendran Narayanan, op. cit.; Soma 15. “99.30% of Demonetised Money statistics that cast an iota of doubt on Mitra, “Why the NSSO Employment Back in the System, Says RBI the achievement of the government Surveys Shouldn't Have Been Done Report”, August 30, 2018, https:// economictimes.indiatimes.com; seem to get revised or suppressed Away With”, August 25, 2018, Devangshu Datta, “How Trustworthy on the basis of some questionable https://thewire.in. 4. Mahesh Vyas, “1.5 Million Jobs Lost is India's Economic Data? Does the methodology.” Because of this, the in First Four Months of 2017”, July Modi Government Care About it “national and global reputation of 11, 2017, https://www.cmie.com. Anymore?”, July 31, 2018, https:// India’s statistical bodies is at stake.” 5. “National Statistical Commission”, scroll.in. 16 https://en.wikipedia.org. 16. “Economic Statistics in a Shambles”, More recently, Raghuram Rajan, 6. James Wilson, “Lies, Deceit March 14, 2019, https://cdn-live. who has served as Governor of RBI and Invented Truths in the Modi theprint.in. during the first three years of the Regime”, February 10, 2019, https:// 17. “Raghuram Rajan Raises Doubts present Modi regime, and was also www.telegraphindia.com; “2 More About India Growing At 7%”, formerly the Chief Economist of Members of NSC Quit on Feeling March 26, 2019, https://thewire.in; the IMF, and therefore definitely Sidelined”, January 30, 2019, https:// “Raghuram Rajan Raises Questions About India’s Growth Rate, Calls cannot be called a “compulsive economictimes.indiatimes.com. for Impartial Body to Clean Up contrarian”—words used by Arun 7. James Wilson, ibid.; Rosa Abraham, Janaki Shibu and Rajendran Data”, March 26, 2019, https:// Jaitley to dismiss the statement of the Narayanan, op. cit. scroll.in; B. Baskar, “It’s About Data 108 economists and social scientists 8. Devangshu Datta, “Voters Need Again”, March 21, 2019, https:// mentioned above—in an interview Jobs, Not Leaked Jobs Data – www.thehindubusinessline.com. with CNBC–TV18 stated that he is And that is BJP's Real Problem”, 10 JANATA, April 7, 2019 Islamophobia, Theirs and Ours

Apoorvanand

The massacre at Christchurch in their mourning. We happily accept thanked her Hindu mother for being New Zealand has forced European the foreign currency they bring but so wise as to not let the surname of countries into deep introspection. would not share their loss. her Muslim father be in her name. New Zealanders are bewildered as My mind went to the attacks The principal of my daughter’s to how and why such a horror could on mosques in India—Malegaon, school refused to believe her when visit their country. In Australia, the Mecca Masjid, Ajmer Sharif. How she complained about a teacher birthplace of the accused, people did the nation react then and what indulging in blatantly ‘othering’ are being asked to look at the reality was the response of the governments? Muslims. And we are not even of increasing malice and hatred Mosques, in these election times, talking about the chain of schools against Muslims in particular and are in the news for a different reason. under the Saraswati Shishu Mandir immigrants in general. It has been The BJP in Delhi has asked the organisation which turn out Hindus pointed out that the massacre is only Election Commission to “appoint as perfect Others of Muslims. the end point of the Islamophobia special observers for the mosques Policy makers and implementers that is spreading across public life, especially in the Muslim-dominated unabashedly express their institutions and the media. areas so that political and religious Islamophobia under cover of Amidst this recognition of leaders cannot spread hate among national security. Recently a friend Islamophobia, it was heartening people to influence elections on shared his horror after returning to read about mosques across the the lines of religion”. It did not from a mid career training of police globe being flooded with flowers evoke outrage. Barring the AAP, no officers and civil servants who from people from other faiths. In political party thought it necessary to openly denounced Muslims and Singapore, New Zealanders went to call out the BJP for making mosques underscored the need to “put them mosques to express their solidarity objects of suspicion. in their place”. Madrasas are being with the Muslims. They felt it was In the West, there are people asked to submit proof of nationalism important not only to underline that who work constantly to identify by different governments. It has not the perpetrator, who sought to speak Islamophobia in all forms and shocked us that in the name of culture in their name through his 74-page demand action against those who and economy the eating habits of a manifesto, was rejected by them, but promote it. In India, we have large number of people have been also to express their active empathy. normalised it so much that if criminalised. The Supreme Court, You could see the sincerity of Muslims complain, they are called by making Sri Sri Ravishankar one pain on the face of the prime minister unnecessarily touchy. Experiences of the mediators in the Ayodhya of New Zealand and could sense the of Muslim children being mocked dispute, legitimised Muslimphobia. urgency in the worry expressed by and bullied in their schools travel You can speak against Muslims and the Australian prime minister. He through generations. A man past yet remain respectable. has also supported the call for action his 70s tells me about how he was The ultimate form of against an Australian senator who harassed by his schoolmates 68 years Islamophobia experienced by put the blame on the victims. back for being a Muslim. A man in Muslims is when they are told that In India, home to the second his 50s said that sitting though the they are so modern that they do not largest population of Muslims in classes of medieval history was look like Muslims. Muslims are the world, we saw no such initiative. painful for him. He could feel the asked to shed their Muslimness in Indian Muslims were killed in accusing eyes of his classmates as all forms to be accepted as equal the massacre but no compatriot the stories of Muslims plundering members of a civilised society. sympathised with them. It is futile India rolled out as objective history. Elections are around the corner. to expect the governments and A Muslim girl, all of 6, studying in We will see the open demonisation political classes to join their kin in a “progressive” school in Delhi, of Muslims as a means to mobilise JANATA, April 7, 2019 11 Hindu votes. Recently, in the And Now, It's Lohia's Turn! campaign for the assembly elections, the prime minister and his party talked about a conspiracy to make a Prem Singh Muslim the chief minister of a state. A minister in Assam is openly talking 23rd March is Dr. Rammanohar would mean playing on Modi's about the fear of some constituencies Lohia's birthday. But it is said that he pitch, and that serves no purpose. turning Muslim majority and also did not want people to celebrate the The friend was slightly angry at about the “disastrous” prospects of day because it was on this day that my reluctance. I tried to convince Badruddin Ajmal becoming the chief the revolutionaries—Bhagat Singh, him that Modi and RSS can capture minister. We have made Muslim Rajguru and Sukhdev were executed neither Gandhi, Ambedkar, Patel, demonisers our leaders and ask by the British government. So most Bhagat Singh nor Lohia. How can a Muslims to accept them to prove of his admirers and Indian socialists person or organisation, which does their tolerance and inclusiveness. celebrate Lohia Jayanti by observing not have any regard for the values We see them as our role models. It it as Martyrdom Day. of freedom struggle and the values is seen as a good bargain to secure This time, on the occasion of the Constitution, appropriate economic growth. of Lohia Jayanti, Prime Minister personalities who were moulded in Writers like Premchand and Narendra Modi remembered Lohia the furnace of the struggle for the Ramdhari Singh Dinkar repeatedly on his blog. As soon as this news country's independence? There is asked Hindus to accept Muslims became public, one of my friends a fundamental opposition between as equals. They are long dead. called me to take notice of this fact. the two. Modi and RSS can use Islamophobia continues to run like He said with urgency in his voice that them only for their power game, blood in our veins. We share our lives I should immediately write a reply to and they are doing exactly the same. with those who hate Muslims and the Prime Minister's tweet. I told the Regarding Lohia, saying anything yet claim to remain civilised. Unless friend that in today's politics, blogs about him in the context of Modi or we first recognise this duplicity, we and tweeters have become a huge RSS will be a bad joke. would not be able to move towards industry, in which mercenaries or The friend reluctantly agreed getting rid of this disease. paid people work in large numbers. but remained adamant on the idea of If one were to write answers to the refuting Modi. Finally I asked him if (The writer teaches Hindi at blogs and tweets of the leaders, there is any justification in blaming Delhi University.) then there will be hardly any time Modi and the RSS for 'kidnapping' to do one's own work. I asked the Lohia. The blame falls more heavily friend if anyone can respond to the on those 'socialists' who, on the stuff Modi has been stating/writing occasion of Lohia Jayanti or Lohia's about personalities such as Gandhi, death anniversary go to the extent Ambedkar, Patel and Bhagat Singh of inviting Home Minister Rajnath for the last five years? Is it even Singh and President Ramnath Kovind desirable? along with other RSS/BJP leaders as The phrase khanti Lohiavadi guests and speakers on the day? (staunch Lohiaite) is commonly used They do this under the leadership for diehard socialists. The friend of pro RSS/BJP leaders like Nitish who called me comes in the same Kumar and thus make a marketable category. He spoke anxiously saying business of Lohia! The friend was ‘But the case of Doctor Saheb (Lohia) now really upset and he put the phone is altogether different. He was till down saying that such people have now out of the picture. Modi should definitely been successful. Look at not be allowed to capture him.’ I the great future possible! This time replied that joining this controversy if Modi wins, his government might 12 JANATA, April 7, 2019 want to award Lohia with the Bharat his political career, Lohia adopted Modi makes blind moves in a bizarre Ratna. It does not matter of course, the strategy of non-Congressism to manner. Even as regards misuse of that it will actually be the worst kind defeat the Congress in 9 states. It was power, the Modi government has not of devaluation of Lohia till date. not his political theory but a strategy. been far behind the Congress. The next morning, I read in In his last editorial of 'Jan' (October Citizens are being oppressed and the newspapers detailed reports 1967), he reviewed that experiment humiliated for criticising Modi or on the comments Modi had made and expressed his dissatisfaction the government during his regime; about Lohia in his blog. Modi, with the results. the constitutional institutions, which in the wake of the Lok Sabha The Sonia Gandhi–Manmohan have formed the basis of democracy, elections, has finally made Lohia a Singh Congress in the times of are being devalued and destroyed; weapon and attacked the opposition. Modi has little to do with the Nehru the ministers of the government The comment is full of inane Congress. The Sonia Gandhi– openly proclaim that they do not observations and hollowness. It Manmohan Singh Congress is a accept the Constitution, rather they is a matter of regret that a person supporter of corporate capitalism. are working to change it; they go who had been a freedom fighter The RSS/BJP and Modi too are to the extent of declaring that this and who constantly fought for supporters of the same ideology and election of the Lok Sabha will be equality in the interests of the poor system. When Manmohan Singh the last; the BJP president says we has been dragged on the scene for implemented the New Economic will remain in power for 50 years . . . electoral gains on the occasion of Policies in 1991, the senior BJP The Modi government's anti- his birth anniversary. Even more so leader Atal Bihari Vajpayee had democratic manifestations are when the person doing this is the said that now the Congress has endless. In spite of all this, Modi Prime Minister of the country. As adopted the ideology of the BJP. In uses the name of Lohia, a democrat we know, there is no justification this respect there is no difference from beginning to the end, just to whatsoever in discussing Lohia's of policies between the two parties. attack his rivals in the opposition! ideology, principles and policies Modi is simply advancing the What can one call it—irony or the in the context of Modi's blog. But policies of the Congress. However, culmination of hypocrisy? I would only point out that Lohia's there is one difference: Manmohan non-Congress-ism, which according Singh, being an economist of high (The author teaches Hindi at to Modi, was his ‘heart and soul’ is a calibre, carried out neo-liberal Delhi University and is president of completely wrong statement. Modi policies in the classical way, while Socialist Party India.) has replaced non-Congressism with anti-congressism in his blog. Lohia had fought for the The People of Palestine Are on the March independence of the country under the Congress banner. The Congress Vijay Prashad Socialist Party (CSP), of which Lohia was a part, was formed in The bombs start again. Israel, Israel goes to the polls on April 9. 1934 within the Congress fold. as if on a timer, begins to pulverise The phone lines carry the sound of After independence, the Socialist Gaza. The bombs strike from one scared children and anxious adults, a Party separated from the Congress end of the country to another, a building demolished, the warplanes in 1948. This decision was made warning against the protests that shrieking overhead. because the Congress had refused have been ongoing for a year. There to allow the existence of the CSP is a shudder from Gaza, phone calls Abu Artema’s Birds under its new party constitution. In to friends who say that they are In January of last year, the a democracy, the criticism of the fearful that this bombing run will Palestinian journalist Ahmed Abu ruling Congress and its leadership escalate. Nothing is beyond Israel’s Artema sat at his computer in his was Lohia's democratic obligation. Benjamin Netanyahu, who will use home in Rafah (Gaza, Palestine). At least Lohia used to believe in this these bombs as an advertisement He had just returned home from a democratic ethos. At the fag end of for his campaign to be reelected as walk in this 365-square-kilometer JANATA, April 7, 2019 13

(141-square-mile) enclave that sits strike. The strike on March 30, 1976, of damage are done to Gaza’s on the Mediterranean Sea. There was almost total, with the Israeli infrastructure, which then cannot is a hint of paradise in Gaza—the State reacting to it with ferocity. be repaired because Israel prevents sea on one side, the citrus groves The land was seized, but March 30 materials from entering the enclave. on the other. But the entire piece became a monumental day, Land Because of the Israeli bombings and of land—populated by 2.2 million Day, an annual commemoration Israeli embargo, Gaza, the United Palestinians—is hemmed in by of the struggle against the Israeli Nations has found, will become the Israeli occupation. The land is occupation. “uninhabitable by 2020.” dotted with barbed wire fences and Abu Artema’s plea made in It is no wonder the Great March ditches, with armed guards on alert January 2018 became real on March of Return has seen such large to shoot where and when they will, 30, 2018, when the Great March crowds, so many people—including and the sea is patrolled by Israeli of Return began. The initial plan children—coming to the fence each naval vessels, which routinely stop was to start the protests on Land week despite the Israeli snipers and arrest Palestinian fishermen. Day and then continue until May and the tear gas. Palestinians set up Paradise is encircled by barbed wire 15, the day to commemorate the tents out of range of the snipers so and gunboats. Abu Artema decided Nakba or the expulsion of the that they could feed the protesters to write a plea. Palestinians from their homeland and heal them. The destruction of “No one stopped the birds,” he in 1948. But the energy opened up infrastructure put a heavy burden on thought during his walk as he saw a by the Great March of Return could Palestinian women, which deepened flock of birds fly across the perimeter not be contained. This protest, held their political commitment and fence. The Israeli occupation, he each Friday, began with 30,000 brought them to set up and work in felt, “clips my wings” and “disrupts Palestinians on Land Day in 2018 these encampments. my evening walks.” What if a and continues with tens of thousands Medical personnel and Palestinian from Gaza decided to of Palestinians each week. journalists would be on hand, “see himself as a bird and decides thinking that their professions gave to reach a tree beyond the fence,” he Suffocation them immunity. It did not. The Israeli mused? “If the bird was Palestinian, When Abu Artema took to his snipers fired at them: two journalists he would be shot.” Facebook page, he would not have were killed, 184 journalists injured; So, this journalist—a father been able to drink water—even if three medics were killed, 181 medics of four young children—wrote boiled—from his tap. That month, injured. Hind Khoudary, a journalist, the following simple question: the Palestinian Water Authority said that her work has been “more “What would happen if thousands warned that 97 percent of Gaza’s than [a] nightmare. I would have of Gazans, most of them refugees, water was undrinkable because of never imagined I would see people attempted to peacefully cross the high levels of sewage and salinity. shattered into pieces.” fence that separated them from It was lucky that Abu Artema was their ancestral lands?” The answer, able to get on Facebook. Gaza War Crimes plainly, was that they would be shot. only gets power for about four According to the Palestinian hours per day. The Israelis blame Ministry of Health, 196 people have Land Day the Hamas government in Gaza been killed by the Israeli armed In 1976, the Israeli government for these problems. Such a story is forces, while 11,427 people have announced the seizure of 20,000 only possible for someone with no been wounded (over 500 of them dunams of land in the Galilee. The memory. are in serious condition, with at government declared a curfew so that In each of the punctual least 300 having had at least one it could proceed with the land theft bombings of Gaza since Operation leg amputated). The United Nations without protest. It miscalculated. Hot Winter (2008), Israel has office in Palestine (OCHA) says Pressure grew from below, so Tawfiq targeted Gaza’s power plant and that the number of injured is double Ziad—the mayor of Nazareth (the its water sources (wells, water this—23,603 from March 30 to the largest Palestinian city inside Israel’s towers, sewage pipelines and sewage end of December 2018. 1948 lines)—called for a general treatment plants). Millions of dollars Last year, as the violence by 14 JANATA, April 7, 2019

Israel on the Gaza perimeter fence on March 22, Israeli soldiers killed muscular response that allows him escalated, the United Nations’ Nedal ’Abdel Karim Ahmed Shatat to bully his way back to power. Human Rights Council set up a (age 29) and Jihad Munir Khaled Abu Artema’s birds—perhaps panel of inquiry (comprised of Hararah (age 24). Israeli tear gas they are terns or gulls—continue to Argentina’s Santiago Canton, canisters flew into the medical field fly back and forth. They emerge out Bangladesh’s Sara Hossain and station at Bureij Refugee Camp. of the poems of Mahmoud Darwish, Kenya’s Kaari Betty Murungi). On About 181 Palestinians were injured the poem that asks, Where should March 18, the panel submitted its on that day. This shows that neither we go after the last frontiers? Where report. Israel’s government, which the Palestinian protesters nor the should the birds fly after the last sky? did not cooperate, rejected the Israeli soldiers will back down. Palestinians will remain in this vast report. The report found that there Israel’s government is undaunted congested open-air prison called were “reasonable grounds to believe by the UN findings. The Palestinians Gaza, hemmed in and forgotten, that Israeli snipers shot at journalists, have no choice but to protest. The bombed once more, mercilessly. health workers, children and persons confrontation will escalate on the with disabilities, knowing they were first anniversary of the March. The (Vijay Prashad is the Director of clearly recognisable as such.” The Israelis will be harsh, harsher to give Tricontinental: Institute for Social Chair of the panel, Santiago Canton, Benjamin Netanyahu the kind of Research.) went further, saying that the panel “has reasonable grounds to believe that during the Great March of Tosepan: Resistance and Renewal in Mexico Return, Israeli soldiers committed violations of international human Alex Jensen rights and humanitarian law. Some of these violations may constitute Since the mid-1980s, Mexico agribusiness products—especially war crimes or crimes against has been a poster child for corn— which subsequently flooded humanity and must be immediately globalisation. Through free trade into the country. Imports increased investigated by Israel.” treaties and structural adjustment three-fold, and the price of corn policies imposed by international dropped 50 percent, devastating the Israel financial institutions, the country rural economy and forcing some 4.9 So, there it stands. The has been “liberalised”—opened up million campesinos (peasants) out international community’s to unfettered corporate investment of farming altogether, precipitating panel says that war crimes were and imports— to an extent matched their mass migration from the committed, but the legal framework by few other countries. Though countryside to cities (and to the US) stops at the borders of Israel. Must the North American Free Trade in order to survive. be immediately investigated by Agreement (NAFTA) is the most NAFTA also exposed the Israel. But Israel will do no such well-known trade treaty to affect Mexican economy to retail and thing. It has rejected the panel Mexico, it is but the first and largest of fast-food multinationals based in and its findings. There will be no numerous multilateral and bilateral the US, besieging the country with investigation of the war crimes agreements that make Mexico the an avalanche of junk foods and beyond what the panel has found. world’s free trade agreement (FTA) soft drinks high in fat, salt, and Instead, Israel has begun to bomb leader. All told, Mexico has signed sugar, and an attendant epidemic of from the sky. 12 free trade agreements with 44 deadly “diet-related diseases”—e.g. Israel will hold an election on nations, 28 bilateral investment hypertension, diabetes, and obesity April 9, a little more than a week treaties, and 9 agreements of (these would be more accurately after the first anniversary of the economic cooperation. termed “corporate globalisation- Great March of Return. On the The grim consequences of related diseases”). anniversary itself, tens of thousands globalisation in Mexico are by now The liberalisation regime has of Palestinians are expected to walk familiar. NAFTA threw the doors also fueled a veritable bonanza for towards the perimeter. Last Friday, open to heavily subsidised US extractive industries — from mining JANATA, April 7, 2019 15 and fossil fuels to big dams and along with petroleum development holistic, sustainable, locally and mega-infrastructure developments. (including fracking). democratically controlled economy Transnational companies— with But there has been a fierce rooted in the indigenous culture and the blessing of state and national backlash across the state, knowledge of the Sierra Norte —a governments — have been scouring successfully blocking many of source of dignified livelihoods the country, extracting its natural these projects. In the Sierra Norte, and ecological security, and a wealth and concentrating the benefits the resistance has been particularly viable alternative to the distress- in fewer and fewer corporate hands spirited and effective, causing a migration suffered by so many other (the richest 1 percent in Mexico number of hydropower projects to be communities. owns over half of the country’s suspended, and a planned Walmart As one of Tosepan’s members, wealth). Consequently, Mexico hosts (under its Mexican subsidiary name, María Luisa Albores, explained in over 500 ongoing environmental Bodega Aurrerá) to be scuppered. a 2016 article in La Jornada del conflicts — one of the highest counts Some of the most effective Campo: “The history of Tosepan in the world today. Defenders resistance has emanated from a is completely tied to its mission of the environment are targeted network of cooperatives called and reason for being, adhered to up with violent reprisals by those Tosepan that has been working in until today: ‘Improve the quality of pushing destructive development. the region for 40 years, building life of the families of the members Global Witness reports that 15 up a parallel solidarity economy (of the cooperative), through work environmental defenders were killed among largely Nahua and organised to advance towards the in Mexico in 2017, up from 3 in Tutunaku indigenous communities, construction of a project of ‘vida 2016. encompassing some 35,000 buena’.” members across 430 villages in Tosepan is comprised of Unión de Cooperativas Tosepan 29 municipalities. Tosepan was three civil associations and eight It is hard to find much hope instrumental in encouraging a cooperatives, which together cover amidst this desperate situation, citizen’s plebiscite to reject the basic needs. These include: organic and yet, throughout Mexico, incursion of a Walmart/Bodega agroecological farming of staples there is a florescence of inspiring Aurrerá store in the town of Cuetzalan like corn, beans and vegetables, as resistance and alternatives, some in 2010, by using arguments well as crops like coffee, pepper, long-established, some only now about the economic, cultural and and sugarcane, both for sale springing up. In the southern state environmental harms it would cause. (primarily to local markets) and of Puebla, the lush, cloud-forested An analysis was done showing that for the community’s subsistence; Sierra Norte mountains bordering Walmart’s promised 60 low-quality small-scale, community-based eco- Veracruz are home to one of the jobs would come at the cost of 500 tourism; natural building using oldest and most inspiring of these local businesses, and put at risk the local resources like bamboo and movements of “the other Mexico” entire solidarity economy built up adobe, incorporating features like or México profundo: the Unión de by Tosepan and others, based on water harvesting, solar dehydrators, Cooperativas Tosepan (also known ancestral indigenous practices. The ecological cookstoves, and renewable as Tosepan Titataniske, meaning significance of this victory cannot energy; local health-care, focusing “United We Will Overcome”). be overstated in a country where on prevention and traditional herbal In Puebla, local communities Walmart has steadily been taking remedies; decentralised renewable defending their territories and over and dominating the economy energy with a goal of total energy lifeways are confronting corporate– (1 in 5 Walmart stores worldwide sovereignty; and local finance to state development projects, including are in Mexico, destroying local support the functioning of the entire mining, gas fracking, centralised livelihoods and spreading a culture ecosystem of cooperatives (Tosepan electrical grid infrastructure, big of consumption, disposability, and has its own cooperative bank, called dams, and big box stores. According waste). “Tosepantomin”, meaning “money to the EJ Atlas, concessions have All of these struggles of of all”/“everyone’s money”). been granted in Puebla for 11 mines resistance help to uphold the main Since 2001, Tosepan’s members and 14 hydroelectric projects, work of Tosepan: constructing a have been involved in organic 16 JANATA, April 7, 2019 coffee production based on honey, propolis, and wax have on Mexico continues to hover highly diversified, biologically many medicinal properties, while menacingly in the background, rich agroecological “gardens of the pollen is rich in proteins. The posing a constant threat to any coffee” that are possibly the most cooperative also makes products like initiatives in local self-reliance, diversified coffee farms in Mexico. shampoos, soaps and creams from ecological security, dignity, and A single hectare may contain over the honey and wax. renewal. Thus the need to confront 200 species of plants, with multiple Albores explains the ethos and dismantle this regime is still ecological and social functions and guiding Tosepan’s work: “Our paramount, to enable many more values (ritual, medicinal, fuel, food cooperative model is based in values Tosepans to emerge and succeed. for family consumption, non-timber of a cosmovision or form of life that forest products for trade, etc.). closely coincides with the social and (Alex Jensen is active in Since 2014 there has been a solidarity economy which values environmental health / anti-toxics special emphasis on food sovereignty life, people, the land, plants, and work / agro-biodiversity projects in in Tosepan, with the goal of meeting animals. From this vision we have India and several other countries.) local needs first. Some of the constructed the mode of life of activities towards this end have Tosepan. . . . The sense of belonging included: and permanence in our territory • increasing production of organic gives us identity . . . in the face of corn the onslaught and displacements of Janata • establishing vegetable gardens the capitalist system. Here we are is available at and chicken coops in the and will continue with dignity, on majority of member homes foot walking in our land, which is www.lohiatoday.com • designing a local credit scheme sacred.” called “Backyard Garden Credit” The capitalist system‘s relentless • producing a documentary film, need to expand and grow continues Corazones de Maíz (Hearts of to pose a threat, and Tosepan has Corn) not been spared the violence that • organising events to barter the global economy inflicts on Janata Subscription backyard garden produce as local people standing in its way. well as seeds of corn, beans, Some of its leaders have been Annual Rs. : 260/- amaranth, chilis and squashes murdered and others have narrowly • maintaining a nursery with escaped attempts on their lives by Three Years : 750/- approximately 1 million mercenaries in the pay of industry. Demand Draft / plants — valuable forest species Violence and physical intimidation, it like coffee, macadamia, red seems, continue to be favoured tools Cheque cedar, cinnamon and many of plunderers who have otherwise on others — distributed each year been blocked by well-organised to members for reforestation and communities deeply committed to Mumbai Bank agroforestry defense of their homes. in favour of • growing edible mushrooms on This is one of the signal lessons coffee pulp of the inspiring work of Tosepan: that Beginning in 2003, one of a culture of solidarity — fortified by Janata Trust Tosepan’s signature efforts has cooperatives providing for material D-15, Ganesh Prasad, been to bring back the native bee and cultural needs — deepens Naushir Bharucha Marg, Scaptotrigona Mexicana. This bee democracy, and that this in turn Grant Road (W), was domesticated in pre-colonial makes it very hard for predatory times, and the unique system of capital to enter. However inspiring Mumbai 400 007. two-tiered clay pot hives has been and admirable, though, the corporate maintained since then. The bees’ free-trade regime bearing down JANATA, April 7, 2019 17

Letters to Editor

Might is Right and recognised as the legitimate military. It is the lone super power. President of Venezuela. Nobody, Leave alone other countries, even none of the civilized countries the Secretary General of the United Jawaharlal Jasthi objected and everybody complied. Nations, President of the Security That is the power of sanctions of Council or of the General Assembly When Mike Pompeo, the America. Nobody is allowed to have fail to open their mouths. Secretary of State of the United any sort of commercial dealings with The US can do whatever it States of America expresses hope Venezuela. How can the Venezuelans wants with impunity. Who is there that India will not buy oil from survive? That is not their concern. to question? That is what happened Venezuela, in diplomatic terms But they blame the Venezuelan with Iraq. It will be repeated with the ‘hope’ has to be understood government for the inhuman Venezuela. as ‘warning’. The situation in situation and for the troubles of the Venezuela, created by the US and people. Having created the situation, nurtured by the so-called civilized they shed crocodile tears. They had Obituary: western world, is now reaching its the temerity to send help to feed Viqar Ahmad climax and the US is preparing for the people. But when the trick did direct onslaught. They are calling not work, they tried to instigate the Qurban Ali back all their diplomatic staff from neighbouring countries to cross the Venezuela. It is a grace that they border. This also failed as the people Viqar Ahmad, the most waited for two months for it. They are against such an invasion. Then outstanding broadcaster and an were expecting surrender of the they resorted to sabotage of the authoritative voice of the BBC country to the machinations of electrical system. Urdu Service for many decades, capitalist regimes. They thought that The West is claiming that the passed away on 13 March, 2019, the people will drive out President elections in Venezuela are not after a prolonged illness in a London Maduro leaving the Chair to the legitimate. In this connection it is hospital. He was 90. Viqar Ahmad puppet Juan Guaido installed by desirable to look to the legitimacy was born in Sitapur in Awadh in them. But the people in Venezuela of those elections. Jimmy Carter, 1929 in undivided India to Nisar saw through the game and stood by the former President of the US, Ahmad, a prominent lawyer of his the elected President. They know established a Center to monitor time in Uttar Pradesh (then known that the scarcity of essential goods elections over the world. His as United Provinces). Viqar was in the country is the creation of the statement is worth noting. “Of the educated at Lucknow and Aligarh sadistic west in a naked attempt to 92 elections that we have monitored universities in the years before appropriate the rich natural resources I would say the election process in Independence and developed an of the country. Venezuela is the best in the world. early interest in politics and history. It is true that there is scarcity of . . . By way of contrast the US After the Partition, the family moved essential goods in Venezuela. People election system, with its emphasis to Pakistan in 1950, where they are starving, patients are dying for on campaign money is one of the settled in Karachi. Soon afterwards, want of medicines. But the country worst.” Now the person elected Viqar left for London to study ,B.A. cannot use its own assets and income by the worst system is calling the in European History at Birkbeck to ameliorate the situation. It is a person elected by the best system College. At the same time, he began situation created by the sanctions as illegitimate. Worse than kettle broadcasting for what was then the promulgated by the US. They seized calling the pot black. BBC’s Pakistan Service, first as a the assets of the country and froze How does America get the right contributor and later as a member the same. Nay, they told the banks to declare sanctions on Venezuela of staff. to transfer all the balances in the and force all other sovereign In 1961, Viqar Ahmad returned name of Venezuela to the account countries to follow suit? The secret to Pakistan to take up a job as a of Juan Guaido, who is installed lies in its might—both economic and 18 JANATA, April 7, 2019 lecturer in European History at politics of South Asia, Viqar was be found reciting their poems late in Karachi University. He also became the regular presenter of the BBC the evening. According to his former a regular contributor to discussion Urdu service’s flagship daily current colleague at BBC Urdu service programmes on Radio and TV. affairs programme, Sairbeen. Prof. Obaid Siddiqui “Viqar bhai In 1971, Viqar returned to Outside the studio, Viqar was a was a caring husband, the much- London again to join the BBC Urdu man of many friendships across the loved father, an enlightened, liberal, Service, by now with an increase in Urdu, Hindi and Bengali Services of humane man, a much-loved friend his audience because of following his the BBC. He and his wife Rehana and colleague, a wonderful host and commentary of the recent political are also fondly remembered as a remarkable broadcaster, whose and military upheavals. Throughout wonderful hosts in their family home influence on BBC broadcasts to the 1970s and 80s, through some in Harrow, where Faiz, Ahmad Faraz South Asia is still felt today”. of the most turbulent years in the and Zehra Nigah would sometimes

Aurat March Still Faces Never-Ending Backlash and Threats of Violence in Pakistan

Aurat March 2019 was held A number of women connected innuendos and falsified slogans are on March 8 as part of International with the march are facing violent being circulated online. While some Women’s Day celebrations in hate speech, rape threats, acid users are trying to raise awareness different cities including Lahore, crimes and worse. Women are being about these morphed images, the Faisalabad, Islamabad, Peshawar, targeted for staging a demonstration negative public sentiment is still Karachi, Hyderabad and Larkana. for their own rights and publicly keeping these falsified images in People from diverse backgrounds aligning with the cause of women’s circulation. came out on the roads in large rights and offering vocal support to The Khyber Pakhtunkhwa numbers to express solidarity with Aurat March. Assembly on Wednesday women. What happened next was Digital Rights Monitor has unanimously passed a resolution a never-ending backlash and social reported various social media posts condemning the Aurat March, which media abuse for all the women and users involved in incitement of was held across Pakistani cities on involved or speaking for the march. violence against the demonstrators. March 8. Aurat March started last year “The hate against Aurat March The resolution, presented by in Karachi and spread to the whole is demonstrative of the fact that Rehana Ismail of the Muttahida country this year. It has emerged as a the turnout and the zeal behind the Majlis-i-Amal (MMA), claimed that new wave of feminism in Pakistan— march has touched a sore spot among women had taken part in the march and with that, the march organisers the supporters of patriarchy. This holding placards and raising slogans have been receiving rape and death is the main reason why, even days that were "obscene". threats online. after the march, we are continuing "Some hidden forces have sped Nighat Dad, founder of the to see hateful commentary, endless up their efforts to destroy our family Digital Rights Foundation is one judgement and increasing threats system and social customs, the of the organisers in Lahore. She of violence”, says Sadaf Khan, practical demonstration of which received rape threats on Twitter in co-founder Media Matters for took place on March 8, 2019, in reply to one of her posts on the Aurat Democracy, “The march has touched various big cities on Women's Day," March. Five other women reached such a raw nerve, that people are the resolution stated. out to her nonprofit organisation, actually investing in spreading It said the demands made at the which works for digital rights in misinformation to discredit the event for women empowerment Pakistan and runs a cyber-harassment movement.” were "shameful and un-Islamic". helpline, to complain of receiving Doctored images from the Some of the slogans raised in rape and death threats. march, often containing sexual the march were: “Khana garam JANATA, April 7, 2019 19 kardoongi, bistar khud garam lo.” Raghuram Rajan Says Capitalism is (I’ll warm up the food, you warm up the bed yourself.) “Tu kare to stud, ‘Under Serious Threat’ mein karoon to slut” (If you do it, you are a stud, if I do it, I am a slut) and “Mera Jism, Meri Marzi,” (My Former RBI governor Raghuram and the resulting austerity. body, my rules.) Rajan on Tuesday warned that “Now, if you really want to Pakistan has experienced a surge capitalism is under “serious threat” succeed, you need a really good in social media usage with more of a “revolt” as the economic education. Unfortunately, the very than 40 million Facebook users. The and political system has stopped communities that are hit by the rapid growth has sparked an online providing for the people, especially forces of global trade and global debate about misogyny, with some after the 2008 global financial information tend to be communities women highlighting daily hate and meltdown. which have deteriorating schools, pornographic messaging. Mr. Rajan, now a professor at rising crime, rising social illnesses Many of these politico-religious the University of Chicago, told BBC and are unable to prepare their parties, in past years, have rejected Radio 4’s Today Programme that members for the global economy,” Pakistan’s Domestic Violence governments across the world cannot he said. Bill calling it “anti-Islam”. In a afford to ignore social inequality A recent report from S&P Global contradiction of sorts, many of these when considering the economy. Ratings suggests another global parties, such as the Jamaat-e-Islami, “I think capitalism is under credit downturn is possible, with a also have vibrant women’s wings serious threat because it’s stopped 50% surge in worldwide debt since that are actively involved in their providing for the many, and when the global financial crisis. It said politics and activism. that happens, the many revolt since 2008, government debt has A report by the Human Rights against capitalism,” the former risen 77% while corporate debt is Watch last year estimated that 1,000 Chief Economist at the International up 51%. “honour killings”—the practice of Monetary Fund (IMF) said. However, the analysts said the relatives murdering girls or women Mr. Rajan said he believes next downturn is unlikely to be as because they think the victim has that capitalism is breaking down severe as the 2008 financial crisis. brought shame or dishonour on the because it is not providing equal In discussing the state of the global family—take place in Pakistan each opportunities. economy, Mr. Rajan also pointed to year. “It’s not providing equal the challenges of putting limits on Courtesy: Sabrang India opportunity and in fact the people the trade of goods. who are falling off are in a much “If you put up those barriers, The Unemployment worse situation,” he said. He said then down the line they’ll put up authoritarian regimes arise “when barriers to our goods. How are you Crisis: you socialise all the means of going to keep the goods flowing Reasons and production. A balance is needed, you across those borders when we need Solutions can’t pick and choose—what you to send them?” he asked. need to do is improve opportunity,” Courtesy: The Hindu Contribution Rs. 25/- he said. Mr. Rajan, tipped by some as a possible successor to take over from Spectre of Fascism Published by Mark Carney as governor of the Contribution Rs. 20/- Janata Trust & Lokayat Bank of England, said it was possible Published by D-15, Ganesh Prasad, in the past to obtain a middle class Janata Trust & Lokayat Naushir Bharucha Marg, job with “modest education”. But the D-15, Ganesh Prasad, Grant Road (W), landscape has changed in the wake Naushir Bharucha Marg, Mumbai 400 007 of the 2008 global financial crisis Grant Road (W), Mumbai 400 007 R.N.I. NO. 1855/1957 20 JANATA, April 7, 2019 Postal Registration No. MCW/275/2018-2020. License to Post without prepayment WPP License No. MR/Tech/WPP-210/West/2019 Published on Sunday, April 7, 2019 & Posted on Wedenesday, April 10, 2019 at Mumbai Patrika Channel, Mumbai GPO-1

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Vol. 74 No. 12 Writers, Scientists, Filmmakers, Theatre April 14, 2019 Artists Appeal to Vote Out Hate Politics Shadow of Fascism Prabhat Patnaik Recovering the Spirit of the Hundreds of writers, theatre They are now using mob lynching Rowlatt Satyagraha, 100 Years artists, scientists and filmmakers and cow vigilantism to split the Later have issued appeals stressing that country communally. Marginalising Ramachandra Guha the coming elections are crucial for Dalits and Muslims is the name the future of our country, the spectre of the game. They are spreading India under Narendra Modi: A Throwback to the Germany of fascism looms over the country, their hate campaigns with the help of the 1930s? and appealing to the people of the of the internet and social media. Anjan Basu country to vote against inequality, Patriotism is their trump card. Any intimidation, discrimination, individual or institution that raises Book Release: “The RSS: and unreason, vote out the BJP. the slightest dissent is labelled A Menace to India” Qurban Ali Reproduced below are extracts from ‘anti-national’. ‘Patriotism’ is how their appeals: they grow their vote bank. Let us Climate Catastrophe and not forget that some of our eminent Extinction Rebellion Statement by over 100 Filmmakers: writers and media persons lost their Paul Street Our country is going through lives because they dared to dissent. Modinomics = the most testing times ever. Though Romanticising and exploiting the Corporatonomics: Part I culturally vivid and geographically armed forces is one of their strategies. Neeraj Jain diverse, we have always stayed Even at the risk of engaging the Editor : G. G. Parikh united. As a nation. It has indeed nation in an unnecessary war. There been a great feeling to be a citizen is unrelenting onslaught on the Associate Editor : Neeraj Jain of this wonderful country. cultural and scientific institutions Managing Editor : Guddi But all that is at stake now. in the country. They mock the Fascism threatens to strike us collective intelligence of the people Editorial Board : hard with all its might if we don’t by appointing persons with no B. Vivekanandan, Qurban Ali choose wisely in the coming Lok relevance or experience as heads Anil Nauriya, Sonal Shah Sabha election. Period. of these institutions, propagating Amarendra Dhaneshwar, As we all know, ever since the unscientific and irrational beliefs Sandeep Pandey BJP came to power in 2014, things even at international science have changed. And only for the seminars, making us the laughing D-15, Ganesh Prasad, worse. A country polarised along stock of the entire world. Banning Naushir Bharucha Marg, religious lines isn’t the India we and censoring ‘works of art’, Mumbai - 400 007. have known. Besides, the BJP and especially the most powerful of the Email : [email protected] its allies have failed miserably in lot—cinema and books—is their Website:www.janataweekly.org keeping their election promises. way of keeping the population away 2 JANATA, April 14, 2019 from the truth. pathos, with compelling human commercial enterprise. We must Farmers have been completely stories, we have, for over a hundred put an end to the denigration of forgotten. In fact, the BJP has made and fifty years, imagined a secular, rational, evidence-based public the country the boardroom property democratic, inclusive and just India. discourse; only then can we create of a handful of businessmen. Flawed Today, that very idea of India better resources and opportunities economic policies that ended up as is under threat. Today, song, dance, for jobs, education and research. extreme disasters are covered up laughter is under threat. Today, our We appeal to all citizens to vote and made to look like successes. All beloved Constitution is under threat. . . . against inequality, intimidation, with the help of false propaganda The institutions that have to nurture discrimination, and unreason. These and marketing blitz. This has helped argument, debate and dissent have are inimical to the values of our them to create a false optimism in been suffocated. To question, to call Constitution, whose promise is best the country. out lies, to speak the truth, is branded reflected in Gurudev Rabindranath Manipulation of statistics and ‘anti-national’. The seeds of hatred Tagore's famous words: history is another one of their fond have entered our food, prayers and projects. Giving them one more term festivals. Where the mind is without fear and in power will be a grave blunder. The ways in which this hatred the head is held high It could well be the last nail in the has seeped into our daily fabric are Where knowledge is free coffin for the biggest democracy in alarming and it has to STOP. . . . Where the world has not been broken the world. We, theatre practitioners of up into fragments We urge all of you to do India, appeal to the people of India by narrow domestic walls everything in your capacity to keep to help safeguard the Constitution Where words come out from the this harmful regime from coming and our syncretic, secular ethos. depth of truth back to power. Let your mandate We appeal to our fellow citizens to Where tireless striving stretches its be to choose a government that vote for love and compassion, for arms towards perfection respects the Constitution of India, equality and social justice, and to Where the clear stream of reason has protects our freedom of speech and defeat the forces of darkness and not lost its way expression, and refrains from all barbarism. Into the dreary desert sand of dead kinds of censorship. Our appeal—vote bigotry, habit Yes, This is our last chance! hatred, and apathy out of power. Vote Where the mind is led forward by against the BJP and its allies. . . . thee Appeal by more than 600 Theatre Into ever-widening thought and Artists: Appeal by more than 150 action Since colonial times, Indian Scientists: Into that heaven of freedom, my theatre makers have celebrated The upcoming election is Father, let my country awake. India's diversity through their work. a crucial one. It asks for a re- We have done plays as part of the affirmation of the most fundamental freedom struggle, we have taken guarantees our Constitution gives The Unemployment on social ills through our art, we us . . . Crisis: Reasons and have stood for social equity and An atmosphere in which Solutions inclusion, we have struck a blow scientists, activists and rationalists at patriarchy, brahmanism and are hounded, harassed, intimidated, Contribution Rs. 25/- caste oppression. Theatre makers censored, jailed, or worse, murdered, in India have a long and proud is not the future our country deserves. Published by tradition of standing against forces of It is not the future we want to give Janata Trust & Lokayat religious sectarianism, chauvinism, our youth. We want them to awaken D-15, Ganesh Prasad, narrowness and irrationality. We to a country that sees science as a Naushir Bharucha Marg, have spoken from the margins, we means of democratic empowerment Grant Road (W), have spoken of the margins. With through sceptical, open-minded Mumbai 400 007 song and dance, with humour and questioning, rather than just a JANATA, April 14, 2019 3 Shadow of Fascism

Prabhat Patnaik

In its attack on civil liberties, these opponents of “corruption” and Anti-minorities its restructuring of the State to “wrongdoings” of various kinds; The fifth difference is its thrust effect an acute centralisation of the idea is to destroy their moral against the minorities, especially power, and its pervasive purveyance standing before the people. the hapless Muslim minority. Indira of fear, the Modi years resemble The third difference is the Gandhi’s repression did not have Indira Gandhi’s Emergency. But the government’s capturing of the any specific ethnic or communal resemblance stops there. In fact the media. During the Emergency, the or caste target. It was repression two differ fundamentally in several print media was subject to pre- pure and simple directed at her ways. censorship; papers would appear opponents and those of her son First, there were no lynch with vast spaces inked out, because Sanjay who was notorious for his mobs, and street thugs, terrorising of which they actually gained shenanigans; correspondingly it people and giving them lessons in people’s respect. Now, the media, did not have any grandiose projects “nationalism” during the Emergency. barring a few honourable exceptions of rewriting history, of presenting It was only the State that repressed which too may not remain so for a narrative vilifying a particular people then; but now we also have long, are totally in the Hindutva religious community, and of using gangs of Hindutva hoodlums, who camp; and the task of destroying State power to thrust this narrative force critics of the government to the moral stature of the opponents down the throats even of school apologise for their “misdemeanor”, is facilitated because of the media’s children, inculcating in them a sense with the additional threat of arrests complicity it. of hatred towards fellow countrymen still hanging over these intimidated The media’s changed role in turn belonging to a different religion. critics. One cannot easily forget is linked to the fourth difference The sixth difference, associated the sickening sight of a professor between then and now: the Modi necessarily with this project, is being made to ask for forgiveness government is entirely in cahoots a promotion of unreason, a on bended knees for a facebook post with corporate interests, while the prioritisation of faith over rational critical of the government. Indira Gandhi regime maintained discourse, a cultivation of disdain its difference with the corporates for evidence, and even for internal A new nationalism and even presented a “progressive” consistency of argumentation. Secondly, unlike the Emergency, anti-corporate image. Indeed no This phenomenon has for long the current repression invokes an government in post-independence characterised the RSS, but it has now ideology, that of “nationalism”, India has been as close to the invaded official public discourse, interpreted as being synonymous corporates as the Modi government, with even the Indian Science with Hindutva, but cashing in a point exemplified by his travelling Congress not in a position to free opportunistically on the prestige of to Delhi in Adani’s aircraft for being itself of this discourse. India’s anti-colonial nationalism, sworn in as Prime Minister. (It is The seventh difference is the despite having nothing in common worth recalling by way of contrast destruction of institutions that the with it. As a result, while Indira that when Jawaharlal Nehru, the Modi government has initiated, Gandhi’s repression had the effect (no Hindutva bête noire, had not had and this is especially true of public doubt unwanted by her) of making enough funds to visit his wife Kamla universities and other publicly- her critics appear honourable, the when she was dying of tuberculosis funded centres of learning. All these current repression deliberately in a Swiss sanatorium, and G.D. institutions are faced with a “heads portrays them as dishonourable, Birla had offered him financial I lose – tails you win” situation. as “enemies of the people”. This assistance, he had refused; he had If they cave in to the demands of vilification is further magnified when himself somehow managed to raise the government to change their State agencies are used to accuse the money eventually). ambience and curricula, they 4 JANATA, April 14, 2019 become intellectually dead anyway, built up now is much greater, more world economy has entered into after since intellectual survival requires far-reaching. 2008; Modi has been instrumental in independent critical thinking. But if Every single one of the effecting this “partnership” between they persist with independent critical characteristics mentioned above as big business and the Hindutva thinking, then they are starved of being specific to the Modi years, is crowd, whence his current political funds, and charged with harbouring in fact a characteristic of fascism: importance. “anti-national” seditious elements, the rampaging mobs, the “fusion There is however a basic as has happened to JNU. The fact of corporate and State power” difference between the 1930s and that some of the finest institutions (supposed to have been Mussolini’s now, which consists in the fact that in the country, from the JNU, to definition of fascism), the targeting the corporate–financial oligarchy the Hyderabad Central University, of a hapless minority, the promotion in the capitalist countries then was to the Pune Film Institute, to the of unreason, the destruction of nation-based, and engaged in acute Tata Institute of Social sciences, to universities, and so on. To say this rivalry with similar oligarchies of the Tata Institute of Fundamental does not mean that we shall have a other nations; the apotheosis of Research, have been struggling for re-enactment of the 1930s. We have militarism which is necessarily breath is symptomatic of our times. fascist elements in power but not yet associated with fascism inevitably Nothing like this had happened a fascist State; and today’s context led to war in that situation. before; no government in the past being different from the 1930s, we This had two implications: had ever shown such a disdain for are unlikely even to have one. one was that military spending in thought. To be sure, as in the 1930s, preparation for war, financed mainly the current tendency towards by government borrowing, got the Repression fascism, which is not just an Indian fascist countries quickly out of the These differences between the phenomenon but a global one, arises Great Depression and its associated Emergency years and the Modi years from the crisis afflicting capitalism. mass unemployment (Japan was the can be summed up as follows. The Such a crisis brings with it a threat first to recover, in 1931, followed by Emergency was an authoritarian to the hegemony of the corporate– Germany, in 1933); there was even a imposition, by the State, that had financial oligarchy, which therefore brief interregnum therefore between got extremely centralised by then, looks for an additional prop to retain the recovery from Depression and upon society, or upon the people its hegemony, one that can shift the the devastation unleashed by war, at large; it was no doubt a fall-out popular discourse away from the when the fascist governments had of the contradiction between the flaws of the system to the danger actually become quite popular for logic of capitalist development and supposedly posed by the “other”, having overcome unemployment. a democratic polity, but it did not some hapless minority that can be The second implication was that represent direct corporate rule. The made the focus of anger. Corporate fascism also burned itself in the Modi years have witnessed not just capital in such situations picks up process, through the war. The cost an authoritarian imposition upon some “supremacist” fringe group extracted for this extinction was no society by the State, that has also (such groups spewing hatred against doubt terrible; but it did mean the got extremely centralised; they have a minority exist in most modern extinction of fascism. witnessed in addition a setting up societies) and pushes it centre- Today, by contrast, we do not of one segment of society against stage through massive financial rival corporate–financial oligarchies another, and the promotion of a cult backing, thus bringing into being engaged in intense rivalry. All of of hatred, behind which the State what Michal Kalecki, the renowned them are integrated into a structure acts directly in corporate interests. Polish economist, had called a of globalised capital, which does The difference in a word is between “partnership of big business with not want the world broken up into authoritarianism and fascism. The fascist upstarts”. separate “economic territories” statistics of repression, such as the This is what has happened in through war; it would rather have a number of persons jailed, were India too, with the promise of neo- world that remains open for capital, worse during the Emergency. But liberal capitalism waning because especially financial, flows. This does the potential for repression being of the prolonged stagnation that the not rule out wars; but wars today are JANATA, April 14, 2019 5 directed by leading powers against CIA-sponsored coups of an earlier strong, whether or not they are those States which are either not era, such those which toppled Iran’s actually in power. This would be under the hegemony of globalised Mossadegh or Guatemala’s Arbenz a case of fascification, without a finance capital, or are challenging it. or Chile’s Allende). fascist State actually being imposed Likewise, since finance capital It is in this context that the on society in the classical fashion dislikes fiscal deficits, and since following denouement becomes a of the 1930s, a case of “permanent the writ of globalised finance distinct possibility. Notwithstanding fascism” unless the conjuncture capital must run in any nation unwarranted interference with the that gives rise to fascism is itself State (otherwise it would quit that electoral process, notwithstanding eliminated. country’s shores en masse causing the discourse shift away from This conjuncture is one of neo- an acute financial crisis), increased issues of material life to jingoistic liberalism in crisis. To counter government spending, even military nationalism which occasional fascification effectively in India it is spending, cannot be financed by a terrorist actions make possible necessary to go beyond the current fiscal deficit. Nor can it be financed (there is a dialectic here between regime of neo-liberal capitalism by taxes on capitalists which finance terrorism and the fascist elements that has reached a dead-end and capital would obviously oppose. But in State power, each, objectively, has enveloped the world in a crisis, these are the only means of financing serving to strengthen the other), the from which even Donald Trump sees government expenditure that can Modi government could lose the no way out for the USA, except by lead to an increase in employment forthcoming Lok Sabha elections. imposing trade protection (which (for government spending financed But the government that follows, if amounts to a certain negation of by taxes on workers who consume it does not break away from the neo- neo-liberalism). A step towards most of their incomes anyway does liberal paradigm to provide succor such a transcendence of the current not add to aggregate demand). to the peasantry and other segments neo-liberal capitalism would be Contemporary fascism therefore is of the working people, will also lose the formulation of a programme incapable of making any difference its popular support after sometime, of action that brings about an to the state of unemployment which will once again enable the immediate improvement in the under neo-liberal capitalism. And fascist elements to come back to material conditions of life of the being corporate-financed, it cannot power in a subsequent election. working people. challenge neo-liberal capitalism To say all this is not to either. Fascification of society underestimate the importance of This means both that it cannot We may thus have oscillations ensuring the defeat of the Hindutva acquire political legitimacy by with regard to government forces in the coming elections and of improving the material conditions formation, with the fascist elements unity among all the secular forces to of life of the working people, and never getting extinguished, but on achieve this. But while that is a first at the same time it is not going the contrary enforcing a gradual step, rolling back the fascification to extinguish itself through war fascification of the society and the of our society and polity would as fascism in the earlier era had polity through such oscillations. The require a lot more than that; it would done. It cannot also do away way for instance that the Congress require above all a programme that altogether with the institution of government that has succeeded provides relief to the people from parliamentary elections, because of the BJP in Madhya Pradesh is the depredations of neo-liberal the precious legitimacy which such emulating that Party in cashing capitalism. Only if such relief is elections provide to the hegemony of in on the appeal of Hindutva is provided (and appropriate measures globalised finance. (It is significant a pointer to this phenomenon, of to sustain it are made to follow), that the coups we are witnessing a gradual fascification of society can we succeed in overcoming the these days against progressive through oscillations with regard to fascistic legacy of the Modi years. regimes in Latin America that have government formation. dared to break away from neo-liberal We could in short witness a (Prabhat Patnaik is Professor policies are parliamentary coups, fascification of society over time, Emeritus at the Centre for Economic which are undertaken in the name under pressure from the fascist Studies and Planning, Jawaharlal of preserving democracy, unlike the elements who continue to remain Nehru University, New Delhi.) 6 JANATA, April 14, 2019 Recovering the Spirit of the Rowlatt Satyagraha, 100 Years Later

Ramachandra Guha

The leaders of our major (and “most autocratic [Government] enormously, one feature was constant: minor) political parties are currently finally owes its power to the will of the display of Hindu–Muslim crisscrossing the country in search the governed”. harmony. Thus, while terming the of votes. Exactly a 100 years ago, The Viceroy refused to withdraw satyagraha a “splendid success”, an in the spring of 1919, another leader the Bills. Gandhi now travelled Urdu weekly published in Bombay was also touring different parts with his Satyagraha Pledge across noted that the government’s passing of India. It was four years since the country, seeking support and of the bills had “united the Hindus Mohandas K. Gandhi had returned signatures. He visited Lucknow, and the Musalmans like sugar to his homeland. He had organised Allahabad, Bombay, and Madras, and water, although these two protests by peasants in Champaran as well as many smaller towns. He communities once stood apart from in 1917 and Kaira in 1918; and also was preparing his growing band of one another owing to the long- led a satyagraha of mill workers in followers for a major, countrywide, standing differences between them”. Ahmedabad. Now he was launching show of defiance, scheduled for Meanwhile, a newspaper in his first pan-Indian movement aimed Sunday, April 6, 1919. Karachi observed that the port town at an oppressive piece of legislation At the time, Bombay was the had “closed its shops and centres of known as the Rowlatt Act, that epicentre of Indian nationalism. So business: when did such a stupendous sought to criminalise dissent and to Gandhi chose to lead the protests thing happen before in the history try alleged dissenters without juries in that city himself. He arrived at of the city?” The paper further and in camera, with the press and the the Chowpatty beach by 6.30 am. commented: “One was impressed at public excluded. His admirers bathed in the sea and yesterday’s function with one soul- On February 8, 1919, Gandhi then came and sat around him. stirring fact—the disappearance of wrote to an Indian colleague that By 8 o’clock, there was a “huge communal, parochial and sectarian the Rowlatt Bills were not “a stray mass of people” assembled on the impulses. They were “Hindus”, example of lapse of righteousness” sea face. One reporter estimated “Muhammadans”, “Parsis”, but “evidence of a determined that 150,000 were present— “Khojas”, “Jains”, yesterday; but policy of repression”; therefore, “Mahomedans, Hindus, Parsis, etc., they all felt they belonged to one “civil disobedience seems to be a and one Englishman”. In his speech, community—the Indian; they all duty imposed upon every lover of Gandhi condemned the recent police felt there was the One Religion personal and public liberty”. The firing on satyagrahis in Delhi, and in various religions, the Religion same day he wrote to a South African then asked the crowd to endorse of Self-respect, the Religion of friend: “The Rowlatt Bills have the resolutions asking the Viceroy guarding India’s rights for the agitated me very much. It seems I to withdraw the Rowlatt Act, these service of Humanity”. shall have to fight the greatest battle sent “weighted with the blood of the The Rowlatt Satyagraha is of my life.” innocents of Delhi and the promise the subject of great interest to In the last week of February that we shall continue to suffer by historians of Indian nationalism and 1919, Gandhi hosted a meeting of civil disobedience till the hearts of to biographers of Mahatma Gandhi. patriots at his ashram in Ahmedabad. the rulers are softened”. However, the Rowlatt Satyagraha Here a “Satyagraha Pledge” was The Rowlatt Satyagraha was is also of some contemporary drafted. Its signatories resolved the first genuinely all-India upsurge relevance, for the fraternity that it to court arrest unless the Rowlatt against British colonialism (the manifested is worth recalling—and Bills were withdrawn. Meanwhile, Rebellion of 1857 had left large rehabilitating—in our own divided Gandhi also wrote to the Viceroy, parts of the country untouched). times. Lord Chelmsford, asking him to Notably, while the scale, intensity I have quoted newspaper reports withdraw the bills, since even the and character of the protests varied that testified to how, during the JANATA, April 14, 2019 7 course of the Rowlatt Satyagraha, India under Narendra Modi: A Throwback Indians set aside their differences of creed and community. Let me now to the Germany of the 1930s? quote the leader of the movement itself. During the course of the Anjan Basu movement, Gandhi asked Indian nationalists to take this vow: As a boy, the German novelist the Reichstag met periodically With God as witness we Hindus Max von der Grun heard the news only to ratify extensions of the and Mahomedans declare that we of Hitler becoming the Reich same Act. (In the fitness of things, shall behave towards one another Chancellor over the radio on 30 the great German parliament was as children of the same parents, that January, 1933 . Two days later, he housed in those years in an Opera we shall have no differences, that the and his family listened to Hitler house for the most part.) Mr Modi sorrows of each will be the sorrows speaking to the nation, again over has skipped more sessions of the of the other and that each shall help the radio, on his first day in office. parliament than he has attended the other in removing them. We shall He wrote about it later: during his tenure as PM. He chose to respect each other’s religion and Hitler proclaimed his new stay away even when the parliament religious feelings and shall not stand government officially in power. He was discussing issues that would in the way of our respective religious did not do so before the Reichstag, have far-reaching consequences. practices. We shall always refrain the elected parliament, but over Often enough, he scoffed at from violence to each other in the the radio. The meaning was clear parliamentary protocol by repeatedly name of religion. enough . . . promulgating executive ordinances The spirit of inter-community Were the people clearly aware in lieu of proper legislation. He also solidarity that so strikingly suffused of his contempt for the parliament? announced major policy initiatives the Rowlatt Satyagraha was less I doubt it. In any case, my family at public engagements outside of visible in later movements led considered it quite proper that the legislature, and did so quite by Gandhi. This was a fact he Hitler had ceased to address . . . the frequently. Most tellingly, he often recognised, and mourned, and his deputies of the Reichstag, and had side-stepped the parliament’s ‘upper’ own last years were devoted to turned directly to the people. house—the Rajya Sabha, where his recovering that spirit. Now, a 100 It is hard to miss the similarities party did not have a majority—on years after Rowlatt, we must press between Adolf Hitler and our very the specious argument that certain our leaders to do likewise. India own Narendra Modi here. Like the legislations did not need the Rajya would surely be a much safer and Fuehrer, the Indian Prime Minister Sabha’s ratification. (His histrionics happier place if the politicians now has never shrunk from showing have often given the parliament on the campaign trail were to abide the country his complete disdain a near-opera house look, too.) Of by the spirit of Gandhi’s noble vow for the Indian parliament—never course he hasn’t yet sought to of April 1919. mind the tearful tribute he paid to dissolve parliament altogether, this same parliament (‘The temple but there are enough straws in the (Ramachandra Guha is the of democracy…’ et cetera) when wind to suggest that rewriting the author of Gandhi: The Years That he was about to enter it upon being Indian constitution is one of his Changed The World.) elected to office. Within two months party’s top priorities. In the event of coming to power, Hitler got the of a strong mandate for a second Reichstag to pass what is known term in office, he can surely devise as the Enabling Act, a piece of ways and means of marginalising Janata legislation that spelled the death of the parliament more completely the very same Reichstag by vesting by amending the constitution and is available at in the Chancellor the power to frame dramatically changing the balance and sign off on any law he deemed of power in favour of the executive, www.lohiatoday.com necessary ‘in national interest’. For i.e., of himself. The Enabling Act is the next 12 years of the Third Reich, but a short step from that position. 8 JANATA, April 14, 2019

In Mr Modi’s case as in Hitler’s, a strategic triumph. Most Germans psychologist can decipher for us the the undermining of the parliamentary believed their Fuehrer. In the great genesis of self-serving narcissism, process took on another interesting demonetisation misadventure of but as lay citizens, we can visualise aspect: both chose to communicate November, 2016, Mr Modi managed its impact on human communities directly with the citizenry without to persuade a large majority of easily enough. Hitler was alive and any structured intermediation Indians—including many who lost well within living memory, wasn’t by either the legislature or the everything they had in that cynical he?. media. Hitler used the radio, while image-burnishing gambit of a Like Hitler in the early-to- Modi’s modern-day arsenal also megalomaniac—that their sacrifices mid 1930s (before he was ready includes TV, the internet and its would eventually improve the quality to formally launch his campaign numerous off-shoots. This mode of their own lives significantly. The for a pan-European empire and of communication has unparalleled BJP’s rousing victory in the UP the Holocaust), Mr Modi has been advantages for an unscrupulous Assembly elections of March, 2017 playing upon the basest instincts practitioner of realpolitik. One, was a testimony to the fact that the that still survive in most human it can be an uninterrupted, and PM’s words had carried conviction. collectives (usually lying dormant, suitably grandiose, monologue Over and above their cynical but liable to be awakened into which needs fear no challenge disregard of parliamentary a frenzied existence if prodded from a rational, unbiased audience conventions and their undoubted cleverly enough) despite centuries of which would like to sift the grain talent for histrionics, let us note civilising influences: a deep-rooted from the chaff by asking questions. another character trait that Hitler sense of insecurity; suspicion of Equally importantly, by giving to the and Mr Modi appear to share in others in the community perceived common listeners/viewers a sense common: the conviction that they to be competing for the same finite (however illusory) of direct access were ordained to play a messianic resources; a visceral antipathy to the country’s most powerful role in the lives and affairs of towards the unfamiliar and ‘the politician—thereby creating in the their respective nations. Hitler’s other’; a mindless obsequiousness common citizen a false sense of capacity for deluding himself on towards someone seen as more empowerment—it enhances the this score has been demonstrated powerful than ‘us’; and a non- speaker’s image very significantly in too often to bear repetition. For Mr rational susceptibility to pomp the public’s eye. This is a spectacular Modi, there are enough tell-tale and grand ritual. Hitler invoked game of ‘republican’ showmanship signs that he is also convinced he fantastic images of a triumphant that helps subvert democratic is a messiah: referring to himself Germany bringing all the ‘inferior’ institutions far more effectively in the third person without a trace nations to their heels; Mr Modi’s than any open assault on these same of embarrassment; an obsessive ideology exults in the project to institutions could hope to achieve. craving for photo-ops to show his revive the supposedly unsurpassed It takes a gifted demagogue carefully-groomed physiognomy to glory of an ancient Bharat. For both, to succeed in this game, and Mr the world every minute of the day; militant nationalism is the way to Modi’s skills in this area are quite laying claim to credit for anything go. For both, conflict and strife are as formidable as Hitler’s. Ethical or good happening in his time, even not only unavoidable in achieving moral scruples have hardly bothered when it has had not the slightest their grand objectives, they are either of them, and so their ability to link to him personally; equally, enmeshed with these objectives so manipulate public opinion has been a fervent belief that all social or completely as to be indistinguishable almost limitless. When, after scoring economic ills predate his tenure or from them. For Hitler, the ‘other’ stunning initial successes in their are the results of the opposition’s comprised Jews, Slavs, Communists Russian campaign of 1941–42, the conspiracy; and the compulsive and radical Socialists, and such German Sixth Army led by General change of ‘costume’ several times ‘non-mainstream’ elements as Paulus was routed in the battle of in course of a day. He is clearly past homosexuals and gypsies. Mr Modi Stalingrad (now Volgograd), Hitler that stage when he needed others to has not yet had the opportunity (a insisted to his countrymen that what tell him he was great. He now feels second term in office is sure to give looked like a setback was actually it in his very blood. Only a trained him one) of fully propounding his JANATA, April 14, 2019 9

‘world view’ in public, but has already gay men happened to be among the 14 Chancellors. Since Hitler’s hold done and said and insinuated enough first detainees at Nazi concentration on power was unlikely to last long, to point to his unmistakable enemies: camps. As for women, Nazi Germany they told one another, there was only non–Hindu religious minorities insisted on taking them out from the so much harm he could possibly do. (Muslims most of all: as the Chief country’s work-force, encouraging But when things did turn out to be Minister of the western-Indian state them to be homemakers and mothers so very different, Haffner (who had of Gujarat, he virtually presided over instead. to flee Germany in 1938) agonised a pogrom of Muslims in February/ The points at which Mr Modi’s over the question ‘how’. And, soon March 2002 which left over 2000 personality—as well as his personal enough, he had the answer: dead; and he never so much as style of functioning—converge with Perhaps it was just because we acknowledge that it was a massacre); Hitler’s are too striking to be wished were all so certain that they could not communists and socialists and social away as accidental. That in less do so—and relied on that with far too liberals; civil rights activists; and, than five years’ time India is so far much confidence. So we neglected to of course, Pakistan (both the state advanced on the path to what can only consider that it might, if worse came and the nation). Though he has not be described as a variant of fascism to worst, be necessary to prevent the yet been able (for fear of losing points to the fact that the congruence disaster from happening. elections) to articulate it clearly, his goes beyond similar character Looking around India today, resentment at Dalits and other ‘low’ traits alone. The historical contexts one cannot help a creeping feeling caste denominations is unmistakable, are very important here. Weimar that, like Haffner and his father in and the RSS, inside whose hallowed Germany was an ill-fated republic Germany in 1933, we may soon precincts his ideological moorings that can be said to have been doomed rue what we are doing now. More rest, has never made any secret of its at its birth to early decay and death. accurately, what we are not doing distaste for every societal segment On the other hand, when Mr Modi now but would have, if only we other than the ‘high-bred’ Hindu came to power, India had an on-the- were a tad less smug in our liberal male. Denial of justice in nearly whole stable economy, and despite complacency. For we are looking on every walk of life to Dalits has been wide-ranging social and economic as the Indian state descends steadily quite as pronounced and frequent in inequalities (and resultant tensions), into bedlam. Mr Modi’s India as their denial to was a functioning democracy. That Muslims. Both these communities he has been able to so seriously (Anjan Basu freelances as literary have been repeated victims of undermine that democratic structure critic, commentator and translator.) orgies of violence and abuse staged in such short time demonstrates the by Mr Modi’s cohort, and he has odious forces he has brought into Janata Subscription clearly given his blessings to these play. Writing in 1939, the German abominations by doing nothing and journalist Sebastian Haffner recalled Annual Rs. : 260/- even saying little against them. In a conversation he had had with his fact, the most brazen perpetrators father soon after Adolf Hitler rose to Three Years : 750/- of such crimes have often received power in January, 1933: Demand Draft / overt endorsement from his own I discussed the prospects of the Cheque on establishment. This establishment new government with my father. We has also repeatedly equivocated on agreed that it had a good chance of Mumbai Bank issues such as gay rights and gender doing a lot of damage, but not much in favour of equality. Many of its influential chance of surviving very long. How voices have expressed horror at could things turn out so completely Janata Trust decriminalising gay sex. They have different? also been quite open about how What had given the young D-15, Ganesh Prasad, they think that women ‘belong’ Haffner and his father hope was that, Naushir Bharucha Marg, in family homes rather than at the in the 14 years since the creation of Grant Road (W), workplace. It is well-known that the Weimar Republic in November, Mumbai 400 007. Hitler loathed homosexuality, and 1918, Germany had had as many as 10 JANATA, April 14, 2019 Book Release: “The RSS: A Menace to India”

Qurban Ali

Scholar, lawyer and author Abdul former Vice-President of India, on all-round greatness of Bharatvarsh Ghafoor Noorani’s latest book The the occasion: by fostering the growth of my RSS: A Menace to India, published Mr. Noorani is nothing if not ‘Hindu religion, Hindu society and by Leftword Books, was released prolific. Here we have another tome Hindu culture.’ in New Delhi on April 2, 2019. of over 500 pages with its contents The focus thus is on those who It’s a well written, comprehensive, diligently distilled. It is also timely. profess to be Hindus who constitute research-intensive deep-dive book The topicality of the RSS as a 80 percent of our population. In about one of India’s biggest and most subject of study is evident. This is other words, every fifth Indian—20 secretive organisations. the second volume on it in English percent of the population—is beyond Speaking on the occasion, to be published in eight months. The the stated ambit of the RSS and journalist and commentator first was an updated version of an therefore supposedly beyond its Siddharth Varadarajan said, “RSS earlier work by Walter Anderson and prescriptive ideology. is ruling India. Let’s make no bones Shridhar Damle. It sought to test a set Three questions logically arise about it. It is an organisation which of prepositions by using a case-study here: (a) Do 80 percent Hindus calls itself a cultural entity but no one approach of the organisation and become synonymous with 100 has any idea about its membership, its network of affiliates emanating percent Indians? (b) Do the 20 percent structure and finances. They have from what it called a homogenising non-Hindus get conflated with the 80 exploited every loophole to keep its of society. percent Hindu population? And (c) finances opaque.” The present work by Mr. What happens to the Constitution Varadarajan reminded A.G. Noorani goes beyond the of India, its democratic structure, its everyone that the RSS’ might have superstructure into the origins of principle of equality and charter of removed the controversial parts the organisation and its progress rights, including the right to profess, from its second Sarsanghchalak through certain critical landmarks practice and propagate their religion, M.S. Golwalkar’s book Bunch of in the history of modern India, and the duty of every citizen to value Thoughts, but their central theme pre-and-post Independence. It and preserve the rich heritage of our was there for everyone to hear when brings on record the views of Dr. composite culture? Prime Minister Narendra Modi Ambedkar and Jawaharlal Nehru The answer to the first two spoke at Wardha. He questioned about the RSS and its objectives. It questions is an emphatic NO, why PM Modi gets away by saying is a comprehensive in its coverage. unless a hitherto unstated process Hindus are first class citizens ? Particularly useful are the appendices of conversion in contravention of “Are Muslims and minorities and the documents therein. the Constitution is sought to be not legitimate citizens? It was a The Constitution of the RSS is initiated. The answer to the third is blatant violation of Section 126 of given in Appendix 2. The Preamble evident: the Constitution remains the Representation of People’s Act. spells out its objectives, the first the basic law of the land, is binding Opposition is not raising it. This of these being ‘to eradicate the on all citizens and supersedes other allows Modi to get away by saying fissiparous tendencies arising from affiliations. that Hindus are first class citizens,” the diversities of sect, faith, caste The RSS has developed over Varadarajan emphasised. He added and creed and from the political, the years public policy orientations that in addition to being communal, economic and provincial differences and influence through the large RSS has penetrated and infiltrated among Hindus’ and ‘to bring about number of its affiliates and by every arm of the system—politics, a regeneration of the Hindu Samaj.’ grafting and promoting Hindutva as defence forces, judiciary. Similarly, the RSS Prayer and a concept of cultural revitalisation Here is the text of the speech Oath which is administered to every and political mobilisation which given by Shri M. Hamid Ansari, entrant enjoins him to work for ‘the ‘seeks to subjugate and homogenise JANATA, April 14, 2019 11 the ethnic pluralities by establishing Climate Catastrophe and Extinction Rebellion the hegemony of an imagined cultural mainstream.’ This has also generated social violence by some Paul Street of its adherents. These principles, depicting The British-based group with the often-forgotten Chicago heat Indian nationalism in terms of the Extinction Rebellion has called for wave of July 1995, when hundreds faith of the religious majority, have nonviolent acts of civil disobedience of people, very disproportionately serious negative social and political on April 15 (2019) in capitals around Black, died. implications for sections of the the world to reverse our “one-way I rely on climate scientists to citizen-body and are in violation track to extinction.” This talk was crunch the time-series numbers on given by Paul Street in Chicago, USA, of the Constitution. In this sense, it planetary warming and what they are some days ago in the background of telling us is not good, to say the least. is detrimental to India as we know this global call for action. We are at an oak tree tipping point it, a denial of all that the freedom In the last years of his life, Dr. for the house of humanity. It’s the struggle stood for, a negation of the Martin Luther King spoke against biggest issue of our or any time. As existential reality of a plural society, what he called “the triple evils Noam Chomsky told Occupy Boston a camouflage for assimilation and that are interrelated”—economic 8 years ago, if the environmental homogenisation, a device for erasing inequality, racism, and militarism. catastrophe led by global warming the richness and diversity of our land, If King were alive today, he’d be isn’t averted in the next few decades, of converting civic nationalism into talking about the five evils that are then nothing else we progressives, cultural nationalism and our liberal interrelated, adding patriarchy and egalitarians, and peaceniks care democracy into an ethnic one. Ecocide, the destruction of livable about is going to matter. Jai Hind. ecology. He’d also be noting the In 2008, NASA’s James Hansen dangerous rise of a new national and seven other leading climate (Qurban Ali is a senior broadcast and global fascism linked to the scientists predicted “irreversible journalist.) presidency of a malignant racist who ice sheet and species loss” if the glories in accelerating humanity’s planet’s average temperature rose environmental self-destruction while above 1°Celsius as they said it would the media obsesses over matters of if carbon dioxide’s atmospheric far slighter relevance. presence reached 450 parts per I was given three questions to million. CO2 was then at 385 ppm. answer today. The first question The only way to be assured of a runs as follows: “How have you as livable climate, Hansen said, would a historian mapped the trajectory of be to cut CO2 back to 350 ppm. Climate Change over time? What do Here we are eleven years later, we have to worry about right now?” well past Hansen’s 1°C red line. Let me say as politely as I can We’ve gotten there at 410 ppm, not that I don’t like the phrase “Climate 450. It’s the highest level of CO2 Change.” It’s too mild. Try Climate saturation in 800,000 years, 600,000 Catastrophe. If a giant oak tree is years before the first fossil evidence about to collapse on to your little of homo sapiens. I recently attended house, you don’t say that you are at an Extinction Rebellion meeting risk of housing change. You say “holy in which it was reported that 22% shit, we’re about to die and we better of all human industrial-era carbon do something fast.” emissions have taken place since I haven’t really tracked climate 2009, one year after Hansen issued change as an historian. I am an his warning. urban and labour historian, not an The United Nations environmental one. The climate issue Intergovernmental Panel on Climate really started being noticeable to me Change’s latest report reflects the 12 JANATA, April 14, 2019 consensus opinion of the world’s doctoral dissertation or two. Eco- capital is inherently and systemically leading climate scientists. It tells socialists like John Bellamy Foster opposed to and threatened by social, us that we are headed to 1.5°C in a are right about capitalism. It is a public, and environmental planning dozen years. Failure to dramatically system not just of class disparity on the scale required for the task of slash carbon emissions between but of plutocratic and corporate moving humanity off fossil fuels and now and 2030 is certain to set class rule, the rule of the owners on to renewable energy and broadly off catastrophic developments for and managers of capital. And there sustainable environmental practices. hundreds of millions of people, the are a number of environmental Fifth, class rule regimes insulate IPCC warns. problems with capitalist class rule. their top decision-makers from the The IPCC finds that we are The first problem is that the owners worst environmental consequences headed at our current pace to 4°C by and managers of capital don’t really of their growth-addicted systems. By the end of century. That will mean care about anything other than the the time people living in ruling-class a planet that is mostly unlivable. accumulation of capital and profit. bubbles begin to sense existential Tipping points of unlivable existence They are systemically compelled to threat to themselves, it is generally are already being reached by commodify anything and everything too late for them to do anything millions in Sub-Saharan Africa, they can get their hands on. They about it except stuff like trying to get Sub Continental and Southeast have always been perfectly content to the Tesla guy to fly them to Mars or Asia, parts of Central America profit from anything and everything. to download their consciousness into and other regions where climate- They cash in on slavery, fascism, an Artificial Intelligence satellite to driven migration is underway, with mass-incarceration, endless war, roam the galaxy for eternity. significant political consequences. and even on turning the planet into a With imperialism, the Numerous Earth scientists find the giant Greenhouse Gas Chamber—a connections are less abstract. Eating IPCC report insufficiently alarmist. crime that quite frankly makes the up more than half the nation’s It omits research demonstrating Nazis look like small-time criminals federal discretionary spending the likelihood that irreversible by comparison. and sustaining more than 1000 climatological “tipping points” like The second problem is that the military installations across more the thawing of the northern methane- owners and managers of capital than 100 nations, the Pentagon rich permafrost could occur within are constantly throwing masses of system itself has the single largest just “a few decades.” human beings out of livable wage carbon footprint of any institutional We really don’t know how employment and off of social safety complex on Earth. The so-called quickly the existential threat may nets and out of common lands and defense budget steals trillions of unfold. This is an experiment public schools and public housing dollars that need to be spent on that’s never been run. What do we and the only so-called solution to green infrastructure and green jobs have to worry about? Extinction. the mass poverty that results from if we are going to reduce carbon Current female life expectancy in this constant Enclosure process emissions to a livable scale. At the the United States is 81 years. A they’ve ever been able to offer is same time, America being a global baby girl born this year would in the promise of new jobs through super-power has long depended on theory turn 81 in 2100, when, at the ever more expansion and growth, an US control over global oil and gas current Greenhouse Gassing pace, environmental disaster at numerous reserves: the remarkable economic Antarctica will have melted and the levels. and geopolitical power that flows Amazonian rain forest will have The third problem is that Wall to control over the flow, pricing, long ceased to function as the lungs Street and Bond Street and LaSalle and currency denomination of those of the planet. Street and the rest of the big financial reserves and the super profits that I was also asked by this streets and exchanges have huge fixed result from their extraction and sale. conference’s organisers to discuss and sunken investments in a vast Oil control has long been a great “connections between Climate Carbon Industrial Complex. They do source of American critical leverage Change, class inequity, and not want to see that giant portfolio in the world system. (The fact that the imperialism” and to offer ideas devalued by home sapiens choosing United States under Obama achieved on why “this intersectionality is to survive by keeping fossil fuels in so-called energy independence often overlooked.” Let me to be the ground where they belong. through accelerated fracking and as brief as I can because that’s a The fourth problem is that drilling in the homeland doesn’t JANATA, April 14, 2019 13 change the strategic calculation. Its dead planet. enemies. If you think it’s just the never been primarily about getting Third, we need to be ready eco-fascist Republicans, you are access to the oil for our cars and to talk about green jobs and what sadly mistaken. Yes, unlike Donald trucks and facilities. Its been about they do and might pay and about Trump, Barack Obama did not deny the critical imperial leverage oil how we can create social safety the existence of anthropogenic, control grants Washington.) A planet nets for fossil fuels sector workers really capitalogenic global warming. that depends on renewable energy if we want to sell environmental But so what? As Kevin Zeese and rather than petroleum to run its reconversion to the populace. The Margaret Flowers noted last year, economies will be less susceptible carbon–capitalist Exxon–Mobil– “Obama watered down global to that sort of imperial domination. Donald Trump–Joe Manchin right climate agreements and grew oil and Why are these intersectional has propagated the notion that green gas output and infrastructure in the connections overlooked? Because transformation is a giant job-killer. United States. . . . Obama presided it’s a capitalist media and its sponsors We must counter that claim in ways over the highest gas production in are not interested in talking about that show we understand and care history and crude oil production rose how capitalism and its evil twin about the concerns of the working- by 88%, the fastest rate in the 150- imperialism are only interested in class majority. year history of the US oil industry.” profit over people. Fourth, we need to be Obama bragged about this to a bunch The final question I was given existentialists, not catastrophists. It’s of petroleum executives at the Baker is “What effective solutions and not about the crystal ball. We can’t Institute last year. political strategies do you have care about the odds. The betting Vote if you think it’ll make any to offer?” I want to say six things line on Green Transformation does difference but don’t drink the full regarding the path forward. First, not matter. Maybe it’s just 1 in 10. Kool Aid of American electoral there’s a whole bunch of information Maybe it’s better. It doesn’t matter. fake–representative politics, the out there to use to counter the standard The odds go to zero in ten if we don’t longtime graveyard of American “cost and benefit” arguments that we take action. Let Vegas take the bets. social movements. Become a Gilet can’t afford to undertake a national We are on the field of action. Jaune or a Gilet Verde. Get your and global Green New Deal and that Fifth, Howard Zinn was right. yellow, green, red and black vests shifting to renewable energy is a job It’s not just about who’s sitting in on. Learn how to build barricades. killer. Both of those arguments are the White House or the Governor’s Study civil disobedience. Join the false. The technologies are available mansion or the Mayor’s office great Extinction Rebellion, which and affordable. Green jobs do pay or the city council seat. It’s also has a dynamic new Chicago chapter and will continue to pay better than and above all about who’s sitting and will be making some splashes fossil fuel jobs. in the streets, who’s disrupting, here and around the world this year. Second, we can’t afford who’s monkey-wrenching, whose Remember the words of Mario NOT to make the transition. It is idling capital, who’s occupying Savio: “There’s a time when the darkly hilarious to hear corporate the pipeline construction sites, operation of the machine becomes Democrat and Republican right- the highways, the workplaces, the so odious, makes you so sick at heart wing commentators advance critical town-halls, the financial districts, that you can’t take part! You can’t so-called cost-benefit analyses of the corporate headquarters, and even passively take part! And you’ve the big scary Green New Deal. universities beneath and beyond the got to put your bodies upon the Whatever you think of whether or biennial and quadrennial candidate- gears and upon the wheels, upon the not the Green New Deal is radical centered big money big media major levers, upon all the apparatus—and enough to get the job done, at least party electoral extravaganzas that you’ve got to make it stop!” Green New Dealers are talking are sold to us as “politics”—the If you’re waiting for some elite seriously about the benefit of a only politics that matters. This is politician to fix this ecological mess livable earth. It seems like society true about fighting racist police you will be hung out to dry well past might want to absorb significant violence. It’s true about labor rights humanity’s expiration date. costs to achieve the continuation of and decent wages. It’s true about the species. It’s a green cliché but all that and more and it’s true about (Paul Street is an independent it’s true: there are no jobs on a dead saving livable ecology. journalist, policy adviser and planet. There is no economy on a Sixth, know your climate historian.) 14 JANATA, April 14, 2019 Modinomics = Corporatonomics: Part I

Neeraj Jain Ever since the Congress released Finance Statistics, Government people.2 And as we have discussed its manifesto promising to implement of India, 2016–17. The Economic elsewhere, even these terrible figures a scheme, NYAY, under which it Survey 2015–16 says that India's are underestimates by a wide margin, would guarantee a transfer of Rs tax-to-GDP ratio is lowest among India’s poverty levels are actually 72,000 per year or Rs 6,000 per BRICS countries (Brazil 35.6%, horrendous. month to the poorest 20% of India’s South Africa 28.8%). It is lower than Therefore, a simple way households, the BJP has gone to both the Emerging Market Economy to increase tax income, and town claiming that the scheme is (EME) and OECD averages, which simultaneously reduce the enormous not practical, and the country has are about 21% and 34% respectively. inequality prevailing in India, would no resources to implement it. But It is thus obvious that there is a be to increase taxes on the rich. This actually, as we show below, the huge scope for the government to is precisely what the developed scheme is very much doable, the increase its tax revenue. If India’s countries do; inequality in those government, if it so wishes, can tax–GDP ratio is to be brought to countries is much less as compared implement not only this but also 26–27% (that is, a 50% increase), to India because of progressive tax several other much needed welfare and since the Central government and fiscal policies.3 measures for the people. collects the bulk of the tax and Presently the tax collection The total budgetary receipts of non-tax revenue in the country, this system in India is grossly inequitous, the government, which are equal means that the Centre’s tax revenues and overwhelmingly favours the to its budgetary outlay, include tax can be increased by at least 50%. rich. On the one hand, as we discuss revenue, non-tax revenue and capital below, the government gives huge receipts. The total receipts, and hence How to increase the government’s tax concessions to the rich, while the total budgetary outlay of the tax revenue on the other hand, the larger portion Central government in 2019–20, is According to the Global Wealth of the taxes it collects is from the Rs 27.8 lakh crore. If the government Report 2016 compiled by Credit ordinary people. To understand this, wants, it can significantly increase Suisse Research Institute, India is let us take a look at the tax structure this by increasing its tax and non-tax the second most unequal country of the government. revenue. Can it do so? Yes, it can. in the world, with the top 1% of the There are two types of taxes, country’s rich owning nearly 60% of direct taxes and indirect taxes. India: Low tax revenue the country’s wealth. The cumulative Direct taxes are levied on incomes, Budget 2019–20 estimates the wealth of India’s billionaires was such as wages, profits, property, gross tax revenue of the Centre to $440 billion in 20181, which etc., and so fall directly on the rich; be Rs 25.5 lakh crorel, and net tax translates into Rs 31 lakh crore, while indirect taxes are imposed on revenue to Centre to be Rs 17.1 more than the budgetary outlay of goods and impersonal services, and lakh crore. Now, the fact of the the government in 2019–20. On the so fall on all, both rich and poor. matter is, the total tax revenue of other hand, India also has the highest An equitable system of taxation the government is very low. This number of people living in abject taxes individuals and corporations can be understood by comparing poverty in the world—a staggering according to their ability to pay, the total tax revenue of the Indian 276 million people lived on less which in practice means that in such Government (Centre and States than $1.25 per day at purchasing a system, the government collects its combined) as a proportion of GDP power parity (PPP) terms according tax revenue more from direct taxes with other countries. India’s tax-to- to the World Bank in 2011. Taking than indirect taxes. GDP ratio (taking into consideration another, more stringent measure, as In most developed and all taxes of the Centre and states) of 2014, 58% of the total population developing countries, the direct was 17.82% in 2016–17 (BE), were living on less than $3.10 per tax revenue as a percentage of total according to the Indian Public day. That is more than 600 million revenue varies from 55% to 65% JANATA, April 14, 2019 15 and more. But in India, for every minimum. In fact, as the measures Government of India is the huge tax Rs 100 collected by the government given below suggest, it can even go concessions given by it to the rich. as tax revenue, only around Rs 30 up to Rs 30 lakh crore! The budget documents reveal that comes from direct taxes (and the Let us discuss some possible in its first two years in power, the rest, Rs 70, from indirect taxes). steps that the government can take Modi–Jaitley Government gave tax The government is aware of this. to do so. exemptions given to the country’s The Economic Survey 2017–18 uber rich totalling a mind-boggling admits that direct taxes account i) Curb illicit capital flows to Rs 11 lakh crore. These tax write- on average for about 70% of total increase tax revenue offs are in corporate income tax, taxes in Europe. It also admits that One way the government can customs and excise duties. India has much lower proportion of increase its tax revenue is by curbing In the Union Budget 2017– direct taxes in its total tax revenue illicit outflows and inflows of money. 18, the government changed the as compared to other emerging According to the latest report by methodology for calculating these market economies (except for China, the international watchdog Global tax exemptions, and thus drastically which is a non-democratic country). Financial Integrity released in lowered the estimated revenue An article in thewire.in points out April 2017, between $8–23 billion foregone for the year 2016–17. that India’s personal income tax was illegally taken out of India and We have calculated the revenue collection both as a percentage of between $39–101 billion illegally foregone for this year using the revenues and as a percentage of came into India in 2014, primarily older methodology, to show that the GDP is much lower than not just through trade mis-invoicing. Even revenue foregone was Rs 5.5 lakh 6 the USA and OECD but also the if we take the lower figures, the crore for this year. BRICS countries (as a percentage total illicit financial flows total $47 In the budget document of 2018– of GDP, personal income tax in USA billion. These illegal flows primarily 19, the government has not made a was 10%, around 8% for the OECD take place to escape taxation; had full estimate of the tax concessions countries, 5% for China, 3.6% for the government taken strong steps given to the rich under excise and Russia, and 8.5% for South Africa, to curb these flows and tax them, customs duties for 2017–18 as it but was just around 1% for India.4 they could have yielded at least said that the revenue forgone due Most of the taxes collected by $12 billion or Rs 78,000 in taxes— to exemptions under GST will be calculated next year; the document the States are in the form of indirect this amount is 6.3% of the total calculates only the revenue foregone taxes. The direct taxes are mostly tax revenue for the financial year due to corporate tax concessions— collected by the Centre. In the 2014–15. and these have increased over the Centre’s tax revenue, the share of Unfortunately, the present BJP previous year. And for this year, direct taxes has been falling since Government, despite all its rhetoric this statement is missing, probably the UPA-II regime. The share of against corruption and black money, because it is an interim budget. direct taxes in Centre’s gross tax is simply not interested in taking Considering the past behaviour revenue fell from 61% in 2009–10 firm steps to curb these illegal flows. of the government, and its overall to 56% in 2013–14, the last year of As we have explained in an earlier attitude towards giving tax the UPA Government. Under the article published in Janata Weekly concessions and other subsidies to Modi Government, this has fallen on demonetisation5, all the chest the rich, we can safely assume that further to 54.1% in 2019–20 BE. In thumping by the new government the revenue foregone for 2017–18 other words, it has fallen by a full 7 about fighting corruption and curbing and 2018–19 would be at least at percentage points in a decade. the black economy is a lot of hot air; the same level as during the first Therefore, if the government the truth is that it is actually diluting three years, which therefore means reduces its tax concessions to the anti-corruption legislations. that the government must have rich, as well as increases direct given at least Rs 27.5 lakh crore of taxes on them, the Centre can easily ii) Eliminate the huge tax tax concessions in corporate taxes, increase its net tax revenue from Rs concessions to rich excise duties and customs duties 17 lakh crore at present (in 2019–20 The most important reason to the rich during its five years in BE) to Rs 25 lakh crore at the for the low tax revenue of the power. (See Table 1) 16 JANATA, April 14, 2019

Table 1: Revenue Forgone Due to Tax Exemptions and Fiscal Deficit (Rs lakh crore)

2014–15 2015–16 2016–17 2017–18 2018–19 Total Revenue Forgone 5.49 5.51 5.50* 5.50* 5.50* 27.5 *Our Estimate

But for the tax concessions given tax would have to be complemented to the rich include loan write-offs, to the rich, the gross tax revenue of by taxes on gifts and transfers which handing over control of the country’s the government would have gone up would be a means of evasion.) mineral wealth and resources to from Rs 22.48 lakh crore in 2018–19 private corporations in return RE to at least Rs 28 lakh crore, an iv) Re-impose Inheritance tax (also for negligible royalty payments, increase of 25%. called estate duty) transferring ownership of profitable This tax is perfectly in public sector corporations to foreign iii) Re-Impose Wealth tax synchronism with the philosophy of and Indian private business houses Wealth tax in India was abolished a market economy; it was abolished at throwaway prices, direct subsidies by the BJP after coming to power in in India in 1985. It is imposed by to private corporations in the name 2015. As the wealth tax stood then, several developed countries, with of ‘public–private–partnership’ for an assessee was required to pay 1% rates ranging from 10% to as much infrastructural projects, and so on. of the value of his assets above a as 55%. The most capitalistic of These transfers of public wealth certain threshold. But there were so capitalist nations, the USA and to private coffers total several lakh many exemptions to this, that the the Netherlands impose a stiff crore rupees. This implies that had wealth tax collection was only about inheritance tax with some states the government not given these ₹950 crore in 2014–15, a miniscule in the US impounding as much as transfers, it could have increased the fraction of the ₹2.7 lakh crore 50 percent of one’s estate, leaving budget outlay by several lakh crore collected by way of taxes on income the inheritors only the remaining rupees. To give just two figures: on non-corporates that year.7 Using 50 percent. We propose a modest • During the first four years of this as an excuse, Jaitley abolished inheritance tax of one-third of the the Modi Government, public the wealth tax. value of property inherited for only sector banks have waived loans It has been estimated by the the country’s millionaires, whose given to big corporate houses Global Wealth Migration Review number according to the Global to the tune of Rs 3.1 lakh 2018 that the total wealth of India’s Migration Review is 3.3 lakh. crore; additionally, they have high net worth individuals, that is, Assuming that every year 5% of also restructured loans of the the dollar millionaires, totals 48% of their total wealth gets transferred to ‘high and mighty’—which is a the total private wealth (total assets their children, or other legatees, as roundabout way of writing off of private individuals less liabilities) inheritance, then such an inheritance loans—probably to the tune of in the country. India had a total tax would fetch 276 x .05 x .33 = Rs ten lakh crore rupees (the actual private wealth of $8,230 billion or 4.6 lakh crore per annum. amount is not known). Despite Rs 576 lakh crore in 2017, and of this, the total non-performing this, 48% or Rs 276 lakh crore was India: Low non-tax revenue assets (that is, bad loans) of the held by millionaires.8 A two percent The non-tax revenue of the banks had gone up to Rs 9.5 wealth tax on this wealth would yield government is very low because of lakh crore as of June 2017; the Rs 5.5 lakh crore. And if those with the huge transfers of public funds RBI has now initiated a process private wealth above $10 million and resources to private corporations of accelerated restructuring of are taxed at a higher rate, and the and the super-rich. But for these these loans too. billionaires are taxed at a yet higher transfers, the government could • In the five budgets presented by rate, this amount can be considerably have hugely increased its non-tax it, that is, upto 2018–19 RE, the increased to probably in the range of revenue, or it could have saved on its Modi Government has allocated Rs 7–9 lakh crore. (Of course, this budgetary expenses. These transfers a total of Rs 2.7 lakh crore just JANATA, April 14, 2019 17

for construction of roads and government’s low revenues and low deficit financing! The theory, that highways. The government no budgetary outlay. Readers will be high levels of fiscal deficit relative to longer constructs highways. surprised to know that India’s total GDP will adversely impact growth, They are now constructed by government revenue as percentage is humbug. John Maynard Keynes, private corporations, who collect of GDP is amongst the lowest in the one of the greatest economists of toll from the users to recover world. It is more than 40% for most the 20th century, had debunked their investment. Then why is countries of the European Union, it long ago. He had argued that the government allocating so going up to above 50% for countries in an economy where there is much money for construction like Belgium, France, Denmark and poverty and unemployment, the of roads and highways? This is Finland. It is 29.7% for South Africa, government can, and in fact should, the subsidy being given by the 36.6% for Argentina and 31.6% for expand public works and generate government—not as loan but as Brazil. The world average is 30.2%. employment by borrowing, that is, grant—to private corporations as But India ranks far below—the enlarging the fiscal deficit; such an ‘incentive’ so that they invest Indian Government’s total revenue government expenditure would in construction of highways; it is is only 20.8% of GDP (this is total also stimulate private expenditure another matter that apart from government revenues, Centre + through the ‘multiplier’ effect. All this subsidy, which is as much States combined). developed countries, when faced as 40% of the project cost, they From the data given above with recessionary conditions, have get to keep the earnings from the about government’s tax revenue implemented Keynesian economic toll as well. as compared to other countries, principles and resorted to high levels It is because of this vampyrean or from the data on government’s of public spending and high fiscal plunder of the country's wealth and total revenue as compared to other deficits. resources by corporate houses that countries, it is obvious that there Then why have all our Finance India now has the third largest number is huge scope for increasing total Ministers—from Arun Jaitley to his of billionaires in the world. This government revenues in India. predecessors—been harping on the plunder has reached such rapacious As discussed above, the need to curb the fiscal deficit? It is proportions that even the RBI government’s tax revenues (net tax a part of the neoliberal economic Governor Raghuram Rajan, himself revenue to Centre) can easily go up model being implemented in the an ardent votary of neoliberalism, to Rs 25 lakh crore, or even Rs 30 country. In the lexicon of this has lambasted the collusion between lakh crore, from the Rs 17 lakh crore humbug economics, the concessions “venal politicians” and “crony at present. The government’s non-tax given to the poor, which are aimed capitalists”. After observing that revenue is Rs 2.7 lakh crore, it can at making available essential welfare India has the second highest also easily go up to Rs 5 lakh crore services like education, health, number of billionaires in the world if some of the huge subsidies being food, transport and electricity to the per trillion dollars of GDP (after given to the rich are eliminated. poor at affordable rates, are given Russia), he pointed out that "three Therefore, this means that total non- the derisive name of ‘subsidies’ factors—land, natural resources, and debt revenue of the Centre can go up and are being drastically reduced government contracts or licenses— from Rs 20 lakh crore at present to at in the name of reducing the fiscal are the predominant sources of least Rs 30–35 lakh crore (see Table deficit. That this theory is a fraud the wealth of our billionaires. And 2), and probably even more if the is obvious from another simple all of these factors come from the government develops the political fact: as mentioned above, the BJP government." will to increase taxes on the rich and has also been giving enormous reduce subsidies to corporate houses. subsidies to the rich, and these are India: Low general revenue much more than the few subsidies These huge concessions / Increase borrowings being given to the poor. If Jaitley subsidies / transfers being given Apart from this, another way was indeed so concerned about the to the rich, both in the form of in which the government can raise fiscal deficit, he could have reduced tax concessions and non-tax money for increasing welfare these subsidies to the rich. But in concessions, are responsible for the expenditures is by indulging in the jargon of neoliberal economics, 18 JANATA, April 14, 2019

Table 2: Government Receipts, 2019–20, Actual and Proposed (Rs lakh crore)

2019–20 BE 2019–20 (proposed) Net Tax Revenue to Centre 17 lakh cr 25 – 30 lakh cr Non-Tax Revenue 2.7 lakh cr 5 lakh cr Total Revenue Receipts (to Centre) 19.8 lakh cr 30 – 35 lakh cr Capital Receipts 8.1 lakh cr 13.9 Of which: Debt receipts ( Borrowings + other liabilities) 7 lakh cr 12.8 Total Receipts 27.8 lakh cr 43.9 – 48.9 lakh cr Total Receipts as % of 2019 GDP 13.23% 20.9 – 23.28% these subsidies to the rich are called per month to the poorest 20% of is the political will to increase the ‘incentives’ and are considered to be India’s households. The BJP has taxes on the rich. essential for growth. criticised this scheme, saying that The total government borrowings the country does not have resources Then, why is the BJP not doing it? as a percentage of non-debt receipts to implement it. Now, the estimated The reason is simple: the BJP has fallen from 62% in the decade number of households in India is the most pro-big corporate of the 1980s to only 39% during the in 2018 is 25 crore; 20% of this government that has come to power five years of the BJP rule (2014–19). number is five crore families. Five at the Centre since independence. It Assuming that the government crore families multiplied by Rs must not be forgotten that in 2014 borrows in the same proportion as the 72,000 per family per year works elections, India’s leading corporate 1980s, the government borrowings out to an annual bill of Rs 3.6 lakh houses had openly supported can go up from Rs 7 lakh crore crore. Considering the huge amount the BJP. That is because Modi proposed in the 2019–20 budget to of resources that can be raised, to had a very successful record of Rs 12.8 lakh crore. the tune of Rs 15–20 lakh crore, if favouring corporates during his the government reduces the huge Chief Ministership of Gujarat. At an Enough resources to finance NYAY concessions being given to foreign investor meet in Ahmedabad, Ratan and more and Indian corporate houses, and Tata drenched Modi in praise saying This would mean that the marginally increases the taxes on that a state would normally take 90 budgetary outlay of the Centre can them rich, this guaranteed income to 180 days to clear a new plant easily go up to Rs 44 lakh crore or transfer scheme is clearly doable. but, “in the Nano case, we had our even Rs 49 lakh crore from the Rs In fact, the government if it land and approval in just two days.” 27.8 lakh crore budgeted in 2019–20 so wishes can implement so many Modi's ability to run the economy (see Table 2). That is an increase of schemes to guarantee the poor a life such that corporate houses can rake Rs 16–21 lakh crore, which works of dignity, including good quality in big profits is best exemplified by out to between 7.6–10% of the GDP. and free education and health care, the rapid rise of Gautam Adani from That’s huge. decent old age pensions to all, and a small-time Gujarati businessman In its election manifesto for guaranteed jobs at minimum wages to one of India's richest corporate 2019 Lok Sabha elections, the to all at decent wages, and also honchos in a little over a decade— Congress has promised to implement enormously increase its investment during the very years Modi was a scheme for guaranteed income in agriculture to bring it out of the Chief Minister of Gujarat.9 support, NYAY, if voted to power. deep crisis that it is facing. The And so, as the 2014 Lok Sabha This scheme promises a transfer resources for all these investments elections approached, India's top of Rs 72,000 per year or Rs 6,000 can easily be raised—what is needed corporate houses gradually came JANATA, April 14, 2019 19 to the opinion that Modi should be and Congress’ NYAY scheme. The backed for Prime Ministership. Anil fact of the matter is, the country has Ambani stated: “Narendrabhai has enough resources not just for this done good for Gujarat and [imagine] guaranteed income transfer scheme, what will happen if he leads the but to implement other welfare nation.” While his brother Mukesh measures too that would provide all Ambani gushed, “Gujarat is shining its citizens all the basic necessities like a lamp of gold and the credit required for people to live like goes to the visionary, effective and human beings—healthy food, best passionate leadership provided by possible health care, invigorating Narendra Modi.”10 They liberally education, decent shelter, security poured money into Modi's election in old age and clean pollution-free campaign, making Modi's campaign environment. expenditure the highest ever in India's election history. It was an References : unprecedented election campaign, 1. “India’s Billionaires Added $308 what with 3D holographic rallies, million a Day to Their Wealth in extensive use of the social media 2018”, January 20, 2019, https:// as never before, and a mesmerising qz.com. media campaign. 2. “Poverty in India”, Wikipedia, After coming to power, the BJP https://en.wikipedia.org. has been running the economy solely 3. Rajul Awasthi, “India's 'Billionaire to benefit India’s biggest corporate Raj' Era: Time to Reform Personal houses and the uber rich, because Income Tax”, September 20, 2017, of which the wealth of the richest https://thewire.in. 1% in the country has zoomed to 4. Ibid. mindboggling levels. The number of 5. Neeraj Jain, “De monetisation: dollar billionaires in the country has One Year Later”, Janata Weekly, doubled during the first four years November 12, 2017, http:// of Modi rule: in 2014, the Forbes janataweekly.org. list of billionaires had the names of 6. Neeraj Jain, “Pandering to Dictates 56 Indians; by 2018, this number of Global Finance”, Janata had more than doubled to 119. The Weekly, February 19, 2017, http:// richest 1% have cornered most of the janataweekly.org. wealth being created in the country: 7. “Why Jaitley Decided to Scrap Oxfam reported that in 2017, the Wealth Tax”, March 8, 2015, https:// richest 1% population cornered 73% www.thehindubusinessline.com. of the country’s wealth generated 8. “Global Wealth Migration Review”, in that year, because of which it February 2018, https://samnytt.se. estimated that the cumulative wealth 9. Siddharth Varadarajan, “The Cult of of India’s billionaires rose 35% from Cronyism”, March 31, 2014, http:// $325 billion in 2017 to $440 billion newsclick.in; Lola Nayar, Arindam in 2018!11 Mukherjee, Sunit Arora, “All Along There is little room for doubt: the Waterfront”, March 10, 2014, the BJP is the most pro-corporate http://www.outlookindia.com. government to have come to power 10. Siddharth Varadarajan, ibid. since independence. No wonder 11. “India’s Billionaires Added $308 that it is raising the bogey of lack of million a Day to Their Wealth in resoures to criticise Rahul Gandhi 2018”, op. cit. R.N.I. NO. 1855/1957 20 JANATA, April 14, 2019 Postal Registration No. MCW/275/2018-2020. License to Post without prepayment WPP License No. MR/Tech/WPP-210/West/2019 Published on Sunday, April 14, 2019 & Posted on Wedenesday, April 17, 2019 at Mumbai Patrika Channel, Mumbai GPO-1

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Vol. 74 No. 13 The Assange Arrest Is a Warning April 21, 2019 from History Goebbelsian Doublespeak: B. R. Ambedkar and the RSS John Pilger N. Sukumar Justice Sachar, His Report and The glimpse of Julian Assange in handcuffs, for onward dispatch Muslims being dragged from the Ecuadorean to the dock in The Hague. By the Prem Singh embassy in London is an emblem standard of Nuremberg, Blair's of the times. Might against right. "paramount crime" is the deaths of Modinomics = Corporatonomics Muscle against the law. Indecency a million Iraqis. Assange's crime is Part II: Modi’s Budgets and against courage. Six policemen journalism: holding the rapacious Agriculture manhandled a sick journalist, his to account, exposing their lies and Neeraj Jain eyes wincing against his first natural empowering people all over the Venezuela: Why is Maduro light in almost seven years. world with truth. Still in Power? That this outrage happened in The shocking arrest of Assange Federico Fuentes the heart of London, in the land of carries a warning for all who, as Where Next for the Student Magna Carta, ought to shame and Oscar Wilde wrote, "sow the seeds Climate Strikes? anger all who fear for "democratic" of discontent [without which] there Helena Nicholson societies. Assange is a political would be no advance towards refugee protected by international civilisation". The warning is People’s Power Topples Sudan’s law, the recipient of asylum under explicit towards journalists. What Omar al-Bashir a strict covenant to which Britain happened to the founder and editor Editor : G. G. Parikh is a signatory. The United Nations of WikiLeaks can happen to you on Associate Editor : Neeraj Jain made this clear in the legal ruling a newspaper, you in a TV studio, of its Working Party on Arbitrary you on radio, you running a podcast. Managing Editor : Guddi Detention. Assange's principal media Editorial Board : But to hell with that. Let the tormentor, the Guardian, a thugs go in. Directed by the quasi collaborator with the secret state, B. Vivekanandan, Qurban Ali fascists in Trump's Washington, displayed its nervousness this week Anil Nauriya, Sonal Shah in league with Ecuador's Lenin with an editorial that scaled new Amarendra Dhaneshwar, Moreno, a Latin American Judas and weasel heights. The Guardian has Sandeep Pandey liar seeking to disguise his rancid exploited the work of Assange and D-15, Ganesh Prasad, regime, the British elite abandoned WikiLeaks in what its previous editor Naushir Bharucha Marg, its last imperial myth: that of fairness called "the greatest scoop of the last Mumbai - 400 007. and justice. 30 years". The paper creamed off Imagine Tony Blair dragged from WikiLeaks' revelations and claimed Email : [email protected] his multi-million pound Georgian the accolades and riches that came Website:www.janataweekly.org home in Connaught Square, London, with them. 2 JANATA, April 21, 2019

With not a penny going to and demanded and got the ritual WikiLeaks." Julian Assange or to WikiLeaks, destruction of a hard drive. On Even if journalists who a hyped Guardian book led to a this, the paper has form. In 1983, published WikiLeaks' leaks are not lucrative Hollywood movie. The a Foreign Office clerk, Sarah summoned by an American grand book's authors, Luke Harding and Tisdall, leaked British Government jury, the intimidation of Julian David Leigh, turned on their source, documents showing when American Assange and Chelsea Manning will abused him and disclosed the secret cruise nuclear weapons would be enough. Real journalism is being password Assange had given the arrive in Europe. The Guardian was criminalised by thugs in plain sight. paper in confidence, which was showered with praise. Dissent has become an indulgence. designed to protect a digital file When a court order demanded In Australia, the current containing leaked US embassy to know the source, instead of America-besotted government is cables. the editor going to prison on a prosecuting two whistle-blowers With Assange now trapped in fundamental principle of protecting who revealed that Canberra's spooks the Ecuadorean embassy, Harding a source, Tisdall was betrayed, bugged the cabinet meetings of the joined the police outside and gloated prosecuted and served six months. new government of East Timor for on his blog that "Scotland Yard may the express purpose of cheating the get the last laugh". The Guardian Hour of Chain and Noose tiny, impoverished nation out of has since published a series of - Faiz Ahmed Faiz its proper share of the oil and gas falsehoods about Assange, not least resources in the Timor Sea. Their a discredited claim that a group of This is the hour of madness, this trial will be held in secret. The Russians and Trump's man, Paul too the hour of chain and noose Australian prime minister, Scott Manafort, had visited Assange in You may hold the cage in your Morrison, is infamous for his part the embassy. The meetings never control, but you don’t command in setting up concentration camps happened; it was fake. for refugees on the Pacific islands But the tone has now changed. If Assange is extradited to of Nauru and Manus, where children "The Assange case is a morally America for publishing what the self harm and suicide. In 2014, tangled web," the paper opined. "He Guardian calls truthful "things", Morrison proposed mass detention (Assange) believes in publishing what is to stop the current editor, camps for 30,000 people. things that should not be published. Katherine Viner, following him, or Real journalism is the enemy . . . But he has always shone a light the previous editor, Alan Rusbridger, of these disgraces. A decade ago, on things that should never have or the prolific propagandist Luke the Ministry of Defence in London been hidden." Harding? produced a secret document which These "things" are the truth What is to stop the editors of the described the "principal threats" to about the homicidal way America New York Times and the Washington public order as threefold: terrorists, conducts its colonial wars, the lies Post, who also published morsels Russian spies and investigative of the British Foreign Office in its of the truth that originated with journalists. The latter was designated denial of rights to vulnerable people, WikiLeaks, and the editor of El the major threat. such as the Chagos Islanders, the Pais in Spain, and Der Spiegel in The document was duly leaked expose of Hillary Clinton as a backer Germany and the Sydney Morning to WikiLeaks, which published it. and beneficiary of jihadism in the Herald in Australia. The list is long. "We had no choice," Assange told Middle East, the detailed description David McCraw, lead lawyer of me. "It's very simple. People have a of American ambassadors of how the New York Times, wrote: "I think right to know and a right to question the governments in Syria and the prosecution [of Assange] would and challenge power. That's true Venezuela might be overthrown, be a very, very bad precedent for democracy." and much more. It all available on publishers... from everything I know, What if Assange and Manning the WikiLeaks site. he's sort of in a classic publisher's and others in their wake—if there are The Guardian is understandably position and the law would have others—are silenced and "the right nervous. Secret policemen have a very hard time distinguishing to know and question and challenge" already visited the newspaper between the New York Times and is taken away? JANATA, April 21, 2019 3 In the 1970s, I met Leni Goebbelsian Doublespeak: Reifenstahl, close friend of Adolf Hitler, whose films helped cast the B. R. Ambedkar and the RSS Nazi spell over Germany. She told me that the message in her films, N. Sukumar the propaganda, was dependent not on "orders from above" but on what Historically, the philosophical organisations in the last two decades she called the "submissive void" of roots of the RSS can be located in has broadened the base of Hindu the public. German National Socialism and fundamentalism as a social-political "Did this submissive void include the former has constantly strived to force. the liberal, educated bourgeoisie?" I live up to the ideals of its mentors. To bring the Dalis into the asked her. This is best illustrated when the RSS Hindutva fold, on the one hand, "Of course," she said, "especially indulges in Goebbelsian doublespeak the Sangh Parivar took conscious the intelligentsia. . . . When people to further its exclusivist nationalism. steps to break the Dalit-Muslim no longer ask serious questions, A lie spoken repeatedly becomes nexus in Gujarat,2 and on the other they are submissive and malleable. the truth—the appropriation of hand, Hindutva spin doctors sought Anything can happen." Babasaheb Ambedkar into the to give a makeover to one of the And did. pantheon of 'nationalist' heroes most revered icons of modern India, The rest, she might have added, reveals the political frustration Babasaheb Ambedkar, who sought is history. of the RSS to make inroads into to unravel the hegemony of religion the Dalit / Adivasi / Moolnivasi and culture over the people. (John Pilger is a renowned mindscapes. Nathuram Godse investigative journalist and physically eliminated Gandhi and Deifying Ambedkar documentary film-maker.) the RSS is striving to ideologically The Panchajanya issue of annihilate Ambedkar. This article April 19, 20153 commences with strives to deconstruct the issue hyperbolic and effusive praise for of Panchjanya (April 19th 2015) Babasaheb, “a great leader who Janata Subscription and the special issue of Organiser sought to organise and strengthen on the 125th birth anniversary society on the basis of social Annual Rs. : 260/- of Babasaheb which testify to the harmony; a foresighted leader who Three Years : 750/- ideological vacuum of the Sangh strived to mould his country to meet Parivar and its urgency to 'create' the future challenges; a patriot, in Demand Draft / new idols. The focus is on the short a seer of his age.” A lot of water Cheque engagement with the religious ideas has flowed down the Ganges since espoused by these journals and their Arun Shourie wrote Worshipping on contradictions with Ambedkar's False Gods wherein Ambedkar was Mumbai Bank philosophy. vilified as a traitor, as a supporter The model state, Gujarat has long of Pakistan, etc. The Panchajanya in favour of been considered the social laboratory now says, “Sri Guruji (Golwalkar) for Hindutva. Jan Breman1 has argues that after Buddha it is only Janata Trust analysed the well-entrenched nature Ambedkar who discoursed about of the Hindutva movement and its social welfare and religious interests, D-15, Ganesh Prasad, predecessors in Gujarat, strongly to get rid of social evils. Indeed, Naushir Bharucha Marg, opposed to communal harmony and Ambedkar is the true inheritor of Grant Road (W), to the design of society as a melting Buddha's legacy and I heartily Mumbai 400 007. pot of diverse and open-ended social endorse his purity.” segments. The mobilisation of low The above mentioned journal and intermediate castes to participate quotes Ambedkar on various issues in the activities of the Sangh parivar without giving any reference as to 4 JANATA, April 21, 2019 its authencity. It makes the blanket even dalits have rights in Hindutva. is nothing wrong in being grateful claim: “Through his various writings In order to establish the Hindutva to great men who have rendered and speeches, Ambedkar engaged philosophy, Valmiki, Chokhamela, life-long services to the country. But with savarna Hindus.” But there is no Rohidas etc dalits have contributed there are limits to gratefulness. As reference to any book or writing of in great measure and numerous has been well said by the Irish Patriot Ambedkar to prove that he ever said dalits have sacrificed their lives to Daniel O'Connell, no man can be so. Panchjanya says, “Ambedkar safeguard this philosophy. Hence, if grateful at the cost of his honour, no wrote that Hindu religion believed Brahmins, Kshatriyas and Vaishyas woman can be grateful at the cost that every man is a microcosm of can enter temples, why cannot dalits of her chastity and no nation can be the divine and every man is entitled do so?” This is again a falsification. grateful at the cost of its liberty. This to dignity. However, savarna Hindus Thus, the great medieval poet saint caution is far more necessary in the have ill-treated dalits. If Dalits Chokhamela, in one of his abhangas, case of India than in the case of any are maltreated then even God is calls to God, “Why have you given other country. For in India, Bhakti displeased.” But again, no source me this birth if you have to give or what may be called the path of is cited for this statement. When me birth at all? You have erred devotion or hero-worship, plays the fact is that Ambedkar’s views in giving me this birth; you have a part in its politics unequalled in were the exact opposite of this, he been unkind.”6 Here, Chokhamela magnitude by the part it plays in the was very critical of Hindu religion is questioning his birth within the politics of any other country in the itself: “Hinduism is not interested contours of the caste hierarchy, world. Bhakti in religion may be a in the common man. Hinduism is which is the bedrock of Hinduism, road to the salvation of the soul. But not interested in society as a whole. but the Panchajanya wants us to in politics, Bhakti or hero-worship The centre of its interest lies in a believe that Chokhamela was an is a sure road to degradation and to class and its philosophy is concerned advocate of Hindutva. eventual dictatorship.”8 in sustaining and supporting the The attempt to falsify history is rights of that class. That is why in very evident in the above mentioned Peddling Falsehoods the philosophy of Hinduism, the arguments. No distinction is made The RSS mouthpiece, Organiser, interests of the common man as well between Hinduism and Hindutva in its special issue claims that as of society are denied, suppressed and both concepts are used as Ambedkar believed that Buddhism and sacrificed to the interest of this synonyms for each other. and Hinduism were fundamentally class of Supermen.”4 The special issue of Organiser the same.9 In his famous article In yet another article, the same on the 125th anniversay of Dr Buddha and the Future of His journal quotes Ambedkar as saying Ambedkar seeks to deify Ambedkar Religion, Ambedkar said that a true (again without citing any source), by making the claim that the Indian religion should have the following “He pointed out that till Hindu society Constitution is a new “Manusmriti”, four characteristics: a) In the sense is organised, justice and humanity it in fact says it should be called of morality, it must remain the will not be worshipped and till then “Bheemsmruti”.7 It forgets that on governing principle in every society; independence is incomplete.” This is December 25, 1927, Ambedkar b) it must be in accord with reason, also a fabrication, as for Ambedkar, burned the Manusmriti, a symbol which is merely another name for “Hinduism is inimical to equality, of enslavement for majority of the science; c) its moral code must antagonistic to liberty and opposed to denizens of India. recognise the fundamental tenets of fraternity.” Ambedkar further says, To call the Constitution liberty, equality, and fraternity; and “Inequality is the soul of Hinduism. “Bheemsmruti”, to think that d) it must not sanctify or ennoble The morality of Hinduism is only the thought could have come poverty. He further said that only social. It is unmoral and inhuman to to Ambedkar’s mind that the Buddhism can satisfy all these say the least.”5 Constitution is “Bheemsmruti”, tests, and it is the only religion Panchajanya says that at a speech is an affront to all that Ambedkar the world can have.10 In a clever in Amravati (again no source is cited believed in. He considered any form sleight of hand, the Organiser as to the date and occasion for the of hero worship as detrimental to quotes Ambedkar and gives the speech), “Ambedkar argued that democracy. He had stated, “There four characteristics of true religion JANATA, April 21, 2019 5 as outlined by him, but omits to of conversion.13 The Organiser cooks of all forms of communication in mention the crucial conclusion, that up a novel myth that “Ambedkar Germany: newspapers, magazines, only Buddhism can satisfy all these promised Gandhi that he would books, public meetings, and rallies, tests. leave Hindu Dharma but would art, music, movies, and radio. The effort to saffronise see to it that the least damage was Viewpoints in any way threatening Ambedkar is very palpable when done. When he embraced Buddhist to Nazi beliefs or to the regime the Organiser claims that Ambedkar faith in Deekshabhumi, Nagpur on were censored or eliminated from was a follower of Ram. It wants to October 1956, he said, ‘I had kept all media. The RSS is traversing the wish away his epic work, Riddles my promise to Gandhiji.’” Neither in very same path. Its political front, the in Hinduism, by claiming that the Gandhi's writings nor in Ambedkar's Bharatiya Janata Party, is now the text was kept in his cupboard till writings and speeches does one world's largest political party with the last breath of his life. The fact come across any such conversation. 8.8 crore members. Gradually, all is, Rama holds no attractions for According to the Organiser, dissent is being stifled and landmark Ambedkar, for whom the most Ambedkar believed that changes in the polity and society are significant event in the Ramayana untouchability is inscribed on the being ushered in through ordinances, was Rama's decapitation of a shudra Dalit body rather than being a blot bypassing parliamentary debates. for practicing asceticism. Ambedkar on Hinduism and claims that he said, One of the harshest critics of the calls this “the worst crime that “we (untouchables) have to clean Hindu social order was Ambedkar history has ever recorded.”11 it. It means that we ourselves will who sought to transform the caste While toying with Ambedkar's have to fight this social slavery.” society through legal, rational beliefs, the RSS ideologues have The narrative gives the impression and constitutional norms. His eschewed any historical veracity. In that Ambedkar was apologetic of the followers have struggled to create his work, Who Were the Shudras? caste system rather than its fiercest an enlightened India by interrogating How they came to be the Fourth critic. It even says that: “At one the social, cultural, political and Varna in Indo-Aryan Society, point he says that the Bhagvad Gita economic domains controlled Ambedkar argues at length on the is my inspiration”; that he wrote “Jai by entrenched interests through origins of Chaturvarna. However, Bhavani” on his newspaper; and that political struggles, revolutionary for the Sangh Parivar scholars, “He was proud of calling himself a poetry and prose, new iconography caste crept into Indian society Hindu.”14 Ambedkar's writings make and symbols. The appropriation and with the Islamic invaders. Very clear that the Organiser is lying. deliberate misreading of Ambedkar's subtly, they not only lay the sin of Ambedkar affirmed on October life and vision will delegitimise introducing untouchability into India 13, 1935, at Yeola in Nasik district, his egalitarian ideas, demolish on Islam but also play up the fear of “Unfortunately, I was born a Hindu and demoralise the struggles to Hindu women being violated by the untouchable. It was beyond my usher justice and fraternity and mlechha invaders.12 power to prevent that, but it is within lead to the continued enslavement While expurgating Ambedkar's my power to refuse to live under of the marginalised groups. The ideas, the Organiser also generously ignoble and humiliating conditions. subversive and deliberate gesture edits the political terminology I solemnly assure you that I will not of misquoting Ambedkar reveals espoused by Ambedkar. The RSS’s die a Hindu.”15 the lack of historical and scholarly reluctance to use the term 'India' authenticity in the intellectual is well known, so the All India The Propaganda War projects of the RSS. However, the Scheduled Castes Federation Once they succeeded in ending dalit-bahujan citizens will not accept founded by Ambedkar in April democracy and turning Germany into any tampering with the ideals of 1942 is transformed into Bharatiya a one-party dictatorship, the Nazis Babasaheb Ambedkar and would Scheduled Caste Federation. The orchestrated a massive propaganda offer a befitting response. conversion to Buddhism was not campaign to win the loyalty and merely a challenge to Hindu caste cooperation of Germans. The Nazi Notes supremacy but Ambedkar provided a Propaganda Ministry, directed by [1] Jan Breman, Communal well thought out rationale for his act Dr. Joseph Goebbels, took control Upheaval as Resurgence of 6 JANATA, April 21, 2019

Social Darwinism, www.epw. Remembering Justice Sachar on his first death anniversary org. [2] See: “Communalism as a Justice Sachar, His Report and Muslims Political Strategy”, http://www. hrw.org. Prem Singh [3] Panchajanya, April 19, 2015, Bharat Prakashan, Delhi. Today (20 April 2019) is the first by Justice Rajindar Sachar, was [4] Dr. Babasaheb Ambedkar: death anniversary of Justice Rajindar constituted in 2005 by the then Prime Writings and Speeches, Govt Sachar—a socialist visionary, a Minister of India Dr. Manmohan of Maharashtra, Vol. 3, 1998, Justice par excellence, a true secular Singh to prepare a report about the p. 77. and democrat, an unrelenting human social, economic and educational [5] Ibid., p. 66, 87. rights and civil liberties champion status of the Muslim community in [6] Eleanor Zelliot, Ambedkar's and a wonderful person having the country. The Committee’s 403 World: The Making of complete faith in human goodness. page report was presented in the Babasaheb and the Dalit While paying her tribute to him Lok Sabha on 30 November 2006. Movement, Navayana, 2013, p on his demise, Seema Mustafa The findings and recommendations 54. rightly said, 'Our finest has gone'. of the report immediately became [7] Revisiting Ambedkar, I personally feel a great sense of a topic of sharp debate in political, Organiser, April 2015, p. 58. loss without him, particularly in social and intellectual circles. [8] “Dr. Ambedkar's final speech in my political activities. He was The report was considered to be Constituent Assembly - Bar & so very involved in the affairs of a mirror which showed the true Bench”, https://barandbench. Socialist Party (India) which he and picture of the Muslim community com. senior socialist leaders like Surendra throughout India. Consequently, it [9] Organiser, op. cit., p. 78. Mohan, Bhai Vaidya, Pannalal received praise from a large part [10] D.C. Ahir, “Dr. Ambedkar's Surana, Prof. Keshav Jadhav formed of intelligentsia as well as from Pilgrimate to Buddhism”, in: in 2011 along with several young political parties. Although there A.K. Narain and D.C. Ahir socialists. He used to have this hope were some dissenting voices too (editors), Dr. Ambedkar, and belief that the old glory of the about the findings, recommendations Buddhism and Social Change, Socialist Party and the original spirit and methodology of the report, it was B.R. Publishing Corporation, of the movement / ideology will well received by most people. After 1994, p. 8. thrive once again in the realm of the publication of the Report, many [11] Ambedkar, The Riddle of Indian politics. Of course, in order adverse reactions were made. An Ram and Krishna, in Dr. to replace the present corporate assassination plan was also reported. Babasaheb Ambedkar: capitalist order. I often wondered When this disclosure was published Writings and Speeches, Govt. about his optimism and used to ask in the Indian Express, I wrote a letter of Maharashtra, Vol. 4. him that if people around him did not to the Manmohan Singh government [12] Organiser, op. cit., p. 15. respond adequately to his appeals, requesting it to provide protection to [13] Dr. B. R. Ambedkar, “What how could he hope that public in Justice Sachar. But the government Path to Salvation?”, http:// general would support his party and did not pay heed to my request www.columbia.edu. candidates? To that he only used although the same government [14] Organiser, op. cit., pp. 15, 58. to give an innocent smile, without wanted to give him Padam Bhushan [15] Dr. Babasaheb Ambedkar: a slightest sign of pessimism. His in lieu of the Report, which Justice Writings and Speeches, Govt. smile always kept us in a positive Sachar humbly refused. of Maharashtra, Vol 17, p. 95. frame of mind and that is what we The report, known as ‘Sachar miss badly without him around us. Committee Report’, brought for the (Dr. N. Sukumar is Professor at In the later period of his life, first time attention to the ever growing the Dept of Political Science, Delhi Justice Sachar was mainly known economic inequality and social University, Delhi.) for the Sachar Committee Report. insecurity and alienation of Muslims The Sachar Committee, headed in India since Independence. It JANATA, April 21, 2019 7 found, on basis of official data, that This recommendation has been election. But unfortunately his health the Muslim population, estimated at inexcusably sidelined and has did not permit him to fulfill his over 138 million in 2001, was under- remained in cold storage. The EOC desire. If he had been alive today, represented in the civil service, can be set up by the state governments he would have felt very upset about police, military and in politics. without taking permission from the this development. Muslims were more likely to be poor, Central government. A very urgent illiterate, unhealthy and in trouble recommendation of the Report dealt [The author teaches Hindi at with the law as compared to other with the unfairness of divisions Delhi University and is president of Indians. Thus, the myth of 'Muslim of electoral constituencies which Socialist Party (India).] appeasement' was thoroughly results in lesser number of Muslims exposed and the report became a in the legislature to which they focus of debate and controversy are broadly entitled, based on the Spectre of among scholars and political parties/ population. This anomaly arises leaders. Justice Sachar's activities, from the irrational demarcation of Fascism including this Report, were guided seats in the legislature. Contribution Rs. 20/- by the perspective of socialist In U.P., there is abundant Published by ideology and the socialist movement potential for substantial number Janata Trust & Lokayat of India. First and foremost, he was of Muslims to win seats. As per D-15, Ganesh Prasad, a staunch Lohian socialist. the Report, to address this, the Naushir Bharucha Marg, Then there started a race among delimitation of constituencies in a Grant Road (W), Mumbai 400 007 various political parties to make fair manner is essential. But on the promises in their manifestos to contrary the constituencies with implement the recommendations of substantial number of Muslims have the Sachar Committee Report. The been reserved for scheduled castes, only exception was the BJP which, in and constituencies with substantial fact, opposed the report vehemently. number of scheduled caste voters But the secular parties kept repeating are unreserved. This is unfair to their promises through manifestos both Muslims and SC electorate. and rhetoric. However, when The Committee had hoped that it one reviews the progress of the would receive the attention of the implementation of the report carried government immediately because out by the central and the state the Delimitation Commission was governments, the picture appears to at that time engaged in this exercise be quite dismal. and evidently any suggestion or any The Report states that the exercise to be done by it had to be minorities, especially the Muslims, undertaken during the current term of have been the ignored factor in all the then Delimitation Commission. Central Governments. Amongst the But, the Committee’s suggestion was various recommendations, the Prime ignored during the delimitation. Minister’s High Level Committee But now, as far as the Muslim Report had recommended the minority is concerned, politics establishment of Equal Opportunity has taken a different turn after the Commission (EOC) as an instrument advent of Narendra Modi on the to prevent discrimination against national scene. The result is that minorities in the private sector no political party has mentioned like housing and employment. the recommendations of the Sachar It was an important point since Committee in its manifesto during courts cannot interfere in cases of Lok Sabha elections 2019. Justice discrimination in private sector. Sachar wanted to live on till this 8 JANATA, April 21, 2019 Modinomics = Corporatonomics Part II: Modi’s Budgets and Agriculture

Neeraj Jain In the previous part of this the hardy Indian farmers into such The amount translates into a article, we had shown that the despair that more than 3.5 lakh mere Rs 500 per month—which government, if it wants, can raise farmers had committed suicide over is a joke, considering the depth of enough resources to implement a the two decades to 2014—something the farm crisis. The scheme is even whole slew of welfare measures. that did not happen even during the weaker than the income support But instead of doing that, it is more days of the British Raj. to farmers being given in Odisha interested in giving away huge Narendra Modi and the BJP and Telengana, which give farmers subsidies to the tune of several swept to power in the 2014 Lok Rs 10,000 per year, and have no lakh crore rupees to the corporate Sabha elections on the back of a landholding limits, apart from other houses. In this part, we take a look whole slew of extravagant promises benefits. at Modi Government’s policies with to farmers. After coming to power, regards to the severe agrarian crisis it promised to double the income of Betraying farmers gripping the country. all farmers by 2022. On the other hand, the budget However, ever since it assumed is silent on the important issue of PM Kisan Samman scheme power, the agricultural policies of farm loan waiver. It would have The neoliberal reforms being the Modi Government have only cost the government at the most Rs implemented in the country for worsened the crisis gripping Indian 3 lakh crore, while benefiting crores the past nearly three decades have agriculture. And so, the past year of farmers across the country. The pushed Indian agriculture into a saw India swept by over a dozen injustice of this becomes all the more deep crisis. Public investment in farmer marches, including the epic apparent when one takes note of the agriculture has been falling. Both march by over one lakh farmers from fact that the loan waivers given by input subsidies (such as fertiliser, all over the country to the country’s the Modi Government to corporate electricity and irrigation subsidies) capital Delhi in November 2018. houses total several times more than and output support to farmers (in With elections looming, this. the form of public procurement of in a desperate bid to win over On the issue of implementing agricultural produce) have been farmers, the Modi Government the most crucial recommendation of drastically cut. Farmers are finding in its Interim Budget 2019–20 the Swaminathan Commission, that it difficult to access loans from announced a PM Kisan Samman farmers should be given MSP which banks at subsidised rates, pushing Nidhi scheme to provide income is 50% over the C2 cost of production them into clutches of moneylenders. support of Rs 6,000 per year to (which is the comprehensive cost of Consequently, for the majority small and marginal farmers. Under production), in this year’s budget of India’s farmers, who are small the scheme, around 12 crore farmers speech too, the Finance Minister farmers with land holdings of less with small landholdings of up to two repeats Jaitley’s lie of last year than 1 hectare, their total income hectares, will be provided direct that the government has “fixed the from all sources (cultivation, farming income support of Rs 6,000 per minimum support price (MSP) of all of animals, non-farm business year, in three equal instalments of 22 crops at minimum 50% more than and wages) has fallen to less than Rs 2,000 each. In a naked attempt the cost.” During the year 2018–19, their consumption expenditure. to buy votes of farmers, the Finance the government has announced It has led to a huge increase in Minister Goyal announced that first increases in MSP for kharif and rabi rural indebtedness; over the two instalment would be transferred crops, but the increase is much below decades 1992–2012, the incidence immediately, before March 31, 2019. the C2+50% price recommended by of indebtedness among cultivator Landless farmers, tenant farmers and the Swaminathan Commission (see households has nearly doubled. sharecroppers will not benefit from Table 1). These neoliberal policies drove the scheme. Whatever be the MSP declared, JANATA, April 21, 2019 9 another problem faced by farmers year’s budget papers reveal the rate, the rest is borne by the Centre is that most farmers do not get this shocking fact that actual expenditure and the respective State. While the price for their crops. Government on food subsidy had been only allocation for this scheme has gone procurement operations cover only a Rs 1,05,864 crore in 2017–18—a up by nearly five times over the five few crops, mainly rice, wheat, cotton reduction of 27% over the revised Modi Government budgets (2018–19 and occasionally pulses. (While there expenditure for food subsidy in RE over 2014–15 A), several reports is no government procurement per 2017–18 of Rs 1,45,892 crore as have come in the media showing how se in sugarcane, mills are legally given in the 2018–19 budget papers this scheme has turned out to be a obligated to buy cane from farmers (see Table 2). Do the budget estimates way of transferring public funds to at prices fixed by government, an have any meaning under the Modi corporations—in the name of public effective MSP-like arrangement.) Government? It only means that welfare, it has resulted in windfall

Table 1: MSP on Rabi–Kharif Crops and C2+50%1

Table 2: Budget Allocations for Food Subsidy, 2014–19 (Rs crore)

The Shanta Kumar committee admits despite the worsening agrarian crisis, profits for insurance companies. that 94% of farmers do not get MSP, the government is not interested The scheme has enabled insurance even if it is low. in expanding its procurement of companies to earn a whopping Rs The finance minister had admitted foodgrains. The revised estimate for 15,795 crore as profit in just the last this problem in his budget speech last food subsidy in 2018–19 is given as two years. They got a gross premium year. He had proposed that “Niti Rs 1,77,874 crore. Considering last of Rs 22,362.11 crore and paid an Aayog, in consultation with Central year’s performance, and the slipping insurance claim of Rs 15,902.47 and State Governments, will put in fiscal deficit, it is doubtful if the crore to 3,01,26,403 farmers in 2016– place a fool-proof mechanism so government has actually spent this 17; and in 2017–18, they disbursed that farmers will get adequate price amount. claims of Rs 15,710.25 crore against for their produce.” More than a year A scheme about which the a premium of Rs 25,045.87 crore to has gone by; the government has Finance Minister makes no mention 1,26,01,048 farmers.2 This year, the presented two budgets, but there in his budget speech is the much- scheme has been allocated Rs 14,000 has been no financial allocation to hyped Pradhan Mantri Fasal Bima crore, as compared to Rs 13,000 crore implement this promise in either of Yojana (Table 3). The reason is not far allocated last year. the budgets! Meanwhile, a few more to seek—the scheme has turned out to The Finance Minister had thousand farmers have committed be a huge scam. The scheme aims to announced the Pradhan Mantri suicide. provide financial support to farmers Krishi Sinchayee Yojana (prime Government procurement from suffering crop loss/damage arising minister’s irrigation scheme) with farmers mainly comes under the out of unforeseen events. The farmer much fanfare in his very first budget budget head, ‘food subsidy’. This pays the premium at a subsidised of 2014–15. The Economic Survey of 10 JANATA, April 21, 2019

2017–18 admits that the percentage the National Project on Organic is called the white revolution has of net irrigated area to the total Farming is meant to promote organic significantly declined from Rs 2,431 cropped area was 34.5% that year. farming techniques in the country, crore in 2018–19 RE to Rs 2,140 Despite this situation, this scheme but its allocation is a princely Rs 2 in 2019–20 BE. Similarly, funds has always been underfunded. crore! The National Mission on Oil provisioned under Blue Revolution, Overall, the total expenditure on Seed and Oil Palm, which had been meant for fishery sector, have also this scheme during the five years allocated a meagre Rs 400 crore in declined from their already meagre of the Modi Government (2018–19 2018–19 BE, has now apparently levels (see Table 4). RE over 2014–15 A) has increased been abandoned by the government; by only 8.5% (CAGR), which is it has not been given any allocation Budget for Rural Development barely enough to beat inflation (see in the 2019–20 Interim Budget. Conditions in agriculture are Table 3). An important sector that can intimately tied to the general state The flagship scheme of the help provide some relief from the of the rural economy, and that Central government for creating agrarian crisis is the livestock sub- is why public spending on rural robust pre- and post-harvest sector (includes sectors like dairy, development is also crucial for the infrastructure for agriculture is the poultry and meat) and fisheries overall development of agriculture. Rashtriya Krishi Vikas Yojana. sub-sector. The livestock sector Here the outlays are hugely However, allocation for this has provides additional income to a disappointing. Total allocation for been halved over the five budgets large section of small and marginal Ministry of Rural Development or of the Modi Government, from Rs farmers; it is estimated that fishing, MoRD is slated to increase by only 8,443 crore in 2014–15 A to Rs 3,600 aquaculture and allied activities 4.7% over the previous year’s revised crore in 2018–19; the allocation provide livelihood to more than 14 estimate—not even keeping pace for 2019–20 has been marginally million people. While the Finance with inflation (Table 5)! Overall, increased to Rs 3,800 crore. Minister in his budget speech during the Modi Government’s five In the long-term, the only claimed that the government gives years, the budget for the Department solution to the crisis gripping Indian high priority to the animal husbandry of Rural Development has gone up agriculture is promoting organic or sector, this is only empty rhetoric; by 7.01% (CAGR), which is a fall sustainable farming techniques in the allocation for the Department in real terms. This is also reflected agriculture. However, the budget of Animal Husbandry, Dairy and in the fact that the budget for this for a very important scheme related Fisheries is very low in absolute department as a share of the total to this, called Paramparagat Krishi terms, only Rs 3,100 crore in 2019– budget outlay has fallen from 4.6% Vikas Yojana, continues to stagnate 20; and has actually declined as to 4.2% over this period. at a lowly Rs 325 crore as compared compared to 2018–19 RE (Rs 3,273 One important head under the to the allocation in the 2018–19 crore). As a percentage of the budget Department of Rural Development BE of Rs 360 crore. The footnote outlay, it is a miniscule 0.11%. is the ‘Pradhan Mantri Avas Yojana to the budget document states that Within this, the allocation for what – Grameen’. This scheme is the

Table 3: Budget Allocations for Department of Agriculture, 2014–19 (Rs crore) JANATA, April 21, 2019 11

Table 4: Budget Allocations for Department of Animal Husbandry, 2014–19 (Rs crore)

Table 5: Budget Allocations for Department of Rural Development (Rs crore)

flagship housing scheme of the Modi of nearly 20% in real terms (Table to build all-weather roads to connect Government, which replaced the 5). Obviously, the government has 1.6 lakh eligible unconnected earlier Indira Awas Yojana (IAY) of no intention of constructing many habitations. The Finance Minister the UPA government, and promised houses under this scheme, it is just claims in his budget speech that more housing for all by 2022. In his budget another of Jaitley’s fibs. This is borne than 90% of the habitations have speech last year, Jaitley claimed that out by figures available on the MoRD been connected with pucca roads, and the government had targeted building website: they reveal that 23.5 lakh the task would soon be completed. 10 million houses by March 2019— houses were constructed in 2017–18 This, despite the fact that for the last 51 lakh houses were to be completed and another 19.1 lakh in 2018–19 (as four years, the allocation under this by March 2018 and another 51 lakh on April 9, 2019)—that is, the total scheme has remained constant at Rs houses by March 2019. But the number of houses built under this 19,000 crore, and the money actually allocation for this scheme has fallen scheme is less than half of the target! spent has been 10–20% less than this from Rs 23,000 crore in 2017–18 BE The Pradhan Mantri Gram Sadak (Table 5). The CAG recently pointed to Rs 19,900 in 2018–19 RE, a cut Yojana (PMGSY) is a central scheme out several irregularities under this 12 JANATA, April 21, 2019 scheme, including misreporting.3 at 8%) + 7,568 = Rs 73,539 crore. budget for all agriculture related Clearly, much of these roads are The budget allocation is 18% less sectors (Ministry of Agriculture being built only on paper. than this. and Farmers’ Welfare, Ministry Even if the Centre had allocated of Rural Development, Ministry MGNREGA the desired funds to keep the of Water Resources as well as the The most important scheme allocation at the same level as last Department of Fertilisers). As can be under the Department of Rural year, it would have been insufficient seen from Table 7, the total spending Development is obviously the for a full roll-out of the scheme. for all these ministries, including the government’s rural employment MNREGS is a demand-driven Income Support Scheme, has fallen guarantee programme under the scheme, it guarantees 100 days of as a percentage of the budget outlay Mahatma Gandhi National Rural employment to all those who desire over the five Modi Government Employment Guarantee Act it (one member per household). Of budgets, 2014 to 2018. This year, (NREGA). It guarantees a minimum course, this is a very inadequate it has marginally increased, due to of 100 days of employment in a employment guarantee, but at least the huge increase in income support year to every willing household. it is something. To make available scheme. Exclude that, and it comes Significantly, it guarantees time this many days of employment to all down from 11.58% of the budget bound employment, within 15 days those desiring work, and give them outlay to only 9.65%—a fall of of making such a requisition, failing timely wage, a minimum allocation nearly 2 percentage points. And that which it promises an unemployment of at least Rs 88,000 crore is needed.4 is what really matters—giving an allowance. This scheme has the But the actual allocation by the Modi income support which is actually a potential to lessen the crisis gripping government has been way below bribe during elections does not really the rural areas and improve food this. In fact, the allocation by the improve income from agriculture. security. Numerous studies have Modi government has been so low Even after taking into account shown that NREGA has had several that this scheme has been able to the huge outlay for income support, positive effects, including increasing make available an average of just as a percentage of the GDP, total rural wages, enabling better access 46 person-days of employment per agricultural spending during the to food and thereby reducing hunger, household during all the five years of five Modi budgets has significantly and reducing distress migration from Modi rule (Table 6). It is thus clear fallen; so much so, that even in rural areas. that the MGNREGS has stopped 2019–20, it has yet to reach the In its latest 2019–20 budget, being a demand-driven programme 2014–15 budget estimate level. the Modi government has cut the altogether; its scale depends rather But what is more important is MGNREGA budget allocation even on the amount of resources made that as a percentage of GDP, total in absolute terms, to Rs 60,000 crore, available for it—a clear violation spending on all agriculture related as compared to the 2018–19 revised of the Act. The primary sufferers sectors is just around 1.6% of GDP. estimate of Rs 61,084 crore (Table of this cut in funds are some of the This, for a sector on which more 5). Of this, Rs 7,568 crore will go poorest and most vulnerable workers than 50% of the population depend to meet the unpaid wages of the of rural India. for their livelihoods! previous year. This means that just to maintain the budget level at last Total allocation for all agriculture Falling rate of growth of year, the budget for this year should related sectors agriculture during Modi regime have been 61,084 + 4,887 (inflation Let us now take a look at the It is because of these anti-farmer

Table 6: NREGA Performance Indicators JANATA, April 21, 2019 13

Table 7: Budget Allocations for Agriculture Related Ministries (Rs crore)

policies of the Modi Government scheme of the Congress is welcome, increased from Rs 1.34 lakh that agricultural growth rate under it does not really attack the roots crore to Rs 2.8 lakh crore in the Modi government over the of the agricultural crisis—that the minimum. five year period 2014 to 2019 has agriculture is becoming unprofitable. • These investments in agriculture declined to an average of 2.9%, The other biggest limitation of the and related sectors will need to compared to 4.3% during the UPA-II NYAY scheme is that it too engages be directed towards: years, and 3.7% for the full 10 years in targeting, and is only targeted ◦ Increasing investment of UPA. This is based on the latest at the poorest 20% households, in irrigation facilities, GDP estimates released by the CSO, whereas the entire agricultural sector especially sprinkler and drip and is despite the manipulation of is in crisis. irrigation projects, water GDP data by the Modi Government.5 Therefore, what is more urgently shed development and tank This assault on Indian agriculture required is that: rehabilitation. pushed the hardy Indian farmers into • The government should increase ◦ Providing subsidised crop such despair that even after the its investment in agriculture loans to farmers, including Modi Government arm-twisted the towards making agriculture to women-headed families National Crime Records Bureau sustainable. As discussed above, and tenant farmers, equal to (NCRB) to make major changes in if the government reduces the their cost of production. its methodology, the number of farm enormous subsidies and transfers ◦ Providing subsidised and suicides increased by 40% during the being given to corporate houses, compulsory crop insurance first year of the Modi Government. it can easily double or even to all farmers through public The government panicked, and got triple its total investment on all sector insurance companies; the NCRB to stop releasing anymore agriculture related sectors: ◦ Implementing plans and data on farm suicides. The Union ◦ Outlay for Ministry of providing subsidised finance Agriculture Minister Radhamohan Agriculture can be trebled to promote dairy farming Singh in fact unashamedly admitted from Rs 65,800 crore and village-based industries in Parliament on December 18, (excluding income support) to increase rural incomes, 2018, that the NCRB, which collects to Rs 2 lakh crore. and efforts must be made such data, has not published figures ◦ Outlay for Ministry of Rural to do this through village of farmer suicides since 2016. Development (excluding cooperatives. NREGA and excluding ◦ Shifting the entire orientation Solving the agrarian crisis National Social Assistance of agriculture from the What is the best way of solving Programme – about which present chemical intensive, the agrarian crisis? While the NYAY we discuss later) can be external input oriented 14 JANATA, April 21, 2019

industrial agriculture also expand the procurement after the farmers have been pushed to alternate technologies to other important crops like out of their farms, they will need to that promote sustainable, oilseeds and pulses, all which be trained to work as workers in the environment friendly, it should distribute through a factories. agriculture. For this, the universalised public distribution The orientation is thus clear. government will need to system. This implies replacing Allow agribusiness corporations give priority to schemes like the targeted public distribution into Indian farming, let them take Paramparagat Krishi Vikas system by the previous universal control of procurement. Push out Yojana and National Project public distribution system, in the small farmers from agriculture, on Organic Farming. which, along with foodgrains, and transform Indian agriculture into • Apart from this, the government government should also corporate farming. will need to boost its investment distribute other food essentials There is little room for doubt. in the very important rural like pulses and cooking oil to The Modi Government is the most jobs guarantee scheme or all people. We have discussed anti-farmer government that has NREGA, and it will need to the costs for this elsewhere, and come to power at the Centre since implement good quality, free / they are not much. independence. cheap universal basic services including education, health, What is the real objective of the References nutrition and pensions. These Modi Government? 1. “New MSP: Govt Fails to Meet measures will of course also Why is the Modi Government Swaminathan Standards, Yet call for increasing investment only giving empty promises and not Again”, July 5, 2018, https://www. in all these sectors, which as taking concrete doable steps to solve downtoearth.org.in; “The Reality we discuss in a later article the agrarian crisis. This becomes Behind the MSP Hike on Rabi are eminently affordable for clear from a perusal of two official Crops”, October 26, 2018, https:// a government with so many documents: countercurrents.org. resources as India. A recent document of the NITI 2. “Firms Earned Rs 15,795 Crore • The Central Government also Aayog says: in 2 Years of Fasal Bima Yojana”, needs to take the initiative “With the corporate sector keen November 14, 2018, https://www. and provide a one time waiver on investing in agribusiness to tribuneindia.com. of all farm loans, including harness the emerging opportunities 3. “Numbers That Count: An private moneylender loans. in domestic and global markets, Assessment of the Union Budgets The moneylender loans should time is opportune for reforms that of NDA II”, CBGA, February 2019, be declared illegal by passing would provide healthy business http://www.cbgaindia.org. appropriate legislation, and the environment for this sector. Small 4. “Budget 2019: 'Anything Less Than bank loan waiver – which should scale has been a major constraint on Rs 88,000 Crore for MGNREGA cost at the most Rs 3 lakh crore the growth of this industry.”6 Is Insufficient”, February 3, 2019, according to estimates by experts The paper also calls for allowing https://thewire.in. – can be financed through issue corporate sector to side-step the 5. Ashok Gulati, “From Plate to of bonds like the government APMCs and procure directly from Plough: No Achhe Din for the has done for recapitalisation of the cultivator. Farmer”, March 20, 2019, https:// banks, so that the burden can be Another official document of indianexpress.com. distributed over many years. the government lays out a target 6. Aspects of India’s Economy, Nos. • Government procurement of of bringing down the population 66–67, May 2017, Part IV, http:// crops should take place at engaged in agriculture from the www.rupe-india.org. 50% above cost of production, existing 57% to 38% over the next 7. Devinder Sharma, “How World where cost of production is five years, by 2022.7 Interestingly, Bank’s Economic Chakravyuh defined as C2 production this is elucidated in a report of Is Trapping Indian Farmers”, cost. It should also expand the National Skill Development September 30, 2017, https://www. procurement of foodgrains, and Council. The reason is obvious— ecologise.in. JANATA, April 21, 2019 15 Venezuela: Why is Maduro Still in Power?

Federico Fuentes

For many, it is impossible era was the most beautiful time culture, that spirituality, that history. to understand how, despite in Venezuelan history. Everyone Chávez not only identified with that presiding over the country’s worst was able to improve their living history, he taught us history. Chávez economic crisis and facing such conditions, not just the poor but even talked about Simón Bolívar and our intense international and domestic the rich.” struggle for independence. opposition, Maduro remains in the “Thanks to Hugo Chávez, we “He also began to build hope presidential palace. have the opportunity to study, to do in us that we, the people, could The answer lies in the enduring a postgraduate [course],” explains construct our own history. Chávez strength of Chavismo, a political another. awoke something within the people.” movement of the working classes “Universities were basically that, despite predating former privatised. Unless you were rich you Political subject president Hugo Chávez, continues had no chance of being able to go to Caracas-based Argentine to take his name and political project university. sociologist Marco Teruggi believes as its own. “Chávez opened up education the opposition’s inability to accept The refusal by Maduro’s and started to give students uniforms, or comprehend this phenomenon is opponents, inside and outside shoes, food, computers; kids are why it “has been making the same Venezuela, to acknowledge its given laptops, tablets…” error in their analysis for twenty existence also goes a long way to A young man interrupts: years”. explaining why they have remained “University students also get a “They don't incorporate the in opposition for more than two tablet. I have one. I had never seen existence of Chavismo as a political decades. one before, but now I have one.” subject into their analysis.” Teruggi explained that to Chávez Identity understand Chavismo, it is important Walking down the main street of The depth of support for Chávez to look beyond the government and San Fernando, capital of the border among working people, however, view this political movement in all state of Apure, it did not take long cannot be simply explained by his its complexity. for someone to come up and start association with better times. Emerging from within the popular talking politics. Within minutes, a Andreina Pino, a local activist classes, Chavismo incorporates a group discussion had formed. with the Bolivar and Zamora gamut of political parties, social I asked them about Chávez. One Revolutionary Current in the rural movements and organisations, and responded: “Chávez didn’t come to state of Barinas, where Chávez was penetrates deep into the barrios and power just because he wanted a job. born, says this identification is due military barracks. He came to power because we were to Chávez’s ability to “decipher the “We cannot begin to understand dying of hunger; Venezuelans were code of the people.” how, for instance, the economic dying of hunger in the ’80s and ’90s. “Chávez was able to do this,” crisis has not led to a popular “That’s why, in ’89 the barrios Pino explains “because he came explosion, if we don’t understand [poor neighbourhoods] came down from the people.” the deep roots that Chavismo has in the hills and looted stores to get “Generally, politicians in this the barrios, where it has generated a food,” he said, referring to the country came from rich families and whole network of organisations that February 27 Caracazo uprising, didn't have that contact with working are very strong and that allows it to ultimately put down by brutal people. Chávez was able to connect contain the situation,” said Teruggi. repression which, according to with the sentiment, culture and “Importantly, Chavismo has its reports, left thousands dead. spirituality of the Venezuelan people own political identity. We could say Another said: “The Chávez . . . He came to synthesise all of that that Chavismo is an identity of a 16 JANATA, April 21, 2019 part of the popular classes. Under that have historically been very otherwise it will lose the support it Chavismo, the popular classes Chavista. needs to stay in power.” were not only able to improve their “These were not in middle class However, Teruggi believes economic situation but to participate sectors, at least here in Caracas; Venezuelans are still some time in politics, have a public voice, be they were protests by people from away from reaching breaking protagonists. the barrios who do not agree with point. “I think this is why the US is "Only Chavismo has offered Maduro; people who are not with attempting to accelerate its actions them this. They are defending a the opposition but who are fed up against Maduro. process that today has been dealt with having had to deal with this “Rather than continuing to blows but continues to be the only economic situation for so many . . . wear down support for the project that has offered the popular years.” government through economic classes in Venezuela a different Jiménez noted that the politics attacks, the US is instead promoting destiny to the one they had always of the protest were, like everything a parallel government. Even if been condemned to—one of poverty, in Venezuela, very complex and the attacks on the economy are unemployment, exclusion and contradictory. Some of them “were generating a lot of damage and marginalisation. The people are tied to the actions of armed gangs”, Chavismo has been unable to not defending Maduro; they are while in other cases, members of respond . . . and even contributed defending the possibility of being the police and Bolivarian National to problems through its own errors, able to continue improving not just Guard were involved. the overall balance of forces has their economic situation but their “These protests did not have maintained itself.” lives in general.” a clear leadership, they were not Pino agrees: “The people planned or organised by a political Anti-imperialism who continue to support Maduro sector, although there were right- Jiménez notes that "in other understand that it's Maduro [in these] wing opposition sectors who tried circumstances, under neoliberal circumstances … who is the current to promote the protests because they governments, we would have turned leader of the civic-military process. saw them as functional to their aims this country upside down." The right doesn't understand this; of removing Maduro by any means.” “But these mass protests they don’t understand that what is Beyond these complexities, dissipated once Guaidó entered the in dispute here is not Maduro but a “they were protests about the very political scene, because that popular project.” real situations that people are facing force, which is discontent, that has . . . and in some places, where criticism towards the government . . No blank check Chavistas are very angry with the . retreated as a new variable entered Teruggi points out, however, that difficulties of everyday life, the into the fray. “Chavismo is not a blank check. It’s protests were huge.” “That new variable is not something that can be used and “Many of the people who imperialism.” abused for an indefinite amount of protested feel that the government Guaidó’s US-backed self- time.” has not been capable of resolving proclamation, his appeals for foreign Earlier this year, there were clear their problems. They said: ‘We have intervention and more sanctions signs of this. given [the government] all of our meant that, “those spontaneous Atenea Jiménez, from the votes, for the National Constituent protests stopped as people began National Network of Comuneros, Assembly, for governors, for to say that this is not the way to which unites people involved in mayors, all of them. So what excuse solve our problems. Among the numerous communes across the do they have for not resolving our people there is a very strong anti- country, explained that, in January, everyday problems such as food and imperialist sentiment, independently between Maduro’s inauguration and medicine?’.” of the position that people may have Guaidó’s self-proclamation, “there Teruggi notes that the current towards the government. were many protests . . . but these situation “cannot last forever. “Any threat of foreign protests were different as they were There needs to be responses by intervention immediately generates in popular sectors, including some the government to these demands, within our people a spirit of struggle JANATA, April 21, 2019 17 . . . people recognise that we can Where Next for the Student Climate Strikes? have our criticisms, but that this has nothing to do with [US President Donald] Trump being able to decide Helena Nicholson who our president should be. The roughshod manner in which the The #YouthStrike4Climate This instinctive internationalism opposition has acted and its open movement has exploded in size from and understanding of the power of calls for US intervention, together its small beginnings just over half a mass organisation will prove to be with the almost daily statements year ago, when one Swedish school an important formative experience coming from Trump's spokespeople, student protested alone outside for future struggles. has generated a patriotic sentiment, a parliament against her government’s Whatever may come of the conviction that we will resolve this lack of commitment to the Paris student climate strikes, there in the way that we want to resolve Climate agreement. will be many lessons learnt from it.” Only months later, on 15 this movement. There is now a These sentiments were expressed March, over 1.5 million students generation whose main reference by many, including one of the in 125 countries (in more than point when it comes to demanding women who joined the discussion 2,000 locations worldwide) went on political change is mass direct in San Fernando: “We don't want strike together to demand systemic action, involving wildcat strikes and the Yankees or anyone else to get and radical change to stop global protests involving blocking bridges, involved here. We are determined warming. stopping traffic, and climbing on to be free. We don't want any more In the UK, the strike turnout buses. interference in our country. What more than tripled on the previous They have been shown very we want is to be independent, to be national strike in February, rising starkly the limits and impotence of sovereign and for us to be able to from 15,000 to 50,000. The number democracy under capitalism, in the decide what happens to our wealth. of strike locations increased from 60 face of an environmental crisis that No one else can tell us what to do to around 150. threatens our future. with our resources.” This picture was replicated— Whilst the movement lacks Another adds: “We want to on an even greater scale—in other a clear direction or political resolve our problems ourselves. We countries. There were over 300,000 programme, there is equally an are happy to accept suggestions, but strikers in Germany, 150,000 in implicit understanding that the power good suggestions. Any country can Canada, 100,000 in Italy, 70,000 in of a mass movement is necessary come and make suggestions, but no Switzerland and 50,000 in Belgium to force real change—even if the one can impose themselves on us and many hundreds of thousands revolutionary consequences of this like the US is trying to. That's not more across the world. have not been fully drawn out. the way it works here. That’s not the This marks a qualitative shift in This reflects the kinds of political way to help.” the consciousness of young people struggle which will emerge in the “If the US wants to help us internationally. There has been no near future. then get rid of the sanctions,” says comparable militant, global and another. organised youth movement in recent Organise and strike history. The traditional unions in Britain (Federico Fuentes writes for have so far shown little appetite for Green Left Weekly, Australia.) Militant action the kind of radical action seen in this Time Is Running Out. It is youth movement. But the militant perhaps surprising—but no less example of the school strikes Janata encouraging—that the first reaction could act as the spark for a wider is available at of an entire generation around the movement of mass coordinated world to the threat of the climate strike action in the trade unions www.lohiatoday.com crisis has been to organise themselves against the Tory government, if this and take unofficial strike action. political connection is made between 18 JANATA, April 21, 2019 workers and students—and, most French labour movement in previous and democratic plan of production. importantly, if a bold, fighting lead is struggles. Indeed, the big union But you cannot plan what you do not given from the leaders of the labour leaders have actively distanced control; and you do not control what movement. themselves from the gilets jaunes you do not own. The focal point of the struggle in since the start of the protests last Elsewhere, there have been Britain at the present time is clearly November. This has prevented concerted attempts to depoliticise on the political plane, around the fight the movement from realising its the movement. Angela Merkel, for for a Corbyn Labour government. tremendous potential power, if example, has voiced some support But a mass campaign of protests workers were united and organised for the strikes on this basis, hoping and strikes must play a part in this, against the bosses and the Macron to channel the movement into a safe in order to force a general election government. and palatable liberal direction. and kick out the Tories. By contrast, the students in At the present time, however, the At the same time, a new wave of the climate strike protests are climate strike movement shows no young workers in precarious sectors instinctively drawing political signs of abating or watering down are starting to organise, particularly conclusions. Chants against Theresa its demands. Meanwhile, the wider in smaller unions. The bakers’ May are frequently heard at the class struggle is only set to intensify. union (BFAWU), for example, is demonstrations in Britain, as are It is therefore imperative that the organising strikes of McDonald’s slogans in support of Jeremy Corbyn. youth climate strikes link up with the workers. And there are also more Labour should therefore take a bold organised working class, in order militant and unofficial strikes taking lead in supporting and helping to to build a mass movement capable place through the IWGB, UVW and channel the radical anger of this of bringing about a fundamental other unions, who are organising movement. transformation of society. outsourced workers. Liberal environmentalism and Young people are militant and Need for revolution tinkering around the edges of the angry, and are beginning to see the It is important to recognise system will not work. We must be imperative of getting organised. that there is a sharp contrast clear: capitalism is killing our planet. between the official demands of the We need a revolution. The limits of spontaneity #YouthStrike4Climate movement Whilst the spontaneity of the and the demands and mood seen on (Helena Nicholson is a UK climate strike movement has allowed the street. based socialist activist.) it to grow rapidly and lent additional The official organisers make militancy to the protests, we should limited calls for greater education not romanticise this spontaneity. and awareness; votes at 16; and the In the absence of any organisation declaration of a ‘climate emergency’. and direction, and without a clear But the placards and chants on recent socialist programme and alternative, protests have made it clear that the such a movement can be derailed, overriding demands is for ‘system co-opted, or can run out of steam. change not climate change’. It is This can be seen from necessary now to outline what this the gilets jaunes movement in ‘system change’ must involve. France. The yellow vests too are Left-wingers in the British an explosive and radical mass Labour Party and the American movement: spontaneous; mobilised Democrats have called for a ‘Green largely through social media; and New Deal’ to address the climate characterised by a deep mistrust of crisis. In essence, this is a Keynesian organisation and leadership. programme of government tax-and- The main reason for this spend. But it does not address the rejection of organisation lies with key question of ownership. Tackling the betrayals of the leaders of the climate change requires a rational JANATA, April 21, 2019 19 People’s Power Topples Sudan’s Omar al-Bashir

Omar al-Bashir, who was said that a lot depends on whether president of Sudan for nearly the army will bow before the will 30 years, has been forced out by of the people and give up its power, Sudanese army after months of or seek to prop up elements of the popular protests that rocked the current regime. country. Media reports say al-Bashir The past few days saw the is under house arrest. Government biggest mobilizations in the country sources have said that consultations since December 19, when protests are on to set up a transitional broke out over the hike in the rate government, which might be led by of bread prices. These protests vice-president Awad Awnaf. soon escalated into a demand for Reports say all political the ouster of the al-Bashir regime. prisoners have been released and From April 6, thousands of Sudanese some government officials may be mobilized at the headquarters of in detention. the army in various States, urging However, various organizations the soldiers to join the protests. which have been in the forefront Attempts by security forces and of the protests which finally led militia loyal to al-Bashir to break to the removal of al-Bashir have up the demonstrations failed when made it clear they will not accept some soldiers and junior officers a dispensation which has links to came out and fired at the security the previous regime. The Sudanese forces. As many as 26 peoples were Professionals Association said in a killed and around 160-170 injured statement, “We assert that the people since April 6. of Sudan will not accept anything Omar al-Bashir has been less than a civil transitional authority convicted by the International composed of a patriotic group of Criminal Court for war crimes and experts who were not involved with crimes against humanity for being the tyrannical regime.” complicit in the massacres in Darfur. It asked the armed forces to “hand over power to the people, The Unemployment according to what was expressed in the declaration of freedom and Crisis: change.” The armed forces are Reasons and expected to make a statement on Solutions Wednesday. With news of Bashir’s ouster Contribution Rs. 25/- spreading, thousands of Sudanese Published by thronged the streets of the capital city Khartoum to celebrate. Protesters Janata Trust & Lokayat were heard chanting slogans such D-15, Ganesh Prasad, as “He is a coward and he has Naushir Bharucha Marg, fallen!” There was general bonhomie Grant Road (W), between the protesters and army Mumbai 400 007 personnel. However, experts have R.N.I. NO. 1855/1957 20 JANATA, April 21, 2019 Postal Registration No. MCW/275/2018-2020. License to Post without prepayment WPP License No. MR/Tech/WPP-210/West/2019 Published on Sunday, April 21, 2019 & Posted on Wedenesday, April 24, 2019 at Mumbai Patrika Channel, Mumbai GPO-1

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Vol. 74 No. 14 Fukushima: An Ongoing Global April 28, 2019 Radiological Catastrophe

Gandhi-Ambedkar Interface . . . Helen Caldicott interviewed by Global Research When Shall the Twain Meet? Suhas Palshikar April 26 marks the 33rd relation to the Fukushima meltdown. anniversary of the Chernobyl nuclear Helen Caldicott: Well, it’s More Than a Reformer, Jyotirao disaster. And on March 11, the eighth difficult because the Japanese Phule Was an Architect of Ideas anniversary passed of the triple government has authorised only Umesh Kumar meltdowns at the Fukushima Daiichi examination of thyroid cancer. Noam Chomsky and the Question nuclear facility. Both anniversaries Now thyroid cancer is caused by of Individual Choice passed mostly without comment in radioactive iodine and there were Anjan Basu mainstream media circles. In spite of many, many cases of that after ongoing radiological contamination Chernobyl. And already, they’ve Modinomics = Corporatonomics that will continue to spread and looked at children under the age of Part III: Modi’s Budgets threaten human health for lifetimes 18 in the Fukushima prefecture at and the Social Sectors to come, other stories dominate the the time of the accident, and by June Neeraj Jain international news cycle. We give 2018 last year, 201 had developed below a transcript of an interview thyroid cancer. Some cancers had Who are Venezuela’s Colectivos? of Dr Helen Caldicott conducted by metastasized (means spreading Federico Fuentes Global Research in March this year of cancer to a different body part on the health dangers posed by these from where it started – ed.). The Editor : G. G. Parikh nuclear disasters. incidence of thyroid cancer in that Global Research: Now the population normally is 1 per million. Associate Editor : Neeraj Jain Japanese government is preparing So obviously it’s an epidemic of Managing Editor : Guddi to welcome visitors to Japan for thyroid cancer and it’s just starting the 2020 Olympic Games, and now. Editorial Board : coverage of the 8th anniversary of What people need to understand B. Vivekanandan, Qurban Ali the Fukushima disaster is hardly, it is the latent period of carcinogenesis, Anil Nauriya, Sonal Shah seems to me, registered given the that is, the time after exposure to Amarendra Dhaneshwar, significant radiological and other radiation when cancers develop, Sandeep Pandey dangers that you cited and your is any time from 3 years to 80 authors cited in your 2014 book, years. And so it’s a very, very long D-15, Ganesh Prasad, Crisis Without End. Now it’s been period. Thyroid cancers appear early. Naushir Bharucha Marg, more than four years since that Leukemia appears about 5 to 10 Mumbai - 400 007. book came out. I was hoping you years later. They’re not looking for Email : [email protected] could update our listenership on leukemia. Solid cancers of any organ Website:www.janataweekly.org what is currently being recognised as such appear about 15 years later. as the main health threats in 2019 in The Hibakusha from Hiroshima and 2 JANATA, April 28, 2019

Nagasaki who are still alive are still enough room to build more tanks, incubation . . . developing cancers in higher than they’re talking about emptying all HC: No they’re not looking for normal numbers. that water into the Pacific Ocean. But leukemia. They’re not charting it. So The Japanese government has this will be a disaster. The fishermen the only cancer they’re looking at is told doctors that they are not to talk are very, very upset. The fish being thyroid cancer and that’s really high, to their patients about radiation and caught off Fukushima, some are 201 have already been diagnosed illnesses derived thereof, and in fact if obviously already contaminated. and some have metastasized. And the doctors do do that, they might lose Water comes down from the a very tight lid is being kept on their funding from the government. mountains behind the reactors, flows any other sort of radiation related The IAEA (International Atomic underneath the reactors into the sea illnesses and the like. It’s not just a Energy Agency) interestingly set up and always has. When the reactors catastrophe it’s a . . . a hospital—a cancer hospital—in were in good shape, the water was GR: . . . a cover up Fukushima along with the Fukushima fine, didn’t get contaminated. But HC: Yeah. I can’t really explain University for people with cancer, now the three molten cores are in how I feel medically about it. It’s which tells you everything. contact with that water flowing under just hideous. So there’s a huge, huge cover the reactors and so the water flowing GR: Well I have a brother up. I have been to Japan twice into the Pacific is very radioactive. who’s a physician, who was saying and particularly to Fukushima and Note that that’s a separate thing that the World Health Organisation spoken to people there and the from the million gallons or more in is a fairly authoritative body of parents are desperate to hear the those tanks. research for all of the indicators truth even if it’s not good truth. They put up a refrigerated wall and epidemiological aspects of this, And they thanked me for telling of frozen dirt around the reactors but you seem to suggest the World them the truth. So it’s an absolute to prevent that water from the Health Organisation may not be that medical catastrophe I would say, and mountains flowing underneath the reliable in light of the fact that they a total cover up to protect the nuclear reactors, which has cut down the are partnered with the IAEA. Is that industry and all its ramifications. amount of water flowing per day my understanding…? GR: Now, are we talking about from 500 tons to about a 150. But HC: Correct. They signed a some of the contamination that it’s a transient thing anyway so it’s document, I think in 1959, with the happened 8 years ago or are we ridiculous. So over time the Pacific IAEA that they would not report talking about ongoing emissions is going to become more and more any medical effects of radiological from, for example . . . radioactive. disasters and they’ve stuck to that. HC: Well there are ongoing They talk about decommissioning So they are in effect in this area part emissions into the air consistently, and removing those molten cores. of the International Atomic Energy number one. Number two, a huge When robots go in and try and have Agency whose mission is to promote amount of water is being stored— a look at them, their wiring just nuclear power. So don’t even think over a million gallons—in tanks at melts and disappears. The cores about the WHO. It’s really obscene. the site. That water is being siphoned are extraordinarily radioactive. No GR: What would the incentive off from the the damaged melted human can go near them because be . . . simply that they got funding? reactor cores. Water is pumped they would die within 48 hours HC: I don’t know. I really don’t consistently every day, every hour, from the radiation exposure. They know but they sold themselves to to keep the cores cool in case they will never, and I repeat never, the devil. have another melt. And that water, of decommission those reactors. They GR: That’s pretty incredible. course, is extremely contaminated. will never be able to stop the water Then, there’s also the issue of Now, they say they’ve filtered coming down from the mountains. biomagnification in the oceans, out the contaminants except for the And so, let the truth be known, where you have hundreds of tons tritium which is part of the water it’s an ongoing global radiological of this radioactive water getting molecule, but they haven’t. There’s catastrophe which no one really is into the oceans and biomagnifying strontium, cesium and many other addressing in full. up through the food chain, so these elements in that water—it’s highly GR: Do we have a better reading radioactive particles can get inside radioactive—and because there isn’t on the other cancers, like leukemia our bodies. Could you speak about JANATA, April 28, 2019 3 what we could expect to see in the Fukushima. So, it’s an ongoing bio- where the athletes are going to be years ahead in terms of the illnesses magnification catastrophe. running, the dust and dirt there that manifest themselves? And the thing is that you can’t has been measured, and it’s highly HC: Well number one, even taste, smell or see radioactive radioactive. Abe, the Prime Minister Fukushima is a very agricultural elements in your food. They’re of Japan, has set this up as a sort of prefecture. Beautiful, beautiful invisible. And it takes a long time way to obscure what Fukushima peaches, beautiful food, and lots of for cancers to occur. And you can’t really means. And those young rice. The radiation has spread far identify a particular cancer caused athletes . . . young people are much and wide through the Fukushima by a particular substance or isotope. more sensitive to radiation . . . it’s prefecture, and indeed they have You can only identify that problem just a catastrophe waiting to happen. been plowing up millions and by doing epidemiological studies— It is being called the radioactive millions of tons of radioactive dirt comparing irradiated people with Olympics! and storing it in plastic bags all non-irradiated people—to see what GR: Is there anything that over the prefecture. The mountains the cancer levels are and that data people can do, whether they live in are highly radioactive and every comes from Hiroshima and Nagasaki Japan or, say, the west coast of North time it rains, down comes radiation and many, many, many other studies. America, to mitigate the effects that with the water. The radiation is GR: Chernobyl as well, isn’t it? this disaster has had, and may still from the elements. There are over HC: Oh, Chernobyl! Well, a be having eight years later? 200 radioactive elements made in wonderful book was produced by HC: Yes. Do not eat any Japanese a nuclear reactor. Some have lives the Russians, and published by the food because you don’t know where of seconds and some have lives of New York Academy of Sciences, it’s sourced. Do not eat fish from millions of years, that is to say, the on Chernobyl with over 5,000 on Japan, miso, rice, you name it. Do radiation lasts for millions of years. the ground studies of children and not eat Japanese food. Period. Fish So there are many many isotopes, diseases in Belarus and the Ukraine, caught off the west coast of Canada long-lasting isotopes—cesium, and all over Europe. By now, over and America, well, they’re not strontium, tritium—on the soil in a million people have already died testing the fish so I don’t know what Fukushima. from the Chernobyl disaster. And to say. Well, most of it’s probably And what happens is—you many diseases have been caused by not radioactive, but you don’t know talked about biomagnification— that, including premature aging in because you can’t taste it. when the plants take up the water children, microcephaly in babies, They’ve closed down the from the soil, they take up the cesium very small heads, diabetes, leukemia, air-borne radioactive measuring also, which is a potassium analog, it I could go on and on. instruments off the west coast of resembles potassium. Strontium 90 And those diseases which have America. That’s pretty bad, because resembles calcium, and so on. And been very well described in that there still could be another huge these elements get magnified by wonderful book, which everyone accident at those reactors. orders of magnitude in the rice and should read, are not being addressed For instance, if there’s another in the plants. And so when you eat or identified or looked for in the large earthquake, number one, all food that is grown in Fukushima, the Fukushima or Japanese population. those tanks would be destroyed chances are it’s going to be relatively May I say that parts of Tokyo are and the water would pour into the radioactive. extremely radioactive. People have Pacific. Number two, there could Now, these isotopes go into been measuring the dirt from roofs of be another meltdown, a release — the ocean as well, and the algae apartments, from the roadway, from huge release of radiation, from the bio-magnify them by ten to a vacuum cleaner dust. And some of damaged reactors. So, things are hundred times or more. And then these samples are so radioactive very tenuous, but they’re not just the crustaceans eat the algae, bio- that they would classify to be buried tenuous now. They’re going to be magnify it more. The little fish eat in radioactive waste facilities in tenuous forever. the crustaceans, the big fish eat the America. That’s number one. little fish and the like. Tuna found Number two, to have the (Dr. Helen Caldicott is author, off the coast of California some Olympics in Fukushima just defies physician and one of the world’s years ago contained isotopes from imagination. Some of the areas leading anti-nuclear campaigners.) 4 JANATA, April 28, 2019 Gandhi-Ambedkar Interface . . . When Shall the Twain Meet?

Suhas Palshikar

Gandhi and Ambedkar would the assessment of thought. Also, for untouchables? Was he wrong in have agreed on as many issues as we need to accept that immediate forcing Ambedkar into acquiescence they would have disagreed upon. political interests of Gandhi and through the fast? I would tend They could not find much ground Ambedkar clashed. Ambedkar began to argue that such questions are for co-operation and collaboration. his political career as leader of the largely irrelevant given the fact that In popular perception—and in untouchables and continued to claim 'separate electorates' do not form the perception of many of their to be the authentic representative of the core of Ambedkar's thought. In followers too—they remained the untouchable community. Gandhi, other words, the Gandhi–Ambedkar opponents. Both indulged in on the other hand, appeared to be relationship needs to be probed in verbal duels in order to expose the denying the existence of separate the context not of personalities or weaknesses of each other's thought interests of untouchables in the political strategies, but in terms and actions. This legacy could never context of the freedom struggle. of their respective emancipatory be abandoned by the Ambedkaiite Ambedkar was always suspicious projects. political movement even after the of the social content of freedom 1950s. The disappearance of both struggle and believed that Gandhi Caste Question personalities from the social scene, was not adequately sensitive to The centrality of the caste and a change in the political context this. Since Gandhi was at the helm question in Ambedkar's thought have not altered the standardised of the freedom struggle, Ambedkar cannot be overemphasised. He positioning of the two as each other's thought it necessary to position believed that untouchability was enemies. Against this background himself against Gandhi. Given an expression of the caste system. it is proposed to enquire into the these historical circumstances, is it Therefore, Ambedkar chose to differences in the discourses of necessary that we sit in judgment to study the caste system and critically Gandhi and Ambedkar. decide the case in favour of either analyse the justification it received Two general points may be noted Gandhi or Ambedkar? from Hindu scriptures. His thought before we proceed to a discussion The present note proceeds does not deal merely with removal of the relationship between the with the assumption that Gandhi– of untouchability which was but one Gandhian discourse and the Ambedkar clashes resulted from part of the anti-caste movement. He Ambedkarian discourse. Movements their personalities, as well as was also concerned with the overall for social transformation are based their respective positioning in the annihilation of caste. Gandhi, of on emancipatory ideologies. At contemporary political contexts. course, was in favour of abolition the present juncture in the Indian However, beyond these clashes of caste- based discriminations. In society we find that movements for and differences of assessment of personal conduct too, he did not social transformation are weak and contemporary politics, there exists practise caste. But the caste question localised. Further, the dominant some ground where the agenda does not occupy a place of urgency in discourse today does not believe in of Gandhi and Ambedkar might his thought. He tended to emphasise the project of emancipation. In this actually be complementary. To untouchability more than the caste context it becomes necessary to tap realise this, it is necessary to throw question. For Gandhi, untouchability the possibilities of realignment of away the burden of proving whose formed the core of the caste system. emancipatory ideologies. It would be political position was correct or Once untouchability was removed, inadvisable to be persuaded by the incorrect. there will be no caste system. exclusivist claims of any ideology to The question of separate Gandhi was right in identifying the project of emancipation. electorates for untouchables is a untouchability as the most abhorring Secondly, personality clashes case in point. Was Gandhi wrong expression of caste-based inequality need not be the decisive factor in in opposing separate electorates and attendant inhumanity. But the JANATA, April 28, 2019 5 crucial question is, would caste and penance. However, as Ambedkar electorate. Gandhi's relative neglect disappear if untouchability is not put it squarely, untouchability exists of developing satyagraha against practised? If so, why should there as a stigma on the body of the caste probably derived from this be internal differentiation and untouchables. As the ones suffering position of not recognising the hierarchical separation among the from injustice, how should the political nature of social divisions. touchable castes? Gandhi would untouchables fight against their Although he uses the term argue that untouchability stands for plight in the Gandhian framework? harijan for untouchable 'brethren', everything ugly in the caste system, Even if they were to offer satyagraha, Gandhi stoutly refused to recognise and therefore, it must go instantly. how could this act prick the that caste-based divisions could Extending this logic, he could further conscience of caste Hindus who actually be analytical categories claim that untouchability could be were under the ideological spell of for understanding the complex fully and finally removed only when religious sanction to caste and who network of structures of injustice caste-consciousness is removed. were getting material advantages in the Hindu society. Ambedkar Removal of untouchability would from the caste-based order? Apart draws the distinction between thus symbolically bury the caste from practising untouchability, the untouchables and caste Hindus; system. In the light of development caste society presents a number he also suggests the possibility of Gandhi's views on the caste issue, of other possible sites of injustice of using the categories of savarna there is no doubt about Gandhi's where different caste groups may and avarna, where the latter would ultimate preparedness to abolish be located in antagonistic situations. include untouchables and tribals, caste. And yet, the caste question Gandhi's discourse does not direct aborigines, etc. Before him, Phule does not become the core of Gandhi's intellectual attention and political visualised the categorisation in terms discourse. energies to the question of waging of shudra–atishudra and 'trivarniks' Consequently, Gandhi did not struggle against the caste system or those with ‘dvij’ status. The logic extend the scope of satyagraha to and more importantly against caste behind such categorisation is to caste and caste-based inequality. groups deriving advantages from the locate the main contradiction in the Gandhi extended support to temple caste system; instead, Gandhi tends caste-ridden society, either as varna entry movements but did not allow to search for possible areas of co- or as 'dvij' status. While Gandhi such movements to occupy the operation and integration of castes. would accept the empirical reality of centre-stage in his movement. Therefore, he refuses to recognise caste, he was not prepared to posit Similarly, Gandhi undertook fast to caste divisions even at the analytical in it the ideological basis of anti- convince Hindus of the sinfulness level. caste struggle. Hence, his insistence of practising untouchability and Gandhi's constant appeals on identifying the untouchables as exhorted people to abolish the to caste Hindus not to practise part of the Hindu fold. The relative practice. But the philosophy of untouchability clearly indicate his unimportance of caste question in the satyagraha does not adequately awareness that one section of the Gandhian discourse is prominently answer the question of tackling society was being treated unjustly expressed in the writings of almost injustices perpetrated by one's own by another; it was not a 'personal' all Gandhian intellectuals who tend society and sanctioned by religion. relationship but a group relationship. to virtually exclude the issue of caste Satyagraha as a political weapon Inspite of this division of society at from their expositions of Gandhism is adequately demonstrated by the empirical level, Gandhi refused Gandhi's thought and practice. But to concede a separate political Bane of Capitalism if satyagraha is to become a moral identity to untouchables through The Gandhian discourse purifier, what kind of struggle is separate electorates. He would evolved through and along with necessary against untouchability allow 'reservation for castes' but his struggles against racism and and caste? In the case of the representational character of colonialism. These struggles amply untouchability, Gandhi could argue those elected through reserved seats acquainted him with the evil side of that the responsibility of removing would not be 'communal', i.e., not western society. Yet, Gandhi was untouchability lies with the caste as representatives of untouchables not trapped in formulating anti- Hindus. Hence the reference to sin but as representatives of the general west nationalism. He realised that 6 JANATA, April 28, 2019 the malady of the West lay in its relation to this Gandhian position, capitalist economy, Ambedkar was peculiar production process. The regarding capitalism and modern even prepared to reject it for a more modern process of production led civilisation? Two points arc striking egalitarian and democratic system to commodification and consequent in this context. Firstly, for the most of production. Ambedkar has noted degradation of human character. part of his political career, Ambedkar the political fallout of capitalism, Therefore, Gandhi directed his did not employ his expertise in viz, sham democracy. Therefore, it attention to the modern lifestyle economics to his political agenda. is not correct to say that Ambedkar and the artificial generation of false Secondly, his early economic was against taking up economic materiality. The transformation of treatises do not substantially depart issues or developing a critique of human beings into consumers from from the ideological position and capitalism. He was not averse to a producers was the main step in the standard wisdom prevalent in search for an alternative economic degeneration of human society. economics during his time. system although he did not devote In this sense, the Gandhian It may be said that the main his energies to this project. But his discourse can be squarely situated concern of Ambedkar was to emphasis on caste question give an in the context of the problematique understand sociologically the impression that he had no sympathy of capitalism. Although Gandhi operation of the caste system and for a radical economic agenda, and rarely attacked capitalism directly, to understand the socio-religious has resulted in many of his followers his analysis of modern civilisation justifications of the same. His literally seeing 'red' at the mention unmistakably indicts capitalism. political struggles, too, occurred of economic issues! This has led His assessment of the exploitative on very different terrain from the to a false dichotomisation between nature of the modern process of economic. Thus, though he was the caste question and economic production, dehumanising effects aware of the economic aspects of questions. Ambedkar's speeches of consumerism and his overall caste system he chose to concentrate and Marathi writings suggest that assessment of the modern society do on the social, cultural, religious and he did not subscribe to such a not make sense unless understood as political aspects of caste. Besides, dichotomisation. He was aware of analysis of the capitalist social order. Ambedkar's writings manifest a the threat to liberty, equality and Had Gandhi not been demolishing constant vacillation on his part as far fraternity not only from brahminism the claims of capitalism, he would as assessment of modern capitalist but from capitalism also. not have given so much prominence economy is concerned. For one to the Daridranarayan. His entire thing, he was not persuaded by the Perspectives on Tradition project hinges upon the juxtaposition soundness of communist economics. It is interesting to sec how between Daridranarayan and For another, Ambedkar was wary of Gandhi and Ambedkar negotiate the satanical nature of capitalist any alternative that would tend to with tradition. Gandhi engages in enterprise. Gandhi's advocacy of a glorify or justify a semblance of the a creative dialogue with tradition. simple life, insistence on abnegation 'old order' in which caste occupied He tries to find out the element of of wants and swadeshi must be seen a pivotal role. Thus, autonomous truth in tradition and emphasises as counterpoints to crass materiality village communities, small industry, it. In many cases he attaches new and instrumental interdependence mutual dependence, etc, were not meanings to traditional symbols. He nurtured by capitalism. In this appreciated by him for fear of gives an impression that he is asking sense, Gandhi's swadeshi calls indirectly furthering caste interests. for nothing new in substance, but for for redefinition of the scope of He might have looked upon forces the continuation of the 'old' tradition. material development and an of modernity as cutting at the root of The secret of Gandhi's ability to outright rejection of capitalism as the caste society and therefore was not arouse revolutionary potential instrument of development. It must convinced of the 'evils' involved in among the masses lies partly in this be borne in mind that Gandhi was modernity. method of not claiming anything not opposed to modern civilisation And yet it would be wrong revolutionary, and in the appeal per se but as a social order based on to believe that Ambedkar upheld to the conscience of the masses capitalism. capitalism uncritically. Not only through tradition. For this purpose, Where does Ambedkar stand in was he critical of many aspects of while choosing popular traditional JANATA, April 28, 2019 7 symbols, Gandhi emphasised those will always be caught in crossfire. by rejection of greed. From the symbols which have been associated Those defending inequality will vantage point of this vision of the with truth and justice. Assuming cogently place it as part of tradition community, Gandhian discourse the role of interpreter of our 'great and will seek to glorify tradition as makes an assessment of colonial tradition', Gandhi takes the liberty 'anadi', 'sanatan' and infallible. While and capitalist reality. It develops a of developing his own normative those opposing inequality will seek trenchant critique of modernity. The framework on the basis of tradition. to condemn the same heritage for all Ambedkarian discourse unfolds in Ambedka, on the other hand, the sins in society. Gandhi, sensing a different manner. It commences was in search of the ideology of the emotional power of tradition, from the critical evaluation of exploitation. He felt that tradition appropriated it in order to save it Indian social reality. Therefore, it was this ideology. Injustice based from chauvinist glorifications. But concentrates on the Hindu social on caste could not have continued even an appropriation of tradition order, its religious ideology and unless it was legitimised by tradition. requires a strong critique. Such a Hindu tradition. Thus, Ambedkar's He also believed that the tradition of critique is a constant reminder that discourse takes the form of critique Hindu society was predominated tradition may have the potential of of Hindu religion and society. by brahminical interests. As such, aligning with forces which perpetuate Ambedkar was constantly aware he could not ignore the role of inequality. An all-round criticism of of the need to situate this critique tradition in situating caste as a tradition further sensitises us to the on a solid basis of communitarian moral code of Hindu society. This fact that in many cases, tradition vision. Although liberty, equality and prompted Ambedkar to take a actually gives credence to the system fraternity beckoned him constantly, critical view of the entire Hindu of exploitation. In other words, the Ambedkar transcends liberalism (brahminical) tradition. It is also supporters of inequality are always and socialism to finally arrive at the possible that Ambedkar realised the comfortable under the umbrella conception of the dhamma. role of tradition in the contemporary of tradition. Thus, appropriation The difference in the structures context. All reform was stalled of tradition and employing it for of their discourses notwithstanding, throughout the 19th century in the purposes of building a just society Gandhi and Ambedkar thus came to name of 'our great tradition' and its requires a strong will to reject large share similar visions. Both believed correctness. Thus, it was not tradition parts of tradition and situating that social transformation could but forces upholding tradition tradition in a different context from come about only by social action. that must have made Ambedkar the one historically associated with Therefore, they relied heavily on a staunch critic of tradition. Yet, it. In this sense, Ambedkar’s critical mobilising people against injustice. did he really forsake tradition in assessment of tradition provides a Social action perceived by Gandhi its entirety? Much of Ambedkar's useful counterpoint to the Gandhian and Ambedkar was democratic; it critical attack on tradition was attempt of appropriating tradition. was in the form of popular struggles. directed against glorification of And the Gandhian project, too, Gandhi many times appeared to be brahminical tradition. It is possible does not presuppose an uncritical favouring compromises and avoiding to argue that Ambedkar was engaged appropriation of all tradition. 'conflict'. Ambedkar, too, is seen by in demolishing the tradition of many (even his followers) as a brahminism and rejecting the Vedic Meeting Ground supporter of non-agitational politics. ideological tradition. But he was not In a very general sense both But the core of their politics as well rejecting all traditions, or else how Gandhi and Ambedkar strived to as their position on social action could he search in that same tradition visualise a community based on leave us in no doubt that Gandhi the path of the dhamma? Nor was justice and fraternity. The Gandhian and Ambedkar not only pursued he opposed to liberating traditions discourse seeks to identify the popular struggles but they valued in the form of different sects. He elements of community in the form struggles as essential and enriching. was complaining against a lack of of love, non-violence, dignity of They did not visualise removal adequate emancipatory space within human life and dignity of physical of injustice without struggles and the traditional framework. labour and a non-exploitative without popular participation. Tradition in an unequal society process of production symbolised Further, Gandhi and Ambedkar 8 JANATA, April 28, 2019 would have no difficulty in agreeing secular and part of the 'public' uninfluenced by brahminism. upon the value of non-violence. sphere. When the so-called religious Similarly, Ambedkar's position The discourses of Gandhi and people were busy counting numbers, on capitalism and modernity can Ambedkar respect the materiality Gandhi and Ambedkar tried to turn be extended and reinterpreted. of human life. Fulfilment of material religiosity of the common man into He located the primary source of needs, and a stable and enriched a force for social transformation. exploitation in the caste system in material life are seen by both as Struggle for truth and non- the Indian context. But he never forming the basis of human activity. violence has to incorporate caste disputed the exploitative character Moreover, Gandhi and Ambedkar struggle because caste is a structure of capitalism. His espousal of have a striking similarity in their of violence and injustice. Just as socialism (like in the programme of views on morality. They believe Gandhi denounces the satanic the Independent Labour Party) and moral values to be eternal and culture of the West, Gandhism can state socialism apart, he tended to necessary for co-ordinating material be a denunciation of caste-based take the view that concentration of social life. injustice. Gandhi does not forbid wealth and exploitation gave rise to At the root of this similarity is the use of soul-force against the 'dukkha'. His conception of dhamma the common conception of secular satanic tendencies in one's own makes it clear that Ambedkar made religion. This conception rejected society. If contemporary Gandhism a distinction between material well- all rituals, bypassed the question fights shy of caste struggles, it has being and insatiable lust. This of existence of God and the other lost the core of Gandhi's discourse. is the ground on which critique world, and brought morality to Such a restrictive interpretation of of modernist life can be made the centre-stage of discussion of Gandhi will have to be rejected in within his discourse. It is true that religion. It is not a mere coincidence favour of a creative interpretation. Ambedkar's rejection of tradition that both Gandhi and Ambedkar are Non-recognition of categories like and traditional life-style appears to considered as heretics by religious shudra-atishudra does not form be modernistic. But it must not be orthodoxies of Hinduism and the core of Gandhism. In fact, forgotten that Ambedkar had to take Buddhism, respectively. Both claim use of a term like 'daridranarayan' into consideration the immediate that religion and scriptures need to be presupposes readiness to understand interests of untouchables. Thus, his understood in the light of conscience social reality on the basis of plea to move to cities need not be and morality. Wherever scriptures exploitative relations. Therefore, understood as a modernist project. contradict conscience, religion political mapping of social forces Also, Gandhi's espousal of village demands that conscience should be on caste basis can be incorporated life should not be seen as justification followed. In this sense they were into the Gandhian discourse. of existing village life. Grounding sceptical not only about scriptures, Gandhi's strong rejection of religious Ambedkar's interpretation in his but 'priestly authorities' deciding the authority behind untouchability, his conception of dhamma can open meaning of scriptures. This view later views on intercaste marriage, up the possibility of bridging the cut at the root of any notion of an his non-orthodox interpretation of distance between Gandhi and organised, closed religion. Gandhi varna in his early years and loss Ambedkar. and Ambedkar remove religion from of interest in varna in later years, The discourses of Gandhi and the realm of metaphysics and situate and the constant exhortation to Ambedkar were not antithetical. it on the terrain of secular matters become 'shudra'—to engage in Therefore, it is possible to think such as truth, compassion, love, physical labour—all point to the in terms of common concerns and conscience, social responsibility possibility that the caste question potential grounds for dialogue and enlightened sense of morality. can form a legitimate concern of between the two discourses. Further, Understood thus, Gandhi's sanatan the Gandhian discourse. It should both Gandhi and Ambedkar were dharma and Ambedkar's dhamma do be of some interest that Gandhi concerned with the question of not confine themselves to individual does not eulogise the 'trivarniks' emancipation. As such, a broadening and private pursuits of good life but or their roles while constantly of the scope of their discourses is all operate as the moral framework for upholding the dignity of labour. His the more essential. As mentioned social action. Religion becomes sanatan dharma is characteristically earlier, at the present moment, the JANATA, April 28, 2019 9 very legitimacy of their emancipatory the other hand, the movements of by building bridges between the two project is being challenged. The social transformation appear to rich discourses of our times. dominant discourse today tends be fragmented or stagnant. The (Suhas Palshikar taught political to underplay the caste question theoretical strength required to meet science at Savitribai Phule Pune and legitimises capitalism. On this challenge can be gained partly University, Pune.)

More Than a Reformer, Jyotirao Phule Was an Architect of Ideas

Umesh Kumar

B.R. Ambedkar’s fascination against Brahmanical supremacy contemporaries. with Jyotirao Phule goes beyond (he rarely used the word Hindu or According to him, the best way the fact that he considered him a Hinduism. He preferred Brahmanism to deal with this repressive structure guru. Ambedkar, recognising the instead). was to oppose it completely and intellectual legacy of Phule, wished He called it brahmanache dilute its sacredness. He decoded that to project him on the national scene. varchaswa or brahmanvarchaswadi Brahmanism derives its legitimacy More particularly, Ambedkar may in Marathi. Moreover, Phule was from its sacred texts and that, in turn, have been influenced by Phule’s the first intellectual to realise that rely heavily on the avatar-kalpana radical anti-caste movements, his Brahmanism did not necessarily mean (imaginative incarnation). uplifting of the conditions of peasantry exclusively related to the Brahman In his book titled Gulamgiri and his liberation of women. caste, but a kind of ideological, (Slavery), Phule debunks different Indian society is in a state of flux religious (dharmic) (super)structure Brahmanical godheads. With such today—the way it was during the that perpetuates and naturalises the writings, he attempted to provide time of Phule (1827–1890). Issues exploitation of the majority. an intellectual and ideological surrounding caste, inferior status Phule sought to reform society foundation for a sustained critique of women, the pathetic condition through revolutionary means. His of the caste system. Phule’s writing of farmers are all problems that renaissance desire for societal is not history in the normative continue to haunt India since colonial transformation was a break sense. For him, history writing times. And so continues the country’s from his contemporaries. With was not truth-writing but a mere quest to break from these chains the establishments of Prarthana utilitarian device for the subversion, of oppression, mental slavery and Samaj, Poona Sarvajanik Sabha, debunking and destruction of the subjugation. Brahmo Samaj and Arya Samaj in established truth(s) perpetuated by In today’s time, we must revisit Maharashtra and elsewhere, Phule’s the Brahmanical supremacy. the thought and ideology of an contemporaries were trying to reform indigenous thinker like Phule. Hindu society by remaining within Social reforms Such an attempt, it is argued, has the sacredness of the Hindu fold—a However, devastating criticism the potential to (re)interpret our hallmark of the first-generation was not the only weapon in Phule’s contemporary social reality. Indian renaissance thinkers. armoury of social reform. He also Phule did not break entirely from attempted to reform the stree- Taking on Brahmanical supremacy this tradition but he did not believe shudra-atishudra from within. The As an iconic and revolutionary in the sacredness of Hindu religion establishment of Satyashodhak intellectual from Maharashtra, either. Staying within the Hindu Samaj (the society of truth seekers) Phule’s organising principles were fold, Phule’s intellectual faculty in 1873 was a crucial step. It reflected both inclusive and dichotomous. He first attacked the twin concepts of Phule’s intellectual rationalism addressed stree-shudra-atishudra dharma and caste—the central pillars where the primary emphasis was on (women, OBCs, Dalits and tribals in of Brahmanical supremacy. And this ‘truth-seeking’ by positioning the today’s vocabulary) as one category attack was in full—not in bits and individual at the centre. which was dichotomously fighting pieces like that of his half-hearted The other vital mandate of the 10 JANATA, April 28, 2019 samaj was to conduct ‘religious’ is that he understood peasantry as a but rather streepurush (women and ceremonies sans Brahman priests monolithic category. men). By using such a salutation, and to compulsorily educate the Phule challenges the subsumed next generation. When the orthodox Education and gender status of women within men. The of the times charged that the samaj Another area in which Phule word streepurush accentuates the could not be called a religious body contributed immensely is India’s gendered differentiation and pleads because it has no religious text gender question. He invariably for the quest of equality at the same (dharmagranth) of its own, Phule linked the liberation of women with time. Further, he did not make any wrote Sarvajanik Satya Dharma education. He himself taught his distinction within the category of Pustak (Book of the Public Religion young wife Savitribai. Later, with stree (women)—stressing the fact of Truth). As an alternative, the her and some liberal associates, that a Brahman woman is as much emphasis of Satya Dharma was Phule opened a string of schools prone to gender discrimination as of again to outset the Brahman from from 1848–1855, including a any other caste. his overriding position. special school for all caste girls. He Phule’s intellectual heritage— Phule’s concept of dharma was was a staunch advocate of widow which sowed the initials seeds of rather simple and unambiguous. remarriage and a front-runner for India’s social revolution—remains For him, it was a platform of child adoption. The Phule couple unfulfilled even today. More than passionate equalitarianism minus themselves adopted the son of a a reformer, he was an architect of any discrimination. Further, Phule Brahman widow. ideas. By building an alternative clearly saw the role of dharma and He openly defended Pandita system of ideas he attempted to caste in the production relations of Ramabai’s decision to convert to decode the nuances of our social Indian society. Christianity and Tarabai Shinde’s reality. The questions that bothered Phule lays bare these polemical monograph Stree Phule continue to haunt us today. production relations with his Purush Tulana (A Comparison Perhaps with greater intensity. There careful investigations of the peasant between Women and Men), amidst is an immediate need to engage with question in colonial India. He is Brahmanical orthodoxy. Gail Omvedt Phule in a way we have never before. perhaps the first Indian intellectual makes an interesting observation (Umesh Kumar teaches English who made agriculture—its process that Phule does not use the common studies at the Department of English, and production—a major concern salutation of manoos (human being) Banaras Hindu University.) for his thought experiment. His book Shetkaryacha Asud (The Cultivator’s Whipcord) familiarises us with the Noam Chomsky and the Question of graphic description of farmers’ Individual Choice conditions—their hungry bellies and rag-wrapped bodies coupled with the continuous harassments from Anjan Basu moneylenders. A broad theme that runs through nearly the exact same answer he He recommended the active role everything that Noam Chomsky has had given 17 years earlier to a of the state in agrarian policies—the written over 50 years or more is young journalist at Chennai’s Asian need for soil conservation, rain individual choice. College of Journalism who had harvesting and building of bunds The choice, Chomsky was wondered if the venerable professor (bandhara), usage of advanced convinced early, is as compelling was being “a little too optimistic” in technology for cattle breeding and as it is narrow. In the 2017 book a world which seemed to hold little specific professional education for Optimism over Despair, when promise of positive change: peasants and their children, etc.— the political economist C.J. “We have two choices. We can so as to relieve peasantry from its Polychroniou asks him, “Are you be pessimistic, give up, and help miserable condition. However, as overall optimistic about the future ensure that the worst will happen. a pre-industrial thinker, the glaring of humanity, given the kind of Or we can be optimistic, grasp the limitation of Phule’s agrarian scheme creatures we are?”, Chomsky gives opportunities that surely exist, and JANATA, April 28, 2019 11 maybe help make the world a better managed to successfully mask the world at least, they have the power place. Not much of a choice.” immorality of the war on Vietnam, that comes from political liberty, from “Not much of a choice”, Chomsky projecting the debate around the access to information and freedom has never tired of reminding everyone war as primarily one about the of expression. For a privileged who cares to listen. He makes it proportionality of its costs to its likely minority, Western democracy plain—without saying it in these outcome. In a talk given at Harvard in provides the leisure, the facilities words, for he hates to declaim or June 1966 in the course of the anti- and the training to seek the truth sound dramatic—that, to be human, war protests—later published as the lying hidden behind the veil of one has to stick with that narrow celebrated essay The Responsibility of distortions and misrepresentation, choice. Intellectuals—Chomsky argues that ideology, and class interest through It was true in the mid-1960s, Americans “can hardly avoid asking which the events of current history when he plunged into anti-Vietnam (themselves) to what extent the are presented to us.” War activism; and it remains true American people bear responsibility It follows from here that today when vast communities for the savage American assault on “It is the responsibility of are struggling to come to terms a largely helpless rural population in intellectuals to speak the truth and to with the devastations caused Vietnam.” He closes the essay with expose lies. This, at least, may seem by corporate greed and climate these memorable words: enough of a truism to pass without change. Chomsky continues to “Let me . . . return to (Dwight) comment. Not so, however. For the engage without let-up with the most Macdonald (the American writer– modern intellectual, it is not at all basic questions confronting human activist) and the responsibility of obvious.” society—inequality, injustice and intellectuals. Macdonald quotes The intellectual, then, has a unfreedoms of many different kinds. an interview with a death-camp simple—but also stark—choice to When the ‘Occupy Wall Street’ paymaster who bursts into tears make: he can either ask himself if movement erupted across US cities in when told that the Russians would he is being true to his calling (by September, 2011, pitting “(w)e (who) hang him. ‘Why should they? What speaking the truth and exposing lies); are the 99%” against the insanely- have I done?’, he asked. Macdonald or, if he is willing to be suborned rich 1% who manipulate public concludes: ’Only those who are by the powers-that-be, he may end policy with impunity, he joined in willing to resist authority themselves up asking himself someday, a la the with gusto, speaking at rallies and when it conflicts too intolerably with Nazi death-camp pay-master, ‘What public meetings and writing about their personal moral code, only they have I done?’ what it was all about. have the right to condemn the death- camp paymaster.’ The question, Chomsky’s own journey Moral values matter ‘What have I done?’, is one that Chomsky’s choice had been As a scientist, Chomsky always we may well ask ourselves, as we made as an undergraduate in the locates the question of rational read, each day, of fresh atrocities in mid-1940s, for his political and moral choice at the centre of any debate Vietnam—as we create, or mouth, consciousness had been formed, as about issues of real public interest. or tolerate the deceptions that will he himself places on record, “by the That is not to say, though, that he is be used to justify the next ‘defence horrors of the 1930s, by the war in concerned with rationality alone. Far of freedom’.” Ethiopia, the Russian purges, the from it, in fact. Chomsky has written This is the moral code that China incident, the Spanish Civil extensively about how a ‘rational’ Chomsky assimilated early on. War, the Nazi atrocities, the western debate can be so constructed as to He lives his life by it, and his own reaction to these events and, in part, completely undermine—indeed, judgment of others is premised in the complicity in them . . .”. subvert—the irreducible moral same code. He tells us why: His astringent, unceasing critique values implicit in a choice. “Intellectuals are in a position of American foreign policy through With withering scorn, he wrote to expose the lies of governments, the 1970s and 1980s earned him a in his 1969 classic, American Power to analyse actions according to place on Richard Nixon’s infamous and the New Mandarins, about their causes and motives and often ‘Enemies List’. His formidable well-known American liberals who hidden intentions. In the Western reputation as the foremost language 12 JANATA, April 28, 2019 theorist/philosopher of the 20th like this, something as routine as participated in some memorable century (as well as the most-often- the discharge of basic journalistic teach-ins, including one electrifying cited humanities scholar in all duties—reporting what is really episode just outside the gates of the academic work across the world) happening on the ground and nailing Pentagon which has entered modern probably saved his job at MIT, but lies peddled by officialdom—itself American folklore, in a manner of the doors to mainstream media becomes an act of deliberate and speaking. and publishing were firmly barred careful choice. In his essay On Resistance, to him for much of his life. Even Chomsky quotes the great civil the funding of the many frontline The need for resistance rights leader A.J. Muste in the research programmes that he At the height of the anti-Vietnam context of the Vietnam War: “The helmed at the MIT’s School of War protests, Chomsky recognised problem after a war is with the victor. Modern Languages and Linguistics active resistance as a valid choice He thinks he has just proved that (including in such cutting-edge for dissenters, though he freely war and violence pay. Who will now areas as psycholinguistics and admits that activism per se does not teach him a lesson?” neurolinguistics) ran into rough quite agree with him personally. In One of the brightest minds of weather often enough. the concluding chapter of American the post-second-world-war world The question of choice has Power and the New Mandarins, he and a consummate teacher himself, taken on a special sense of urgency has this to say on the options in the Chomsky has spent the best part of in relation to the culture of mass specific context of the US in the his life teaching lessons to successive media today, in India as much as, 1960s: American administrations. It is say, in the US. Chomsky has always “Given the enormous dangers of remarkable how he retains his believed that the much-vaunted escalation (of the Vietnam conflict) penchant for teaching lessons to freedom of expression in liberal and its hateful character, it makes the arrogant and the powerful even democracies is largely a sham, sense . . . to search for ways to at the age of 90. Incredibly, he because powerful interest groups, raise the domestic cost of American has also agreed to teach a term solidly invested in maintaining and aggression, to raise it to a point (presumably to undergrads) at strengthening the status quo, manage where it cannot be overlooked by Arizona State University-Tempe to limit the spectrum of public those who have to calculate such in the upcoming academic year, his discourse with great skill. Once the costs. One must then consider in first major academic commitment contours of debates have been firmly what ways it is possible to pose a outside of the MIT. The choices drawn—and any outliers irrevocably serious threat (to the war effort). that Noam Chomsky makes have ‘demonstrated’ to be deviant— Many possibilities come to mind: sometimes baffled some people, public opinion is conditioned to a general strike, university strikes, but look closely, and you will find a stay within those clearly-marked attempts to hamper war production unity of purpose in all of them. boundaries and not stray beyond and supply, and so on. . . . Resistance them. Chomsky famously called is in part a moral responsibility, in (Anjan Basu freelances as a this process ‘the manufacturing of part a tactic to affect government translator of poetry, literary critic consent’. policy. In particular, with respect to and commentator.) support for draft resistance, I feel If mainstream US media have finessed this process over many years, that it is a moral responsibility that Janata Subscription the Indian media today is no longer cannot be shirked. . . .” In the event, Chomsky did Annual Rs. : 260/- behind them. Thus, when under- Three Years : 750/- participate in civil disobedience trial, or simply jailed-without-trial, Demand Draft / Cheque on Mumbai movements himself, marching on prisoners are killed in ‘encounters’ Bank in favour of with the police, the media often think Washington with tens of thousands nothing of underplaying these state- of others to return thousands of Janata Trust sponsored murders, and report in draft cards to the attorney general’s D-15, Ganesh Prasad, punctilious detail on the ‘unsavoury office. He also campaigned widely Naushir Bharucha Marg, antecedents’ of the victims. At a time across university campuses and Grant Road (W), Mumbai 400 007. JANATA, April 28, 2019 13 Modinomics = Corporatonomics Part III: Modi’s Budgets and the Social Sectors

Neeraj Jain

In the previous four issues of school education and free or sector expenditure in the country is Janata, we first published two articles cheap university education, old done by the States. The Economic on Modinomics = Falsonomics, and age pension, maternity benefits, Survey 2017–18 puts the total social then in the next two articles, we disability benefits, family allowance sector expenditure of Centre and have analysed Modinomics. We have such as child care allowance, States combined (2017–18 BE) shown that the Modi Government, if allowances for those too poor to at Rs 10.94 lakh crore, which is it wants, can raise enough resources make a living, and much more. around 6.6% of GDP. Of this, the to increase its expenditures on the Governments spend substantial sums Centre’s share is Rs 1.95 lakh crore social sectors. Instead, it is giving for providing these social services (2017–18 Budget document), which away huge subsidies to the tune to their people. The average public works out to only 17.8% of the total of several lakh crore rupees to the social sector expenditures of the 34 social sector expenditure, Centre corporate houses. In this article, countries of the OECD have been and States combined. This figure of we discuss the overall allocaton around 20% of GDP for the last Rs 1.95 lakh crore is 9.08% of the for the social sectors during the many years, and for the EU–27 have total budget outlay. The social sector past five years of Modi’s rule, and been even higher at around 30% of expenditure of 2018 and 2019 are not then specifically discuss budget GDP.1 specifically mentioned in the budget, allocations for education. In contrast, India’s social sector but assuming that as a percentage expenditures are just around 7% of the total budget outlay, they are Public social sector expenditures: of GDP. They are not only way constant, then it means the social India vs other countries below the developed countries, as sector expenditures in 2018–19 and Most developed countries a recent report of the Reserve Bank 2019–20 would be around Rs 2.22 have a very elaborate social of India admits, India’s social sector lakh crore and Rs 2.53 lakh crore security network for their citizens, expenditures are also “woefully respectively. including unemployment allowance, below peers” (see Chart 1).2 Is it not possible for the Modi universal health coverage, free The major part of the social Government to increase the total Chart 1: Social Sector Expenditures as % of GDP3 social sector expenditure of the government (Centre + States combined) to at least 15% of GDP? That is actually not much; it is only half the level of EU-27. That would require a total social sector expenditure of Rs 31.5 lakh crore in 2019–20. Assuming that the Centre spends 25% of it, this would require the social sector expenditure of the Centre to go up to 14 JANATA, April 28, 2019

Rs 7.88 lakh crore from the Rs 2.53 social sector spending. It is now fairly dandavata before the international lakh crore at present—an increase of well established that government financial institutions and giant just Rs 5.3 lakh crore. The Centre, spending on social sectors such as foreign corporations, betraying the if it so wants, can easily afford this education and health has significant interests of the common people. by reducing the loan write-offs of positive multiplier effects.5 [The Let us now take a look at the the corporate houses, or reducing fiscal multiplier is an estimate of budget allocations for some of the the tax concessions to the rich, or the effect of government spending more important social sectors. by cancelling the mineral leases on economic growth. A multiplier given to corporate houses at very greater than 1 corresponds to a More detailed analysis of social low royalty rates, or . . . positive growth stimulus (returning sectors under Modi rule more than Re 1 for each rupee School education: Back to the dark Boosting demand by increasing invested), whereas a multiplier less ages social sector expenditures than one reflects a net loss from No country in the world Let us for a moment drop this spending.] has developed without making fact-based critical examination of the However, as we show below, the provisions for providing free, budget from a socialist perspective, government has not attempted to give compulsory, equitable and good and examine it purely from the a boost to the economy by expanding quality elementary education to ALL perspective of mainstream capitalist its social sector expenditures. its children in the initial stages of its economics. In the Economic Survey Jaitley/Goyal have no problem development, and later expanding it 2017–18 presented by Arvind in giving lakhs of crores of rupees to secondary and higher secondary Subramanian, the Chief Economic as subsidies to the rich in the name education. Since the private sector Advisor of the Government of India, of ‘tax incentives’, or ‘investment will only invest for profit, all he devotes a good deal of space to subsidies’, or bank loan write-offs, countries, including the avowedly a discussion of the serious decline and so on. But when it comes to capitalist countries of the West, have in gross investment in India as a increasing welfare spending on the done this entirely through public proportion of the GDP. The Survey poor, they claim that the government funding. notes: “The ratio of gross fixed cannot afford that as the fiscal deficit Unfortunately, because of capital formation to GDP climbed needs to be curbed. inadequate spending on education from 26.5% in 2003, reached a peak This is precisely what since Independence, the condition of 35.6% in 2007, and then slid back neoliberalism is all about—it means of India’s education was dismal even to 26.4% in 2017.” It admits that running the economy solely for the when the BJP came to power. India such sharp swings in investment profiteering of giant foreign and has not been able to provide this rates “have never occurred in India’s Indian corporate houses, including to a majority of its children seven history”, and that while “the past shamelessly cutting down the public decades after independence. 15 years have been a special period welfare expenditures on the poor and for the entire global economy, no transferring the savings to the coffers • According to the Planning other country seems to have gone of the corporate houses. Every Commission of India, 42.4% through such a large investment government that has come to power children drop out of school boom and bust during this period.” at the Centre since the beginning of before completing elementary The Survey frankly and ominously globalisation in 1991 has dutifully education.6 adds: “India’s investment decline implemented these policies; the And for those attending schools, seems particularly difficult to reverse Modi Government is even more the conditions in a majority of . . . The deeper the slowdown, the unashamedly implementing these the schools are simply terrible: slower and shallower the recovery.” policies. • In a majority of the primary And as we have pointed out in a Such is the nationalism of the schools in the country, a single previous article4, government data BJP–RSS. It is confined to unfurling teacher is teaching two or three shows that the economy has further giant sized flags in universities, different classes at the same time slowed down in 2018. and forcing people to stand up in a single room (data for 2015)!7 The way out of this economic while the national anthem is being • Even for all schools, upto higher slowdown is to boost demand, and played in cinema halls—while on secondary, 42% schools have 3 one way of doing it is by boosting the ground, it is doing shastang or less than 3 classrooms, and JANATA, April 28, 2019 15

50% schools have 3 or less than Yet, during its five years in power, the is the accelerating privatisation 3 teachers!8 BJP has made an unprecedented 38% and commercialisation of higher • Nearly one-third of the schools cut in its budget for school education education since the neoliberal do not have usable toilet (see Table 1). This only implies that reforms began in India in 1991— facilities.9 the condition of government schools even before the BJP came to power, • 47% primary schools do not must have worsened considerably. by 2011–12, total number of private have electricity; and 38% of all The reason for this huge budget higher educational institutions schools do not have electricity. cut for school education is simple: (including both degree and diploma • An amazing 44% of primary the BJP wants to privatise school institutions) accounted for more than schools do not even have a education completely. For this, the two-thirds of all higher educational boundary wall, while 35% of all strategy adopted is simple: ruin the institutions, and for nearly 60% of schools do not have a boundary quality of government school system student enrolment.15 wall.10 by cutting the funding of school Private higher educational • With such dismal conditions, is it education and keeping teaching posts institutions are all for-profit any wonder that a survey found vacant; children will automatically institutions; therefore, very few that 48% of Class V students exit government schools, and those students can afford their fees. But were unable to read Class II– who can afford it will join private the BJP has further slashed higher level text; and 43% of Class schools. The consequence: more educational spending – during VIII students could not divide than 2 lakh government schools have its five years in power, it has cut numbers.11 closed down till date.13 its spending on higher education (2018–19 RE over 2014–15 BE) On the other hand, for the well- Business of higher education by as much as 18% in real terms to-do classes, there are a wide range Coming to higher education, (see Table 1). Because of this, most of private schools of varying quality, the number of students in colleges, government funded colleges are both in terms of educational and defined by the Gross Enrolment starved of funds and so, to meet extra-curricular facilities, with fees Ratio or GER (number of students their expenses, are being forced varying from Rs 1 lakh per year to as a percent proportion of the youth to increase student fees using all as much as Rs 15 lakh per year and population in the age group 17–23 / kinds of excuses. Consequently, more. 18–24) is way below the developed studying in government funded Because of such a discriminatory countries—the GER for India is only educational institutions too is school education system, only 15– around 20, whereas for developed becoming unaffordable for students 17% of those enrolled in Class I are countries it is above 60, with several from poor families. able to clear Class XII. The situation countries having a GER above To cover up for this cut in higher is worse for the marginalised 70.14 An important reason for this education spending, Jaitley last sections: only about 8% of SCs and 6% of STs, about 10–11% OBC’s Table 1: BJP Budget Allocations for Education, 2014 to 2019 (Rs crore) and around 9% Muslims cross the Class XII barrier. This also means that almost 92% of Dalits and 94% of tribals and 90% of OBCs never become eligible for the benefits of reservation under the social justice agenda.12 The BJP came to power, promising to rectify the situation, and increasing spending on education (Centre + States combined) to 6% of GDP during their 2014 Lok Sabha election campaign. It has turned out to another jumla. The above data of the state of India’s schools were for 2015–16. 16 JANATA, April 28, 2019 year (2018) once again resorted to next four years. The catch is, this Be that as it may, Narendra his standard ‘smoke-and-mirrors- investment is not going to be from Modi and the BJP had promised routine’. In his budget speech, he the budget. Educational institutions to increase spending on education announced: “Technology will be will be given loans from a new non- (Centre + States combined) to 6% the biggest driver in improving the bank finance company set up last of GDP during their 2014 Lok Sabha quality of education. We propose year by the government, the Higher election campaign. However, the to increase the digital intensity in Education Financing Authority Economic Survey 2017–18 admits education and move gradually from (HEFA), which will borrow money that this has actually fallen under ‘black board’ to ‘digital board’.” from the market for this. The college Modi rule, from 3.1% of GDP in But how serious is he about this will have to repay the principal, the 2013–14 to below 3% during the can be gauged from the fact that Central government will bear the first four years of Modi rule, and the allocation for ‘Digital India interest costs. The budget will only was 2.7% in 2017–18 BE. With e-learning’ was reduced from an fund the interest costs, for which the Centre’s educational budget as already inadequate Rs 518 crore in the budget allocation for HEFA was a percentage of GDP falling from the 2017–18 RE to an even lower Rs 2,750 crore in 2018–19 RE and 0.48% in 2017–18 (A) to 0.44% in Rs 456 crore in the 2018–19 BE; Rs 2,100 crore in 2019–20. This 2018–19 RE, the combined spending the 2018–19 RE shows a marginally means that universities and colleges of Centre and States on education increased spending of Rs 511 crore. will have to borrow from HEFA must be even lower in this year. Even within the limited higher for upgrading themselves, which education budget, most of the in turn means that they will have Can’t Modi–Goyal increase the funding is going to elite government to increase student fees to repay education budget? institutions like the IITs and IIMS. the loans, making higher education If Modi was indeed serious about The allocation for the University even costlier. Yet another fraud on implementing his election promise, Grants Commission, that regulates the people! it would require a total educational the higher educational institutions It was way back in the 1960s spending (Centre + States) of Rs in the country and provides grants that the Kothari Commission had 12.6 lakh crore in 2019–20. Even if to more than 10,000 institutions, has recommended that “if education is to the Centre spends 25% of this so as been halved in the five Modi budgets, develop adequately”, the proportion to give a boost to total educational from Rs 8,978 crore in 2014–15 BE of GDP allocated to education should spending in the country (the Centre to just Rs 4,687 crore in 2018–19 rise to 6% by 1985–86. Successive had spent 17.4% in 2017–18 BE), RE. The allocation for the All India governments have continued to it would require Jaitley to allocate Council for Technical Education, the ignore this recommendation, and the Rs 3.15 lakh crore for education, an regulator of engineering education total educational expenditure only increase of Rs 2.2 lakh crore over in India, has remained dismally low gradually inched up to reach 3.31% in the actual allocation made in the during all the five Modi years and is 2012–13 BE.16 a lowly Rs 452 crore in the 2018–19 Educationists Table 2: Allocation for Elite Higher Education Institutions RE. On the other hand, more than estimate that (Rs crore) half of the higher education budgets given the huge have gone towards funding the so- under-spending called ‘institutions of excellence’ on education such as the IITs, IIMs and the Central over the past Universities. decades, Last year (2018–19), the finance the country minister announced a new initiative, probably needs ‘Revitalising Infrastructure and to spend around Systems in Education’, or RISE, 8% of the to “step up investments in research GDP today to and related infrastructure in achieve even premier educational institutions”. modest goals He announced an investment of in education Rs 1,00,000 crore for this over the development. JANATA, April 28, 2019 17 budget—not an unaffordable amount they can enjoy an enhanced quality 5. See for instance: Aaron Reeves et al., for a government that gives several of life. All this is gibberish. The “Does Investment in the Health Sector times this amount as subsidies to the sole aim of education must be to Promote or Inhibit Economic Growth?” Global Health, September 2013, https:// rich every year. prepare youth for employment in www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov. This increased spending would the assembly lines of multinational 6. Twelfth Five Year Plan: 2012–17, have to be directed towards: corporations. For this, the youth Vol. III: Social Sectors, p. 53, http:// • Gradually eliminating the multi- must be imparted the necessary planningcommission.nic.in. layered discriminatory school skills, so that they can become cogs 7. Here, when we are talking of primary education system and replacing in the corporate wheel. schools, we are talking of ‘Only Primary it by an egalitarian school This philosophy also fits well Schools’. We have calculated this system with equivalent norms with the fascist philosophy of the figure from data given in: “Elementary Education in India: Rural India”, and and standards of at least the level BJP–RSS regime, which wants to “Elementary Education in India: Urban of Kendriya Vidyalayas. transform our youth into mindless India”, Analytical Report, 2015–16, • Scrapping the policy of automatons in the service of virulent NUEPA, http://udise.in. appointing contractual teachers; Hindutva. 8. Ibid. taking steps to ensure that all And so, while on the one 9. Ranajit Bhattacharyya, Aadarsh teachers, without exception, are hand, the Modi–Jaitley regime is Gangwar, “Why India Needs to Count fully qualified and appropriately slowly strangulating our higher Its Broken Toilets”, July 19, 2017, ‘trained’ (i.e. educated) before educational institutions by starving http://www.indiaspend.com. 10. Calculated from DISE data given in recruitment and paid a regular them of funds, on the other hand, the documents mentioned in endnote 7 salary scale with social security government has hugely increased above. that is comparable throughout funding for skill development. 11. “One in Two Indian Students Can’t the country, as is the case with The BJP Government inaugurated Read Books Meant for Three Classes senior government officers. the Ministry of Skill Development Below: ASER”, January 19, 2017, • So far as higher education is and Entrepreneurship soon after http://www.livemint.com. concerned, government must coming to power in 2014. Its main 12. Estimates made by Prof. Anil Sadgopal, the eminent Indian educationist, cited increase its expenditure on programme is the Pradhan Mantri in:Lokesh Malti Prakash, “Education higher education, open more Kaushal Vikas Yojana, the allocation in the Neo-Liberal Limbo”, November government higher education for which has trebled since its 2, 2012, http://khwabesahar.wordpress. institutions, and charge only inception in 2015–16 (Table 3). com. These figures are indirectly affordable fees, with adequate verified by another study, that says number of scholarships for all References that 88% ST children and 84% SC students who cannot afford these 1. Total Public Social Expenditure as a children drop out by the time they fees. No student must be denied Percentage of GDP, December 20, reach secondary level: Ramesh Pandita, “Dropout Percentage of Scheduled education in a higher education 2013, http://www.oecd-ilibrary.org; “Chapter 3 – Social Protection Systems Caste & Scheduled Tribe Children institution for lack of money. Confronting the Crisis” in Employment in India: A Decadal Analysis up to and Social Developments in Europe Secondary level”, June 2015, https:// Cogs in corporate wheel 2012, European Commission, Brussels, www.researchgate.net. The neoliberal model looks at January 2013, www.europarl.europa.eu. 13. Ambarish Rai, “Budget Focus on everything, including education, 2. “Government’s Social Sector Spending Infrastructure, Digital Education from the perspective of maximising “Woefully” Below Peers: RBI”, April Cannot Work in a Vacuum”, February corporate profits. There is no need 11, 2018, https://economictimes. 2, 2018, https://thewire.in. 14. J.B.G. Tilak, How Inclusive Is Higher to look at education from the indiatimes.com. 3. Ibid. Education in India? 2015, http://www. perspective of human development, 4. Neeraj Jain, “Modinomics = educationforallinindia.com; see also: as a means of unlocking the inherent Falsonomics: Part I”, Janata Weekly, Neoliberal Fascist Attack on Education, potential of human beings, so that March 31, 2019. Lokayat publication, available on Table 3: Budget Allocations for Skill Development (Rs crore) Lokayat website, http://lokayat.org.in. 15. Neoliberal Fascist Attack on Education, ibid., pp. 51-52. 16. Economic Survey, 2012-13, Chapter 13, p. 271. 18 JANATA, April 28, 2019 Who are Venezuela’s Colectivos?

Federico Fuentes

The media calls them armed have flourished under Venezuela’s “The opposition are the violent thugs and US Senator Marco Rubio Bolivarian Revolution. ones,” one of them said. “They loot wants them put on the terrorist list, “They view the colectivos as shops, set houses on fire. So what but who are Venezuela’s colectivos similar to the insurgent groups in the happens? We, the motorizados, come (collectives)? Green Left Weekly’s Middle East that resisted invasion,” out and then they run away, they Federico Fuentes met with some of explains Cucaracho. “That is why don’t come back. You won’t find us them to find out. they demonise us. They see us as a looting shops or creating chaos. But As we walked around the barrier, as a final line of defence, but we are also not going to let others set 23 de Enero barrio in Caracas, they don't come to see our reality.” people's houses on fire.” an announcement came through Alexis Vive was instrumental “The last time they protested,” Cucaracho’s walkie talkie: “We in establishing the Panal 2021 another said, referring to the wave are in a war and the main target commune. Promoted by Chavez, of violent opposition protests that of this offensive is the popular communes have become the main rocked the country in 2017, “they movements, the colectivos. This form of democratic community burnt down a nursery. What sort of is no coincidence: they know the organising across the country. protest is that? Those kids have got colectivos are their main obstacle The Panal 2021 commune, which nothing to do with what is going on, and 23 de Enero is the tip of the incorporated about 3600 families so why are they being targeted?” iceberg.” in a sector of 23 de Enero, has its Junior is a member of the Bolivar Cucaracho—“that’s what they own self-managed enterprises such and Zamora Revolutionary Current call me”—is a member of the Alexis as a bakery and sugar-packaging (CRBZ), another group denounced Vive colectivo, which is active in this plant, its own radio and cable TV in the media as a colectivo, but historically militant neighbourhood station, its own transport and food which has its origins in a group strategically located close to the distribution centres, and even its of campaigners for peasant rights presidential palace. Its history and own local currency. Profits from all formed in the ‘90s. He was among location means 23 de Enero is of the commune’s enterprises are those present on the Venezuela– regularly referred to as one of the deposited in the communal bank Colombia border on February 23, main bases for the colectivos. and redistributed to projects decided when the United States sought to Demonised by the international upon by the community. violate Venezuelan sovereignty media and targeted by the opposition, “The idea of the commune under the pretext of bringing in the colectivos have become a symbol is to disperse power”, explains “humanitarian aid”. of scorn for President Nicolas Cucaracho, “so that the people are Junior explained that the CRBZ Maduro’s opponents. They are the ones who make the decisions. decided to send some members to regularly portrayed in the media as Our role is to train cadre and teach the border during those days. “It armed gangs and the last bastion of people about the strategic vision of was an internal decision. Those of support for Maduro’s government. the commune. But we are just like us who are the most politically clear, But the reality of the colectivos—like everyone else in the community: we the most prepared, were the ones almost everything in Venezuela—is join the same queues as everyone who went. vastly different. else, we help the elderly, we are part “We didn’t go because the Many of the groups today labelled of the community.” government told us to go. It was as colectivos predate Maduro and his This does not mean that our political consciousness that took predecessor Hugo Chavez. Others, colectivos limit themselves solely us there.” like Alexis Vive, emerged during the to community work. The build-up to the events on Chavez presidency. In San Fernando, the capital of February 23 meant that the possibility Apure state, I spoke to members of violence was ever present. Not Origins of the Union of Motorizados— knowing what to expect, Junior Almost all of them are motorbike couriers who are regularly explained that they “psychologically community organisations that labelled as colectivo members. prepared for the worst, for anything JANATA, April 28, 2019 19 that might come. to justify violence.” “You couldn’t go there thinking Media Bias The colectivo members I spoke about your family, your children. So “The media generally does understand this. you had to go there thinking about not portray the reality of events. “We are human beings, like your contribution to the revolution, The reality is that the violence everyone else,” said Robert Longa, to defending your country, the fact overwhelmingly comes from the whose voice I had heard through that you are going there to fight opposition,” Junior said. Cucaracho’s walkie talkie. “We live for your mum’s future, your dad’s “The opposition always tries in the community, participate in the future, the future of my children to provoke violence because they commune, attend assemblies, study and the children of my children. We know the media will simply say and look for ways to produce food went to defend our sovereignty, the the government is responsible, to deal with the crisis. sovereignty of our country, of our that the government represses the “But we are conscious that we are nation. If a military intervention had people, and use this as an excuse for in a war. Not against the opposition occurred, we were there, ready, and intervention. The media always take because opposition doesn't exist, they would have had to go through the side of the opposition; they don't they cannot overthrow Maduro. We us, because we are a people willing tell the truth. They sell a message are up against imperialism. to defend our sovereignty, willing to to the rest of the world that is false. “They attack the colectivos fight back to defend every centimetre They are not balanced in regard to because we are willing to defend our of this territory.” their information and their reporting model. The colectivos are organised In the end, the opposition’s on what is happening here.” with the aim of deepening the mission failed. Even the media’s lie Colectivo members I spoke to Bolivarian Revolution through that the Venezuelan armed forces had acknowledged that, in some cases, popular organisation and the creation burnt trucks carrying humanitarian state intelligence agents had either of the communal state. We are aid was revealed to be false when infiltrated certain colectivos or strongly convinced that this is the videos emerged showing opposition masqueraded as ones to attack and correct way forward: a government protesters had caused the fire. intimidate opposition protests. But, of the people based on participatory According to that same media, although this was more the exception democracy. colectivos had attacked protesters rather than the rule, it is these groups “We will resolve our problems on the Venezuelan side of the border. the media have focussed on. within the revolution. We are But Junior recounted a different Rafael Ramos, a postgraduate Chavista and we will not betray version of events. student at the Institute for High Chavez. “The border region of Tachira Studies in Diplomacy Pedro Gual “There are people that claim is very complicated,” he said. “The explained that the media’s portrayal to be Chavista but that are killing Venezuelan opposition there works of the colectivos has a clear intention. Chavismo. There are people who with Colombian paramilitaries “This editorial line is pushed to have infiltrated state institutions and to increase their strength. On make international public opinion who work against us. February 23, there were some small believe that Chavismo has lost all “The people want the revolution protests on this side of the border in its support. They are introducing the to be deepened. They want the disputed areas, areas where you have idea that Venezuela is supposedly bureaucrats kicked out once and Colombian paramilitaries who are a dictatorship, with no freedom for all; for the land to be given to struggling to gain control of the area of speech, and that Chavismo is the peasants and the factories to be because it's a strategic region for just limited to a few remaining taken over by the workers. We want them. Their presence provides the supporters who potentially have to a radicalisation of the revolution. We opposition with logistics and force.” be exterminated. Because they're want all power to the people: that is Despite the paramilitary just a few people, then violence what we seek. presence, the opposition was unable against Chavistas, the colectivos, is “But for now our problem is to generate the kind of violence they justified. The media dehumanises with the gringos. Once we resolve hoped for, though Junior explained them, portrays them as non-human, this issue, then we will deal with our that he, along with others from the so in the end it doesn't matter if they own internal problems.” CRBZ had to find alternate means to treat them like animals or kill them. get home after opposition protesters “The image they are trying to [Federico Fuentes writes for set some of their vehicles on fire. portray internationally is an attempt Green Left Weekly, Australia.] R.N.I. NO. 1855/1957 20 JANATA, April 28, 2019 Postal Registration No. MCW/275/2018-2020. License to Post without prepayment WPP License No. MR/Tech/WPP-210/West/2019 Published on Sunday, April 28, 2019 & Posted on Wedenesday, May 1, 2019 at Mumbai Patrika Channel, Mumbai GPO-1

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Vol. 74 No. 15 On May Day . . . May 5, 2019 Gary Snyder Glorious Tradition of Sacrifices Sandeep Pandey “Let’s drink a toast to all hopes and dreams were sometimes Surgical Strike Against Science and those farmers, workers, artists and foolishly blind to the opportunism of Scholarship intellectuals of the last 100 years their own leadership, and many were Ramachandra Guha who without thought of fame and led to ideological absurdities, but No, Mr Modi, Ram Manohar Lohia profit . . . worked tirelessly in their the great majority of them selflessly Would Not have been Proud of BJP Government – He was an dream of a worldwide socialist worked for socialism with the best of Anti-Fascist revolution, who believed and hoped hearts. . . . The failure of socialism Ruchira Gupta that a new world was dawning and is the tragedy of the 20th century and If War Is an Industry, How Can that their work would contribute to . . . we should honor the memory of There Be Peace in a Capitalist World? a society where one class does not those who struggled for the dream Vijay Prashad exploit another, where one ethnic of what socialism might have been. Argentina Mobilises Against group or one nation does not try to And begin a new way again.” Government Policies in expand itself over another, and where National Strike men and women live as equals. (Gary Snyder is an American Tanya Wadhwa The people who nourished these poet.) Modinomics = Corporatonomics Part IV: Modi’s Budgets and the Social Sectors: Health The Capitalist Workday, the Socialist Workday Neeraj Jain Editor : G. G. Parikh Michael A. Lebowitz

Associate Editor : Neeraj Jain On May Day, there are four struggle but is the struggle Managing Editor : Guddi things that are worth remembering: against capitalist exploitation. 1. For workers, May Day does not 4. The struggle against capitalist Editorial Board : celebrate a state holiday or gifts exploitation is an essential part B. Vivekanandan, Qurban Ali from the state but commemorates but not the only part of the Anil Nauriya, Sonal Shah the struggle of workers from struggle against capitalism. Amarendra Dhaneshwar, below. What I am going to do in this Sandeep Pandey 2. The initial focus of May Day talk today is to set out some ideas was a struggle for the shorter about the capitalist workday and D-15, Ganesh Prasad, workday. the socialist workday which I hope Naushir Bharucha Marg, 3. The struggle for the shorter can be useful in the current struggles Mumbai - 400 007. workday is not an isolated around the world. Email : [email protected] Website:www.janataweekly.org Transcript of a talk given in Venezuela on May Day. 2 JANATA, May 5, 2019

The Capitalist Workday struggle: workers struggle to increase the process of capitalist production What is the relation between the wages and to reduce the workday; cripples us as human beings. Life in capitalist workday and exploitation? they struggle to reduce exploitation the capitalist workplace is a place When workers work for capital, by capitalists. where we are commanded from they receive a wage which allows Of course, your workday is more above, where we are mere tools them to purchase a certain amount than just the time spent between that capital manipulates in order to of commodities. How much is that clocking in and clocking out. There get profits. wage? There is nothing automatic is the time it takes you to get to That is why we want to reduce about the wage level. It is determined work, the time it takes to buy the the capitalist workday. That is why by the struggles of workers against food you need to survive, the time we cannot wait to escape. It is not capital. to prepare that food—all this is only the exploitation, the unfairness Those commodities which form really necessary labour and part of and the injustice in the distribution of the worker’s wage contain a certain the worker’s workday. But since income. Time away from capitalist quantity of labour, and those hours this labour is free to the capitalist, production appears as the only time of labour on a daily basis are often since it is not a cost for him, it is in which we can be ourselves, a time described as the “necessary labour” therefore invisible to him. So, when when our activity can be free time, of the worker—the hours of labour the capitalists want to drive down time for the full development of the necessary for workers to produce necessary labour by driving down individual. the commodities they consume on wages (or by increasing productivity This is what it necessarily looks a daily basis. relative to wages), it is not the labour like within capitalism. But we have But, in capitalism workers do not he does not pay for that he wants to to recognise that so many of our just work their hours of necessary reduce. Rather, he wants as much ideas within capitalism are infected. labour. Because they have been free labour as possible, as much The most obvious example is the compelled to sell their ability to work unpaid labour as possible. phenomenon of consumerism—we to the capitalist in order to survive, It is not surprising that workers must buy all those things! What we the capitalist is in the position to want to reduce their unpaid labour own defines us. The socialist answer, demand they work longer than this. for capital and do so by struggling though, is not that everyone should And the difference between their to reduce the capitalist workday. own the same things—in other hours of necessary labour and the But it is not only the unpaid labour words, equalisation of alienation; total work that workers perform in the workday that is a burden for rather, the socialist idea is to end the for capital is surplus labour—the workers; it is also the paid labour situation in which we are owned and ultimate source of capital’s profits. that they are compelled to do for defined by things. In other words, capitalist profits are capital. In other words, the problem The battle of ideas, which is based on the difference between is not only exploitation. It is the way central to the struggle for socialism, the workday and necessary labour; that capitalist production deforms is based on the alternative conception they are based upon surplus labour, working people. In the capitalist of socialism. Its focus is not to reform unpaid labour, exploitation. workplace, the worker works for the this or that idea that has developed So, the more the capitalist is able goals of capital, under the control within capitalism but, rather, to to drive up the workday, the greater of capital and with an organisation replace ideas from capitalism with the exploitation and the greater of production which is designed not conceptions appropriate to socialism. the profit. Marx commented that to permit workers to develop their So, is our idea of the workday within “the capitalist is constantly tending capabilities but, rather, has the single capitalism infected? And, can we get to reduce wages to their physical goal of profits. “All means for the any insights into the workday by minimum and extend the working development of production”, Marx thinking about the workday within day to its physical maximum”. stressed about capitalism, “distort socialism? How true. Marx continued, though, the worker into a fragment of a man, and noted “while the working man they degrade him” and “alienate from The Socialist Workday constantly presses in the opposite him the intellectual potentialities of Firstly, what do we mean by direction”. In other words, class the labour process”. In other words, socialism? The goal of socialists has JANATA, May 5, 2019 3 always been the creation of a society it forms part of what they see as their quantitative. In socialism, the which would allow for the full necessary labour. Thus, the concept workday cannot be a day in which development of human potential. It of necessary labour changes here. you receive orders from the top (even was never seen as a society in which In a socialist society, further, we in strategic industries). Rather, it is some people are able to develop their recognise explicitly that part of our only through our own activity, our capabilities and others are not. That necessary labour is labour within practice and our protagonism that we was Marx’s point in stating clearly the household. In other words we can develop our capabilities. Article that the goal is “an association, acknowledge that our workday 62 of Venezuela’s constitution in which the free development of does not begin after we leave the makes that point in its declaration each is the condition for the free household but includes what we that participation by people is “the development of all.” And this is do within the household. Article necessary way of achieving the clearly the point, too, of Venezuela’s 88 of the Bolivarian constitution involvement to ensure their complete Bolivarian constitution where it recognises the importance of this development, both individual and stresses in article 20 that “everyone labour when it notes that labour collective”. In other words, in every has the right to the free development within the household is “economic aspect of our lives (the traditional of his or her own personality” and in activity that creates added value and workplace, the community, the the explicit recognition in article 299 produces social welfare and wealth”. household), democratic decision that the goal of a human society must The concept of necessary labour making is a necessary characteristic be that of “ensuring overall human and our workday within a socialist of the socialist workday; through development”. society also includes the labour workers’ councils, communal In contrast to capitalist society, which is required to self-govern our councils, student councils, family where “the worker exists to satisfy communities. After all, if socialism councils, we produce ourselves as the need” of capital to expand, is about the decisions we make new socialist subjects. Marx envisioned a socialist society democratically in our communities, Thus, when we look at the where the wealth that workers have then the time we need to do this workday from the perspective of produced “is there to satisfy the is part of our necessary labour. socialism, we see that the simple worker’s own need for development”. Similarly, if socialism is about demand for reducing the workday is So, what is the nature of the workday creating the conditions in which we a demand from within capitalism. Its in a society oriented toward ensuring are all able to develop our potential, message is simple—end this horror! overall human development? then the process of education and of This is an “infected” conception of Let us begin by talking about developing our capabilities is also the workday. It starts from a view necessary labour—quantitatively. activity which is necessary. of labour as so miserable that the There is the labour which is contained When we think about the only thing you can think of doing is in the products we consume daily— socialist workday, in short, we think reducing and ending it. just like before. To this, however, about the workday differently. Our When we think about building we need to add the labour that view of the quantity of necessary socialism, however, we recognise workers want to devote toward labour, for example, is not distorted that the demand is to transform the expanding production in the future. by the capitalist perspective of workday—to recognise all parts In socialism, there are no capitalists treating as necessary only that labour of our workday explicitly and to who compel the performance of for which capital must pay. That is transform that day qualitatively. surplus labour and invest a portion the difference between the political Rather than only “free time” being of the profits in the search for economy of capital and the political time in which we can develop, from future profits. Rather, workers economy of the working class. the perspective of socialism it is themselves in their workplaces From the perspective of workers, essential to make the whole day time and society decide if they want to we recognise as necessary labour for building human capacities. devote time and effort to expanding all the labour that is necessary In short, there are two ways satisfaction of needs in the future. for “the worker’s own need for of looking at the demand for the If they make this decision, then this development”. reduced workday: one way talks labour is not surplus to their needs; But the difference is not only simply about a shorter work week 4 JANATA, May 5, 2019 and thus longer weekend vacations; Glorious Tradition of Sacrifices in contrast, a second way stresses the reduction of the traditional workday in order to provide the time Sandeep Pandey on a daily basis for education for self-managing, for our work within The freedom struggle of this witnessing a similar phenomenon the household and our work within country witnessed a band of youth among saints for the conservation our communities. In other words, inspired by a zeal willing to put of river Ganga. Most of these it is the demand to redefine and their lives at stake. Number of them are associated with Matri Sadan transform our workday. were arrested, tried in court and Ashram in Haridwar. 60 fasts unto The first of these is simply executed by the British. Bhagat death have been organised by this a reform within capitalism. For Singh, Chandrashekhar Azad, Ram Ashram so far, in which two saints, socialists, May Day should be Prasad Bismil, Ashfaqullah Khan, Swami Nigmanand and Swami Gyan the day to struggle for the whole Thakur Roshan Singh, Rajendra Swaroop Sanand, who was earlier worker’s day, to struggle for the Nath Lahiri, Shivaram Rajguru, known as Professor G.D. Agrawal socialist workday. Sukhdev Thapar, Jatindra Nath at Indian Institute of Technology, Das are common household names Kanpur, died after fasting for (Michael A. Lebowitz is professor in India of revolutionaries who 115 and 112 days, respectively, emeritus of economics at Simon sacrificed their lives. Most of them in 2011 and 2018. Brahmachari Fraser University in Vancouver, were hanged. Chandrashekhar Azad Atmabodhanand is currently sitting Canada.) shot himself dead to escape arrest on fast for over 190 days and is going and Jatindra Nath Das died after a to give up water on 3rd May, 2019. 63 day hunger strike inside Lahore Baba Nagnath had died in 2014 in Janata prison, where Bhagat Singh also Varanasi after 114 days of fast for the fasted with him, for better living same demand. Swami Gokulanand, is available at conditions for political prisoners. who sat on the first fast against Post-independence, Potti illegal mining in Ganga in 1998 www.lohiatoday.com Sreeramulu, a freedom fighter, died along with Swami Nigmanand on after fasting for 58 days in Chennai behalf of Matri Sadan was murdered for a separate Andhra state for Telugu in 2003. The head of Matri Sadan, Janata Subscription speaking people in 1952. Even Swami Shivanand, who has himself though this demand had popular fasted against illegal mining in Annual Rs. : 260/- support, the reason why Jawaharlal the past, has taken a decision that Three Years : 750/- Nehru government eventually agreed one saint after another will sit on to it, Potti Sreeramulu's effort was an fast until the demand of Professor Demand Draft / individual decision. G.D. Agrawal to let Ganga flow Probably one of the most epic uninterrupted and clean is met by the Cheque on fasts in recent times is the one by government. While the Manmohan Mumbai Bank Irom Sharmila, who fasted for Singh government had agreed in favour of 16 long years in Manipur, while to some demands of Professor being force fed, demanding repeal G.D. Agrawal when he fasted five of Armed Forces Special Powers times, the present government has Janata Trust Act. Her decision to go on fast and chosen to ignore the sacrifices of D-15, Ganesh Prasad, to withdraw was again individual. saints. Naushir Bharucha Marg, Fortunately, she survived the long It is a pity that most of the people ordeal. who put their lives at stake were Grant Road (W), All the above mentioned not able to generate enough mass Mumbai 400 007. revolutionaries had staked their lives support for themselves. That is the for a greater cause. Today, we are reason they died while fasting. They JANATA, May 5, 2019 5 received very limited support from to change the society for the better harm to it. This is the least we can society even though the cause that but will remind the lesser mortals learn from these great souls who they espoused for was public and like us that there are higher ideals to gave up their lives for our cause. would benefit the society at large. live for. We must not keep ourselves Except for Mahatma Gandhi and tied up in smaller things as to lose (Sandeep Pandey is a social Anna Hazare, whose fasts attracted the sight of a bigger objective of a activist, Magsaysay Award recipient, public attention and people were humane society, much less bother Ph.D. from the University of moved by them, most of the people ourselves with unscrupulous things. California, and has taught at several who fasted unto death received a If we cannot do any good for the prominent educational institutions in very feeble response from society. society, we must not at least cause the country.) In fact, the society was cruelly insensitive towards them. Surgical Strike Against However, these fasts have proved that when there is darkness Science and Scholarship everywhere, when people and organisations are willing to make Ramachandra Guha compromises for petty gains or are soaked in corruption and when most A term greatly beloved of the There is, however, one set of of the society is either submissive Narendra Modi government is surgical strikes conducted by the or afraid of authorities, there are ‘surgical strike’. It was first invoked present regime about whose efficacy people who come out, take a stand in September 2016, after a cross- there can be no argument. Since and face the repressive regimes. border raid undertaken by the Indian May 2014, the Modi government They become the hope for society army on camps in Pakistan. Notably, has waged an almost continuous and continue to inspire generations. the army itself did not use the term; war against the intellect, by wilfully They are icons of struggle against it was the prime minister and his undermining, one by one, our best injustice and uphold values of truth, propagandists who did. In November universities and research institutes. integrity, simplicity and adherence to of the same year, the prime minister’s These attempts have been extremely universal principles for the benefit of sudden, cataclysmic withdrawal of successful, leading to a loss of the entire human race. the Rs 1000 and Rs 500 currency morale and credibility within these The above mentioned people notes was also termed a ‘surgical institutions, which are rapidly losing who gave up their lives were the strike’ (against black money) by the status they once enjoyed in India most intelligent, committed and spokespersons of the ruling party. and the world. finest human beings of our society. The surgical strike against terror The contempt with which the Their untimely demise was society's was ineffective. For our security current prime minister holds scholars loss. This is irrespective of the fact forces have continued to battle and scholarship is manifest in the that the great souls who made the incursions by militants from Pakistan cabinet ministers he has chosen highest sacrifice never bothered on a more or less daily basis. The in these spheres. The two HRD about their own lives. But what is surgical strike against black money ministers he has thus far appointed most unfortunate is that whereas was counterproductive. While have absolutely no background nobody expected any mercy from demonetization failed to eliminate in education or research; nor any the governments of the day, even black money, it did eliminate—by interest in listening to experts in the larger society didn't do enough sending into bankruptcy—many these fields. They have, sometimes, to save their lives. We are all guilty small enterprises whose transactions taken their cue directly from the in this. were conducted partly in cash. It Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh, as The society will always also hurt millions of farmers who witness the appointment of sanghi remember them for their ideals. suddenly found themselves without ideologues with zero scholarly These martyrs will continue to the money required to buy seeds pedigree as the heads of the Indian inspire new idealists. They will or fertilizers for their economic Council of Historical Research and probably be never enough in number survival. the Indian Council of Social Science 6 JANATA, May 5, 2019

Research, respectively. At other the ancient Hindus invented the social science research. Contra times, they have taken their cue airplane as well as stem-cell research sanghi ideologues, Marxism was from the RSS’s student front, the (the Kauravas apparently being the merely one of several intellectual Akhil Bharatiya Vidyarthi Parishad, first test-tube babies). currents in the Nehruvian academy. as witness the unrelenting hostility All this would be funny were Thus D.R. Gadgil and André expressed by the HRD ministry it not so tragic. Since the visionary Béteille were the Bhabha and towards two of our finest public Jamsetji Tata helped found the Indian Sarabhai of their fields, economics universities, the Hyderabad Central Institute of Science more than a and sociology, respectively. Both University and the Jawaharlal Nehru century ago, scientific research in this were staunch liberals, as well as University—in each case prompted country has been guided by reason anti-Marxist. Gadgil and Béteille by the ABVP, which is desperate and experimentation—rather than by (and others like them) inspired to make inroads into institutions superstition or myth. Institutes such serious research on such subjects whose student bodies have not as the Tata Institute of Fundamental as inequality, education, health and been particularly receptive to its Research and the National Centre rural development, enabling the propaganda in the past. for Biological Sciences have a well framing of public policies based Some right-wing ideologues deserved international reputation. on evidence rather than ideology. claim that all this is merely by way of Meanwhile, the IITs have played a This too has now been placed at course-correction—that in the past critical role in maintaining a decent risk by the sanghi infiltration of our these universities were dominated by standard of technical education, with academic institutions. foreign-inspired Marxist ideologues their graduates contributing to the When it comes to promoting who are now being replaced by country’s economic progress in a science and scholarship, the Modi swadeshi patriots. This argument multitude of ways. The hocus-pocus, government is markedly inferior would hold some water if the Modi mumbo jumbo, now promoted by even to the first National Democratic government’s war on the intellect Union ministers (and encouraged Alliance government. Quite a few was restricted to the social sciences by the prime minister), has caused of the ministers chosen by Atal and the humanities. But it is not; grievous and possibly irreparable Bihari Vajpayee had a high regard this is a war that has wholeheartedly damage to scientific thinking in for learning and expertise. The taken on the natural sciences as India. HRD minister in the first NDA well. The lead has come from the Critics of this government’s government, M.M. Joshi, had a very top, with the prime minister war on the intellect tend to contrast PhD in physics himself. His cabinet himself claiming that the ancient our present prime minister with our colleagues, George Fernandes, Indians invented plastic surgery as first prime minister. Thus, writing Yashwant Sinha and L.K. Advani, well as in-vitro fertilization. Further, in the Deccan Herald of February 7, were all keen, not to say obsessive, he has appointed as his minister for 2019, Prasenjit Chowdhury remarks: readers of books on history and science and technology a man who “Nehru left India with the world’s public policy. Jaswant Singh and believes that “every modern Indian second-largest pool of trained Arun Shourie not only read serious achievement is a continuation of our scientists and engineers. Men like books but wrote them as well. By ancient scientific achievement”, and, Homi Bhabha and Vikram Sarabhai contrast, I do not believe there is a indeed, that the Vedas anticipated the built the platform under Nehru’s single minister in this government theories of Albert Einstein. tutelage for Indian [scientific] (the prime minister not excepted) These claims by our S&T accomplishments . . . Modi, in his who has a deep interest in history, Minister were made not in private attempt to negate Nehru who was literature or science. I wonder if conversation, nor in an RSS shakha, noted for his vision to inspire a any of them read more than the but in the Indian Science Congress. scientific temper, has chosen instead daily newspaper; some may not In recent years, this annual event, to mainstream pseudo-scientific even venture further than Facebook, supposed to showcase the latest orthodoxies.” WhatsApp or Twitter. Little wonder trends in modern science, has instead I would add that that the Modi then that when appointing vice- seen presentations by the minister’s government has also put at risk chancellors of universities or ideological kinsmen claiming that India’s high quality traditions of directors of research institutes, they JANATA, May 5, 2019 7 choose third-rate ideologues rather No, Mr Modi, Ram Manohar Lohia Would than first-rate scholars. The Modi government’s Not have been Proud of BJP Government – malevolent attitude to knowledge He was an Anti-Fascist has not damaged this writer’s career, since I left the academy 25 years ago. Yet it has left me with an Ruchira Gupta abiding sense of sorrow. For I was entirely educated in India, in public universities whose autonomy was (at On March 26, Narendra Modi Germany for almost two months at the time I was within them) respected claimed in a blog post that Gandhian that time. and even encouraged. Now, as an socialist leader Ram Manohar Lohia On February 27, 1933, the unaffiliated freelancer myself, I would have been proud of the BJP German Parliament building or have seen my scholarly friends and government. Perhaps the prime Reichstag went up in flames after an colleagues suffer, personally as minister is not aware that Lohia arson attack suspected to have been well as professionally, from these was ferociously anti-fascist, anti- carried out by Hitler’s stormtroopers. politically motivated attacks on imperialist and anti-hierarchy. He The next day, Hitler used the fire to the institutions to which they have also rejected authoritarianism in all consolidate his power through an devoted their own lives. its forms. emergency decree that said: A year after Narendra Modi Lohia was a PhD student in “Restrictions on personal liberty, came to power in New Delhi, I Berlin between the crucial years of on the right of free expression of wrote that his government was the 1931 and 1933 that saw the rise of opinion, including freedom of the “most anti-intellectual” this country fascism in Germany. press; on the rights of assembly has seen. Since then, the Modi When he returned to India, and association; and violations of regime has done nothing to make me the first article he wrote was titled the privacy of postal, telegraphic reconsider or reverse this judgment; “Hitlerism”. and telephonic communications and many things do confirm and In the article, published in and warrants for house searches, consolidate it. From the moment The Hindu on March 25, 1933, he orders for confiscations as well as it came to power, the government expressed his concern about how restrictions on property, are also led by Modi has carried out a series “personal assaults by the Storm permissible beyond the legal limits of surgical strikes on science and Troopers on their adversaries” had otherwise prescribed.” scholarship, which (tragically) have decimated the Opposition. The Lohia, then 23 years old, been far more effective than those Sturmabteilung, also referred to as was witness to the first big Nazi conducted against terrorism or black stormtroopers, was a paramilitary roundup that followed. Truckloads money. group of the Nazi Party that played of stormtroopers roared through the By so systematically an important role in Hitler’s rise to streets of Germany, bursting in on undermining our finest institutions power. the hangouts of liberals, socialists that produce knowledge and breed and communists, barging into private innovation, the Modi government The Reichstag fire homes. Thousands of communists, has gravely undermined the nation’s Lohia defended his thesis on social democrats, feminists, trade social and economic future. Indians February 25, 1933, three days after unionists and liberals were taken into now living as well as Indians yet Hermann Goering, then a minister what was described as “protective unborn will bear the costs of this without a portfolio in Hitler’s custody”, only to be tortured. savage, unrelenting, war on the cabinet, set up an auxiliary police intellect. force staffed with stormtroopers Lessons from Germany to attack members of other parties, During his three years in (Ramachandra Guha is an Indian dissidents, communists, feminists Germany, Lohia saw how Hitler historian and a much acclaimed and, of course, Jews and Romas. won over big business and exploited biographer of Mahatma Gandhi.) Hitler had been Chancellor of the political haggling between 8 JANATA, May 5, 2019 the communists, socialists and students in collaboration with the Nehru’s invitation, and promptly conservatives to gain power. new administration. joined the party’s socialist caucus. German Chancellor Heinrich Walter Frank, one of Oncken’s Lohia, Nehru and all the Bruening, who was seeking an end former students, an unscrupulous socialist leaders were opposed to war reparations, had proposed Nazi upstart, accused his old teacher to the anti-rational mysticism of that the huge estates of bankrupt of distortion in an article. This gave some of the members of the Indian aristocrats be divided up and given to the Nazis the pretext to suddenly National Congress. Both had a peasants. He issued a decree banning retire the great scholar from his deep understanding of fascism and the SA (Sturmabteilung) and SS professorship in 1935. aversion to it. (Schutzstaffel) all across Germany Lohia, however, took forward Lohia stayed in Anand Bhawan, in April, 1932. The Schutzstaffel, the teachings of the famous “socialist Nehru’s home in Allahabad, for the another paramilitary squad, were of the classroom”. Lohia was next few years. During that time, he originally Hitler’s bodyguards but sympathetic to his teacher’s affinity edited the party’s monthly paper, the later became the elite guard of the to the founder of German Social Inquilab, and contributed several Reich. Democracy, Ferdinand Lassalle, articles to the magazine, Congress Within a month, under pressure whose political philosophy, based Socialist. from business families and warring on Hegel’s teachings, was to have Three years on, in 1936, a political parties, Bruening was a universal outlook and to bridge 46-year-old Nehru asked Lohia, removed from office by President the abyss between the state and the who was then 26 years old, to start Paul von Hindenberg. By June 15, working class. the foreign cell of the Congress. the ban on the SA and SS was lifted. The first pamphlet that Lohia wrote Lohia wrote in The Hindu: Understanding fascism as secretary of the party’s foreign “Financial help from capital and Lohia had gained firsthand department was titled, The Struggle heavy industry and Herr Thyssen insights into the link between anti- for Civil Liberties, with a foreword and Hugenberg controlling iron and rational mysticism and fascism in by Nehru. Both leaders must have coal industries of Germany being Europe during his time in Germany. surely discussed the importance of in active sympathy with Nazis, One of Lohia’s professors, the laying out this treatise at a time when has been of the greatest assistance German philosopher, Max Dessoir, the party was being built. By then, to the [Nazi] party . . . For though was an amateur magician and Nehru had already been jailed by the the National Socialist programme parapsychologist quoted by the British eight times for a cumulative should have Socialism in it, on the likes of Freud. His lectures provided total of more than six years. Lohia basis of its name, it contains instead students like Lohia insights into was yet to begin his jail terms. the assurance that private property how the fascists used magic and shall exist under Nazi regime . . .” irrational mysticism to influence the Lohia on civil liberties Lohia was repulsed by sub-conscious memory. Modi has obviously not read the changing atmosphere in the Dessoir’s article, Psychology of this pamphlet in which Lohia wrote: universities. He wrote: “It was one the Art of Conjuring, was banned “The persecution of racial minorities of my most common experiences by the Nazis. Dessoir was also is obviously a reflection of unequal that otherwise educated and cultured forbidden from teaching. The excuse laws, as also unequal dispensation German students expressed their was that he was “quarter-Jewish”. of justice and is, therefore, an attack glee even upon personal assaults Lohia must have found the on the civil liberties of a section of by the Storm Troopers on their conditions in Germany unbearable citizens.” adversaries”. and so he decided to leave Germany Or when he explained that, Lohia must have witnessed just a few weeks after passing his “On the ruins of the Bastille with pain, how one of his favourite PhD, without even waiting to pick [the notorious French prison] was professors, Hermann Oncken, “to up the actual degree itself. reared the imposing structure of whom many like me of the Berlin On his return to India, he went civil liberties . . . Bastilles, of one university owe the taste for history”, to work for the Indian National type or the other, had been built to was being hounded by his pro-Nazi Congress in Allahabad at Jawaharlal frighten people into submission and JANATA, May 5, 2019 9 acceptance of conditions as they King Jr. Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh obtained. When, finally the peoples American attorney and civil is wont to do, is deliberately had gathered sufficient strength to rights activist Harris Wofford, who appropriating leaders who have smash the state and its economic was a friend of Lohia, later said: played a significant role in building and social laws, they overthrew the “I’ve been thinking a lot lately about India, since the RSS has a paucity of Bastilles . . . To restrict, therefore, causal chains. If I hadn’t taken Ram such leaders. the factual authority of the State, all Manohar Lohia to Highlander, there Lohia died in 1967 at the age of manners of trenches should be dug wouldn’t have been a Rosa Parks 57. He had devoted his short life to and citadels fortified in defence of who went to jail; there wouldn’t have laying the foundation of democratic people’s freedom. The agitation for been a Martin Luther King to put in socialist politics. His submission civil liberties is such a trench and a jail; and there wouldn’t have been a of a no-confidence vote against his citadel.” phone call to Coretta [Scott King] for erstwhile mentor, Nehru, in 1963, Modi and his cohort have [John F] Kennedy to make. If you stemmed from his commitment to certainly not noticed Lohia’s views remove just one link from the chain, establishing a robust Opposition, a on lynching in the same pamphlet. even one that seems insignificant, cornerstone for any democracy. He wrote: you can change the whole course of “In Alabama, the Courts and the history.” (Ruchira Gupta is a feminist State administration are ridden by Modi either fails to understand campaigner and visiting professor race-hatred and the fiendish desire Lohia foundationally, or, as the at New York University.) legally or illegally to lynch Negroes. The Negroes are underprivileged and live under the dictatorial rule of their If War Is an Industry, How Can There Be economic masters, the former slave- owners of the South.” Peace in a Capitalist World? In 1951, on a tour of the American South, Lohia convinced Vijay Prashad officials of the Highlander Folk School, the Tennessee retreat where On 26 April 1937, twelve bombers he painted his most powerful work— many civil rights activists learned to of the German Condor Legion and Guernica (1937)—which now hangs confront oppression, to include civil the Italian Aviazione Legionaria flew in Madrid’s Reina Sofia. disobedience in the curriculum. low over the Basque country of Spain At the entrance of the United Four years after Lohia’s visit, in the midst of the Spanish Civil War Nations Security Council in New Rosa Parks, a seamstress from (1936–39). They tore down over the York City hangs a tapestry of Montgomery, Alabama, who attended small town of Guernica, where they Picasso’s Guernica that had been the Highlander course, engaged let loose their fiery arsenal. Almost made by the weaver Jacqueline de la in her own Gandhian act of civil two thousand people died in this Baume Dürrbach in 1955. When US disobedience by refusing to give defenceless town. Noel Monk of the Secretary of State Colin Powell came up her seat on a city bus to a white Daily Express (London) was one of to the UN in early 2003 to make his— passenger. the first reporters to enter the town, false—comments about weapons of Parks’ single act of defiance hours after the bombers dropped their mass destruction about Iraq, the UN launched movements across America ordinance. In Eyewitness (1955), staff covered the tapestry with a blue to end public segregation and led Monk wrote, “A sight that haunted cloth. In 1923, Picasso told Marius to the 381-day long Montgomery me for weeks was the charred bodies de Zayas, “art is a lie that makes us bus boycott, during which African of several women and children realise truth”. The lies that led to the Americans refused to travel on huddled together in what had been US war on Iraq could not be told with the city’s buses to protest against the cellar of a house. It had been a Guernica as backdrop. segregated seating. The bus boycott refugio (refuge)”. Pablo Picasso, the Lies lead to war and then lies brought Gandhian civil disobedience artist, was so moved by news of the are needed to cover up the horrors to the attention of Martin Luther fascist bombing raid on this town that of war. Over the past few years, the 10 JANATA, May 5, 2019

International Criminal Court (ICC) military, but also expenditure on [USA] had diligently begun to investigate the Veteran’s Administration, the 2. Boeing ($26.9 billion) [USA] war crimes in Afghanistan Department of Energy, the National 3. Raytheon ($23.9 billion) [USA] conducted by the armed forces Nuclear Security Administration, 4. BAE Systems ($22.9 billion) of the United States of America, the Cybersecurity component of the [UK] Afghanistan and the Taliban. The Department of Justice, Homeland 5. Northrop Grumman ($22.4 ICC’s special prosecutor Fatou Security and the military aspects of billion) [USA] Bensouda was convinced that there the State Department. It does not 6. General Dynamics ($19.5 is adequate evidence for the ICC include the immense secret budget billion) [USA] to move the investigation along of the National Security Agency 7. Airbus Group ($11.3 billion) (including evidence provided by and the Central Intelligence Agency. [Europe] Wikileaks from various US army Add these up and the US military 8. Thales ($9 billion) [France] secret investigations). But the Trump budget is already over $1 trillion, 9. Leonardo ($8.9 billion) [Italy] administration, in the mode of the as the noted US socialist magazine 10. Almaz-Antey ($8.6 billion) mafia, put immense pressure on the Monthly Review found in 2007. The [Russia] ICC. First, US National Security United States spends more on its Why do governments spend such Adviser John Bolton threatened to military than the next nine highest- a vulgar amount on weapons? In sanction the judges and lawyers at spending countries combined: China, his monumental Grundrisse (1857), the court and then US Secretary of Saudi Arabia, Russia, India, France, Karl Marx made the offhand, but State Mike Pompeo denied Bensouda United Kingdom, Japan, Germany accurate remark, “The impact of war a visa to come to New York City to and South Korea. ‘Security’ or is self-evident, since economically it deliver her report to the UN Security ‘deterrence’ are not the main aims of is exactly the same as if the nation Council. On 12 April, therefore, a such formidable military spending. were to drop a part of its capital pre-trial bench of the ICC decided to A world awash with weapons leads into the ocean.” A permanent war stop the investigation. They said that to tragedies, such as the recent economy is a waste, even if there an investigation into US war crimes massacre in Sri Lanka, where are massive profits to be made by in Afghanistan “would not serve the military-grade explosives were used these warfare companies. So much interests of justice”. So it goes. in the terrible murder of over three can be done with $2 trillion—a It has become impossible to hold hundred and fifty innocent people. mere $30 billion per year to end states to account. The ICC cannot Focus on the arms industry world hunger, as the UN Food and move on powerful states, such as the is sporadic, with the Stockholm Agricultural Organisation noted United States and its allies (notably International Peace Research in 2008. Last year, the UN began Israel). No other avenue remains Institute (SIPRI) and others like it a campaign to raise $10 billion to open to the victims of permanent lonely in their work. Recent reports eradicate illiteracy. But even these wars. They will march for justice, from SIPRI show that the volume meagre funds have been impossible but they will get little attention. of arms transfers—a major part of to raise, the promise of ‘billions into In 2011, Haji Bismillah’s son was the business of the arms trade—has trillions’ from the much-heralded killed by a US helicopter strike in been rising over the years, with public–private partnerships falling Nangalam (Afghanistan). “My son the United States, Russia, France, flat. There is always money for war, Wahidullah’s head was missing”, Germany and China as the biggest but never enough money to build the he said with great sadness. “I only exporters of weapons (they account scaffolding for peace. recognised him from his clothes.” for 75% of all world arms sales). The There is always the illusion that Global military spending is United States, by itself, sells 36% of military spending is for security, over $2 trillion, with the United the world’s arms—with a focus on when it appears to be more for profit. States by itself spending almost combat aircraft, short-range cruise The entire industry is lubricated with half this amount. Total US military missiles and ballistic missiles and bribes. Joe Roeber of Transparency spending is now at $989 billion. guided bombs. The top ten arms International said that the arms trade This number includes not only companies in the world are: is “hard-wired for corruption”. “In the formal expenditure on the US 1. Lockheed Martin ($44.9 billion) 1997, I was told in Washington that JANATA, May 5, 2019 11 a mid-nineties report by the CIA Thank You, Julian Assange. And we had in mind Ola Bini, concluded”, he wrote, that “arms Thank You, Chelsea Manning, who is in El Inca prison in Quito trade corruption then accounted for For exposing the human rights (Ecuador), who has no role in any of 40–45% of the total corruption in violations, criminality and horrors this but seems to be collateral damage world trade.” The national security of US war on Iraq. for the frustration of the ruling elites argument, Roeber suggested, “throws For Wikileaks that told us the that their mendacity was revealed by a veil of secrecy around arms deals”, truth about what was actually the Afghan War Logs and the Iraq whose scale is so large that even happening. War Logs and so many more leaks. small percentages of bribes make For providing us with The Iraq It is not what is in these Logs for large dollar amounts. Bribery is War Logs that would help us, in the that bothers the powerful, whose normal, the deals that are revealed are near future, to hold those responsible indignation is reserved for those startling—bribes running from $300 for launching the war of aggression brave people who expose their million (the South African–BAE on Iraq as war criminals. crimes and call them to account. A deal from 1997–98) to $8 billion (the We had in mind the terrible Gestapo officer barged into Picasso’s Saudi–BAE deal from 1985–2007). bombardment of Iraqi society and apartment in Paris. There was a A few days ago, I joined a group civilisation. We had in mind Chelsea photograph of Guernica on the wall. of Iraqis (such as the writer Haifa Manning, sitting in a prison cell, The Gestapo officer asked if Picasso Zangana and Thuraiya Muhammed of refusing to testify against Julian had done the painting. “No”, Picasso Tadhamun: Iraqi women solidarity), Assange. We had in mind Julian replied. “You did.” journalists who covered the Iraq Assange, who is in Belmarsh prison, (Vijay Prashad is the Director war and those who led solidarity 20 kilometres from the headquarters of Tricontinental: Institute for campaigns for the Iraqis in signing of BAE systems (Britain’s main arms Social Research and the Chief the following note: dealer). Correspondent for Globetrotter.)

Argentina Mobilises Against Government Policies in National Strike

Tanya Wadhwa

On April 30, as part of the 80 bus lines and several trains did agricultural, banking, educational National Strike, hundreds of not operate. In case of airlines, no or transportation, is to fight against thousands of workers, small and domestic or international airline rampant inflation, mass dismissals, medium scale businesspersons and operated, except for the Flybondi. loss of purchasing power and growing social leaders mobilised across Bank workers, public administrators poverty. For the last several months, Argentina against the economic as well as university professors the Argentinian working class has policies of the government. “We joined the strike. The attention in been continuously mobilising to have no other way. Plan to Fight. public hospitals was similar to that reject the harsh economic adjustments General Strike. Economic policy on a Sunday. and the increase in tariffs of basic must change,” they chanted. The National Strike was called by public services, imposed by the right- In Buenos Aires, over 200,000 over 30 different working sector and wing government of the Cambiemos marched to the Plaza de Mayo. The workers’ movements, including the coalition, led by president Mauricio protesting workers interrupted traffic Trade Union Front for the National Macri. Marches, demonstrations between the Crovara and General Model (FSMN), the Federal Workers’ and protests have been staged across Paz avenues. The La Noria bridge Movement (CFT), the Argentine Argentina against the neoliberal and Pueyrredón bridge were also Workers’ Central Union (CTA) policies of Macri that have led blockaded. and the Argentine Workers’ Central to concentration of wealth and The strike affected transportation Union-Autonomous (CTA-A). destruction of national industry. services the most. All the subway The central agenda of all trade Several trade union leaders and metro lines were shut. Some unions in Argentina today, whether addressed the protesters. Pablo 12 JANATA, May 5, 2019

Micheli, the general secretary of fell flat, his government’s policies and education threatened due to the CTA-A, in his speech, referred created an unstable and vulnerable budget cuts, loss of social welfare to the upcoming general elections in economy which tanked when the policies, rapid devaluation of the Argentina. He said that the workers the US Federal Reserve Bank raised national currency, and costs for want the former president Cristina interest rates. In 2018 alone, the basic services soaring, the situation Fernández de Kirchner back. “We Argentine peso’s value fell more for the Argentinian working class want Peronism and a national and than 50%. According to the National has become a matter of day to day popular government to come back. Institute of Statistics and Census of survival. Do not give up struggling [even Argentina, the country experienced a The widespread misery has for] a minute and accompany the 47.6% inflation in 2018, the highest fueled the resentment of Macri road to elections with the workers’ in past 27 years. across sectors and across the country. movement on the street,” he said. Macri’s response to the economic The symbolic impact of a return to José Rigane, the assistant general crisis was to put the Argentine the IMF is also key to understanding secretary of CTA-A, called for all economy and people at the mercy their disgust for Macri. The IMF was Argentines to unite and “confront this of the International Monetary responsible for the serious economic government and regain sovereignty Fund (IMF). In May 2018, Macri and political crisis that Argentina and change the energy model that is announced that his government faced in the 1990s which led to a based on privatisation and foreign would initiate negotiations with the popular insurrection in the country. investment.” IMF for a $30 billion loan to tide And so, today, in Argentina, Following the massive over the country’s financial crisis. all working sectors, agriculture, mobilisation, many continued their A month later, after Macri met banking, business, education, health day of struggle and marched to with Christine Lagarde, the IMF care, transport, workers of the the Venezuelan Embassy where managing director, they reached an people’s economy, and others, members of the Venezuelan right- agreement on a $50 billion loan, and have been taking the streets wing opposition were attempting to in October 2018 the amount was against Macri’s policies of hunger, occupy the embassy, accompanying increased to $57 billion. misery and despair. Alliances and the coup d’état attempt staged As expected, the IMF demanded fronts have been forged between by Juan Guaidó. Activists from that Argentina reduce its fiscal trade unions, social and political Argentine organisations were deficit and apply severe budgetary organisations, cultural groups, inside and outside the embassy adjustments between 2018 and student movements and community safeguarding it from attacks. After 2019. Across the board, there have organisations in order to come up several hours, the Police (who had been mass layoffs in the public with strong campaigns and plans of been present throughout the day sector, the budgets for education, mobilisation that have the capacity protecting the group who wanted health and social welfare have been to build power and momentum and to occupy the embassy by force) slashed and the tariffs have been defeat the regressive neoliberal began to repress the mobilisation increased on basic services such as government. and attacked activists with tear gas water, electricity, residential gas and and batons. Several were injured and transportation. Figures published by (Tanya Wadhwa writes for four were arrested and have since the Citizen’s Unity Party, a coalition People’s Dispatch.) been set free. of Argentine left-wing organisations, show that the tariffs of electricity Spectre of Mauricio Macri: false promises have increased by 3624%, natural and a return to the IMF gas by 2401%, water by 1025%, Fascism Macri’s 2015 campaign for road tolls by 1118%, inter-municipal Contribution Rs. 20/- president was centered around train tickets by 601%, train tickets by Published by messages of change and progress, 500%, metro tickets by 400% and Janata Trust & Lokayat he promised to reduce inflation buses by 494%. D-15, Ganesh Prasad, and provide better employment With tens of thousands out Naushir Bharucha Marg, opportunities. However, his promises of work, access to quality health Grant Road (W), Mumbai 400 007 JANATA, May 5, 2019 13 Modinomics = Corporatonomics Part IV: Modi’s Budgets and the Social Sectors: Health

Neeraj Jain In the previous issues of Janata, and cancers], which account for capital for India.7 This is equivalent we have analysed Modinomics and more than 60% of the deaths in to Rs 1,100 per person per year, less shown that the Modi Government, if the country.4 than the cost of consultation in one it wants, can raise enough resources of the country’s top private hospitals. The reason for this ‘health to increase its expenditures on the It works out to Rs 93 per month, or emergency’ is the dismal state of social sectors. Instead, it is giving Rs 3 per day. India’s public health services. India away huge subsidies to the tune Consequently, the public health spends barely 1.02% (in 2015–16) of several lakh crore rupees to the system in India is in bad shape. of its GDP on public health services, corporate houses. In this article, we Around 33% of the population lives lower than even most low income specifically discuss Modi’s budget in urban areas. Since the focus of countries, and far below the world allocations for health. public health has been on rural average of 6% (see Chart 1). The areas since independence, primary WHO World Health Statistics 2015 State of India’s Health System urban health infrastructure remains ranked India at 187 out of 194 India's health system is in grossly neglected. On the other countries in public health spending.5 “crisis”. India is the disease capital hand, secondary and tertiary health The difference between the of the world: care facilities are well developed health expenditure of developed in urban areas, and more than 60% • More than 2 lakh people in the countries and India becomes even of the government hospital beds in country die of malaria every starker when we compare the per the country are located there (4.31 year, while TB kills 3 lakh;1 capita GDP expenditure on health. lakh out of 7.11 lakh, according to • According to the World Health The public health expenditure National Health Profile, 2018). Organisation (WHO), India in the developed countries is as The rural health care accounts for nearly one-fourth high as $3000–5000 per capita; it infrastructure in India is a three- of the deaths in the world due to comes down sharply for developing tier system—a sub-centre, a diarrhoea, more than one-third countries like Thailand ($166 Primary Health Centre (PHC) and a of the deaths due to leprosy and per capita), Sri Lanka ($63) and Community Health Centre (CHC). more than half of the deaths due Indonesia ($38), but is only $16 per to Japanese encephalitis;2 The sub-centre is the first contact • India's under-five child Chart 1: Public Expenditure on Health, by Countries Income Groups6 mortality rate is the highest in the world, with 12 lakh such deaths in 2015; a majority of these deaths are preventable;3 • India is also in the grip of an epidemic of non- communicable diseases (long-term diseases such as diabetes, cardiovascular diseases [such as hypertension, heart attacks and stroke), chronic respiratory diseases (such as asthma) 14 JANATA, May 5, 2019 point between the primary health have electricity.9 health spending accounts for only care system and the community, These health units are also 31.3%, households undertake the caters to a population of between severely deficient in hospital staff: rest—at 65.6%, private expenditure 3000–5000 people, is required to on health care by Indians was the • Of the 1.58 lakh sub-centres be staffed by at least one auxiliary sixth highest in the world (among functioning: 7,194 do not have nurse midwife (ANM)/female health 184 nations surveyed), with the ANMs, and 1,04,318 (66%) do worker and one male health worker, world average being 22.8% (see not have male health workers, and provides services related to Chart 2). [This does not include while 5,089 do not have both. maternal and child health, family health expenditure financed by • Of the 25,743 PHCs functioning: welfare, nutrition, etc. The PHC private insurance; including this, 10,557 (41%) do not have female is the first base for doctors, and private health spending by Indians health assistants and 16,981 is the referral unit for around 6 increases to 68% of total health (66%) do not have male health sub-centres, and thus caters to spending.]12 assistants, while 3,673 do not a population of around 30,000. Because of lack of affordable even have a doctor. Therefore, it must have one medical medical services and high cost of • The 5,624 functioning CHCs officer, supported by paramedical private health care, an analysis suffer from a whopping 82% and other staff, including one female based on data from NSSO 2014 shortage of specialists (they and one male health assistant. The showed that 3.6 crore households, have only 4,074 specialists out PHCs are supposed to screen and or around 14% of total households in of the required 22,496). This feed the more serious medical cases the country, incurred health expenses huge shortfall makes redundant to CHCs (4 PHCs to 1 CHC), which that exceeded the annual per capita the rural health infrastructure. are supposed to be staffed by at least consumption of those households. For instance, with no surgeons to four medical specialists, that is, These figures underestimate the man them, the 4,696 CHCs with surgeon, physician, gynecologist/ extent of health shock faced by functional operating theatres can obstetrician and pediatrician, along the people of the country, as many only exist as empty structures.10 with supporting staff. people are simply too poor to go for Even by standards set by the Including both rural and urban any treatment even when a member government, there is a 18% shortfall areas, the population–doctor faces a life-threatening disease. in the number of sub-centres, 22% (allopathic doctors only) ratio in India How many? This is difficult to say, in PHCs and 30% in CHCs in in 2017 was 11,082:1 in government but some clues can be had from rural areas, as on March 31, 2018, hospitals, 25 times higher than NSSO data. The data says that while according to Rural Health Statistics the WHO recommendation of 25 among the richest 5% people in the (RHS) Bulletin, 2017–18 (see Table professionals per 10,000 population. country, 98% received some kind 1).8 Likewise, the average population of treatment before death, for the Worse, of these currently to government hospital ratio in the bottom 25%, a staggering 39% do functioning health centres, only 7% country was 55,951, which is also not receive any medical attention sub-centres, 12% PHCs and 13% very high.11 before death. Maybe many of these CHCs are functioning as per Indian This dismal state of public poor people could have been saved Public Health Standards (IPHS). health care has forced citizens to had good quality and affordable The condition of the sub-centres is depend upon the private sector health care been available in the so bad that 16% do not have regular for treatment. Of the total health country for all.14 water supply, while 24.7% do not spending in the country, public Another study based on analysis

Table 1: State of Rural Health Infrastructure JANATA, May 5, 2019 15

Chart 2: Out-of-Pocket Spending as % of Total Health Spending13

of NSSO survey data of 2004 and draft National Health Policy (draft be achieved to 2022.17 As we have 2014 estimates that more than five NHP 2015) that promised to increase mentioned above, this target is less crore people were pushed into the public health expenditure of the than half the global average public poverty over the decade 2004–14 due country to 2.5% of GDP, of which expenditure on health. to out-of-pocket health spending.15 40%, that is 1% of GDP, would be Be that as it may, since then, borne by the Centre. It promised to three budgets have gone by. The Modi–Jaitley Total Allocation for achieve these spending targets by total expenditure on health care as Health Care 2020. Considering the dismal state a percentage of GDP has seen no The BJP came to power in 2014 of public health care in the country, increase during Modi’s five years promising to increase public health this is obviously a very inadequate and in 2018–19 BE was at the spending. Its manifesto stated that if level of public health spending.16 same level as in 2014–15 BE (at it was voted to power, it would ensure The government took more than 0.31%); in 2019–20 BE too, it has that the orientation of the health 2 years to finalise this report, and remained at that level. Minus the care system would be to provide the final National Health Policy allocation for the Ayushman Bharat “Health Assurance to all Indians” document was released only in 2017. health insurance scheme which and “reduce the out-of-pocket It kept the spending target the same does not go to improve the public spending on health care”. Soon as that in the draft NHP 2015, but health infrastructure in the country after assuming power, it released the advanced the date for the target to (discussed below), the health budget Table 2: BJP Budget Allocations for Health (Rs crore) 16 JANATA, May 5, 2019 as a percentage of GDP has actually services. The allocation for these up new health centres to make up for fallen, from 0.31% in 2014–15 HWCs is probably under the sub- this shortfall. BE and 0.32% in 2017–18 (A) to head ‘Health Systems Strengthening’ Further, what is the point in only 0.29% in 2018–19 RE and 0.28% in within the head ‘National Rural improving the health sub-centres, if 2019–20 BE—less than one-third of Health Mission’, for which the the referral centres for these basic the target set in NHP 2017 (Table 2). budget had been increased by Rs health units, which are supposed to But then what about the Modi 1,357 crore in the 2018–19 BE (over provide medical care by a qualified Government’s ambitious health 2017–18 RE). The revised estimates doctor, are not in good condition. programme, Ayushman Bharat or show that the government spent As we have mentioned above, the National Health Protection Mission, Rs 1,000 crore on this. This works conditions in the PHCs and CHCs rolled out by the government last to an investment of Rs 63,000 for are simply abysmal. More than year? It hit the headlines in both the upgrading each health sub-centre. 50% of the PHCs do not have health print and electronic media, and has Considering the terrible state assistants, 3,673 do not have a doctor, been called a game-changer in terms of our rural health services, it is and the CHCs suffer from 82% of providing health care to the poor obvious that this allocation is simply shortage of specialist doctors! But and needy. too inadequate. The Rural Health the finance minister has increased Let us take a closer look at this Statistics 2017–18 point out that the allocation for Health System much tom-tommed programme. It of the 1.58 lakh health sub-centres Strengthening by only 10.66% over has two components: Ayushman functioning, 16% do not have regular the last two years, barely enough to Bharat Health and Wellness Centres water supply and 24.7% do not have beat inflation (Table 3). (HWCs), and Pradhan Mantri Jan electricity; 7,194 health sub-centres Actually, a closer look at the Arogya Yojana (PMJAY). do not have a female health worker, budget allocations reveal that like 1.04,318 do not have a male health his several other announcements, Health and Wellness Centres worker, and 5,089 do not have both. this announcement of the finance In his 2018–19 budget speech, For a sub-centre to become a Health minister regarding HWCs is also Jaitley announced a provision of and Wellness Centre, at the least, only a ‘jumla’. That he is absolutely Rs 1,200 crore for converting all these basic facilities and human non-serious about the improvement the 1.5 lakh health sub-centres resources need to be provided. It of rural health services becomes into Health and Wellness Centres is hard to understand how this can clear from the fact that the total (HWCs). He said that these would be done with the meagre funds budget for the National Rural Health provide comprehensive health care, allocated. The number of health sub- Mission has actually decreased including for non-communicable centres functioning is also less than over the last two years even in diseases and maternal and child required—the RHS points out that nominal terms, which works out to health services. He added that there is a shortage of 32,900 health an effective cut of 16% in real terms these centres will also provide sub-centres. Clearly, the finance (see Table 3). The finance minister free essential drugs and diagnostic minister has no intention of opening has succeeded in cutting total Table 3: Budget Allocations for National Rural Health Mission, 2017–20 (Rs crore) JANATA, May 5, 2019 17 allocation for rural health services, crore in the 2018–19 RE to Rs 4,000 health care programme”. Under this while allocating money for HWCs, crore in 2019–20. scheme, the government promised to by slashing the budget allocation When we examine this increase provide medical insurance cover of for other important rural health care in the backdrop of the reduction in Rs 5 lakh per family to 10 crore poor programmes, such as ‘Flexible pool the budgets for rural and urban health families (roughly 50 crore people) in for non-communicable diseases missions, it becomes clear that this is case of hospitalisation (that is, out- (NCDs), injury and trauma’ which in tune with the overall approach of patient care is not covered). are the largest cause of death in the the Modi Government—build a few It is proof of the vacuity of country,18 and the important program high quality facilities, amidst a huge our media that this announcement for maternal and child care—‘RCH expanse of neglect and ruin. This is was highlighted by every TV news flexible pool including routine what is happening in every sector— channel and hit the headlines of immunisation program and pulse build a few airports, while neglecting nearly every newspaper the next day. polio immunisation program’ (see basic transport infrastructure like the It was actually the biggest hoax of Table 3). public bus transport system; build a the budget. few IITs, while neglecting school Last year, Jaitley spent Rs 2,400 Urban Health Mission and college education, and so on. crore on this scheme as given in the The NRHM’s urban counterpart This does not mean that airports 2018–19 RE, and this year, he has is the National Urban Health Mission and IITs are not needed, but if hiked the allocation to Rs 6,400 (NUHM). The Union Cabinet had funds are limited, priority should crore. estimated the share of Central be given to improving primary Even assuming that the finance funding for this scheme to be around transport and education facilities. minister is serious about providing Rs 3,400 crore per annum way back Similarly, it is not that new high medical insurance to the poor for in 2013 when it had given approval quality public tertiary hospitals are hospitalisation, this increased to this scheme aimed at addressing not needed—the problem is that allocation is simply not enough to health care challenges in towns and this is being done while the primary provide the required insurance cover cities with focus on the urban poor.19 health care sector is being neglected. to 10 crore households. Various However, the allocation for this has If primary level health services estimates suggest that the scheme remained at much below this during are good—that is, if the PHCs and could end up costing the government the Modi regime: it was Rs 950 CHCs are running well—most anywhere between Rs 12,000 crore crore in the 2016–17 BE, but actual illnesses can be taken care of at this to Rs 50,000 crore; with Jaitley expenditure was only half of that, level itself, and this will not only allocating much less than even the Rs 491 crore; allocation for it fell in improve the efficiency and reduce lower of this estimate, obviously subsequent years, and then rose back the cost of delivery of public health the government has no intention of to Rs 950 crore in the 2019–20 BE. services, it will also improve the meeting its target of providing health Clearly, the Modi Government is not overall health status of the people. insurance to 10 crore people.20 serious about this scheme too. Therefore, priority should be given Do the poor really benefit from While the Modi Government has to improving primary health care; such health insurance schemes reduced the budgets for the important but as we have discussed above, this like the PMJAY? Some idea of it rural and urban health missions, the has been neglected in the successive can be had from data regarding budget allocation for the deceptively Jaitley budgets. how many have benefited from the named Pradhan Mantri Swasthya previous insurance scheme for the Suraksha Yojana (PMSSY)—which Ayushman Bharat Health poor, Rashtriya Swasthya Bima is actually a scheme for building Insurance Scheme Yojana (RSBY), which provided AIIMS-like institutes and upgrading The other component of the an insurance cover of Rs 30,000 government medical colleges—has Ayushman Bharat scheme is the per year to every BPL household been significantly increased in Ayushman Bharat Pradhan Mantri in case of hospitalisation. The successive budgets. The allocation Jan Arogya Yojana (PMJAY). government has not been very for this has gone up from Rs 2,450 Jaitley proclaimed it to be “the willing to release RSBY data, and so crore in 2016–17 BE to Rs 3,875 world’s largest government funded comprehensive evaluations have not 18 JANATA, May 5, 2019 been done. Independent evaluations quickly get themselves empanelled in PPP facilities.26 of the RSBY based on NSS data with the scheme as, “We are offering Hospitalisation constitutes only for 2014 show that only 1.2% of you business of 50 crore people!”23 a small part of the total health the hospitalisation cases of the The Modi Government is in expenses of any individual, as not rural population and 6.2% of the fact using the PMJAY as an excuse every disease needs hospitalisation. urban population received even part to accelerate the privatisation of Even diseases like diabetes and reimbursement. Studies have also health care in the country. The respiratory problems and heart shown that private hospitals often government has already announced problems only require hospitalisation force people to pay extra money incentives for the private sector to if the patient’s condition takes a turn even after receiving RSBY insurance set up hospitals in Tier 2 and Tier for the worse. And since PMJAY funds.21 Therefore, it is too early to 3 cities. These incentives include covers only hospitalisation costs, say as to what extent will this new allotting unencumbered land for such this means that as the privatisation avatar of RSBY—PMJAY—will hospitals, providing viability gap of government hospitals advances, benefit poor families with regards to funding (VGF)—a euphemism for out-patient costs are going to go up their hospitalisation expenses. providing them grant of up to 40% sharply, which the poor will not be But the most serious problem of the project cost—and speeding able to afford—it is going to further with PMJAY is that it is not a up clearances. In November 2018, worsen the health crisis gripping the universal health care scheme even the Centre sent a note to all states country. for the poor. It does not cover out- asking them to sanction loans at Additionally, many lower patient costs, and these constitute agricultural rates of interest and middle class and middle class 63.5% of the health related out- provide electricity at residential rates families not covered by PMJAY of-pocket expenditure (that is, to these private hospitals.24 also go to government hospitals as personal spending by people) in The private hospital business they cannot afford private medical India (data for 2014).22 As mentioned is one of the most profitable in the care. Privatisation of government above, India’s health-related out-of- country. Most of our readers will hospitals is going to mean that in pocket expenditure, which pushes have at least a few stories about case they fall seriously ill and need families into indebtedness and how their friends and relatives have to be hospitalised, it would mean deeper poverty, is among the world’s been fleeced by private hospitals. catastrophic medical expenses for highest. And yet the government wants to them. incentivise the setting up of more Under the guise of rolling out PMJAY: Excuse for Privatisation private hospitals, and even provide the world’s largest health care of Health Care them a grant (not a loan) of up to initiative, the anti-people Modi PMJAY does not cover out- 40% of the cost of the project! Government is actually seeking to patient expenses of the poor. It As if this was not enough, Niti destroy whatever that remains of only meets their hospitalisation Aayog and the health ministry have India’s failing public health care expenses—and past experience recommended to all states that they system and privatise it. It is going with similar insurance schemes partially privatise their district to have terrible consequences for raises legitimate doubts as to what hospitals, and transfer sections of the people. extent will the poor benefit from these hospitals, including land and this scheme. But the sectors that are a certain number of hospital beds, Can’t Jaitley Increase the Health undoubtedly going to enormously to private players.25 The Niti Aayog Budget? benefit from PMJAY are private guidelines for these ‘public-private- The only way in which reliable hospitals and private insurance partnerships’ (PPPs) imply that and good quality health care can companies. It wouldn’t be an the staff of these district hospitals be provided to ordinary people is exaggeration to say that the real would now be basically engaged by strengthening public health care purpose of the PMJAY is to benefit in PPP implementation, referring facilities—and thereby provide them them. The chief of the Ayushman patients to the private doctors and both out-patient and hospitalisation Bharat scheme tweeted some time facilitating the reimbursement of care free or at affordable rates. That ago that private hospitals should expenditure of individuals incurred is what governments have done JANATA, May 5, 2019 19

around the world. To do that in Global Tuberculosis Report 2012, Middle Income Nations”, op. cit. India, the Indian government needs World Health Organisation, 2012, 16. Sourindra Mohan Ghosh, Imrana to increase its health care budget. http://who.int. Qadeer, “An Inadequate and 2. David Coady et. al. (ed.), The Misdirected Health Budget”, The NHP promises to increase Economics of Public Health Care February 8, 2017, https://thewire.in. Central government health spending Reform in Advanced and Emerging 17. “BJP 2014 Manifesto Check: How to 1% of GDP, and total Central Economies, International Monetary has the Modi Government Performed and State government spending Fund, 2012, http://books.google. on its Healthcare Promises?”, March on health to 2.5% of GDP. That co.in, p. 288. 31, 2019, https://scroll.in. is a very low target, it should be 3. “20% of World’s Under‐5 Deaths 18. “Health Budget Focuses Only on Occur in India”, September 9, 2015, Ayushman Bharat, Other Schemes increased to at least 3% of GDP, http://timesofindia.indiatimes.com. Ignored”, February 2, 2019, https:// and more subsequently. Presently, 4. “Non-Communicable Diseases www.livemint.com the expenditure on health is 1% of Cause 61% of Deaths in India: 19. “Urban Health Mission to Cover GDP; so that means the total initial WHO Report”, September 20, 2017, 7.75 Crore People”, May 2, 2013, increase in spending on health by https://timesofindia.indiatimes.com. http://www.thehindu.com. the Centre + States should be at least 5. “India’s Health Burden”, Down to 20. Deepshikha Sikarwar, Vinay Pandey, Earth, https://www.downtoearth. “Modicare: Healthcare Scheme 2% of GDP or Rs 4.2 lakh crore. org.in; “India Needs to Reform its Could Cost Exchequer Rs 10,000 As we have shown in our previous Ailing Health Care”, December 18, Crore a Year”, February 3, 2018, articles, it is not that the government 2017, https://www.asianage.com; “R https://economictimes.indiatimes. cannot raise the required funds to 3: Amount India Spends Every Day com; Anoo Bhuyan, “Explained: make this allocation; it is a question on Each Indian’s Health”, June 21, Why Healthcare Reforms Should Be of priorities—whether priority 2018, https://www.indiaspend.com; an Election Issue in 2019”, February “Who Is Paying for India's Health should be given to profiteering of 26, 2019, https://thewire.in. Care?”, April 14, 2018, https:// 21. Anoo Bhuyan, “Budget 2018: corporations, or providing essential thewire.in. Jaitley’s ‘World’s Largest Health health and education facilities to the 6. “R 3: Amount India Spends Every Programme’ Rejigs Flailing Old people. Day On Each Indian’s Health”, ibid. Ones”, February 1, 2018, https:// The media headlines have got it 7. National Health Profile, 2018, thewire.in; Dipa Sinha, “Neglecting all wrong. The Modi Government’s https://www.cbhidghs.nic.in. Health Expenditure in Favour of the health budget is not about the 8. Figures from Rural Health Statistics, Chimera of Insurance”, February 29, 2017—18, Ministry of Health and 2016, https://thewire.in. world’s largest health protection Family Welfare, Govt of India: 22. Prachi Salve, Swagata Yadavar, plan. It is about a country which “RHS2018 – nrhm-mis.nic.in”, “Why Rashtriya Swasthya has the highest number of deaths in https://nrhm-mis.nic.in. Bima Yojana Has Failed India's the world due to disease, a country 9. Ibid. Poor”, October 19, 2017, http:// with the highest number of child 10. Ibid. smartinvestor.business-standard. and maternal deaths in the world, 11. “Why India’s Public Health Facilities com. May Suffer Despite a Likely Rise in 23. “Budget 2019: Ayushman Bharat criminally neglecting this health Health Spending”, January 28, 2019, Gets Rs 6,400 Crore, But to Benefit ‘crisis’ and spending less than almost https://www.indiaspend.com. Private Sector”, February 1, 2019, all other countries in the world on 12. “Indians Sixth Biggest Private https://thewire.in. improving public health facilities— Spenders on Health Among Low- 24. “In the Wake of Ayushman Bharat while at the same time giving lakhs Middle Income Nations”, May 8, Come Sops for Private Hospitals”, of crores of rupees as subsidies to 2017, https://archive.indiaspend. January 9, 2019, https://thewire.in; com; “Evolution and Patterns of “Only a Strong Public Health Sector its uber rich. Global Health Financing 1995– Can Ensure Fair Prices and Quality 2014”, April 19, 2017, https://www. Care at Private Hospitals”, March References thelancet.com. 28, 2019, https://scroll.in. 1. T.J. John et al., “Continuing 13. “Evolution and Patterns of Global 25. Ibid. Challenge of Infectious Diseases Health Financing 1995–2014”, ibid. 26. Shailender Kumar Hooda, “With in India”, Lancet, January 12, 14. “The Staggering Costs of India’s Inadequate Health Infrastructure, 2011, http://www.thelancet.com; Failing Health Systems”, September Can Ayushman Bharat Really N. Dhingra et al., “Adult and Child 24, 2018, https://www.livemint.com. Work?”, November 26, 2018, https:// Malaria Mortality in India”, Lancet, 15. “Indians Sixth Biggest Private thewire.in. 2010, http://www.thelancet.co; Spenders on Health Among Low- R.N.I. NO. 1855/1957 20 JANATA, May 5, 2019 Postal Registration No. MCW/275/2018-2020. License to Post without prepayment WPP License No. MR/Tech/WPP-210/West/2019 Published on Sunday, May 5, 2019 & Posted on Wedenesday, May 8, 2019 at Mumbai Patrika Channel, Mumbai GPO-1

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Vol. 74 No. 16 Hemant Karkare Does Not Need May 12, 2019 a Certificate From Sadhvi

Why Janata Party Parted with S. S. Virk Jan Sangh over RSS Madhu Limaye Sadhvi Pragya Thakur, the Sadan in New Delhi. I asked him The Billionaire Beneficiaries of BJP’s candidate from the Bhopal about this new form of terrorism. BJP’s Schemes parliamentary seat, made an Was it real? If so, how serious was Bodapati Srujana irresponsible and controversial the matter, what were its parameters statement on April 18. While and what was its potential? We sat ILO Criticises Venezuela for addressing a meeting of party for about two hours in my room Raising Minimum Wage workers, she targeted the late Hemant where Karkare enlightened me about Nino Pagliccia Karkare, who had arrested her for the acts of violence undertaken by The King Who Loved Himself her alleged role in the Malegaon groups consisting of radical Hindu Chitra Padmanabhan blast case in 2008. She claimed youths, which were for quite some that it was her curse (“tera sarvnash time attributed to Muslim militant Modinomics = Corporatonomics hoga”), which ended Karkare’s groups. Part V: Other Social Sectors: life soon afterwards. The resultant He told me that some blasts took Lies, Deceit, Budget Cuts controversy and its fallout in the place accidentally in some parts of Neeraj Jain press, including the withdrawal Maharashtra without any reason, of her statement, took me back in which set him thinking. Some of time by nearly 11 years. About a the blasts were in the rural areas of Editor : G. G. Parikh month before his death, I discussed Marathwada in Hingoli and Nanded Associate Editor : Neeraj Jain the issue of violence by Hindu districts. These cases of accidental reactionary groups or the so-called blasts had resulted in injuries to Managing Editor : Guddi “saffron terror” with Hemant. I had some persons but no satisfactory Editorial Board : known Hemant as my cadre-mate explanation for the blasts was B. Vivekanandan, Qurban Ali and he was posted to New Delhi on forthcoming. So Karkare, as chief Anil Nauriya, Sonal Shah deputation. A fine officer, he had the of the Anti-Terrorist Squad of the Amarendra Dhaneshwar, reputation of being an outstanding Maharashtra Police, visited some and professional cop. of the blast sites and also probed Sandeep Pandey Having worked in Punjab and into the backgrounds of the persons D-15, Ganesh Prasad, fought militancy/terrorism there for who were injured. Interestingly, his Naushir Bharucha Marg, more than a decade, terrorism was enquiries revealed that the injured Mumbai - 400 007. surely a subject that interested me, persons were close to some ultra Email : [email protected] irrespective of its hues. One day, in Hindu groups closely associated with Website:www.janataweekly.org October 2008, I bumped into Hemant the RSS. Probing deeper, Karkare at the reception of Maharashtra widened the scope of his enquiries 2 JANATA, May 12 2019 and started verifying similar cases on him not to implicate these and dozens of innocent citizens in other parts of Maharashtra. These groups as these were the “forces of were also killed on 26/11. Is it not enquiries confirmed his earlier nationalism”. But Karkare did not strange that the fulfilment of her impression and deeper probes relent. Later, those who put pressure curse came through the bullets fired established the emergence and also tried to accuse him of being by emissaries of Masood Azhar? existence of radical Hindu groups pro-Muslim or anti-Hindu, a charge Truth is that Sadhvi and Masood forming terror modules to meet the that he vociferously countered, “Sir, Azhar both wanted to kill Karkare; challenges posed by pro-Islamic I am a Maharashtrian Brahmin and a both celebrated his death, though for terror groups. high-caste Hindu. But does it mean different reasons. These groups had formed that only Muslims and Sikhs are In democracies, many wrong Abhinav Bharat, which began as terrorists and violent acts of Hindu things do happen. But this is too a social organisation that engaged groups needed to be condoned?” blatant. An accused facing trial is young Hindu boys, radicalised He took strong objection to such presented as a party candidate and a them and made them aware of bulldozing for religious reasons. He national hero who sacrificed his life threats posed by Islamic forces and stood his ground. is denigrated. Will such irresponsible the need to forge a hardened group Unfortunately, Karkare was behaviour on the part of rulers not from within the Hindu population killed on the night of 26/11/2008 harm society or its secular fabric? which would pose a challenge during the terrorist attack in How insensitive and apoplectic do to the hitherto dominant Islamic Mumbai. Due to his sudden death, we want to make our society? groups. It also created groups who the dedication and commitment that Rest in peace, Hemant. You indulged in blasts in Muslim areas he had put into the case slackened to surely do not need a certificate and operated in such a manner that some extent. Similarly, the changed either from Sadhvi who cursed you the needle of suspicion would point political equations played their role or from the emissaries of Masood towards the Muslim groups. In fact, and the investigation of the case Azhar, whose bullet claimed your the police were already looking for was transferred to the NIA. Later, life. You gave the ultimate sacrifice. the culprits among Muslims. But similar political changes took place I am sure that coming generations this revelation completely changed in Maharashtra too and the grip on of cops will always look to you to the direction of the investigation. the case became loose. determine their direction and goals. In several cases, the complicity and Another development is that My salute to you. participation of Hindu groups was the main accused, Pragya Thakur, clearly established soon. is out on bail. Not only that, the (The writer is former DGP of Karkare successfully hidden forces which tried to pressure Punjab and Maharashtra.) investigated the Malegaon blast Karkare then have become more case, in which the Hindu group was assertive now. They have not only Janata Subscription involved. It was established that the accepted Thakur but have even motorcycle used in the blast was adopted her as the candidate of Annual Rs. : 260/- registered in the name of Sadhvi the ruling party from Bhopal. The Three Years : 750/- Pragya, who was arrested. The hidden hand is no longer hidden. I Demand Draft / investigation also established the feel that blaming Hemant Karkare Cheque on active role of several other persons, has just begun, it will pick up. Mumbai Bank including a serving officer of the Thakur said that it was her curse that Indian Army, holding the rank of killed Karkare. Condoning her own in favour of lieutenant colonel. Karkare and his role, she tried to put the entire blame team collected evidence and arrested on a professional and duty-conscious Janata Trust many of them, including Lt Colonel officer who had sacrificed his life in D-15, Ganesh Prasad, Purohit. the line of duty. Karkare also told me that several Thakur perhaps forgot that Naushir Bharucha Marg, groups from political as well as besides Karkare, 15 other officers Grant Road (W), administrative circles put pressure and men of the Bombay police Mumbai 400 007. JANATA, May 12, 2019 3 Why Janata Party Parted with Jan Sangh over RSS

Madhu Limaye

I entered political life in 1937. Defined, that ran into several But what does Guruji have to say Quite active in Pune in those days editions, Guruji explicitly says on this? Guruji says that for now were the RSS and the Savarkarites that all non-Hindus must be treated Hindi should be made the common (followers of Vinayak Damodar as non-citizens. He wanted all language for all while the ultimate Savarkar) on the one hand and their citizenship rights taken away. objective should be to make Sanskrit nationalist, socialist and leftist Incidentally, these ideas of his were the national language. political organisations on the other. not newly formulated. From the Fifth, the national movement On May 1, 1938, we took out a time we were in college (in the mid- for independence had accepted march to observe May Day. The 1930s), members of the RSS were the idea of a federal state. In a marchers were attacked by the RSS inclined to follow Hitlerian ideals. In confederation, the centre would and Savarkarites when, among their view, Muslims and Christians definitely have certain powers others, the well-known revolutionary in India deserved to be treated the on specific matters but all others Senapati Bapat and our socialist same way that Hitler treated Jews would be a subject matter for the leader, S.M. Joshi, were injured. in Germany. states. But following partition, in We have had serious differences The extent of Guruji’s a bid to strengthen the centre, the with these Hindutva organisations sympathies for the views of the Constitution stipulated a concurrent ever since. Nazi Party is evident from the list. As per this list, several subjects Our first difference with the RSS following passage from We or Our were made concurrent, subjects over was over the issue of nationalism. Nationhood Defined: “To keep up which both the centre and the states We believed that every citizen had the purity of the race and its culture, have equal jurisdiction. Thus the equal rights in the Indian nation. Germany shocked the world by her federal state came into existence. But the RSS and the Savarkarites purging the country of the Semitic But the RSS and its chief came up with their notion of Hindu races—the Jews. Race pride at its ideologue, Guru Golwalkar, have Rashtra. Mohammad Ali Jinnah too highest has been manifested here. been consistently opposed to this was a victim of a similar world view. Germany has also shown how well- basic constitutional provision. These He believed that India was made up nigh impossible it is for races and people ridicule the very concept of of two nations, the Muslim nation cultures having differences going to ‘a union of states’ and maintain that and the Hindu nation. Savarkar too the root, to be assimilated into one this Constitution, which envisages said the same thing. united whole, a good lesson for us a confederation of states, should be The second major difference in Hindustan to learn and profit by.” abolished. Guruji says in his Bunch between us was that we dreamt of the Our third major difference with of Thoughts, “The Constitution must birth of a democratic republic while Guruji and the RSS has to do with the be reviewed and the idea of a unitary the RSS claimed that democracy caste question. They are supporters state should be written into the new was a western concept that was of the caste system while a socialist Constitution.” Guruji wants a unitary not appropriate for India. In those like me is its greatest enemy. I am or, in other words, a centralised state. days, members of the RSS were full of the firm view that there can be He says that this system of states of praise for Adolf Hitler. Guruji no economic and social equality should be done away with. (Madhav Sadashiv Golwalkar) was in India until the caste system and Another issue was the tricolour, not only the sarsanghchalak (head) the inequalities based on it are the flag chosen by the national of the RSS; he was its ideological demolished. movement. Hundreds of Indians guru as well. The fourth issue on which sacrificed their lives, thousands bore There is amazing similarity we differ is that of language. We the brunt of lathis for the honour and between the thoughts of Guruji and are in favour of promoting the glory of our chosen national flag. the Nazis. In one of his best known languages of the people. All regional But surprisingly, the RSS has never books, We or Our Nationhood languages, after all, are indigenous. accepted the tricolour as the national 4 JANATA, May 12 2019 flag. It always swore by the saffron that if the opposition did not unite dissolved anyway, the question of flag, asserting that the saffron flag under the banner of a single party RSS membership did not arise. has been the flag of Hindu Rashtra it would be impossible to defeat Later, when the constitution since time immemorial. Mrs. Gandhi. Choudhary Charan of the proposed Janata Party was Guruji had no faith in a Singh was also of the view that being drawn up, the subcommittee democratic system. He was of we should come together and form appointed to draft the constitution the firm view that democracy is a a united party. While we were in proposed that members of any concept imported from the West jail, we were all asked to give our organisation whose aims, policies and the system of parliamentary opinions on the need to form such a and programmes were in conflict with democracy did not jell with Indian party and contest elections. I recall the aims, policies and programmes thought and Indian civilization. sending a message that in my view of the Janata Party should not be The RSS believes in the one leader we must contest elections. Millions given membership to the new party. principle. Guruji himself maintained of people would participate in Given the self-evident meaning of that the RSS creates a mind-set elections. Elections are a dynamic such a membership criterion, there which is totally disciplined and process. As the electoral tempo was no question of anyone opposing where people accept whatever they builds up, the shackles of emergency it. However, it is significant that the tell them. This organisation operates are bound to snap and people are sole opposition to this came from on the principle of one leader. As bound to exercise their democratic Sunder Singh Bhandari (Jan Sangh). for socialism, that for Guruji was a right. Therefore, I stressed, we must At a meeting convened in December totally alien idea. He repeatedly said participate in elections. 1976 to thrash out issues, reference that all isms, including socialism Since Lok Nayak Jayprakash was made to a letter written by Atal and democracy, were alien ideas Narain and other leaders were of the Bihari Vajpayee on behalf of the which should be rejected, that Indian view that without coming together Jan Sangh and the RSS, stating that society should be founded on Indian under the banner of one party we a section of leaders of the proposed culture. Speaking for ourselves, we could not succeed, we (socialists) party had agreed that the RSS issue believe in parliamentary democracy, too gave it our consent. But I would could not be raised in connection in socialism, and we aspire to like to stress that the understanding with membership of the Janata Party. establish socialism consistent with that was arrived at was between But several leaders told me Gandhian principles in India through political parties—the Jan Sangh, the that no such assurances were given peaceful means. On the other hand, Socialist Party, the Congress (O), the because the RSS was nowhere in the RSS specialises in casting young Bharatiya Lok Dal (BLD) and some the picture at the time when the idea minds in a particular mould from dissident Congress factions. We did of a merger of opposition political a very young age. The first thing not come to any arrangement with parties was mooted. I want to clarify they do is ‘freeze’ the minds of the RSS, nor did we accept any of that I was in prison at the time children and of youth, making them its demands. What is more, through and even if there was some secret impervious. After this they are a letter by Manubhai Patel that was understanding, I had no part in it. rendered incapable of responding circulated among all of us in jail we I can categorically assert that to other ideas. learnt that on July 7, 1976 Choudhary the election manifesto of the Janata Guruji felt no compassion for Charan Singh had raised the issue of Party did not in any way reflect the the poor. In his Bunch of Thoughts, a possible clash of interests because concerns of the RSS. In fact, each he expressed unhappiness over the of dual membership when members point in the manifesto was clearly abolition of the zamindari system of the RSS also became members spelt out. Is it not a fact that the in India. He was deeply saddened, of the new party. In response, the manifesto of the Janata Party spoke deeply disturbed by the abolition of then acting general secretary of the of a socialist society based on the zamindari system. Jan Sangh, Om Prakash Tyagi, had secular, democratic and Gandhian It is a fact that we formed an said that the proposed party should principles and in which there was alliance with these people (RSS feel free to formulate whatever no mention of Hindu Rashtra? The and Jan Sangh) when Mrs. Indira membership criteria it wanted. He manifesto assured the minorities Gandhi imposed the Emergency. even said that since the RSS, having equal citizenship rights and vowed Lok Nayak Jaiprakashji believed faced many constraints had been to safeguard their rights. Did the JANATA, May 12, 2019 5 manifesto state that it upholds the of the sangh parivar, such as the of all constituents of the Janata Party caste system? Did it maintain that Bharatiya Mazdoor Sangh and the attended but the Bharatiya Mazdoor the Sudras’ duty was to devote their Vidyarthi Parishad, would have to Sangh boycotted the meeting. Not life in the service of others? On the dissolve themselves and merge with just that, they hurled abuses at me contrary, the manifesto not only the secular-minded trade union and for no apparent reason. promised that the backward castes student wings of the Janata Party. I Similar efforts were made with would have full opportunity to was very clear about this from the the Vidyarthi Parishad and the Yuva progress, it pledged special policies beginning and as the Janata Party Morcha but despite all attempts at for them: 25–33 per cent reservation had given me the responsibility a merger, they held aloof. This is for them in government jobs. to manage the affairs of its trade only because of the RSS’ desire to The Janata Party was committed union and student wings, it was my function as a “super party”. to decentralisation while Guruji was a consistent attempt throughout to Their aim is not only to enter hardcore proponent of centralisation. ensure that the Vidyarthi Parishad into every aspect of people’s life but He wanted to abolish separate and the Bharatiya Mazdoor Sangh also to control it. Similar views have states, abolish state legislatures and ended their separate existence. been repeatedly asserted by Guruji in ministries while the Janata Party I told members of the RSS that his We or Our Nationhood Defined emphasised the need for greater you must abandon your ideal of as also in Bunch of Thoughts. No decentralisation. In other words, the organising Hindus alone and find totalitarian organisation allows any Janata Party had no desire to snatch a place for people of all religions space for freedom, its tentacles reach away the autonomy of states. within your organisation, that you everywhere: art, music, economy, Yes, it is true that members of must merge your different class- culture. This is the essence of any the RSS did not genuinely accept based organisations with those of fascist organisation. the provisions of the party’s election the Janata Party. They responded What these people (the RSS) manifesto. It was my contention by saying that this could not be do on the odd occasion is however and I had once even complained done so soon, that there were very of little importance. Has the RSS in writing to Kushabhau Thakre many difficulties involved but they ever said that they have abandoned that during discussions you people did want to change, bit by bit. They Guruji’s way of thinking? These (RSS, Jan Sangh) very readily agree continued to give such evasive people pleaded for pardon while on matters that you at heart totally replies. in prison; Balasaheb Deoras disagree with. That is why your From their behaviour I congratulated Indira Gandhi when motives are suspect. I wrote this concluded that they had no intention the Supreme Court ruled in her letter to him a long time ago and I of changing. Especially after the favour in the Raj Narain case. So have always had doubts about the assembly elections of June 1977, I have no faith in the utterances of RSS. when they managed to gain power these people. I am of the firm belief Since it was Lok Nayak in four states and one union territory, that I could only have trusted these Jayprakashji’s desire that all they began to think that with this people (erstwhile Jan Sangh leaders parties should merge for a united newly acquired clout they had no in the Janata Party) if they had ousted opposition to dictatorship and since need to change. Now that they had RSS leaders from the party, expelled the party manifesto did not make already captured four states, they them from the working committee, any compromises, I consented to would gradually also gain control placed restrictions on RSS activities our coming together. At the same of other states and finally even the and, in particular, expelled people time, I would like to say that from centre. The leaders of other political like Nanaji Deshmukh, Sunder the beginning I was very clear in parties in the Janata Party were older Singh Bhandari and company from my mind that to emerge as a unified leaders who would not live long; and the party. and a credible body the Janata Party they would ensure that no younger would have to do two things. One, (non-RSS, non-Jan Sangh) leader (Madhu Limaye was veteran the RSS would have to change its emerged at the top. freedom fighter, Socialist leader and ideology and accept the ideal of a Still, I tried. On one occasion Parliamentarian. Though dated, secular democratic state. Two, the I convened a meeting of all trade many of the issues he raises in this various organisations that are part union leaders. The representatives article are relevant even today.) 6 JANATA, May 12 2019 The Billionaire Beneficiaries of BJP’s Schemes

Bodapati Srujana

The Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) begin with, were lifted to be included Since its commercial launch in government’s numerous schemes in the billionaire wealth bracket by September 2016, JIO’s subscriber meant for ordinary Indians—farmers, the Modi government. base skyrocketed within two youth, women and others—have So, let us take a look at some of years—like never before in India’s received a great deal of publicity the important beneficiaries of this telecom history—thanks to Telecom from the government and a fair scheme. Regulator Authority of India (TRAI) amount of criticism from the public tweaking its policy for the undue for their failure. Mukesh Ambani Seva Yojana benefit of Reliance JIO. One Yet, there is one highly successful India’s richest man Mukesh month after JIO was launched, scheme of the BJP government under Ambani has become doubly richer TRAI announced a steep cut in PM Narendra Modi, that has not within the first four years under the interconnection charge, resulting in received any media attention. This Modi government. Between 2014 a fall of these charges by less than is the ‘Pradhan Mantri Billionaire and 2019, his wealth more than 50%. This meant that JIO had to Badhao – Billionaire Bachao – doubled—from about $23 billion to pay very little to connect the calls Billionaire Banao Yojana’. $55 billion. This means that Mukesh of its subscribers to the much larger It is true that the Pradhan Mantri’s Ambani accumulated more wealth subscriber base of its competitors. employment programme has not in the five years of BJP rule than all This was a blow to existing telecom created any new jobs. If anything, the wealth he made and inherited in operators like Airtel and Vodafone, there is a net loss of employment the entire 58 years of his life before and a boon to Reliance JIO. under the BJP government. The Modi became Prime Minister. When JIO’s competitors started Fasal Bima Yojana benefitted the No doubt, Ambani worked really complaining of its predatory pricing corporates more than the kisans hard to earn Rs 122 crore per day in behaviour, TRAI tweaked the rules (farmers) and Skill India brought the last five years. Yet, credit should once again in 2018 for the benefit of no jobs to those who have got skills. be given where it is really due. He JIO. Because the rules on predatory But, the success of the has to concede that without the BJP pricing behaviour apply to only a ‘Billionaire Badhao – Billionaire government’s policies, his billions company with significant market Bachao – Billionaire Banao Yojana’ would have been fewer. power, TRAI changed the rules of eclipses the failure of the rest of the This all began with Ambani’s determining market power, in favour schemes. launch of Reliance JIO in September of JIO again. Till then, market power The success of this scheme 2016. All of us remember the launch was calculated on the basis of four is even more remarkable for the of JIO with full-page newspaper metrics—revenue market share, fact that it has never been publicly advertisements. The person subscriber market share, volume of announced by the government. We endorsing the JIO brand was none traffic and capacity. But, to benefit have come to perceive the existence other than Prime Minister Modi, JIO and to show its market power of the scheme only through the who appeared on the advertisements lower than it actually was, TRAI results it has achieved. As such, wearing a dress that was colour simply removed the volume of there is a need to understand and coordinated to match with the JIO traffic and capacity as metrics of appreciate this scheme. logo. There were the usual denials market power. As a result, JIO, with Under this scheme, already that the pictures were used without its deep pockets, could continue its thriving billionaires added more the Prime Minister’s permission. predatory behaviour by undercutting billions to their net worth. Those who But most of us know that Reliance its competitors. were not doing so well were given a would not have dared to use Modi’s In appreciation of his efforts to helping hand to retain their wealth. image without some tacit prior benefit JIO, the Modi government Those who were not billionaires to understanding. JANATA, May 12, 2019 7 reappointed R.S. Sharma as TRAI While he was at it, our PM also Despite this desperate situation, chairman for two more years. This is managed to drum up some business the Adani group did not seem to have the first time in the history of TRAI for his friend. Thanks to this, Adani any NPAs (non-performing assets or that somebody has been reappointed was able to ink 15 deals related to bad loans) with the banking system. as the chairman. defence, logistics and power with What is the secret behind such an There is no doubt, Mukesh many of the countries that Modi extraordinary feat? Ambani’s doubled billions are visited. Here is the secret. Within two the result of the government’s The infamous Carmichael mine months of Modi coming power, and TRAI’s ‘fatherly’ interest project, which has been witnessing public sector banks under the in Reliance JIO. A look at the protests in Australia since its Reserve Bank of India’s 5/25 chronology of Mukesh Ambani’s inception for financial irregularities refinance scheme have restructured net worth makes this clear. From and tax evasion, was pocketed by and refinanced loans of many 2014 to 2016, there was hardly any Adani during Modi’s visit to that corporates—extending the loan change in his net worth—it remained country just a few months after he repayment periods from 10 years at about $23 billion. After Reliance became PM. In the same visit, it was to 25 years. The Adani group has JIO’s commercial launch, his net announced that State Bank of India, been one of the main beneficiaries worth skyrocketed and reached $55 India’s largest public sector bank, of this scheme. From the financial billion in 2019. One can imagine the would provide a loan of $1 billion press, we know that at least Rs miracles Ambani may have in store to Adani for this Australian project. 15,000 crore of Adani power’s loans if Modi is given another five years A $15.5 billion project as well have been restructured, extending in office. as an easy to loan to execute it! the loan repayment period from 10 What more can a friend ask for. Yet, years to 25 years with a 15-month Adani Kalyan Yojana there were more goodies waiting for moratorium on interest payments. Another of Modi’s beneficiaries Adani. No doubt, more such loans of the is Gautam Adani, his BFF (best The rapid expansion of the group have been restructured on friend forever). The rise of Adani in Adani group over the last decade was similarly benevolent terms. This the business world seemed to have built on large loans Gautam Adani is also the reason why, despite its gone hand in hand with Modi’s took from the banking system. In mountain of highly stressed debt, ascent to power in Gujarat in 2001. 2015, the Adani group had Rs 92,000 the Adani group’s market valuation As a ‘true friend’, Modi has been crore debt on its books, earning has been growing. relentless in improving the lot of his a place in a list called ‘House of The list of favours given to ‘good’ friends. During his tenure in Debt’—compiled by Credit Suisse. Adani under the BJP government Gujarat, Adani Enterprises’ assets According to the report, Adani is in may seem endless. Yet, there is one grew by 5,000%. We are not sure if the august company of Anil Ambani that stands far above others, for it any ordinary Gujarati has seen such as one among the top four Indian involves subversion of government growth in his income under Modi. corporate groups with the highest institutions. By the time Modi ended his level of unsustainable debt. Credit In 2014 and 2015, the Directorate tenure in Gujarat, Adani was a Suisse categorised 1/3rd of Adani of Revenue Intelligence (DRI) issued billionaire with a net worth of $2.6 group’s debt as ‘highly stressed’, notices to three of Adani’s power billion. This friendship continued which means that the group was not sector firms regarding diversion of to bear fruits after Modi’s shift to in a position to make repayments. Rs 5,000 crore to tax havens through Delhi. In just the first four years of In 2017, Adani power alone over-invoicing of power equipment. Modi rule, Adani’s net worth more had total borrowings of Rs 53,000 DRI’s evidence showed that than quadrupled to $11.9 billion. crore, with an interest cover as Adani power companies purchased How did this happen? low as 0.7%. For every Rs 70 that power equipment from abroad, Do you remember all the foreign Adani Power was making, it had to which was shipped by their Chinese countries the PM visited over the last make interest payments of Rs 100— and South Korean sellers directly five years in a bid to shore up India’s implying that it was defaulting on from their ports to Indian ports, standing in the international arena? loan payments. with no diversion in the middle. 8 JANATA, May 12 2019

But, on paper, it was shown that the banks, most of which is to public replaced by an Ambani company, equipment was first purchased by a sector banks. which has ‘zero’ experience in any Dubai-based firm called Electrogen This is the only information kind of defence manufacturing. Infra, a company owned by Adani’s in the public domain. Much of Moreover, the Ambani company was brother, Vinod Adani. Again on the information regarding the bad set up just 12 days before Modi’s paper, Electrogen Infra sold the loans is shrouded in secrecy. Only visit to France to discuss the deal. same equipment to Adani power the government knows the actual The special consideration given companies, at a price as high as amount of NPAs of the entire Anil to Anil Ambani’s company at the 800% of the original price. DRI Ambani group. expense of HAL is obviously part of said that through this scam, Adani A less compassionate Modi’s ‘Billionaire Bachao’ scheme. illegally diverted more than Rs 5,000 government would have initiated As with any other government crore to overseas tax havens. action against Anil Ambani, the scheme, this too had its costs. The To those following the scam, it promoter of these companies. It may Modi government agreed to buy seemed like an open and shut case. well have taken steps to confiscate a smaller number of aircraft (36) Yet, inexplicably, DRI’s adjudicating his assets. After all, the government at a much higher cost, just so that authority summarily dropped all is the owner of public sector banks, Reliance could be brought into the the proceedings against Adani on as well as the representative of deal. Different estimates have put August 21, 2017. Indian citizens, whose deposits have the loss to the government due to been lent by these banks to Ambani. the Rafale deal at Rs 12,000–42,000 Rafale Tonic for Anil Ambani But, not Mr Modi, who has crore. This billionaire, sadly, has not instead chosen to help junior Ambani Unlike the one negotiated in done so well under PM Narendra recover his lost fortunes. The result 2012, the new Rafale deal does not Modi’s regime. It is universal being the Rafale deal, or shall we include any technology transfer to knowledge that the younger Ambani say, scheme. Though most readers India. This is looked at by many brother has been seeing rough times would be familiar with this scheme, defence analysts as a big setback for these last few years. His net worth there is no harm in recounting its India’s efforts to become self-reliant dropped from $6.3 billion to $1.8 salient features. in defence manufacturing. billion in the last five years. In 2012, the United Progressive One Rafale deal, no matter how Yet, one can completely absolve Alliance (UPA) government much it costs the government and the BJP government of any blame negotiated with the French company the people, is clearly not enough in the younger Ambani’s loss of Dassault for 126 Rafale fighter jets, to restore the Ambani fortunes. So, billions and slide into billionaire to add to the fleet of Indian Air Force apart from the Rafale deal, Modi poverty. In fact, PM Modi put in a (IAF). According to this agreement, found time to fix up at least five more commendable effort to restore the which was almost finalised, out deals for Anil Ambani in Sweden, Junior Ambani’s lost billions. of the 126 aircraft, India would Russia, Israel, the US and other It is no secret that Anil Ambani’s buy 18 in finished form directly countries, during his globe-trotting. group owed a great deal of money from Dassault. While, the rest 108 We must accept that Modi has to the Indian banking system, Rafale jets will be manufactured shown a good deal of magnanimity and that his group is one of the by Hindustan Aeronautics Limited towards Anil Ambani who once main contributors to the NPA (HAL), with technology transfer hobnobbed with BJP’s arch enemy woes of the banking sector. One from Dassault. in Uttar Pradesh—the Samajwadi of his group companies, Reliance HAL is one of India’s Navratna Party. Just goes to prove that Modi Communications, has at least Rs public sector companies. It has more is everyone’s prime minister—as 14,000 crore of NPAs with banks. than half a decade experience of long as they are rich and capable of The actual figure may be higher, manufacturing and supplying fighter keeping the BJP flush with campaign but has not been made public yet. aircraft to IAF. funds. Another group company, Reliance In 2015, Modi decided to scrap Naval and Engineering, defaulted this deal and make a new one. Why? The ‘Baba’ Billionaire on its loan of Rs 9,000 crore to the So that the experienced HAL can be Last, but not the least, comes a JANATA, May 12, 2019 9 most unique accomplishment of the making its owner among the 20 it is trying to promote ‘swadeshi’ Modi government, a combination richest people in India with a net products in India. Yet, it is perplexing of saffron agenda and crony worth of more than $6 billion. From why these favours were not done to capitalism, that of turning a baba making obscure herbal powders and other swadeshi-owned companies into a billionaire—Baba Ramdev. jellies, the company leapfrogged into like Dabur, Emami and others. Unlike others who were billionaires manufacturing household products before Modi came to power, the PM like soaps, detergents, toothpastes, Modi gets votes of his beneficiaries can claim credit for singlehandedly kitchen supplies, baby powders, wet The benevolence to billionaires turning this baba in to a billionaire. wipes, digestive biscuits, cookies, has not gone unrewarded. The During the 2014 parliamentary corn flakes, vermicelli and what not. billionaires have already voted in elections, Ramdev was one of the You name it, Patanjali makes it. The with their money. More than 70% of most vocal non-political party Ramdev brand jeans, apparently corporate donations given to national campaigners for Modi. The elastic- designed with bharatiya sanskar parties during Modi’s term went to limbed yoga guru, who had become (Indian values) in mind, are also now BJP, not to forget the copious and a TV celebrity through his shows, in the market. completely uncritical air time Modi openly exhorted and herded lakhs The consequence is that within has been getting in the corporate- of his followers into voting for a span of four years, ‘Patanjali’ ate owned media. Modi. This alliance of Ramdev’s into the market share of established If only ordinary Indians can spiritual Hindu nationalism with FMCG giants such Hindustan stop hankering after paltry benefits BJP’s political Hindu nationalism Unilever, Dabur and others, which like employment, minimum support has been fruitful for both the parties. have been around for decades. prices, farm loan waiver, affordable Modi swept to power at the Centre, This skyrocketing growth healthcare and education, cheap while Ramdev expanded his spiritual of Patanjali happened under the electricity, cooking gas, etc. etc., empire into the economic realm. benevolent gaze of PM Modi and under the Modi regime will they The PM has shown his gratitude by Shah. They have leaned on the get the opportunity to become employing the might of government government machinery to fully billionaires one after another (that machinery in turning the yogi baba support Ramdev’s commercial is, if they survive long enough). into the frontman for a multi-billion endeavour. The BJP government dollar FMCG (fast moving consumer served Patanjali products on goods) empire called ‘Patanjali’. Parliament’s dining tables. It pushed Janata From what one can glean from Patanjali products in government- is available at news reports, ‘Patanjali’—which owned Kendriya Bhandars, army was founded by Ramdev—is at the canteens and fair price shops in www.lohiatoday.com moment officially owned by his various states ruled by BJP. Patanjali second-in-command and disciple was given lucrative government ‘Acharya Balakrishna’. The actual contracts. Since 2014, it has received ownership may seem a bit murky, about 2,000 acres for setting up with the ‘Patanjali’ brand being factories and other facilities at controlled by some 34 companies throwaway prices. Its factories have and three trusts with large dividend even got security at the expense of payments (up to 60% of the profits) the public exchequer. CISF (Central going to Ramdev’s brother and his Industrial Security Force) protection, close aide Balakrishna. Whatever which is not usually provided to may be the finer details, there is no the private sector, was given to the doubt that Ramdev is the ‘super boss’ Patanjali food park in Haridwar. The at Patanjali. list of favours goes on and on. Between 2014 and 2018, Patanjali The government’s excuse for went from being a relatively fringe such disproportionate affection enterprise to a billion-dollar company, shown to Patanjali has been that 10 JANATA, May 12 2019 ILO Criticises Venezuela for Raising Minimum Wage

Nino Pagliccia

Venezuela is being ostracised directed against Fedecamaras, slaughter of more than 2,800 labour in every possible conceivable its affiliated organisations and its leaders and union members since way by Western governments leaders.” 1986 in Colombia. The danger and institutions short of an actual Fedecamaras is the Venezuelan for union leaders continues to military invasion, although threats Federation of Chambers of this day. According to a report by to that effect have also been made Commerce and Production, that pulitzercenter.org, “As a result of by the US government. represents the interests of Venezuelan attacks on unions and other pressures, The newest threat has been business and corporations. That is a the percentage of unionised workers issued by the International legitimate role in a country where in Colombia has dropped from 15 Labour Organisation (ILO). The the private sector still has a strong percent 20 years ago to about 4 organisation reported on March 21: presence, which is fully recognised percent today.” “ILO Governing Body decides to by a government that is otherwise What is striking in the case appoint Commission of Inquiry for labeled as “socialist”, “communist”, of Venezuela is that those same Venezuela.” “authoritarian”, and “dictatorial”. corporations that claim “aggression The ILO inquiry “refers to the However, Fedecamaras had and stigmatisation directed non-observance of ILO Conventions more ambitious interests than trade against Fedecamaras, its affiliated No. 26 (Minimum Wage-Fixing and commerce for its “affiliated organisations and its leaders,” Machinery Convention, 1928), organisations” when former are responsible for lobbying for No. 87 (Freedom of Association Fedecámaras president Pedro economic sanctions, hoarding and Protection of the Right to Carmona became de facto president of goods, creating an induced Organise Convention, 1948) and of Venezuela for 47 hours during the inflationary process through a No. 144 (Tripartite Consultation failed coup against the government parallel manipulated exchange rate, (International Labour Standards), of president Hugo Chavez in April all of which is undermining the 1976).” 2002. purchasing power of the Venezuelan But here is what would make Karl Since its founding in 1919, the working class. Marx rise from his grave and shout ILO has opened 12 Commissions of The critics call the manufactured again, “Workers of all lands, unite!” Inquiry. Of those, only 3 involved economic crisis in Venezuela a (words inscribed on his tombstone). Latin American countries: Chile “humanitarian crisis”. If that were The complaint “alleges lack of (1975) during the early days of the indeed so, why are they critical of consultation with Fedecamaras Pinochet regime repression; the the Venezuelan government’s move on laws that affect the labour and Dominican Republic (1983) related to increase the minimum wage economic interests of the employers, to the employment of workers level to protect the most vulnerable and the adoption of numerous from Haiti; and Nicaragua (1987). population, why are they dubbing increases to the minimum wage Interestingly, the inquiry instituted it inappropriate? Paradoxically, without consultation with employer against Nicaragua refers exactly to the main drivers of the economic and worker representatives.” the same issues as Venezuela today; crisis maintain that they were not It goes further to state, “The keep in mind that in 1987, Daniel consulted, and claim to be the [ILO] Governing Body has discussed Ortega of the Sandinista Liberation victims of a labour transgression. this complaint six times since 2015 Front was president. The Canadian government and had asked the Government of the The specific violations absurdly issued a news release Bolivarian Republic of Venezuela on investigated in Nicaragua were stating that the “Maduro regime several occasions to take measures to “murder, physical aggression, and robs its people of their fundamental put an end to the alleged interference, torture” among others. But the democratic and human rights, and aggression and stigmatisation ILO has remained silent at the denies them assistance to meet JANATA, May 12, 2019 11 basic humanitarian needs.” Yet, in The King Who Loved Himself a totally contradictory statement, it announced support for the ILO inquiry “to examine allegations that Chitra Padmanabhan the Maduro regime failed to comply with international labour conventions Once upon a time there was a even the most innocuous question on . . . setting of minimum wages.” king who loved himself to distraction or make some casual remark. Since This may be a rare case where a morning, noon and night—24/7 as everything was about him, it stood to government increase of the minimum they say these days—seven days a reason that every comment, remark wage is considered an offense because week, 365 days a year. He preferred alluded to him. it affects “the labour and economic leap years because he gained an Once a courtier mentioned that interests of the employers”. The real extra day for self-adulation. To be a the sky was overcast. That was crime, however, is being committed narcissist is no mean task, it takes a the last statement he ever made by applying sanctions against lot of hard work, and he justifiably because he was never found. His Venezuela. Alfred de Zayas, a UN gained the reputation of being an only belonging which mysteriously independent expert for the promotion immensely hard-working ruler. reached his family were his jootis of an international democratic and Somehow Raja saheb had caked in mud, overcast as it were. equitable order, stated that “it is time” convinced everybody that his act From that day onwards nobody for Venezuela to ask the International of self-love was an austere act of in the kingdom used that word. The Criminal Court “for an investigation fakiree—asceticism—that he was minute a subject formed an ‘o’ shape into the crimes against humanity undertaking for his subjects. Despite with her lips, she found an angry committed by the United States for the fact that he was unencumbered by member of the royal guard telling her imposing sanctions against it.” what one would call an emotional life, to be careful about the word she was he managed to convey to them that going to pronounce. (Nino Pagliccia is an activist and his very existence was for them—he Fawning chroniclers at Raja freelance writer based in Vancouver.) was that good a communicator. saheb’s court warbled that he was The king had an unerring knack a swayambhu (self-manifested), the for zeroing in on the deep anxieties itihasa of the kingdom—its past, of his subjects and dovetailing them present and future. Once a court with ‘larger’ issues of loyalty to balladeer offered the original thought the kingdom—in other words, him. that the king needed no guru, he At the same time he directed the was his own role model. People subjects’ attention towards other were thrilled the way the raja coyly aspirants to the throne, declaring that smiled, turned his head to one side they were entirely responsible for and nodded, as if overcome with the subjects’ woes. He ensured that humility. Of course, he knew he was the pretenders who roamed around on camera and that every projection sulkily could never touch him. As he mattered. periodically told his subjects, he was We all know Samson’s source them and they were him. of strength was his hair. In the In return, many of his subjects case of our Raja saheb, it was his made him the object of their image. The television camera was his adoration. They saw him as he saw lifeblood. As a wise man once said, himself—an epochal man who stood the camera is the most powerful sun head and shoulders above everybody of our universe today. No one knew else. People refused to believe that he better than the king the hard work was a ruthless ruler who did not trust he put in for close to 20 hours daily, anyone; who had no qualms about changing clothes to come before the neutralising anyone who might ask camera, show his best profile, take 12 JANATA, May 12 2019 credit for and announce every single it for a long time, much before our face, as if in agony, it left the women achievement notched up by subjects royal became the king. But he was unmoved. It was as if there was a tear toiling for years. His subjects needed convinced that the breakthrough was in the universe the king had created to see his image, he said. In fact, he entirely due to him. through his myth-making enterprise, dedicated his image to the subjects That was the day which had no and the women saw reality for what so that they could feel patriotic night—Raja saheb was before the it was. They acknowledged the towards their king who was the cameras for 24 hours, beaming from king’s spell for what it was—an kingdom. ear to ear saying that what could not exercise in self-love, out of sync If there was a drought, he was be accomplished earlier had been with their everyday concerns. on camera shedding tears for the accomplished by him; the kingdom It is not easy to admit that one has farmers, attired in immaculate was safe from external enemies. been completely under someone’s clothes, his humungously expensive Striking an ominous note, he said he spell, even if that someone happens watch shining like a diamond, his would now concentrate on internal to be a king. Like an underground state of the art spectacles no doubt enemies, for their attacks on him river finding its way to the surface, allowing him to see the plight of were attacks on his subjects. stories started circulating of his subjects better. ‘See, you have It was a time when the kingdom people having intense experiences. reduced me to tears, my heart is so was facing its third successive A group of farmers realised that soft I am afraid it will break this drought. Stories of distress had being together and discussing their instant,’ he would say. His fans been filtering into the capital—an concerns gave them greater strength would marvel, ‘what a saint, what old kisan preferred to die by his than the king’s televised flourishes a saint!’ hand than see his family reduced did. Somewhere else a group of From time to time he would to a subhuman status; another youngsters looked up at the sun plan events where he would farmer jumped into a river with his and declared that it outshone the ‘spontaneously’ come upon a woman small son strapped to his chest; one television camera. And as it often whose life was an endless loop of decided to hang himself. The number happens, an outspoken 14-year-old drudgery and exclaim, ‘Is this what of widows swelled. exclaimed in a gathering—‘but we have reduced our women to? The king came on camera and the king only talks about himself, Forgive me mother, I am your son. broke down. He wailed that their nothing else!’ Let me wash your feet today.’ Of distress was his distress but that It is not that the scales have course, the courtiers would have was that. Among the subjects from fallen from the eyes of each subject. ensured that her feet were washed village ‘A’ who looked on that day There are people and people. Many at least ten times (not the rest of the were some women whose husbands, subjects still feel he is ‘the one’, body, too much work) so that the farmers, had committed suicide others like his style. And still others king did not soil his hands while (names withheld to protect the say he makes them forget they washing her feet, enacting a gesture identity of the persons concerned). are small. Some do admit there that was deeply embedded in the Somehow the king’s statement did are kingly role models around the collective memory. not affect them the way it used to world who are not as self-obsessed But even the most cunning earlier. They were thinking about the and actually utter pronouns other communicator does not always visitor who had come to their village than ‘I’, but they can’t see such have absolute control over his body from the neighbouring kingdom with personages in their midst. language, and the haughty set of some startling news—she had told Never mind. Some women from shoulder and the lack of any emotion them that in her kingdom drought village ‘A’ have told me that there on his face that day told its own story was seen as a sign of the king’s is a growing ripple of skepticism to those who looked hard. failure to protect his subjects. It about the king who loved himself Then there was the time when his was the king’s rajdharma to help and became his own image. They vaigyaniks achieved a breakthrough his subjects. Something had stirred await the day the ripple will turn on a new generation of sudarshan inside them then. into a riptide. chakra that destroyed the enemy’s For the first time, therefore, (Chitra Padmanabhan is a satellites. They had been working on when Raja saheb scrunched up his journalist and translator.) JANATA, May 12, 2019 13 Modinomics = Corporatonomics Part V: Other Social Sectors: Lies, Deceit, Budget Cuts

Neeraj Jain

In the previous issues of Janata, hard to imagine what that can do to As we have discussed elsewhere,3 we have analysed Modinomics and one’s body and mind. But even we the NFSA is a very inadequate shown that the Modi Government, if keep aside such (what some may Act. We have argued in several it wants, can raise enough resources call) ‘sentimentalism’, malnutrition articles printed in Janata Weekly4 to increase its expenditures on and hunger also have enormous that the best way to overcome these the social sectors. Instead, it is economic costs. How can hundreds shortcomings of the NFSA and also giving away huge subsidies to the of millions of Indians become effectively address the hunger / tune of several lakh crore rupees productive members of society malnutrition crisis is to universalise to the corporate houses. In this unless they are given the conditions the PDS (the PDS presently provides article, the last of this series, we needed to develop their inherent subsidised foodgrains only to 67% discuss Modi’s budget allocations capacities, and obviously, the most of the total population), and also for nutrition, pensions and women- basic of these is food? include distribution of other food oriented schemes. Clearly, for a country facing such essentials in it. (Discussing this issue a massive hunger and malnutrition in greater detail is beyond the scope 1. ALLOCATIONS FOR crisis, this should be THE MOST of this essay.) NUTRITION IMPORTANT crisis facing its policy The BJP, when it was in the Hunger and Malnutrition planners, and they need to urgently opposition and during its election ‘Emergency’ address it. campaign of 2014, had promised to modify the NFSA and bring India may be one of the world's Food Subsidy in ‘universal food security’, and fastest growing economies, but its The most important programme BJP leaders had gone on record hunger levels are amongst the worst in demanding the expansion of the the world. The Global Hunger Index in the country to tackle this hunger and malnutrition crisis facing Act to include other food essentials (GHI), a multidimensional statistical 5 the country is the food subsidy in it. But after coming to power, tool designed to comprehensively the BJP Government has gone measure and track hunger globally programme, wherein the government provides essential food and non-food completely silent on all these issues. and by country and region, ranked Forget expanding the PDS, in the India at a very low 103 out of 119 items to the poor at subsidised rates through the public distribution five budgets presented by Jaitley countries for which the GHI was (2014–15 A to 2018–19 RE), the calculated in 2018.1 system (PDS). This food subsidy programme is mandated under the food subsidy as a percentage of India is also at the epicentre of budget outlay and as a percentage a global stunting crisis, due to child National Food Security Act (NFSA), passed by the Parliament in 2013. of GDP has actually declined (see malnutrition. According to recently Table 1). released data from the National Family Health Survey–4 (2015–16), 38.4% of children under the age of Table 1: Budget Allocations for Food Subsidy, 2014 to 2018 (Rs crore) five are stunted (low height for age, indicating chronic malnutrition), and 35.7% are underweight (low weight for age, indicating both chronic and acute malnutrition).2 Unless one has gone chronically and repeatedly hungry to bed, it is 14 JANATA, May 12 2019

How much would planning further cuts in food subsidy. like what happened with tur (arhar) Universalisation and Expansion The government's plan is to gradually dal in 2015. of PDS cost? eliminate the PDS, identify the poor Once the PDS is dismantled, In an article published in an through Aadhaar, and provide direct speculators will again be able to rule earlier issue of Janata, we have cash transfers to the poor into their the roost. If and when wheat and shown that the total increase in food bank accounts. Defending the plan, rice prices zoom, the government subsidy required for universalising the government's Chief Economic would then have to increase its the PDS and providing all citizens Advisor Arvind Subramanian stated cash transfers to the poor. But it is 35 kg of wheat /rice and 5 kg of that this will enable the government doubtful if the government would millets per household per month will to stop leakages as well as exclude do that, as it is seeking to reduce its cost the exchequer an additional Rs the better-off from the PDS, and food subsidy bill. It is going to spell 85,000 crore at the most (calculation the government can then invest the absolute disaster for the millions of made for 2017–18). Additionally, if savings into infrastructure (that is, impoverished people in the country. the government decides to distribute transfer it to the private sector through 2 kg of pulses and 1 kg of edible oil the PPP route); simultaneously, Other Nutrition Schemes 7 to all families through the PDS at prices can be “liberated”. The previous governments had subsidised prices, that would cost This is typical 'free market put in place several “nutrition” the exchequer at the most Rs 40,000 jargon'—that worships the free schemes oriented towards pregnant crore. This means that universalising market, and demands that market women and children. While the and expanding the PDS would only must be allowed to determine prices. funding for them was inadequate, at lead to a total increase in the food But preventing the market from least they attempted to address the subsidy bill of Rs 1.25 lakh crore.6 determining prices was precisely problem. Most of them are included That was calculated for two years one of the reasons why the PDS had under the umbrella of Integrated ago. Assuming inflation of 8% per been introduced in the country in the Child Development Services annum, this amount today would first place: speculators would often (ICDS), and include Anganwadi be Rs 1.45 lakh crore. As we have cause foodgrain prices to zoom, services and the Maternity Benefit shown in our previous articles, the creating havoc for the poor, which Programme (MBP), apart from some government can easily raise enough ultimately forced the government to other smaller schemes. Another resources to finance this increase. introduce the PDS. The PDS not only important scheme that is also guaranteed foodgrains to the people nutrition-oriented, but comes under Yet More Cuts in Food Subsidy at fixed and subsidised prices, it the Human Resource Development Planned . . . also acted as a check on speculation Ministry, is the Mid-Day Meal in foodgrain prices. For crops for Not only has the Modi Scheme for school children. which there is no procurement, and Let us take a look at the Government made a complete U-turn whose prices are determined by on its promise to universalise food allocations for the most important the ‘free market’, there often takes of these schemes under five years security, and kept the food subsidy place a sharp fluctuation in prices, at very inadequate levels, it is now of Modi rule:

Table 2: BJP Budget Allocations for Nutrition-Oriented Schemes, 2014 to 2019 (Rs crore) JANATA, May 12, 2019 15 i) Anganwadi services to pregnant and lactating mothers. to be 60:40);9 but Jaitley in all his Subsequently, the NFSA passed just budgets so far has allocated less than The most important of these before the 2014 elections mandated one-third of that, and spent less than nutrition schemes is Anganwadi the extension of this programme to one-fourth! In 2017, he allocated services. It is a programme aimed all over the country, and an increase Rs 2,700 crore, spent only Rs 2,048 at providing health, education and in the allowance to Rs 6,000. crore (2017–18 A); and in 2018–19, supplementary nutrition to mothers However, after winning the allocated Rs 2,400 crore but spent and children below 6 years of age. elections, the BJP delayed the only Rs 1,200 (RE)—implying Though there is an increase in the implementation of this provision for that an overwhelming number of budget of this year over last year’s 3 years, despite the huge maternal pregnant women are being denied revised estimate by 10.9%, this health crisis gripping the country: their maternity entitlements under pales into insignificance when we India's maternal mortality rate is the one excuse or the other. look at the budget cuts made in the highest in the world; according to previous years, because of which the World Health Statistics (2016), iii) Mid-Day Meal Scheme the expenditure in 2018–19 RE is nearly 5 women die every hour in less than the allocation for 2014–15 This is another very important India due to pregnancy and delivery even in nominal terms; in real terms, scheme to combat the huge related complications. it signifies a cut of a whopping 34%. malnutrition levels among children Finally, after much public This huge reduction has been in the country; another equally pressure, Prime Minister Modi finally made, despite a damning Niti important purpose is to improve announced the implementation Ayog Report of 2015 showing that school enrolment and child of these entitlements to all over around 41% of the Anganwadis attendance in schools. But the the country in his address to the have inadequate space, 71% are government is not willing to allocate nation on December 31, 2016. But not visited by doctors, 31% have a decent amount for providing one as is his wont, he repackaged the no nutritional supplementation for nutritious meal a day to its children, programme and proudly presented malnourished children and 52% despite the fact that more than one- it as a new scheme, the Pradhan have bad hygienic conditions.8 third of the country's children under Mantri Matru Vandana Yojana. FM With the government reducing the five—about 47 million souls—suffer Jaitley followed it up with a similar allocation, the conditions are only from stunting. In its very first year, announcement in his 2017 budget going to get worse. It is indicative the Modi Government reduced the speech. But like the other big-bang of our ruling regime's complete money spent on this scheme from an BJP announcements, Modi-Jaitley insensitivity towards the 5 crore already low allocation of Rs 13,215 are not serious about implementing children in the country who are crore to Rs 10,523 crore, and in the it. Jaitley has never allocated enough malnourished and the more than two 2018–19 RE, the money spent on funds for a genuine implementation crore pregnant women and lactating this scheme is less than that even in of this scheme. It is estimated that it mothers. It also means that the nominal terms (Rs 9,949 crore); in would require an allocation by the Anganwadi workers who are being real terms, this implies a reduction Centre of Rs 9,700 crore per year paid a pittance will continue to work by nearly half! (assuming Centre–State cost sharing at their very low wages. ii) Pradhan Mantri Matru Vandana Yojana Table 3: National Social Assistance Programme (Rs crore) This maternity benefit programme, earlier known as the Indira Gandhi Matritva Sahyog Yojana, was first introduced as a pilot scheme in 53 districts across the country in 2010. It then gave a modest allowance of Rs 4,000 16 JANATA, May 12 2019

2. PENSION SCHEME amount, and so the 2018–19 RE only reveals how cut off are PM FOR INFORMAL SECTOR shows a disbursement of only Rs Modi and his cabinet ministers WORKERS 5,972 crore (Table 3)! from the real life conditions of our Presently, the main programme And so, activists and working country’s informal sector workers for providing social security to people and unions have been (even though PM Modi may claim to the poor (including the disabled agitating for a decent old age pension be a chaiwallah earlier). The wages and widows) and especially those for the poor and the informal sector of the unorganised workers are so working in the unorganised sector workers for years. Apparently ceding low, their jobs are so uncertain, their is the National Social Assistance their demand, the finance minister in life conditions are so precarious, that Programme (NSAP), allocation his Budget 2019 speech announced asking them to first pay a defined, for which is budgeted under the a new pension scheme for informal even though small, part of their hard Department for Rural Development. sector workers that he pompously earned income every month and During its five years in power, the labelled as the Pradhan Mantri that too for 20/30/40 years shows Modi Government’s allocation Shram Yogi Mandhaan (PMSYM), extreme insensitivity to their plight. for this programme was a lowly under which the estimated 42 There is another reason also for Rs 9,000–10,000 crore. The total crore informal sector workers the PMSYM being a farce. Expecting number of poor people in the country, in the country would be given a unorganised sector workers to even according to the government’s monthly pension of Rs 3,000. The deposit any part, even a small part, convoluted statistics, is around 36 announcement created a big splash of their hard earned income in a crore. That works out to a social in the media (as desired!). scheme from which benefits will flow assistance of Rs 250 per person per A closer look reveals that the after 20 to 30 years is completely year—a princely sum indeed! Not new scheme is a cruel joke on unrealistic. Governments have in only that, the allocation for this the informal sector workers. It the past broken so many promises, programme actually declined during is even a bigger hoax than the denied so many promised benefits, five years of Modi rule (2014–15 BE Ayushman Bharat insurance scheme. to ordinary people on vague excuses to 2018–19 RE) by a whopping 43% Nevertheless, the Modi Bhakt media that expecting workers to believe the in real terms (see Table 3). went to town touting it as the largest government promise that it would The most important scheme pension scheme in the world! pay them a pension if they deposit under this program is the Indira Under the PMSYM scheme, some amount for 20/30/40 years is Gandhi Old Age Pension Scheme, informal sector workers are not silly, to say the least. under which the Central Government going to automatically get a pension And that too, for a pension provides a ridiculously low pension of Rs 3,000 per month upon attaining amount which is a pittance! For a of Rs 200 per month to old people the age of 60. They will get this worker aged 30 today, he/she will be above the age of 60. This pension pension only after they have paid a getting a pension of Rs 3,000 after 30 amount of Rs 200 has remained monthly premium for several years, years. Even if we take 5% inflation, unchanged since 2007—applying the amount of which will depend the real value of this would be a mere a deflation rate of 8% per annum upon the duration for which they Rs 700 after 30 years! means that its real value has fallen pay this premium. For instance, a But the biggest problem with this to less than Rs 90 today! Even this worker who starts paying at the age pension scheme is that by the time low amount is given to only those of 29 would have to pay Rs 100 per they reach the age of 60 years, when citizens below the poverty line; as month for 31 years and a worker who the workers will start receiving their is well known, a very large number starts paying at the age of 18 would pension, a majority of the informal of the poor do not have BPL cards, have to pay Rs 55 for 42 years. The sector workers would not be alive and so are deprived of this tiny government would make a matching to avail of its benefit! While an age amount too! This explains why the contribution. Only then would the of 60 years is good for giving post- total budgeted expenditure for this worker, on reaching the age of 60 retirement benefits to the middle scheme in the 2018–19 budget was years, get a pension of Rs 3,000 per classes, it is completely unrealistic 10 only Rs 6,564 crore; the government month. for the hard working informal sector managed to save on even this low The PMSYM scheme actually workers. And life expectancy for JANATA, May 12, 2019 17 informal workers doing the hardest ministries and departments on how how is this a scheme that is meant to jobs, like construction workers and much of their budgetary resources benefit women exclusively? quarry workers, would probably are targeted for benefiting women. Part B of the GBS includes be less than 55 years.11 This only In a country where a crime spending for those schemes where goes to show how divorced are against a woman is committed every allocation for women constitutes Modi–Jaitley–Goyal from the real 96 seconds, an insensitive Modi at least 30% of the provision. All conditions of the working poor in Government has reduced the gender important ministries claim that India. budget in real terms as compared 30–40% of their allocations are Clearly, the PMSYM is only to last year. In fact, over the five for women, and these are routinely another election jumla; worse, it is budgets presented by Jaitley so far, included in Part B of the Gender a complete fraud. the allocation for 2018–19 is more Budget. Thus, for instance, the Can’t our country afford to pay than the estimated allocation for Department of Health and Family our informal sector workers, whose 2014–15 by only 4.93% (CAGR), Welfare has claimed an allocation life conditions are so bad that they implying a cut in real terms. This of Rs 23,421 crore for the Gender rank at the bottom of the ladder not reduction is also reflected in the Budget, which is 43% of its total just in India but at the global level, gender budget allocation as a allocation of 54,303 crore; the a decent pension in their old age, percentage of total budget outlay Department of School Education entirely on a non-contributory basis, and also as a percentage of GDP and Literacy claims gender oriented so that they can spend their twilight (see Table 5). allocation to be Rs 14,574 crore out years in dignity? A closer look at the GBS makes of its total allocation of Rs 50,114 Indeed, the government, if it it clear that a large part of the crore, or 29%; and so on. No attempt so desires, can easily do so. If it allocations shown under it have is made to ensure that this much decides to provide all the old people actually nothing to do with the allocation is targeted to benefit in the country a (non-contributory) exclusive welfare of women. Let women, neither do these ministries monthly pension of Rs 3,000 per us discuss this with reference to attempt to make an estimate of how month—and we are here talking 2018–19 RE. many women have benefited from of a universal pension scheme, The GBS is in two parts. Part these women-oriented allocations. not just for those living below the A details schemes in which 100% Part B (Rs 92,583 crore) constitutes farcical official poverty line—it provision is for women; total budget 79% of the total Gender Budget. would cost the government Rs 4.3 for this is Rs 26,544 crore. But of This basically means that most lakh crore (there are an estimated this, Rs 19,900 crore or 75% of of the Gender Budget, probably 12 crore people in the country the total budget under Part A is more than three-fourths, has really above the age of 60, so 12 crore x accounted for by only one scheme, nothing to do with benefiting women 3000 x12 = 432,000 crore). From Pradhan Mantri Avas Yojana. Even exclusively. Yet another Modi– the estimates made in our previous if women are given joint ownership Jaitley ‘jumla’. articles published in Janata about of houses built under this scheme, the potential for increasing government revenues, the government can easily afford Table 5: Budget Allocations for Women, 2014 to 2019 (Rs crore) to pay this if it so desires.

3. ALLOCATIONS FOR WOMEN These allocations are outlined in the Gender Budget Statement (GBS). It compiles information submitted by the various 18 JANATA, May 12 2019

The Genuinely Women Oriented they have to pay the market rate SABLA, from 205 districts in 2016– Schemes for all subsequent cylinders, till the 17 to cover the entire country over Let us now take a look at some loan (around Rs 1,500) is recovered. the next two years (by 2018–19). But of the schemes under Part A which But most poor can’t afford the price at the same time, it has reduced the are genuinely and exclusively meant of the subsidised refill too, forget allocation for this scheme from Rs to benefit women. paying its market price. Therefore, 450 crore in 2017–18 A to Rs 250 The scheme that has got a large according to newsreports, a very low crore in 2018–19 RE. allocation and has received the number of Ujjwala beneficiaries are Most schemes show such tiny most publicity in recent times is coming back for refills. Which is expenditures on them that it is the Ujjwala scheme to provide free why data show that while the number obvious that the government is not cooking gas connections to poor of LPG connections across India serious about implementing them, women (2018–19 RE shows an increased by 16.26% in 2016–17, and they have been announced expenditure of Rs 3,200 crore on the use of gas cylinders increased for propaganda purposes only. this). The government claims that by only 9.83%—lower than the Thus, according to the 2018–19 more than 7 crore free connections rate recorded in 2014–15, when the RE, only Rs 29 crore has been 12 have been provided to poor women scheme did not exist. spent on ‘Women's helpline’; Rs 52 under this scheme by International Most other genuinely and crore on working women's hostels; Women’s Day, March 8, this year exclusively women-oriented Rashtriya Mahila Kosh, that is (2019). schemes in Part A come under supposed to provide micro-loans This scheme is also turning out the Ministry of Women and Child to women for livelihoods, micro- to be another ‘jumla’. Under this Development. The total allocation enterprises, etc. has been given a scheme, while poor women don’t for them was a miniscule Rs 4,271 princely Rs 0.01 crore (or, Rs 1 have to make any initial payment at crore. Yet, the 2018–19 RE show that lakh); the Central Social Welfare the time of taking the gas connection, the government managed to save on Board, that is supposed to run the gas stove and first cylinder given this too, spending only 60% of the several important programmes for to them are not given free, but as budget allocation (Rs 2,574 crore). the welfare and development of a loan, to be recovered from them To give an example: the women and children, especially in from the subsidy they receive at the government announced in 2017–18 rural areas, has been given a measly time of each refill. Which means that it was extending the ‘Scheme Rs 71.5 crore; while the National for Adolescent Girls’, also called Commission for Women, a statutory

Table 6: Funds Sanctioned and Spent Under Beti Bachao Beti Padhao Scheme (Rs crore) JANATA, May 12, 2019 19

body that investigates complaints States! The same reply also showed Disappoints, Maternity Benefit related to deprivation of women's that during the first four years of Programme Underfunded, rights, has been allocated Rs 24 the scheme, of the total amount Excludes Those Who Need It the crore. allocated for this scheme in the Most”, February 3, 2017, http:// everylifecounts.ndtv.com. The Modi–Jaitley Government budget allocations (Rs 487 crore), 10. B. Sivaraman, “Interim Budget’s has even run down the Nirbhaya the government spent only 60% of Pension Scheme is a Big Hoax”, Fund. Following the brutal gang rape it (Rs 295.5 crore). Even of this low February 7, 2019, https://www. of a young girl in Delhi in December amount spent, more than 70% was nationalheraldindia.com. 2012 that shook the conscience of on advertisements.14 11. Sudhir Katiyar, “Budget 2019: the nation, the then Finance Minister Do we need any more proof that Pension Scheme for Unorganised P. Chidambaram had announced this the BJP-RSS does not really believe Workers Is Yet Another Illusion”, fund in his 2013 Union Budget to in gender equality? February 2, 2019, https://thewire.in. 12. Nayantara Narayanan, “The Modi support initiatives by the government Years: Are More Indians Using and NGOs that support the safety of References Cooking Gas Because of the women in India, with a corpus of Rs 1. “Global Hunger Index 2018: India Ujjwala Scheme?”, January 26, 1,000 crore. Subsequently, Jaitley Ranks 103rd out of 119 Countries”, 2019, https://scroll.in. too in his budgets allocated funds October 12, 2018, https://www. 13. “Only 42% of Nirbhaya Fund jagranjosh.com. for this non-lapsable corpus fund. Released for Projects Since 2. “As Per the National Family Health 2015 ”, April 17, 2019, https:// According to a recent newsreport, Survey (NFHS)–4 (2015–16), 35.7 government data say that the total economictimes.indiatimes.com per cent Children Below Five Years 14. “56% Of 'Beti Bachao, Beti Padhao' amount that had accumulated in this are Underweight”, April 12, 2017, Funds Spent On Advertisements: fund in 2018–19 was Rs 3,600 crore, http://www.business-standard.com. Minister”, January 22, 2019, https:// of which the BJP Government had 3. See our booklet: Is the Government www.outlookindia.com. released only Rs 1513 crore, or 42%, Really Poor, Lokayat publication, till December 2018.13 2018, www.lokayat.org.in. 4. See: Neeraj Jain, “Modi Government Finally, let us take a look at and the Nation's Food Security”, the Modi Government’s most Janata Weekly, July 30, 2017, http:// hyped scheme for the girl child, janataweekly.org; Neeraj Jain, “For Beti Bachao Beti Padhao. The a Universalised Public Distribution declared aim of the scheme is to end System”, Janata Weekly, August 27, discrimination against the girl child 2017, http://janataweekly.org. and educate her. The total amounts 5. Sanjeeb Mukherjee, “Outlay Shows allocated and spent under the scheme States May Go Slow on Food Security Plan”, July 12, 2014, under the five Jaitley budgets are http://www.business-standard. given in Table 6. com; “Right to Food Campaign on The 2018–19 BE shows an Budget 14”, July 12, 2014, http:// allocation of Rs 280 crore this www.indiaresists.com. scheme. As of December 31, 2018, 6. Neeraj Jain, “For a Universalised the government had spent Rs 226 Public Distribution System”, op. cit. crore of the allocated amount, 7. Quoted in: “Constructing according to Minister of State for Theoretical Justifications to Suppress People’s Social Claims”, Women and Child Development Aspects of India's Economy, No. Virendra Kumar in a written reply 62, January 2016, http://www.rupe- given in the Lok Sabha on January india.org. 1, 2019. But he admitted that of this 8. Sourindra Mohan Ghosh, Imrana amount, Rs 155.7 crore, or 69%, had Qadeer, “An Inadequate and been spent on advertisements, and Misdirected Health Budget”, only Rs 70.6 crore (31%) had been February 8, 2017, https://thewire.in. disbursed to the districts and the 9. Dipa Sinha, “Budget 2017 R.N.I. NO. 1855/1957 20 JANATA, May 12, 2019 Postal Registration No. MCW/275/2018-2020. License to Post without prepayment WPP License No. MR/Tech/WPP-210/West/2019 Published on Sunday, May 12, 2019 & Posted on Wedenesday, May 15, 2019 at Mumbai Patrika Channel, Mumbai GPO-1

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Vol. 74 No. 17 Modi’s Love for Ganga: Another ‘Jumla’ May 19, 2019 Neeraj Jain The Commune is the Supreme Expression of Participatory Democracy What completely exposes the bombastically launched a new plan, Cira Pascual Marquina Modi Government and its so-called the Namami Gange, to clean up the Response to “Why Janata Party religiosity is the government’s Ganga, with a budget outlay of Rs Parted with Jan Sangh over RSS” 2 by Madhu Limaye attitude towards cleaning of Ganga, 20,000 crore for the next five years. Aniruddha Limaye India’s longest river along whose As a part of this, a five tier structure Meher Engineer: A Requiem for a basin more than 40 crore people at the national, state and district level Man of Reckonable Height live, the largest such number in was created to take measures for Prof Sibaji Raha, Ashoke Mukherjee the world. Yet, it is one of the most prevention, control and abatement India Packs Up on Iran Under polluted rivers in the world. The of environmental pollution in river US Pressure M. K. Bhadrakumar river is also considered to be sacred Ganga and to ensure continuous One Million Species Face Extinction: by the Hindus. adequate flow of water so as to UN Report Five years ago, at the time rejuvenate the river. At the apex Countercurrents Team of the Lok Sabha elections in of this structure was the National Modi Govt has Crippled the 2014, Narendra Modi announced Ganga Council (NGC), headed by Public Sector that he was going to contest the the Prime Minister himself. This B. Sivaraman Parliamentary elections from council replaced the National Ganga Trump: Emulating Hitler Atilio Borón Varanasi as he had got a call from River Basin Authority (NGRBA), Maa Ganga. Soon after winning the previous apex body that had Editor : G. G. Parikh the elections and coming to power, been created during the UPA regime Modi announced plans to clean up in 2009 for cleaning up the Ganga. Associate Editor : Neeraj Jain the Ganga, declaring that “Mother NGC also had on board the chief Managing Editor : Guddi Ganga needs someone to take her ministers of the five Ganga basin out of this dirt and she’s chosen states—Uttarakhand, Uttar Pradesh, Editorial Board : me to do the work.” The Ministry Bihar, Jharkhand and West Bengal— B. Vivekanandan, Qurban Ali of Water Resources was given the besides several Union ministers. Anil Nauriya, Sonal Shah task of cleaning up the Ganga, and Apart from this, an Empowered Amarendra Dhaneshwar, its name was changed to include Task Force, headed by the Union Sandeep Pandey “Ganga Rejuvenation”. Uma Bharti, Water Resources Minister, was who was given charge of this created with the chief secretaries D-15, Ganesh Prasad, ministry, announced in Parliament of the five Ganga Basin states as Naushir Bharucha Marg, that the river would be cleaned and members. The National Mission for Mumbai - 400 007. rejuvenated by July 2018.1 Clean Ganga (NMCG) was created Email : [email protected] In mid-2015, the Modi as the implementing arm of the Website:www.janataweekly.org Government, as is its wont, Namami Gange project.3 2 JANATA, May 19 2019

A lot of hot air capacity. According to a report of the ii) Faecal Sludge Management All this architecture looks great Parliamentary Estimates Committee The other important pollutant on paper. But in reality, the Namami presented to the Lok Sabha on May flowing into the Ganga is faecal Gange programme too has remained 11, 2016, on the mainstream of the sludge. Faecal sludge is a bigger another hot air balloon released Ganga, 7,301 million litres per day pollutant than sewerage. While by the master braggart Narendra (MLD) sewage is created in five the BOD (Biochemical Oxygen Modi. The seriousness of the Modi states (Uttarakhand, Uttar Pradesh, Demand) of sewage is 150–300 Government, and of Prime Minister Bihar, Jharkhand and West Bengal), mg/l, that of faecal sludge would be Modi himself who heads the NGC, but facilities existed to treat only 15,000–30,000 mg/l. regarding cleaning up the Ganga 2,126 MLD sewage. And if we To check this, the Modi can be gauged from the fact that the take the entire Ganga basin (that Government took the first step of NGC has not met even once since is, Ganga and its tributaries) into making the villages and towns in it was set up in October 2016 (it consideration, that comprises of 11 the Ganga basin open defecation is supposed to meet at least once a states, a total of 12,051 MLD sewage free (ODF) by constructing toilets year)! The Empowered Task Force is created, but only 5,717 MLD is under the Swachh Bharat Mission. on River Ganga too was set up at the 6 treated. But after that, it apparently lost same time as the NGC. According to That means that more than 50% interest, and did nothing as regards regulations, it is supposed to meet of the sewage flowing into the Ganga the next important step of faecal every three months, that is, four and its tributaries is untreated. But sludge management. Most of the times a year. RTI queries reveal the Modi Government, despite all villages and towns in the basin that ever since it was created in the propaganda about cleaning of the Ganga don't have sewage October 2016, it has met only up Maa Gange, has not shown systems. With the result that while twice (in February and August any urgency in setting up STPs now people don’t shit in the open, 2017).4 to clean this untreated sewage. all that has happened is that the shit So far as the NMCG is concerned, The government informed the Lok accumulates in the toilet tanks in the which is the implementing arm of Sabha in response to a question households. Once taken out of the the Namami Gange programme, its asked that as of November 30, tanks, this untreated faecal waste functioning was criticised by the 2018, projects for the creation of is just dumped around, and ends up Comptroller and Auditor General 3,083 MLD new STP capacity and flowing into the river, defeating the (CAG) in an audit report released rehabilitation of 886 MLD STP very mission of making the Ganga in December 2017.5 It redflagged capacity had been sanctioned, of river basin ODF. According to one the delay in river cleaning and which work on creating 560 MLD estimate, in cities like Allahabad, construction of infrastructure for 7 STP capacity had been completed. Varanasi and Kanpur, hardly 25 per sewage treatment. Considering that STPs having a cent of faecal sludge generated is total capacity of treating 6,354 collected for safe disposal. Even Review of Namami Gange MLD sewage water are required to in PM Modi’s own constituency Let us take a closer look at the be built to clean all the untreated Varanasi, 246 kilolitres of faecal most important steps that need to be sewage presently flowing into the sludge is generated every day, but taken to clean up and rejuvenate the Ganga basin, this means that so far, only 30 kilolitres is collected for Ganga, and what has been achieved under Namami Gange, only 9% safe disposal.8 by the NMCG so far. work has been completed three-and- If the Modi Government had the a-half years after the project was i) Sewage Treatment slightest sincerity about cleaning up launched. The pace of the work Ganga, this was the least it could This is probably the simplest is so slow that it is going to take have done—build the necessary of the challenges—reducing the several years for the NMCG to infrastructure to collect and treat this untreated waste that flows into the reach its target of sewage treatment, faecal sludge, in at least the most river by building sewage treatment but by then, the volume of sewage important cities in the Ganga basin. plants (STPs) and rehabilitating generated would have gone up by But it is more interested in spending the older plants to improve their several times. money on advertisements rather than JANATA, May 19, 2019 3 taking steps on the ground. extraction. During the lean season, Devprayag, after which the river the underground aquifers partially is called Ganga) have turned the iii) Restoring the Flow of the River recharge the river. However, the upper stretch of the Ganga into This is the most important introduction of bore wells—with an “ecological desert”.11 Just the challenge. pumps run by electricity—in the Tehri Dam built on the Bhagirathi The water flowing in river Gangetic plains in the 1970s has led River in Tehri in Uttarakhand state Ganga has several unique properties to overexploitation of both shallow has reduced the lean season flow because of the path it treads naturally: and deep aquifers. Therefore, instead at Haridwar from 6,500 cusec to it has medicinal properties—due of the aquifers recharging the river, around 1,000 cusec.12 to medicinal plants on the path the land is soaking water from the A river, to be called a river, of Ganga—that can treat skin river. This has affected the base flow must flow. For Ganga to continue infections; it is very rich in minerals; in the rivers of the Ganga basin.9 to be the lifeline it has been for and it has bacteriophages which kill This means the whole problem crores of Indians since ancient bacteria. But these properties depend of rejuvenating the Ganga is linked times, for Ganga water to retain on the river being allowed to flow; if up to questioning the entire model its almost magical properties, the the flow of the river dwindles (due to of agricultural development being river must be allowed to flow. For man-made reasons), then the water promoted in the country. The that, environmentalists say that loses these properties. present agricultural model is what no more than 30% of the flow in To an extent, the above can be called chemical intensive, the river should be allowed to be mentioned problems of cleaning external input oriented industrial diverted for agricultural, domestic up the Ganga can be reduced if agriculture, which also guzzles or industrial purposes.13 For any the natural flow of the water is water. Instead of that, we need to meaningful effort to clean up and maintained; Ganga’s ability to self- shift to alternate technologies that rejuvenate the Ganga, among all clean will then automatically reduce promote sustainable, environment the steps that need to be taken, its pollution level (the pollution level friendly agriculture, which also removing the impediments to the today is too high for the river to conserve and minimise use of uninterrupted flow of the river is the completely purify itself). water. But the BJP is obviously not most important. Unfortunately, today, except interested in this, as it is seeking to For this, apart from taking steps during monsoons, the Ganga fails promote corporate farming, which to regulate extraction of groundwater this basic test. The water levels in is even more chemical intensive and reduce diversion of river water the river have fallen drastically. and uses even more water. We have for irrigation, most importantly, we According to one study by geologists discussed this in our previous article will need to impose a complete ban Abhijit Mukherjee and Soumendra on Modi’s Budgets and Agriculture. on construction of more dams on Nath Bhanja of IIT Kharagpur, The third reason for the falling the Ganga. Modern environmental the base flow of Ganga River has water levels in the Ganga is the science is now quite emphatic that for declined by as much as 56% from the reckless construction of dams on the generating hydroelectricity, building 1970s to 2016. In several stretches Ganga and its tributaries. By the last large dams is not a sustainable of the river, the water levels are count, there were some 795 dams technology, and alternate sustainable so shallow, especially during the and 181 barrages/weirs that were methods exist. summer season, that people can walk obstructing and diverting water from across the river. One reason for this almost every tributary in the entire Saints on Fast for Aviral and is massive extraction of water from Ganga basin!10 Worse, dams are Nirmal Ganga the river for irrigation purposes being built even in the upper reaches These were precisely the (today, the Ganga canal system in the of the Ganga. According to a report demands of the fast-unto-death Doab region between the Ganga and published by Wildlife Institute of undertaken by Swami Gyan Swaroop Yamuna rivers in the states of UP and India in May 2018, 16 existing and Sanand last year. Before he became Uttarakhand irrigates nearly 9,000 sq 14 ongoing hydroelectric projects a saint, he was known as Professor km of agricultural land). The second on the Bhagirathi and Alaknanda Guru Das Agrawal, and had taught reason is excessive groundwater river basins (these two meet at at Indian Institute of Technology, 4 JANATA, May 19 2019

Kanpur, and had also served as of their consequences for the aviral on hydropower projects would be the founding member-Secretary and nirmal flow of Ganga. reviewed after the elections. So, on of the Central Pollution Control Clearly, PM Modi’s concern for May 5, the saints of Matri Sadan Board. Swami Sanand began his Maa Gange is only another of his decided to suspend their struggle fast on June 22, 2018, demanding big lies. till after the elections, and Swami that Ganga be allowed to flow And so, four years after the Atmabodhanand broke his fast on Aviral (uninhibited) and Nirmal launch of Namami Gange, river May 5. With such powerful vested (unpolluted). For this, he wanted Ganga is today more polluted interests involved, and a very pro- the government to enact a law for than it was earlier. The Central corporate government in power, it is conservation of Ganga, scrap all Pollution Control Board (CPCB), going to be a tough struggle to force ongoing and proposed hydroelectric an organisation under the Ministry it to accede to the demands for which power projects on it, ban mining and of Environment, Forest and Climate Prof. Agrawal sacrificed his life. deforestation activities in its vicinity, Change, monitors the quality of Why doesn’t the RSS mobilise and form a council consisting of Ganga water from Gangotri, where its cadre, which number in lakhs, people sensitive to Ganga to oversee the river originates, to West Bengal, to reach out to the crores of people its interests (to be nominated by the at 80 sites. The CPCB’s findings are living in the Ganga basin, and Prime Minister). Before he began that on all the scientific parameters educate and organise them and build his fast, Swami Sanand twice wrote on the basis of which the quality up a powerful social movement that to the Prime Minister, and then of Ganga water is determined— will force the government to take during his fast, he again twice wrote the Biochemical Oxygen Demand steps to clean up and rejuvenate to him. But our much vocal Prime (BOD) level, the Dissolved Oxygen the Ganga—a river that is revered Minister, who speaks out his mind level, total coliform bacteria level by the Hindus as sacred. Such a to the country regularly in public and pH level—the Ganga is more social movement would genuinely broadcasts known as Mann ki Baat, polluted now than it was in 2013.14 benefit crores of people. Instead, chose not to respond. Swami Sanand Swami Sanand (Prof G.D. it is mobilising people across the died on the 112th day of his fast. Agrawal) had chosen Matri Sadan country for building a Ram Temple Modi then broke his ‘maun’ and in Haridwar as the site for his and raking up issues like Love Jehad tweeted a condolence. fast. The head of Matri Sadan, and holy cow—issues which do not Swami Shivanand, has announced benefit anyone really, but which Modi’s Love for Ganga another that he and his disciples are going have led to attacks and even killings ‘Jumla’ to continue the unfinished task of Muslims across the country by The reason why the BJP/RSS undertaken by Prof. Agrawal, and violent mobs. and Modi chose to completely that one saint after another will sit The struggle of these heroic ignore the demands raised by on fast until the demand of Professor saints of Matri Sadan glaringly Professor Agrawal turned Swami G.D. Agrawal to let Ganga flow brings out the difference between Sanand is that the issues raised uninterrupted and clean is met their true Hinduism, and the by him go against Modi’s and the by the government. After Prof. Hindutva of the RSS and Modi. BJP’s ideological outlook, in which Agrawal’s death, Brahmachari True Hinduism motivates people ‘development’ means ‘construction’, Atmabodhanand, a 26-year-old to fight for a genuine cause (this and that is more important for the ascetic from Kerala, sat down on is true with all religions actually; BJP than the health of Ganga. The fast. Finally, after he had fasted for as Swami Vivekananda has said, BJP is keen to undertake more and a heroic 194 days, the government true religion motivates people to more construction projects in the used a trick to get him to break his devote their life for the good of Himalayas, including building all fast. The Director-General of the all). The genuine saints are even weather roads, even if it involves NMCG wrote to Swami Shivanand, willing to sacrifice their lives for it. cutting down large number of trees head of Matri Sadan, that during the On the other hand, the Hindutva of thereby destabilising the hills, elections, the government cannot Modi and the RSS is only to exploit and speeding up construction of take policy decisions, and that the people’s religious sentiments for hydroelectric projects irrespective Uttarakhand government’s policy narrow sectarian ends, to polarise JANATA, May 19, 2019 5 the people and divide them for votes. The Commune is the Supreme Expression of If it leads to killings of others (like in riots, lynchings, assassination of Participatory Democracy intellectuals), so be it—collateral damage. Cira Pascual Marquina interviews Anacaona Marin of El Panal Commune References 1. “Ecologists Don't Buy New Ganga [The Alexis Vive Patriotic Force, our interpretation by the proposal Rejuvenation Plan”, June 4, 2014, which has deep roots in 23 de that Comandante Chavez advanced. https://www.indiawaterportal. org; Sanjana Ray, “Modi’s ‘Clean Enero barrio (an area in a town Chavez developed a hypothesis Ganga’ Project – The Story So Far”, that is inhabited by poor people) after a period of intense thought and August 8, 2016, https://yourstory. in Caracas (capital of Venezuela), experiment, after a rigorous analysis com. began planning a commune years of the Venezuelan and continental 2. “Cabinet Clears Rs 20,000 Crore before Chavez even proposed the realities, and after reflecting on the Outlay for Clean Ganga Project”, communal path toward socialism. revolutionary potential of the people May 14, 2015, https://www. livemint.com. Yet, when Chavez announced the (based also on a commitment to 3. Banjot Kaur, “Namami Gange: 5 plan to join communal councils into justice for the poor that was there Reasons Why Ganga Will Not Be a higher form of organisation, Alexis from the start). His hypothesis Clean By 2020”, October 26, 2018, Vive wholeheartedly embraced the was: the commune is the historical https://www.downtoearth.org.in; initiative and has since then built a subject, the commune and its people “Namami Gange - National Mission highly successful commune called is where the revolution really begins. for Clean Ganga”, https://nmcg.nic. El Panal Commune [1] involving So we made this proposal ours, we in. 4. Dheeraj Mishra, “Water Ministry's some 13,000 people. We spoke with committed ourselves to it. Task Force on Ganga Is Not Having a key cadre of El Panal about this When Chavez first raised the the Meeting It's Supposed To”, project that is both economic and banner of socialism in 2006, when he March 19, 2019, https://thewire.in. political to find out how it is coping said that the Bolivarian Revolution 5. Ibid. with the intense crisis created by US must be socialist, when he said that 6. Ibid. aggressions.] a vote for him is a vote for socialism, 7. “Government of India, Ministry of Water Resources . . ., Lok Cira Pascual Marquina: he committed himself and the people Sabha Unstarred Question No. The commune is usually thought to a collective project of rupture 3767, Answered on 03.01.2019”, of a space of construction— with the past. And that is where http://164.100.47.190. for the political and economic we find the seed of the commune. 8. Banjot Kaur, op. cit.; Akshit reorganisation of society—but it Self-government and economic Sangomla , “Pollution 'Time is also a space of resistance. Let’s emancipation go hand-in-hand with Bomb' Ticking for Ganga Despite talk about the commune today, in socialism, with a people in power. ODF”, April 3, 2019, https://www. downtoearth.org.in. a period where Venezuela is under We were aware that the proposal 9. Soumya Sarkar, “No Water for a attack by imperialism. and our embracing it was going Clean Ganga”, March 12, 2019, Anacaona Marin: There is a to be attacked from the very https://www.thethirdpole.net. confrontation of models, a clash of beginning, even when it was only 10. “How Modi Government Went two paradigms not only in Venezuela being proposed. At that time itself, Horribly Wrong On Ganga and in Latin America, but also it became clear to us that there Rejuvenation”, October 16, 2018, https://sandrp.in. worldwide. One of the questions in was going to be a new level of 11. Banjot Kaur, op. cit. the debate is: who is the historical confrontation. We knew that the 12. Soumya Sarkar, op.cit. subject? For us, this question means: path towards socialism was going 13. Ibid. who is it that takes the initiative, to be demonised, that opposition 14. Dheeraj Mishra, “Almost Rs 4,000 who lights up the field, who pushes would pop up everywhere, inside Crore Spent, but the Ganga Is More changes ahead. And when we reflect and outside. And that is precisely Polluted Under Modi's Watch” on this issue, which means thinking what happened. The communes October 20, 2018, https://thewire. in. about our own practice, we guide hadn’t even been born yet, and we 6 JANATA, May 19 2019 were already in struggle! And if we law states that communal councils Finally, we have the associated go deeper, the truth is that we have would be the embryo that would work collectives, which are the been resisting for more than five foster the formation of a commune. communal groups directly involved hundred years. But by then, here in Alexis Vive, we with producing goods and services. Today, we are not only resisting had already begun evolving our own Since the commune is not an appendix imperialism. We are also resisting path of building a commune. of the state or the government, it old forms of production and their In our case, the Alexis Vive must be autonomous and it must diverse forms of domination: from Patriotic Force generated a collective generate the resources it requires the organisation of education and practice and a collective debate that to address the community’s needs. its effects, to the organisation of pointed the path towards building The associated work collectives are the formal political sphere and the the commune, helped along with spaces for direct production, and the economy. Chavez’s ideas. The community surplus from their production goes Why is there conflict? Because here, in the central part of 23 de back to the commune and thus to we are making a counter-hegemonic Enero barrio in Caracas, liked and the community. proposal to a system that is powerful, agreed with the idea, and readily This is how we organise a system that seems part and parcel agreed to implement it. Since then, the grassroots planning and of what the human being is. In the we have come a long way. administration of resources in our face of this system, the communal Here, in the territory of our commune. Some of our resources being stands tall and says: Hey, this commune, the “Panalitos por go to sustaining a people’s canteen, doesn’t have to be so, this is not the la Patria” (“Beehives for the some to communications, some to only option. The communal being Homeland”)—which are small the community’s medical expenses, resolutely affirms that capitalism discussion and work groups—are and some to transportation and is not a natural occurrence, it is an the DNA of the communal body. The infrastructure. We also have imposition. Panalitos are formed by people from resources allotted for contingencies. The communes are counter- the community with a high degree of All of these resources come from the hegemonic spaces, they have a commitment to the commune. They associated work collectives. After all, potential to be hegemonic are the engines of the communal the commune is not just a cultural, themselves. From our commune, initiative. social and political organisation, it is we aim to show that another Additionally, we have also an economic organisation. organisation of society is possible, “brigades”, which is a term that the There is another “higher” element that power must be reorganised, that Alexis Vive Patriotic Force chose to the commune’s organisation: the power should be in the hands of the after much debate. The debate patriotic assembly, the space where people. That means combining new was based around our study of people of the commune gather to economic relations with an exercise the Chiliying Commune in China decide collectively what must be of power in the commune’s territory. [2], which had various structures done and how, through participatory CPM: Here we are in the midst of participation for the people: democracy. of El Panal Commune, which has a councils, brigades and producers. CPM: Let’s come back to the range of productive projects: from The division there was based on a situation today: the imperialist a bakery and a textile factory to commitment to work and struggle. aggression. In the past couple of cultivated land and an industrial The brigades were made up of a months, we have witnessed a new packaging plant. How is all this militant group of communards with a form of war with the attacks on organised? lifelong commitment to the struggle. the electric grid and the electrical AM: El Panal Commune has In our commune, these brigades are blackout. Tell us about how you have some specific characteristics. We, made up of professional cadres, organised resistance in the commune as Alexis Vive, began thinking about and they take the responsiblity in this context. building a commune in 2006, and for the most important issues of AM: We are the daughters and soon after, we began working on it. production and distribution in the sons of Chavez. We listened to his However, the Law of Communes community. They are also very words and we learned. As a result of wasn’t promulgated until 2009. The politically advanced units. that, we understood that when you JANATA, May 19, 2019 7 stand up against capital and against both Chavistas and the opposition. much of his idea was advanced imperialism, there is only one option: What happened here in 23 de Enero? via the Enabling Act [the National be ready to fight. If we are going to AM: It was an all-out assault Assembly had given Chavez the tell imperialism that we are no longer on our lives! But when faced with power to legislate by presidential its backyard—that we have chosen terrible, catastrophic situations, decree] since his proposal was sure the path to full independence and on popular kindness, solidarity and to rub the establishment the wrong top of that we are moving towards sisterhood blooms! This is not mere way. By doing so, Chavez broke with socialism—then we must understand socialist rhetoric; ordinary people the logic of the state. that we are going to be in a war with are intrinsically brave and noble. Alvaro Garcia Linera talks about a military superpower. We don’t believe that the human “creative tensions” that allow for A new phase of aggression being is selfish by nature. Human new things to happen. When you against our country has begun. They beings are born and grow up in move away from constituted power, try to restrict our access to food and society; the human being is part of that creates a space for the new to they have implemented a financial a whole, of a collective. The genesis bloom, that allows flowers to spring blockade and, more recently, an of humanity is in the commons, in forth from the creative tensions. We oil embargo. They also attack us working together towards shared welcome contradictions. If we didn’t culturally. They try to instill fear ends, and those collective instincts have them, it would mean that we in us. Most recently, they attacked flourish when people face a war-like do not have an alternate project, it our electrical system, which is situation. would mean that we are part and fundamental for modern life. I can give you an example from parcel with our society’s hegemonic We were aware that this was our experience. We organise weekly logic, which is capitalist. coming, so we prepared for a war fairs where fruits and vegetables are On the question of dual power: economy, through organisation and sold at very low prices through the we don’t think of it in terms of a work. We also prepared through “Pueblo a Pueblo” initiative (direct parallel state. Instead, we consider the research and by paying attention to coordination with farmers). During communes to be the crystallisation popular creativity. A contingency the blackout, we sold on credit (since of a proposal initiated by President plan was in place. So when this new the electronic payment infrastructure Chavez. He understood that the phase of the aggression began, we was not working). Once the blackout commune, through self-government were ready for it with the necessary was over, the people came and paid and autonomous popular economic resources. back their debts, every single one activity, would bring about the Our planning allowed us of them. One can see here that the new state, a communal state. But to build—in the midst of the response from the people was not of course, it is still a process under blackout—a diesel-powered selfish. People didn’t take advantage construction. electrical grid for our collective of the situation, even though they As I was saying earlier, spaces. That alternative power could have. Instead, those days were we encounter contradictions supply considerably reduced the characterised by intense collective everywhere. Although some state hardships we had to face, and also consciousness. institutions may be hostile to our made for a less hostile environment CPM: In describing popular commune, our commune has, in during the blackout. You see, the power I often refer to the trilogy of general, benefited from the goodwill commune acts as a kind of state or self-government, self-determination of people within the state, people government in everyday life, and and self-defense. If the commune who support our commune, who it does so also when faced with a sometimes functions as a state, as want our project to advance. We have contingency or an aggression. you said, that means communes received economic and technical CPM: Many people do not generate a situation of dual power. support from the state, and that has know about the spontaneous This could lead to tensions between helped us build popular power. forms of solidarity that emerged the existing state and the commune. We know that tensions and during the blackout. I witnessed AM: When Chavez promoted contradictions will remain, and we beautiful gestures during those days, the idea of the commune, what welcome them since we do not seek especially among my neighbours, he did was very daring. In fact, a static situation. Rather, we seek 8 JANATA, May 19 2019 change, and change only happens and Venezuela in particular] to make as terrorist organisations, as the when there are contradictions. them seem as if they were merely maximum expression of evil. The CPM: Is it fair to say, however, gangs or paramilitary organisations. poor Chavistas defending themselves that the commune is not in the Has that affected your projects in the in the streets, the slum dwellers forefront of the government’s 23 de Enero barrio? defending their territories, are political discourse now? AM: Indeed, there is nothing defending themselves! That needs AM: Absolutely. Look, when new about all that. Earlier, during the to be stopped! And for that, the best Chavez became a public figure, 1960s to the 1990s, the communists way is declare them as criminals, as many from the left didn’t understand and the radical urban left were terrorists. Why do they do this? To that they had to change course, that considered to be the source of all instill fear in the people, to prevent the only way forward was with evil. Later the Bolivarian Circles poor people from organising. Chavez. Likewise, many within were criminalised. Frankly, every Nicolas Maduro’s government expression of popular organisation Notes maintain the old conception of the that isn’t submissive has always [1] Panal means beehive or state and don’t understand that the been criminalised in history. That’s honeycomb in Spanish. commune is the goal. because popular organisation is, [2] The Chiliying Commune was However, that is what indeed, a problem for the system. The a pioneer commune in Honan the Bolivarian Revolution is: a mass media has always demonised province in China. It was subject combination of very diverse currents. the people when they organise, so it of a classic study by Li Chu, titled Within the Revolution, there is an shouldn’t surprise us. Inside a People’s Commune, that intense debate about the commune, Now, in this new phase of the Chavez encouraged people to sometimes hidden, sometimes imperialist aggression, we can see read. open. Our role is to show that the that popular action is once again commune is indeed the historical being criminalised. They are in a (Cira Pascual Marquina writes subject. We show this through our process of rebranding “colectivos” for Venezuelanalysis.com.) example, and, in doing so, we hope to make a rupture with the old ways and become hegemonic. Letter to Editor Our contribution to this Response to “Why Janata Party Parted with important debate is through our practice, through our work. Our Jan Sangh over RSS” by Madhu Limaye constructive criticism can be found in the concrete example that we Aniruddha Limaye are creating. Building a commune (In my musings below, I have nature of RSS and its offspring are brings forth a new culture, a new referred to Madhu Limaye as no longer visible and perceptible to form of doing politics, and new Bhai, Dr. Ram Manohar Lohia those who have been brainwashed economic relations. Against the Doctorkaka and George Fernandes by the incessant propaganda. Worse, logic of representative democracy, as Georgekaka, which is what I some have become admirers of it. we propose participatory and called them.) First of all I want to comment protagonistic democracy, and the In my opinion sharing this article on the post-independence disservice commune is the supreme expression now is quite opportune. However, that Smt. Indira Gandhi has done of the latter. I'm not sure how many people who to the Indian National Congress CPM: The media discourse have been misled into believing and India by promoting dynastic tends to criminalise poor barrio‐ the ‘myth’ of the greatness of RSS, politics and virtually destroying all dwellers. It has been going on for a its societal contribution and its so- inner party democratic processes long time. Recently, there has been a called sacrifice, selflessness and and institutions, promoting endless great deal of focus on “colectivos” patriotism, will recognise and accept sycophancy and humiliating, [a common form of grassroots the truth. The fascist and divisive sidelining, destroying capable organisation in urban Latin America JANATA, May 19, 2019 9 leaders, who were her peers and Congressism in the body politic concerns as well, which I mention juniors. All these destructive practices of India", after the disastrous and below. To his greatness, Doctorkaka (destructive of the Indian political humiliating defeat of India in the was never dismissive or disrespectful ethos) have not only undermined the India–China border war. towards any person on account of that Congress, but have had a much wider When Doctorkaka sought to person's age of stature. He didn't ask negative impact. These pernicious introduce this fatal policy, Bhai me to shut up. He patiently told me practices have been readily adopted (Madhu Limaye) did not attend the to listen to their discussion in which by virtually every other political National Committee Meeting of he would answer this question. party and political leaders at all the Socialist Party held in Calcutta Bhai had several other concerns. levels. Consequently, merit, calibre, (now Kolkata). He resigned from The first was that this strategy or character, dedicated hard work, his membership of the National policy would make the Socialist sacrifice, contribution, etc., have Committee and sent a detailed Party as well as other parties totally been made irrelevant and without letter of resignation to Doctorkaka opportunistic. This strategy would any value or significance in Indian protesting against this policy . dilute the character, fortitude and politics. Immediately after this patience of leaders and activists in all The Congress leaders as well inconclusive meeting (if I remember parties, particularly in the Socialist as its rank and file members/ right it was inconclusive as without Party, as this policy would be seen workers have, over these decades, Bhai's full support Doctorkaka as a shortcut to power. displayed spinelessness and endless did not want to push this policy), And this policy would shift hero worship, such that only a Doctorkaka came to Mumbai and everybody's attention and focus Nehru–Gandhi family member stayed at our little house as he did on to only electoral mathematics is projected and accepted as the always did. For 3–4 days, he argued and to electoral and summit supreme party leader in the Congress. and pleaded with Bhai trying to politics, rendering Doctorkaka's The party, which during its pre- convince him and get him to agree to own formulation or prescription independence days and immediate endorse and wholeheartedly support (as well as Mahatma Gandhi's post-independence existence had his new strategy of non-Congressism. similar approach) of jail (agitation), such a large number of very capable He also wanted Bhai to withdraw phaavdaa (constructive work of and some truly great leaders, now can his resignation from the National building institutions, infrastructure, hardly boast of any. Committee. people, etc.) and vote (elections) to Having said this, I would also I distinctly remember this a single formula and focus—Vote! like to state what I see as another trip of Doctorkaka because I also There were other points as well. truth, a bitter pill that is likely to participated in that discussion and Doctorkaka really had no convincing upset many, who cannot stomach asked Doctorkaka a question to this answers. It was the first time I had any criticism of Dr. Ram Manohar effect. These may not have been my witnessed this. He had just two Lohia’s policies. I think that unless exact words then, but what I asked points. a person, a team, an organisation or would have been pretty close to these One was that after the disastrous even a movement acknowledges, words. Despite my young age (I was defeat at the hands of China, assesses and learns from their failures not even 9 years old), I could ask continuance of the Congress in power and mistakes as much as from their this question because such questions would hurt India immeasurably. successes and achievements, there is were being discussed in our house for And the only quick way to oust no progress or change possible. nearly a month before Doctorkaka the Congress from power, which I'm referring to the disastrous came from Calcutta: "How would we was now the overarching priority and irreversible blunder, made be able to implement our Socialist in Doctorkaka’s mind, was Non- out of impatience, pique, anger policies and ideology if we were Congressism—combining the and frustration—rather than his going to join hands with every party, opposition strength and votes to usual insightful brilliance—by from Communists on one side to defeat the Congress. Doctorkaka’s none other than Dr. Ram Manohar Jan Sangh on the other to defeat the other argument was that this policy or Lohia (Doctorkaka). And that was Congress?" strategy would be only a "short-term introducing the "lethal virus of non- Bhai, of course, had other expedient". 10 JANATA, May 19 2019

Bhai readily accepted that the Unfortunately, on October in India it has suffered greatly and Congress rule was progressively 12, 1967, Doctorkaka passed ceded the centre-stage to the rightist hurting India and its people, but he away. He neither had the time nor BJP / Sangh Parivar more severely rightly thought that Doctorkaka's the opportunity to reverse non- as the result of non-Congressism. "remedy was worse than the Congressism and the huge wreck it Doctorkaka's non-Congressism disease". Bhai was prepared to has left behind. Subsequently, Bhai let out this dangerous genie from build, agitate, work and wait. The too could not present an acceptable the bottle, which will be almost second objection that Bhai had was alternative to non-Congressism to impossible to contain. To use the that the terrible consequences of this anyone since all had tasted some old proverb or the words of Goethe's so-called short-term strategy would success of the formula. Faust, “No one can win by having a be irreversible. Almost all parties My apprehension and all of truck with the evil, with the Devil.” would never be able to return to Bhai's concerns have come to haunt Of all people, Doctorkaka, who had principled, ideological politics. The India. I don't know for how long witnessed for some years the rise of lure of power would be irresistible. India will continue to suffer the Hitler and Nazism while he was in Finally, unable to convince Bhai ill effects of non-Congressism. Germany, should have, more than on the basis of logic, Doctorkaka Even now non-BJPism hasn't fully anyone else, known better! resorted to emotional blackmail. succeeded—that is not to praise the To this day, it is my ‘undying He used Bhai's great regard, Congress!! regret’ that Bhai agreed to support admiration and affection for him as To my mind, the other immense this policy. Maybe he could have well as Bhai’s sense of gratitude for damage that the strategy or policy changed Doctorkaka's mind. Maybe Doctorkaka's unwavering support of non-Congressism unwittingly Doctorkaka and Bhai would have to him during the split within PSP did was to give Jan Sangh / Sangh broken off permanently. Maybe Bhai in 1955 to get Bhai to agree to give Parivar legitimacy, votes and seats in would not have got the opportunity to this strategy or policy a try, at least 1967 (as a part of the SVD alliance), become one of India’s most effective for a short period. and thereafter in 1977, as a part of parliamentarians. Maybe he would Finally, Bhai succumbed and the combined fight that led to Indira have gone into political wilderness. agreed. This policy led to some Gandhi’s / Congress's ouster from Temperamentally, Bhai was not a immediate successes. If I remember the centre and the formation of mass leader with charisma. He was right, Acharya J.B. Kripalani and the Janata Party Government. The not a rabble-rousing speaker or Doctorkaka himself won by-elections Sangh Parivar used its few years orator. He did not possess immense to the Lok Sabha. More resounding in power to influence and pack the personal ambition either. He knew success of this policy was seen in bureaucracy, media and what not, he couldn't have, on his own, built a the 1967 general elections to the Lok with its supporters and adherents to new political party or organisation. Sabha and Legislative Assemblies, the extent possible. Once Bhai agreed to support although the Congress could retain In the first three general elections the strategy of non-Congressism, its majority in the Lok Sabha. (that is up to 1962), the vote share he never turned back from pursuing But my question and Bhai's and the number of seats that Jan this policy right up to the formation concerns/fears have turned out Sangh got compared either with of the Janata Party. Many leaders, to be prophetic. Doctorkaka, in Socialists or Communists was a even during the Emergency, were his remaining days, was severely fraction. Under the banner of non- not ready to go as far as forming agonised, nay traumatised, by the Congressism, in 1967 they emerged a federal party, let alone forming a early evidence of rank opportunism as a force. They suffered, like most single party. Many even wanted to that was unleashed in 1967. I others, in 1984. But after Mandal and boycott the 1977 elections, fearing have witnessed this in the summer Ram Mandir/Ratha Yatra, they have that Indira Gandhi would rig and vacation of 1967, when I was a continued to gain strength using their win the elections to provide her the regular visitor at Doctorkaka's corrosive and divisive rhetoric. legitimacy she sought and craved Delhi residence, which was then 7 No doubt, in the last 3–4 decades, for. I think the ‘myth and mystery Gurudwara Rakabganj Road (now I the leftist ideology has lost ground of the invisible Russian ink’ haunted think it is No. 24). the world over. But, in my opinion, many leaders from 1971. JANATA, May 19, 2019 11

I would like to pay my respects ‘cricket’ that I liked and Doctorkaka thinks that non-Congressism has not and homage to Bhai, Doctorkaka loathed! But that doesn't stop me been a very critical factor and an and to Georgekaka who were / from critiquing his monumental error initial prime mover in these disastrous are definitely among my heroes. in inaugurating non-Congressism. developments is, in my opinion, But I don't believe nor have I any While non-Congressism is not the denying it out of immense respect compelling need that any of my only factor in giving the right-wing and admiration for Doctorkaka. heroes must be perfect in all respects, Jan Sangh / BJP initial legitimacy I also want to end these musings forever and more. All of them are and helping them in crafting their by reminding all of us that the human beings and bound to suffer first electoral breakthrough, it greatest of human beings and leaders from human follies, just as I do. certainly has been a ‘very important also suffer from human failings, and And therefore, I don't need to defend factor’, just as it has been a therefore, it is best to assess and them needlessly or feel offended if very important factor in burying admire everyone critically and on fact based, valid criticism is leveled ideological and principled politics merit and not become blind hero against any of them. in India. worshippers and followers. We Georgekaka in his latter phase, Of course, other factors have Indians are most prone to doing just particularly since he became the played their part. But anyone who that. convener of NDA, has been a "great disappointment and immense heart ache" to me. I will not go into any Meher Engineer: A Requiem for a further details, excepting that most Man of Reckonable Height of what he did in those years was quite the opposite to what he stood Prof Sibaji Raha, Ashoke Mukherjee for, without any real justification in my eyes, other than pursuing his Meheryar Hosang Engineer He moved to the City College of the personal ambition and to somehow was born on December 20, 1940 in City University of New York as an remain significant. And it all ended Guntur, the younger of two brothers Assistant Professor of Physics in in humiliation. in a Parsi family. His family moved 1970. After spending two years there, I am afraid Georgekaka is not the to Kolkata (then Calcutta) when he returned to India, and joined TIFR first or the last one to regress. In my Meher was a few years (4 or 5) old. as a Visiting Scientist. After two years opinion, from Savarkar to Sir Syed After the sudden accidental death there, he joined the ONGC where he Ahmed, Jinnah and Iqbal, all turned of his father, Meher and his elder worked in various capacities for a against what they avowedly stood for brother were brought up by their number of years. In the interim, he earlier. Who can forget Saare Jahaan mother alone. Meher had all his was also associated for some time se Acchhaa Hindostan Hamaaraa by education in Calcutta. He studied for with Harwell Laboratories in the UK. Iqbal? Not me. his B.Sc. (Hons.) degree in Physics Finally, he moved to Bose Institute, Having said that, Georgekaka at St. Xavier's College, his B.Tech. Kolkata as a Professor of Physics in will remain a hero in my eyes for and M. Tech. degrees at the Institute 1987 from where he retired in 2000. his immense courage, his energy of Radiophysics and Electronics, After superannuation, he was re- and ability to organise and galvanise University of Calcutta, and did his employed at Bose Institute for two people, his simplicity, his undaunting Ph.D. from the same institute, under years, ultimately ending his stint in spirit and struggles, his contribution the supervision of Prof. B.R. Nag. He December 2002. He served as Acting in getting the Konkan Railway built, obtained his Ph.D. in 1967. Director of Bose Institute during and so on. As a child I shared a very Meher moved to Pennsylvania 2000–2001. close relationship with Georgekaka State University in 1966, first as He had been married to Sue and have spent weekend holidays a Research Associate in Material Engineer, with whom he had two with him all by myself. I shared Science and then as an Assistant children, Mark and Renu. After a similar, very close, relationship Professor in the Departments of Meher and Sue got divorced, she and with Doctorkaka. We've listened to Electrical Engineering and Physics. the two children lived in England and music, played games, even played 12 JANATA, May 19 2019

Meher saw them rather infrequently, of social issues all his life. Soon CESTUSS and BBYS at Behala, although keeping in regular contact. after his retirement from academics, Kolkata through the entire hot In addition to being a brilliant he devoted himself whole-heartedly summer day. Prof. Meher Engineer physicist, with a vast range of to social and political causes. His served as chairperson of All India interests, Meher was a highly involvement in the Nandigram Forum for Right To Education accomplished violinist, although in movement, Singur movement, (AIFRTE) from 2010 till his later life he was reluctant to reveal Narmada Bachao Andolan, education demise. His principled behavior and the fact. After his mother's death, he movement, human rights activities, uncompromising policy perspective lived alone in the flat where he has science popularisation movement helped all the organisations he was spent all his life in Kolkata. and many other progressive activities in touch with enormously. In his Meher was a very decent and is well known. In May 2012, on silent departure, we have lost a great sociable man. Although alone from the occasion of the celestial event human being of our time. Let his the family side, he was always Transit of Venus, he participated in memories survive through years! amidst people. He was very aware an observation camp organised by

India Packs Up on Iran Under US Pressure

M. K. Bhadrakumar

The sudden visit to New Delhi According to reports, Swaraj offered the Indian betrayal is that amongst by the Iranian Foreign Minister her best explanation by taking a the three top importers of Iranian Mohammed Javad Zarif for detour and reportedly holding out oil—China included—it’s only India a meeting on May 14 with the a non-committal assurance that that summarily packed up under outgoing External Affairs Minister Delhi will review the situation American pressure. For the Modi Sushma Swaraj in the dying days of after a new government is formed government which claims to be the Modi government underscores “keeping in mind our commercial ‘muscular’, such cowardly behaviour dramatically how much Tehran considerations, energy security and is a matter of shame. Simply put, has been traumatised by the Indian economic interests.” the strategic understanding forged decision under American pressure to Now, this is a big shift from during the historic meeting between summarily stop all imports of Iranian the Indian stance that it will only Modi and Iranian President Hassan oil w.e.f May 2. abide by UN sanctions. But then, it Rouhani in Ufa, Russia, on the If one were to encapsulate the is not within Swaraj’s competence sidelines of the SCO summit in May anguish and bewilderment in the to commit anything. The Boss 2019 turns out to be a damp squib. Iranian mind, an analogy would has to decide, and he’s busy Tehran is bound to reflect over the be the plaintive entreaty by Julius campaigning. In the final analysis, quality of the hand of friendship that Caesar in William Shakespeare’s if PM Modi keeps his job, it will be Modi extended. play of that name—‘Et tu, Brute’ a tricky decision. For, Modi enjoys To jog memory, India is party (Even you, Brute)—when on the wonderful friendship with three to a trilateral MOU with Iran and Ides of March in 44 BC the great players of the infamous “B Team”— Afghanistan with plans to commit Roman statesman spotted amongst Benjamin Netanyahu, bin Salman at least $21 billion to developing the conspirators in the Senate (Saudi Crown Prince), bin Zayed the Chabahar–Hajigak corridor, building the pale visage of his old (UAE Crown Prince)—and is wary including $85 million for Chabahar dear friend Marcus Junius Brutus, of the fourth player, Bolton (Trump’s port development by India. This who were stabbing him in a pre- national security advisor). And the includes $150 million line of credit conceived assassination plot. B team sponsors the Iran project, by India to Iran, $8 billion India– To be sure, the unexpected which is about ‘regime change’ in Iran MoU for Indian industrial betrayal by the old and dear Tehran. investment in Chabahar Special Indian friend has shocked Tehran. The most galling thing about Economic Zone, $11 billion for the JANATA, May 19, 2019 13

Hajigak iron and steel mining project effective behind-the-scene bilateral S-400. But these American systems awarded to seven Indian companies negotiations between Delhi and are far more expensive and may in central Afghanistan, and $2 billion Beijing aimed at carrying Pakistan still not be on par with the advanced commitment to Afghanistan for along. The Americans are always S-400 system in capability. developing supporting infrastructure quick to claim credit when something Evidently, like in the case with including the construction of the good happens—and there is always Iran, the US attempt is to complicate Chabahar–Hajigaj railway line. the Indian chorus that is only too India–Russia relations by forcing The Chabahar–Hajigaj railway keen to echo such tall claims. Modi to resile from a commitment line holds the potential to expand Indeed, the “big picture” is not he gave to President Vladimir Putin trade manifold via connectivity at all reassuring. For, Washington on the S-400 deal. to the 7,200-km-long multi-mode has now added two further templates Meanwhile, another report North-South Transport Corridor to its “linkage diplomacy” vis-a- has appeared that under American India is working on to connect to vis India. First, Washington has pressure, India joined a US-led naval Europe and Turkey—and all across ratcheted up the pressure on India exercise in the South China Sea with Russia by linking with the R297 to remove “overly restrictive market America’s Asian allies Japan and the Amur highway and the Trans- access barriers” against American Philippines. Whereas the US, Japan Siberian Highway. Over and above, products—to quote from a speech and the Philippines are longstanding a planned Herat to Mazar-i-Sharif in Delhi by visiting US Commerce allies bound together under military railway will provide access for the Secretary Wilbur Ross in New Delhi pacts, India is not part of any alliance Central Asia states via Chabahar Port last week. Ross repeated President system. Yet, India took part in the to link with the Indian market. The Donald Trump’s accusation that exercise in the disputed South China Chabahar Port also provides the only India is a “tariff king”, and threatened Sea within a ‘Quad Lite’ format. means for India developing direct India with “consequences” if it The US secretary of state Mike access to its erstwhile air base in responded to US tariffs with counter- Pompeo has a cute expression for Farkhor in Tajikistan. Expert opinion tariffs. Ross audaciously proposed it—“banding together”. is that Chabahar route will result in that India could balance the trade The running theme in all this 60% reduction in shipment costs figures by buying more American is that India’s strategic ties with and 50% reduction in shipment time weaponry. Iran, Russia and China are coming from India to Central Asia. So, what do we have here? Delhi under challenge from Washington. The Indian media quoted falls in line with the US diktat on But the big question is how come government sources to the effect Iran sanctions, which of course will Washington regards the “muscular” that the compliance with the US hit the Indian economy very badly, Modi government with a 56″ chest sanctions against Iran is the price while the US is also at the same to be made of such cowardly stuff? that Washington demanded from time aggressively demanding that Are the ruling elites so thoroughly India as quid pro quo for its support India should open up its market for compromised with the Americans? in the UN Security Council on the American exports. Why can’t the There are no easy answers. designation of Masood Azhar as Modi government prioritise India’s global terrorist. The veracity of economic concerns? (The writer is a former diplomat.) this interpretation can never be Second, the Trump administration established, because the Americans is cracking the whip on India to give will never claim ownership of up the S-400 missile defence system any derailment of the India–Iran and conform to the US sanctions relationship. against Russia’s arms industry. A Janata Yet, it is an unfair linkage report in Hindustan Times says that since Azhar designation has been the US expects India to instead buy is available at far from a solo US enterprise. from it the Terminal High Altitude It was a collective effort where Area Defense (THAAD) and Patriot www.lohiatoday.com Britain and China probably played Advance Capability (PAC-3) missile key roles alongside some very defence systems as an alternative to 14 JANATA, May 19 2019 One Million Species Face Extinction: UN Report

Countercurrents Team Nearly one million species risk One in four species at risk of biosphere, upon which humanity as becoming extinct within decades extinction a whole depends, is declining faster while current efforts to conserve On at-risk fauna and flora, the than at any time in human history”. the earth’s resources will likely fail study asserts that human activities if radical action is not taken, says a “threaten more species now than Marine pollution has increased major UN report on the impact of ever before”. It suggests that around tenfold since 1980 humans on nature. one million species “already face On the issue of pollution, Speaking in Paris at the launch of extinction, many within decades, although global trends are mixed, the 2019 Global Assessment Report unless action is taken to reduce the air, water and soil pollution have on Biodiversity and Ecosystem intensity of drivers of biodiversity continued to increase in some areas, Services—the first such report since loss.” the report insists. “Marine plastic 2005—UNESCO Director-General pollution in particular has increased Audrey Azoulay said that its findings 559 domesticated breeds of tenfold since 1980, affecting at least put the world “on notice”. mammals used for food and 267 species”, it says, including 86 “Following the adoption of this agriculture extinct per cent of marine turtles, 44 per historic report, no one will be able It notes that despite many local cent of seabirds and 43 per cent of to claim that they did not know,” efforts, including by indigenous marine mammals. the head of the United Nations peoples and local communities, by Educational, Scientific and Cultural 2016, 559 of the 6,190 domesticated Business as usual has to end Organisation said. “We can no longer breeds of mammals used for food and The relentless pursuit of continue to destroy the diversity agriculture were extinct—around economic growth, twinned with of life. This is our responsibility nine per cent of the total—and at climate crisis, has brought forth towards future generations.” least 1,000 more are threatened. this crisis. Only a wide-ranging Highlighting the universal transformation of the global importance of biodiversity—the Crop security threatened economic and financial system diversity within species, between In addition, many crop wild could pull ecosystems that are vital species and of ecosystems—Ms. relatives that are needed for long- to the future of human communities Azoulay said that protecting it “is term food security “lack effective worldwide back from the brink of as vital as fighting climate change”. protection”, the report insists collapse, concluded the report. Presented to more than 130 while the status of wild relatives of The report has been endorsed by government delegations for their domesticated mammals and birds “is 130 countries, including the United approval at UNESCO headquarters, worsening”. States, Russia and China. the report features the work of 400 At the same time, reductions “We have been running from one experts from at least 50 countries, in the diversity of cultivated crops, frontier to another frontier trying coordinated by the Bonn-based crop wild relatives and domesticated to find cheap nature (to exploit) Intergovernmental Science-Policy breeds mean that farming will in every corner of the planet,” Platform on Biodiversity and likely be less resilient against future Eduardo Brondizio, a professor of Ecosystem Services (IPBES). climate change, pests and pathogens. anthropology at Indiana University The Global Assessment made “While more food, energy and in the United States who co-chaired after a three-year review of some materials than ever before are now the Global Assessment, told Reuters. 15,000 scientific papers showed being supplied to people in most The scientist said: “The key message: the profound impact of the rise of places, this is increasingly at the business, as usual, has to end.” a globalised industrial society on expense of nature’s ability to provide “The essential, interconnected biodiversity in our planet over the such contributions in the future,” the web of life on Earth is getting past half-century. report states, before adding that “the smaller and increasingly frayed,” JANATA, May 19, 2019 15 said Professor Josef Settele, co- more than 40 percent of amphibian collective weight—down by 82 chair of the study. “This loss is a species, almost 33 percent of reef- percent. Humans and livestock direct result of human activity and forming corals, and more than a third account for more than 95 percent of constitutes a direct threat to human of all marine mammals. The picture mammal biomass. well-being in all regions of the was less clear for insect species, “If we’re going to have a world”, he added. but a tentative estimate suggests 10 sustainable planet that provides The study is a cornerstone percent are at risk of extinction. services to communities around of an emerging body of research Another report by the United the world, we need to change this that suggests the world may need Nations Food Organisation (FAO) trajectory in the next ten years, just to embrace a new “post-growth” also issued a similar warning in as we need to do that with climate,” form of economics if it is to avert February 2019. It said that bees, noted WWF chief scientist Rebecca the existential risks posed by the soil, trees—even tiny organisms we Shaw, formerly a member of the UN mutually-reinforcing consequences can’t even see—all play a vital role scientific bodies for both climate and of pollution, habitat destruction in producing the world’s food. Yet, biodiversity. and carbon emissions. The report this biodiversity, which supports The direct causes of species loss, identifies industrial farming and our food and agriculture systems, is in order of importance, are shrinking fishing as major drivers of extinction. under stress. The report found 33 per habitat and land-use change, hunting Climate crisis is aggravating the cent of fish stocks endangered due to for food or illicit trade in body parts, situation. overfishing and bee colony losses on climate change, pollution, and alien Robert Watson, a British the rise—all factors that endanger species such as rats, mosquitoes and environmental scientist, said one the world’s food security. snakes that hitch rides on ships or could go back only if societies planes, the report finds. were prepared to confront “vested Sixth mass extinction already Biodiversity loss and global interests” committed to preserving underway warming are closely linked, the status quo. “The report also tells The IPBES report warns of “an according to the 44-page Summary us that it is not too late to make a imminent rapid acceleration in the for Policy Makers, which distills difference, but only if we start now global rate of species extinction.” the 1,800-page UN assessment of at every level from local to global,” The pace of loss “is already tens scientific literature on the state of he said in a statement. to hundreds of times higher than it nature. Shifts in the distribution of “We know that the way people has been, on average, over the last species, for example, will likely eat today is often unhealthy for 10 million years,” it notes. Many double if average temperature goes them and for the planet,” said Dr. experts think a “mass extinction up a notch from 1.5 degrees Celsius Kate Brauman, one of the report’s event”—only the sixth in the last to 2ºC. So far, the global thermometer authors. “We can become healthier half-billion years—is already under has risen 1ºC compared with mid- as individuals by eating more diverse way. 19th century levels. The 2015 Paris diets, with more vegetables, and we The most recent is the end of the Agreement enjoins nations to cap can also make the planet healthier Cretaceous period some 66 million the rise to “well below” 2ºC. But by growing that food in more years ago, when a 10-kilometer- a landmark UN climate report in sustainable ways.” wide asteroid strike wiped out most October said that would still be According to the report, the loss lifeforms. enough to boost the intensity and of the natural world would also affect Scientists estimate that Earth is frequency of deadly heatwaves, human lives. From the disappearance today home to some eight million droughts, floods and storms. of insects vital for pollinating food distinct species, a majority of them The report cautioned against crops, to the destruction of coral insects. A quarter of catalogued climate change solutions that may reefs, which support fish populations animal and plant species are already inadvertently harm Nature. The use, that sustain coastal communities, being crowded, eaten or poisoned for example, of biofuels combined or the loss of medicinal plants, out of existence. The drop in sheer with “carbon capture and storage”— all would inevitably risk human numbers is even more dramatic, the sequestration of CO2 released lives. The threatened list includes with wild mammal biomass—their when biofuels are burned—is widely 16 JANATA, May 19 2019 seen as key in the transition to Modi Govt has Crippled the Public Sector green energy on a global scale. But the land needed to grow all those biofuel crops may wind up cutting B. Sivaraman into food production, the expansion of protected areas or reforestation ONGC, the once-glittering was forced to buy a barren gas block efforts. and now struggling Maharatna, from GSPC for Rs 8,000 crore. Then best exemplifies the fact that there it was forced to buy a sick Hindustan Note by Editor: is something sinister in the very Petroleum Corporation Ltd. (HPCL) In 1964, Oodgeroo Noonuccal, approach of the outgoing Modi for Rs 36,915 crore in an off-market a poet from Minjerribah (in the Government towards the public deal. land known as Australia) wrote sector enterprises (PSUs). In May Over and above this twin burden, We Are Going. The poem talked of 2019, the cash reserves of ONGC, ONGC was ordered to pay a dividend the extinction of the world of the the richest PSU, had fallen in the last of Rs 7,764 to the government aboriginal people, their lands gone, two years of Modi Government to a in 2016–17 and Rs 8,470 crore their customs eroded. (The ‘bora miserable Rs 167 crore. in 2017–18. Additionally, it was ring’ is a ceremonial space and the As it needs at least Rs 1,00,000 pushed to do a share buyback of ‘corroboree’ is a dance ceremony). crore, including Rs 5,000 crore Rs 4,022 crore, through which the Was he prophesying about all of in cash, to meet working capital government transferred a part of its humanity? requirements per annum including holdings to the company to raise We are the shadow-ghosts creeping for paying salaries, ONGC money in the name of disinvestment. back as the camp fires burn low. executives are running to banks, This comes over and above a We are nature and the past, all the and executives of public sector masochistic hara-kiri of forcing old ways banks already saddled with NPAs are ONGC to invest money in oil Gone now and scattered. hesitant to infuse more loans in view exploration, develop new fields and The scrubs are gone, the hunting and of the precarious financial position then sell the successful blocks to the laughter. of the ONGC. Indian and foreign private corporates The eagle is gone, the emu and the The warning issued by the at the diktats of the World Bank in kangaroo are gone from this place. ONGC’s Employees Mazdoor Sabha 1991. The bora ring is gone. General Secretary A.R. Tadvi in Answering a question in the The corroboree is gone. October 2018 has proved to be Lok Sabha, the Union Oil Minister And we are going. prophetic. In a letter addressed to the Dharmendra Pradhan said that Prime Minister Modi on 4 September ONGC and Oil India Ltd (OIL) 2018, Tadvi alleged that “Decisions spent over Rs 13,000 crore on 115 taken over the past four-and-a-half oil and gas discoveries. He said that years have broken the economic these discoveries were taken away backbone of the company.” from them by the government for The employee’s union has given auctioning to private companies! a notice period of three months Robbing PSU Peters to Pay Cairn– to give ONGC a free hand to take Vedanta–Ambani Pauls! its own decisions. The workers But then, ONGC is no isolated warned Modi of direct action if his case. Modi Government resorted to government’s policies leading to a four routes to drain PSUs of cash— disaster were not reversed. But the new PSU IPOs, disinvestment disaster has now occurred. through an exchange-traded fund The ONGC was arm-twisted (mutual fund), forcing the PSUs to by the government to bail out the go in for share buyback and forcing Gujarat State Petroleum Corporation them to pay a higher dividend to the (GSPC) with its reserves when it government. JANATA, May 19, 2019 17

During its first four and a half Nagarnar Steel Plant of NMDC, trading in PSU stocks. This was years in office, Modi Government Central Electronics and Ferro Scrap how Modi Government sucked the sold away PSU stocks to the tune of Nigam. PSUs dry. more than Rs 2,10,000 crore, 58% This fire sale apart, similar There were also new PSU IPOs of all disinvestment since 1991. to the ONGC–HPCL model, the launched in such a senseless manner Finance Minister Jaitley announced government saddled the cash-rich that they flopped at the stock market that Rs 85,000 crore was raised profit-making PSUs with sick where market price per share sunk through disinvestment in 2018–19 ones instead of recapitalising them far below the issue price, creating and a target of Rs 1,00,000 crore has directly from the budget and reviving favourable conditions for private been set for 2019–20. them. This apart, the government has corporates to grab them for a song. To meet its ambitious finalised a plan to monetise the land The forced share buybacks disinvestment targets, the Modi and other assets of PSUs like Air from 11 PSUs—Coal India, NTPC, Government launched an exchange- India and BSNL and has appointed NALCO, NMDC, NLC, BHEL, traded fund (ETF), managed by DIPAM as the executioner. NHPC, NBCC, SJVN, KIOCL and Reliance Nippon, a subsidiary of First strangulating to death the even a cash-strapped HAL—fetched Reliance Capital, which is one of the PSUs through various forms of the Modi Government another Rs group companies of Reliance Anil attrition instead of making them 1,03,000 crore. Dhirubhai Ambani Group, which viable, and then handing over the The disinvestment disaster itself is now facing loan defaults and carcass to the private corporates for apart, in February 2019, the Modi bankruptcy. a song—this is the crux of India’s Government finalised a list of 24 By March 2019, the government disinvestment drama of the last five state-owned companies for outright garnered Rs 28,500 crore by selling years. The executioner of this none strategic sale and they included its PSU shares through the CPSE other than Modi in his new avatar as Dredging Corporation of India, HLL ETF paying Reliance Nippon 7.1%, a PSU-killer! Lifecare, Bharat Earth Movers Ltd, or Rs 2,023 crore, as commission. Units/JVs of ITDC, Bhadrawati, Blame it on Anil Ambani’s Reliance (Courtesy: National Herald) Salem and Durgapur units of SAIL, Nippon’s wisdom or not, the share prices of almost all CPSE ETF- traded stocks fell uniformly, hurting Trump: Emulating Hitler not only the government, but also hitting the workers below the belt in the process. Atilio Borón The EPFO was forced to invest workers’ money in CPSE ETF The events of recent days in That cowardly operetta buffoon and got pathetic returns of 1.89%, Venezuela corroborate, for the insists that “Maduro must go” and and hence it is grudging to pay umpteenth time but now with total that Juan Guaidó, who according even 8.5% interest to the workers brazenness, Washington’s intention to Washington is the legitimate on their EPF savings. The trade to seize that country by establishing president of Venezuela, must assume unions rightly protested the EPFO’s a neocolonial protectorate there his functions as soon as possible. decision well in advance. In all, at any price. John Bolton’s press According to this shady National the Modi Government has raised conference on April 30 attests to Security Advisor to Donald Trump, Rs 48,325 crore though all ETFs, what we have said. A serial liar, Maduro’s days are numbered and including that of Anil Ambani. he acted and spoke with absolute he barely holds on to power thanks The Department of Investment contempt for the Charter of the to a constellation of international and Public Asset Management United Nations, which clearly forces who are completely (DIPAM) Joint Secretary Venudhar establishes the principle of the against democracy and the will of Reddy Nukala revealed that in self-determination of nations and Venezuelan citizens. 2018–19, LIC and PSBs were asked condemns any attempt to subjugate In his statement, this despicable to invest Rs 25,000 crore in ETFs one nation to the will of another. supremacist pointed out the three 18 JANATA, May 19 2019 actors that, according to him, sustain its Secretary of State, advanced his Joao Goulart in Brazil in 1964, Maduro: the Cuban troops, some attack on another “external factor,” against Salvador Allende in 1973, 22–25 thousand, who he claims Russia. He stated that President against Maurice Bishop and the are the ones that really control the Vladimir Putin had been warned that New Jewel Movement in Granada Bolivarian Armed Forces, thus his involvement with the Venezuelan in 1983, when there was also talk of transforming the Cuban doctors “regime” was a cause for enormous Cuban presence and sophisticated into combat troops; the collectives, concern in the United States. armaments carefully hidden in those “gangs of thugs” who are also This prompted a resounding homes specially adapted for that the creation of Havana; and “other response from Russia’s Foreign purpose. They were never found. external forces” among whom Ministry, which reminded him They also lied when they Russia stands out. that “Washington’s interference reported the existence of weapons “We need,” he said in his in Venezuela’s affairs is a flagrant of mass destruction in Iraq, which opening statement before questions, violation of international law.” were never found. And before that, “a Venezuela governed by its people From the foregoing it can be in 1945, when they said there was no and not by outside forces, and that is inferred that we are approaching trace of radioactivity in Hiroshima what we are looking for.” a decisive situation for the future and Nagasaki after the atomic Bolton mentioned Cuba and of emancipatory struggles in Latin bombing. The US government, the Cubans eleven times in his speech, America and the Caribbean. Not curse of all the free peoples of the something absolutely extraordinary only Venezuela, but also Cuba and world, lies by default. that reveals that the objective of Nicaragua are under the spotlight And now they are lying this escalation of aggressions and and are a US military objective. The treacherously about the situation interventionism transcends the complicity of the “democrats” of the in Venezuela and Cuba’s role in homeland of Bolívar and Chávez and region with this attempt to take over that country. They count on the has multiple objectives, that include Venezuela is repugnant, as is the complicity of the hegemonic media, the rebel island and Nicaragua, collusive and cowardly silence of the which have become pestilent sewers explicitly fulminated as “the troika European governments, unworthy where anything and everything is of tyrannies” in the Americas. The vassals of a deranged Caligula and said that could destroy the reputation collectives supposedly created by their clique of criminal fanatics of an enemy of the empire. Day and the Cubans were mentioned five willing to do anything. night non-stop they excrete their times at the press conference, and They lie shamelessly and lies with outrageous impunity and he also uttered additional utter knowingly, but lying and defaming total contempt for what should be a nonsense: that General Padrino is a crucial chapter in the manual Hippocratic oath of journalists (and López and the General Staff of the of destabilising operations that the also of academics and intellectuals) FANB report to Havana and that it White House has compiled and that there can be no other than is from there that they receive their applied on countless occasions. “telling the truth and denouncing orders. Remember that they had claimed the lies,” as Noam Chomsky said President Trump, Bolton said, that Cuba and the USSR had succinctly. “wants to see a peaceful transfer introduced sophisticated weaponry But no. The voices of so of power from Maduro to Guaidó” in the Dominican Republic during many vestals of the republic and without further delay. Those who the short government of Juan Bosch. democracy that have harassed every support Maduro, and particularly When the US army invaded the progressive government in this part those who are not Venezuelans, island in April 1965, 44,000 Marines of the world remain ignominiously should know that “all options are found a Dominican army equipped silent. In this way, they reveal their on the table”. The next day Mike with obsolete weapons, remnants dishonourable condition of foul- Pompeo, another buffoon—who of World War II, and a people that mouthed charlatans paid by the by his last name and even by his repelled them with machetes, stones empire. They reveal that they lack physical appearance looks like a and sticks. independence and professionalism member of Al Capone’s mob—who They lied to create a climate of and that their words are fatally to the shame of the US serves as opinion favorable to the coup against contaminated with the dirty money JANATA, May 19, 2019 19 of the White House gangster who We need Venezuela’s oil because wants to culminate the larceny that it is an irreplaceable ingredient in has already begun in Venezuela by our military apparatus and when Janata Subscription appropriating its international assets there is not a drop of that resource (gold in England, CITGO in the in the world, then our enemies will Annual Rs. : 260/- United States, etc.). be left without it, we will have it and Three Years : 750/- And the same goes for those we will be able to impose our world responsible for international domination without counterweights. Demand Draft / organisations. What does Antonio As we need it, it will be ours, for Cheque Gutérres, Secretary General of the better or worse. This and no other UN, say in the face of the vulgarities is the exclusive reason why the on uttered by Bolton? Not to mention noble and brave Venezuelan people Mumbai Bank Luis Almagro, the secretary general are suffering the aggression of of the OAS, who competes head imperialism. in favour of to head with Lenín (a) “Donald” In his famous book Hegemony Moreno in the fierce dispute to or Survival, Noam Chomsky set Janata Trust establish who is the most corrupt forth the thesis that Washington traitor in Our America. The list has an even more ambitious project D-15, Ganesh Prasad, would be endless. of world domination than Hitler’s Naushir Bharucha Marg, All have become accomplices, Third Reich. Many thought at the Grant Road (W), or should we say, the emperor’s time that the great American linguist Mumbai 400 007. lackeys—the “serious” journalists, was delirious. However, later events the sophisticated intellectuals have proved him right. with refined manners who display Against this plan led today by false objectivity, the domesticated Trump and his collaborators, free mainstream academics, the peoples from all over the world are international bureaucrats and the on the front line with Venezuela. rulers of this region and of Europe, Therefore, international solidarity say nothing of an operation that with their struggle is an inescapable each day more closely resembles moral imperative for all women and the annexation of Austria and the all men of good will. Sudetenland by Hitler in 1938. Necessary participants and (The author is an Argentinian concealers of crimes, because what economist and journalist.) has happened in Venezuela—with economic sanctions, dispossession The Unemployment of its wealth abroad and aggression against the daily life of Venezuelans, Crisis: Reasons and deprived of electricity, water, Solutions transportation and other basic goods—constitutes a crime against Contribution Rs. 25/- humanity. Martí, in his dazzling Published by clairvoyance, denounced the White Janata Trust & Lokayat House’s addiction to looting and D-15, Ganesh Prasad, pillage. The Americans, said the Naushir Bharucha Marg, Apostle, “believe in necessity, in the Grant Road (W), barbaric right as the only right: this Mumbai 400 007 is ours, because we need it.” R.N.I. NO. 1855/1957 20 JANATA, May 19, 2019 Postal Registration No. MCW/275/2018-2020. License to Post without prepayment WPP License No. MR/Tech/WPP-210/West/2019 Published on Sunday, May 19, 2019 & Posted on Wedenesday, May 22, 2019 at Mumbai Patrika Channel, Mumbai GPO-1

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Vol. 74 No. 18 Motto to the Svendborg Poems May 26, 2019 Bertolt Brecht (1939)

Capitalism Has Failed – In the dark times What Next? Will there be singing? John Bellamy Foster Yes, there will also be singing About the dark times. Defiant Resistance: The Venezuelan Crises and the Possibility of Another World Remembering Bertolt Brecht Jeremiah Gaster

The Yellow Vests of France: Six Anjan Basu Months of Struggle Richard Greeman Bertolt Brecht the playwright appears to have overshadowed his other artistic identities nearly completely, though, in truth, Brecht wore more How is Mexico’s Fourth creative hats than most other artists of his time. He was a theatre-producer, Transformation Progressing? essayist, critic, novelist, short-story writer, drama theorist and film-script Claudio Fabian Guevara writer. And, above all, he was a poet. Indeed, Brecht was a poet first and everything else after that – though it is easy to forget this, not least because he Youth Strike Once Again himself actively downplayed his poetic output. Years before his first play,Baal , Globally was staged, the 19-year-old Brecht was writing such haunting lines as these: Julia Conley Half-way along the road from night to morning Editor : G. G. Parikh Naked and strewn in a rock-strewn glen A chilly sky across it like an awning Associate Editor : Neeraj Jain You’ll find the heaven for disenchanted men . . . Managing Editor : Guddi Ever silence where great rocks are lying Editorial Board : The glow remains although the light has gone Sullen souls, fed up with their own crying B. Vivekanandan, Qurban Ali Sit dreamless, dumb and very much alone. Anil Nauriya, Sonal Shah Amarendra Dhaneshwar, And yet, though his poetic oeuvre comprises nearly one thousand items, Sandeep Pandey only about 170 had found a place in the three collections Brecht had made himself. He seldom let go of an opportunity of making light of the whole D-15, Ganesh Prasad, business of writing poetry. “My poetry is laid so heavily to my account,” Naushir Bharucha Marg, he somewhat dismissively said in response to a request in 1928 for a public Mumbai - 400 007. reading of his poetry, “that for some time now the least rhyme has stuck in my craw”. Email : [email protected] In fact, a large majority of Brecht’s poems were not published before his Website:www.janataweekly.org death, prompting the editors of the 1976 Methuen collection of his poetry to 2 JANATA, May 26, 2019 remark that “more perhaps than any other major writer And when she was finished they laid her in earth except Kafka, Brecht was content that the greater part of Flowers growing, butterflies juggling over her . . . his achievement should remain unknown”. She, so light, barely pressed the earth down But can the readers of his plays fail to see that Brecht’s How much pain it took to make her as light as that! language was that of a poet? Think of The Threepenny But he was equally capable of fashioning superbly Opera, among Brecht’s most earthy—some may even lyrical poems which are not meant to be ‘performed’. say ribald—plays written, appropriately enough, in a One late night in the spring of 1922, when travelling rambunctious, racy idiom. The dainty Polly Peachum, back home in Augsburg from Berlin by train, Brecht daughter of Jonathan Jeremiah Peachum (who is very jotted down some lines that were later to be chiselled nearly the model of bourgeois respectability) stuns her into the magnificent ‘Of Poor B.B.’, which begins thus: parents by announcing her resolve to marry Mack the Knife, the London underworld’s uncrowned king. Polly I, Bertolt Brecht, came out of the black forests. has had many suitors—all of them well-heeled as well My mother moved me into the cities as well-groomed—and yet, she always said no. As I lay inside her. And the coldness of the forests Will be inside me till my dying day. But then one day, and that day was blue Came someone who didn’t ask at all A speeding train on a dark night must have seemed And he went and hung his hat on the nail in my little attic to the 24-year-old Brecht the perfect symbol of Weimar And what happened then I can’t quite recall. Germany—tentative, transient, even unreal. And as he had got no money In the grey light before morning, the pine trees piss And was not a nice chap And their vermin, the birds, raise their twitter and cheep. And his Sunday shirts, even, were not like snow At that hour in the city I drain my glass, then throw And as he had no idea of treating a girl with due respect The cigar butt away and worriedly go to sleep. I could not tell him: No. . . . The coldness of the forest as much as the hardness of life in the ‘asphalt city’ has entered the soul of the Oh, the moon was shining clear and bright Weimar generation, “an easy generation (that lives ) in Oh, the boat kept drifting downstream all that night houses held to be indestructible”. But the knowledge That was how it simply had to go. gnaws at its heart that This is top-drawer lyric poetry and the fact that Of those cities will remain what passes through them, Brecht manages to pull this off in the middle of a the wind! boisterous farce, where the principal characters are all The house makes glad the eater: he clears it out. equally hard-nosed men/women of the world, establishes We know that we’re only tenants, provisional ones the supreme self-assurance of his technique. And after us will come: nothing worth talking about. Many of Brecht’s early poems were composed as songs, at any rate as pieces to be read to the Memorably, this scepticism merges with the moral accompaniment of a musical instrument such as the ambivalence of nowhere land: guitar. Off and on he wrote what he called ‘Psalms’, In the earthquakes to come, I very much hope evocative prose pieces that read like chants: I shall keep my cigar alight, embittered or no. Evenings by the river in the dark heart of the bushes I I, Bertolt Brecht, carried off to the asphalt cities see her face again sometimes, face of the woman I loved: From the black forests inside my mother long ago. my woman, who is dead now. Brecht was on the Nazis’ hate list right from the It was many years ago and at times I no longer know mid-1920s and works like The Rise and Fall of the City anything about her, once she was everything, but of Mahagonny quite infuriated Hitler’s men. Right after everything passes. Hitler’s rise to power, therefore, Brecht went into exile, moving restlessly over western and northern Europe, And she was in me like a little juniper on the Mongolian living in Denmark, Sweden and Finland before moving steppes, concave, with a pale yellow sky and great to the US in 1941 where he lived through the war years. sadness. . . . He eventually returned to what by then had become The 22-year-old Brecht puts on paper his last East Germany and settled down in Berlin. The long memories of his mother in a tender little haiku-like poem years in exile produced poems of several different kinds, that could well be a song: including such quatrains as: JANATA, May 26, 2019 3

This, then, is all. It’s not enough, I know. remained like an unsuspected time-bomb ticking away At least I’m still alive, as you may see. beneath the engine-room of world literature”. It may I’m like the man who took a brick to show well have been so, but it had not been possible even How beautiful his house used once to be. for Bertolt Brecht to hold back from the world’s view Or the tongue-in-cheek epigram written while in his most consummate achievement as poet, the Los Angeles: incomparable To Those Born Later, written in exile in Denmark: Every day, to earn my daily bread I go to the market where lies are bought Truly, I live in dark times! Hopefully The guileless word is folly. A smooth forehead I take up my place among the sellers. Suggests a hard heart. The man who laughs Has simply not yet had In his poetry as much as in his plays, Brecht was in The terrible news. his element in irony, as witness this laconic account of a friendly Encounter with the poet Auden: What kind of times are these, when To speak of trees is almost a crime Lunching me, a kindly act Because it implies silence about so many horrors? In an alehouse, still intact That man there calmly crossing the street He sat looming like a cloud Is already perhaps beyond the reach of his friends Over the beer-sodden crowd. Who are in need? . . . And kept harping with persistence I came to the cities in a time of disorder On the bare fact of existence When hunger reigned there. I.e, a theory built around it I came among men in a time of revolt Recently in France propounded. And I revolted with them Talking about irony and satire, though Brecht was So passed my time an icon of the communist East German state and was Which on earth was granted me. . . . awarded the Stalin Peace Prize in 1954 by the Soviet You who will emerge from the flood Union, he famously lampooned the authoritarian state In which we have gone under in poems such as The Solution: Remember After the uprising of the 17th June When you speak of our failings The Secretary of the Writers’ Union The dark time too Had leaflets distributed in the Stalinalle Which you have escaped. Stating that the people Had forfeited the confidence of the government For we went, changing countries oftener than our shoes And could win it back only Through the wars of the classes, despairing By redoubled efforts. Would it not be easier When there was injustice only, and no resistance. In that case for the government And yet we knew only too well To dissolve the people Even the hatred of meanness And elect another? Contorts our features. And yet, even in his last few years when his dramatic Anger, even against injustice, output had thinned considerably and he kept returning Makes our voice hoarse. Oh, we to poetry, the dominant themes were not built around Who wished to lay the foundation of kindness cynicism or hopelessness. He again wrote lyrical poetry, Could not ourselves be kind. evocative, often wistful: But you, when at last it comes to pass And I was old, and I was young at moments That man can help his fellow man, Was old at daybreak, young when darkness came Do not judge us And was a child recalling disappointments Too harshly. And an old man forgetting his own name. “Well after his death in 1956”, the editors of the (Anjan Basu is a literary critic, translator and excellent Methuen collection note, “Brecht the poet commentator living in Bangalore.) 4 JANATA, May 26, 2019 Capitalism Has Failed – What Next?

John Bellamy Foster

Less than two decades into the by bubbles of financial expansion, to the riches of today’s “1 percent.” twenty-first century, it is evident that which then inevitably burst, now Forty-two billionaires now enjoy capitalism has failed as a social system. characterises the so-called free as much wealth as half the world’s The world is mired in economic market. Soaring inequality in income population, while the three richest stagnation, financialisation, and and wealth has its counterpart in the men in the United States—Jeff the most extreme inequality in declining material circumstances Bezos, Bill Gates, and Warren human history, accompanied of a majority of the population. Buffett—have more wealth than by mass unemployment and Real wages for most workers in the half the US population. In every underemployment, precariousness, United States have barely budged region of the world, inequality poverty, hunger, wasted output and in forty years despite steadily has increased sharply in recent lives, and what at this point can rising productivity. Work intensity decades. The gap in per capita only be called a planetary ecological has increased, while work and income and wealth between the “death spiral.” The digital revolution, safety protections on the job have richest and poorest nations, which the greatest technological advance of been systematically jettisoned. has been the dominant trend for our time, has rapidly mutated from Unemployment data has become centuries, is rapidly widening once a promise of free communication more and more meaningless again. More than 60 percent of the and liberated production into new due to a new institutionalised world’s employed population, some means of surveillance, control, underemployment in the form of two billion people, now work in and displacement of the working contract labor in the gig economy. the impoverished informal sector, population. The institutions of Unions have been reduced to mere forming a massive global proletariat. liberal democracy are at the point shadows of their former glory as The global reserve army of labor of collapse, while fascism, the rear capitalism has asserted totalitarian is some 70 percent larger than the guard of the capitalist system, is control over workplaces. active labour army of formally again on the march, along with The capture of the surplus employed workers. patriarchy, racism, imperialism and value produced by overexploited Adequate health care, housing, war. populations in the poorest regions education, and clean water and air To say that capitalism is a of the world, via the global labour are increasingly out of reach for large failed system is not, of course, to arbitrage instituted by multinational sections of the population, even in suggest that its breakdown and corporations, is leading to wealthy countries in North America disintegration is imminent. It does, an unprecedented amassing of and Europe, while transportation is however, mean that it has passed financial wealth at the center of becoming more difficult in the United from being a historically necessary the world economy and relative States and many other countries and creative system at its inception poverty in the periphery. Around due to irrationally high levels of to being a historically unnecessary $21 trillion of offshore funds are dependency on the automobile and destructive one in the present currently lodged in tax havens on and disinvestment in public century. Today, more than ever, islands mostly in the Caribbean, transportation. Urban structures are the world is faced with the epochal constituting “the fortified refuge more and more characterised by choice between “the revolutionary of Big Finance.” Technologically gentrification and segregation, with reconstitution of society at large and driven monopolies resulting from the cities becoming the playthings of the common ruin of the contending global communications revolution, the well-to-do while marginalised classes.” together with the rise to dominance populations are shunted aside. About Indications of this failure of Wall Street-based financial half a million people, most of them of capitalism are everywhere. capital geared to speculative asset children, are homeless on any given Stagnation of investment punctuated creation, have further contributed night in the United States. New York JANATA, May 26, 2019 5

City is experiencing a major rat is organised in capitalist society— corporate echelons, while others infestation, attributed to warming and how it seeks to divide rather have been drawn from the military. temperatures, mirroring trends than unify the population. More War, engineered by the United around the world. than a third of women worldwide States and other major powers In the United States and have experienced physical/sexual at the apex of the system, has other high-income countries, life violence. Women’s bodies, in become perpetual in strategic oil expectancy is in decline, with a particular, are objectified, reified, regions such as the Middle East, remarkable resurgence of Victorian and commodified as part of the and threatens to escalate into a illnesses related to poverty and normal workings of monopoly- global thermonuclear exchange. exploitation. In Britain, gout, capitalist marketing. During the Obama administration, scarlet fever, whooping cough, and The mass media–propaganda the United States was engaged in even scurvy are now resurgent, system, part of the larger corporate wars/bombings in seven different along with tuberculosis. With matrix, is now merging into a social countries—Afghanistan, Iraq, Syria, inadequate enforcement of work media-based propaganda system Libya, Yemen, Somalia and Pakistan. health and safety regulations, black that is more porous and seemingly Torture and assassinations have lung disease has returned with a anarchic, but more universal and been reinstituted by Washington as vengeance in US coal country. more than ever favouring money and acceptable instruments of war against Overuse of antibiotics, particularly power. Utilising modern marketing those now innumerable individuals, by capitalist agribusiness, is leading and surveillance techniques, which group networks, and whole societies to an antibiotic-resistance crisis, now dominate all digital interactions, that are branded as terrorist. A new with the dangerous growth of vested interests are able to tailor their Cold War and nuclear arms race is superbugs generating increasing messages, largely unchecked, to in the making between the United numbers of deaths, which by mid– individuals and their social networks, States and Russia, while Washington century could surpass annual cancer creating concerns about “fake news” is seeking to place road blocks to the deaths, prompting the World Health on all sides. Numerous business continued rise of China. The Trump Organisation to declare a “global entities promising technological administration has created a new health emergency.” manipulation of voters in countries space force as a separate branch of More than two million people across the world have now surfaced, the military in an attempt to ensure in the United States are behind auctioning off their services to the US dominance in the militarisation bars, a higher rate of incarceration highest bidders. The elimination of space. than any other country in the world, of net neutrality in the United Increasingly severe economic constituting a new Jim Crow. African States means further concentration, sanctions are being imposed by Americans and Latinos make up 56 centralisation, and control over the United States on countries like percent of those incarcerated, while the entire Internet by monopolistic Venezuela and Nicaragua, despite constituting only about 32 percent service providers. their democratic elections—or of the US population. Nearly 50 Elections are increasingly because of them. Trade and currency percent of American adults, and prey to unregulated “dark money” wars are being actively promoted a much higher percentage among emanating from the coffers of by core states, while racist barriers African Americans and Native corporations and the billionaire against immigration continue to be Americans, have an immediate class. Although presenting itself as erected in Europe and the United family member who has spent or is the world’s leading democracy, the States as some 60 million refugees currently spending time behind bars. United States, as Paul Baran and and internally displaced peoples Racial divides are now widening Paul Sweezy stated in Monopoly flee devastated environments. across the entire planet. Capital in 1966, “is democratic in Migrant populations worldwide Violence against women and form and plutocratic in content.” In have risen to 250 million, with those the expropriation of their unpaid the Trump administration, following residing in high-income countries labor, as well as the higher level of a long-established tradition, 72 constituting more than 14 percent of exploitation of their paid labor, are percent of those appointed to the the populations of those countries, integral to the way in which power cabinet have come from the higher up from less than 10 percent in 6 JANATA, May 26, 2019

2000. Meanwhile, ruling circles and have been wiped out since 1970, production and exchange geared to wealthy countries seek to wall off while the worldwide abundance of the accumulation of capital through islands of power and privilege from invertebrates has declined by 45 the exploitation of workers’ labour the mass of humanity, who are to be percent in recent decades. power and the private appropriation left to their fate. If present climate-change trends of surplus value (value generated More than three-quarters of a continue, the “global carbon budget” beyond the costs of the workers’ billion people, over 10 percent of associated with a 2°C increase in own reproduction). The mode of the world population, are chronically average global temperature will economic accounting intrinsic to malnourished. Food stress in the be broken in sixteen years (while capitalism designates as a value- United States keeps climbing, a 1.5°C increase in global average generating good or service anything leading to the rapid growth of temperature—staying beneath which that passes through the market cheap dollar stores selling poor is the key to long-term stabilisation and therefore produces income. quality and toxic food. Around forty of the climate—will be reached in It follows that the greater part million Americans, representing one a decade). Earth System scientists of the social and environmental out of eight households, including warn that the world is now perilously costs of production outside the nearly thirteen million children, are close to a Hothouse Earth, in which market are excluded in this form of food insecure. Subsistence farmers catastrophic climate change will valuation and are treated as mere are being pushed off their lands be locked in and irreversible. The negative “externalities,” unrelated by agribusiness, private capital, ecological, social, and economic to the capitalist economy itself— and sovereign wealth funds in a costs to humanity of continuing to whether in terms of the shortening global depeasantisation process that increase carbon emissions by 2.0 and degradation of human life constitutes the greatest movement percent a year as in recent decades or the destruction of the natural of people in history. Urban (rising in 2018 by 2.7 percent—3.4 environment. overcrowding and poverty across percent in the United States), We have now reached a point in much of the globe is so severe that and failing to meet the minimal the twenty-first century in which the one can now reasonably refer to a 3.0 percent annual reductions in externalities of this irrational system, “planet of slums.” Meanwhile, the emissions currently needed to avoid such as the costs of war, the depletion world housing market is estimated a catastrophic destabilisation of the of natural resources, the waste of to be worth up to $163 trillion (as earth’s energy balance, are simply human lives, and the disruption of compared to the value of gold mined incalculable. the planetary environment, now far over all recorded history, estimated Nevertheless, major energy exceed any future economic benefits at $7.5 trillion). corporations continue to lie about that capitalism offers to society The Anthropocene epoch, first climate change, promoting and as a whole. The accumulation of ushered in by the Great Acceleration bankrolling climate denialism— capital and the amassing of wealth of the world economy immediately while admitting the truth in are increasingly occurring at the after the Second World War, has their internal documents. These expense of an irrevocable rift in the generated enormous rifts in planetary corporations are working to social and environmental conditions boundaries, extending from climate accelerate the extraction and governing human life on earth. change to ocean acidification, to production of fossil fuels, including How did these disastrous the sixth extinction, to disruption of the dirtiest, most greenhouse conditions characterising the global nitrogen and phosphorus gas-generating varieties, reaping capitalism worldwide develop? cycles, to the loss of freshwater, enormous profits in the process. An understanding of the failure to the disappearance of forests, Capitalist countries across the board of capitalism, beginning in the to widespread toxic-chemical are putting the accumulation of twentieth century, requires a and radioactive pollution. It is wealth for a few above combating historical examination of the rise now estimated that 60 percent of climate destabilisation, threatening of neoliberalism, and how this the world’s wildlife vertebrate the very future of humanity. has only served to increase the population (including mammals, Capitalism is best understood as destructiveness of the system. Only reptiles, amphibians, birds, and fish) a competitive class-based mode of then can we address the future of JANATA, May 26, 2019 7 humanity in the twenty-first century. defended unlimited inequality, and in the direction of Keynesianism, argued that consumers exercised social democracy, and the welfare Neoliberalism and Capitalist “democracy” through their state. The net result was: from the Failure purchases, which were equivalent 1930s to 1960s, following the Great Many of the symptoms of the to ballots. He strongly condemned Depression and the Second World failure of capitalism described labour legislation, compulsory War, neoliberal ideology waned in above are well-known. Nevertheless, social insurance (or social security – the context of the deepening crisis they are often attributed not to provides protection against various of capitalism. capitalism as a system, but simply to economic risks, such as loss of Nevertheless, the tendency neoliberalism, viewed as a particular income due to illness, retirement toward economic stagnation already paradigm of capitalist development benefits, or unemployment), trade exhibited in the 1930s remained that can be replaced by another, unions, unemployment insurance, as a structural flaw of the system, better one. For many people on the nationalisation, taxation, and temporarily masked by the so-called left, the answer to neoliberalism inflation as the enemies of his Golden Age of rapid growth and or disaster capitalism is a return refurbished liberalism. increasing income for workers that to welfare-state liberalism, market In 1921, renowned Austrian immediately followed the Second regulation, or some form of limited socialist philosopher and politician World War. By the 1960s, the factors social democracy, and thus to a Max Adler coined the term that led to the rapid growth of the more rational capitalism. It is not neoliberalism to designate Mises’s economy in the 1950s began to the failure of capitalism itself that is attempt to refurbish a fading liberal wane, and the US economy began perceived as the problem, but rather order through a new ideology of to slowdown once again, resulting the failure of neoliberal capitalism. market fetishism. Subsequently, in a structural crisis of the capitalist In contrast, the socialist tradition Mises’ neoliberalism was criticised system in the mid–1970s. This understands neoliberalism as an by several other socialists. marked the beginning of decades inherent outgrowth of late capitalism, The 1930s, and later the post- of economic stagnation and a long associated with the domination of Second World War years in the West decline in the trend rate of growth in monopoly-finance capital. A critical- are known as the age of Keynes. The the advanced capitalist economies. historical analysis of neoliberalism Great Depression years saw powerful To maintain its profit is therefore crucial both to grounding working class movements, forcing accumulation, the capitalist class our understanding of capitalism the ruling classes to implement now sought to reverse decades of today and uncovering the reason measures such as the New Deal. And modest working-class gains, thereby why all alternatives to neoliberalism then, after the Second World War, deciding to take an anti-Keynesian and its capitalist absolutism are capitalist economies grew rapidly stance, designating anything to the closed within the system itself. for a quarter-century—spurred on by left of hardcore neoliberalism as The term neoliberalism had its increased state spending (particularly socialist or totalitarian. There was origin in the early 1920s, in the on the military in the context of the a sharp turn toward austerity and socialist critique of the Austrian Cold War), the rebuilding of the economic restructuring, under the economist Ludwig von Mises’s war-torn European and Japanese guise of monetarism and supply- (1881–1973) Nation, State, and economies, the expansion of the sales side economics. Simultaneously, a Economy (1919) and Socialism: effort, waves of automobilisation in concerted effort to destroy unions An Economic and Sociological both the United States and Europe, by combined political, economic, Analysis (1922), both of which were and two major regional wars in and juridical means was carried out. written as virulent anti-socialist Asia. Simultaneously, the West Key to the reemergence of tracts. In these works, Mises, then was faced with the threat of the neoliberalism in the post-Second employed by the Vienna Chamber alternative model represented by World period was the Mont Pèlerin of Commerce, equated socialism the Soviet Union, and the advent Society, named after the Swiss spa with “destructionism,” insisted of strong unions as a result of the where Mises, Hayek, Robbins, that monopoly was consistent developments of the 1930s and Milton Friedman, George Stigler, with capitalist free competition, ’40s. Consequently, the West moved Raymond Aron, and others met 8 JANATA, May 26, 2019 in 1947, to promote neoliberal In Margaret Thatcher’s London created the basis of a new globalised economic and political ideas. and Ronald Reagan’s Washington, surveillance capitalism, buying However, the members of the Mont figures like Hayek and Friedman and selling information on the Pèlerin Society did not refer to became the symbols of the neoliberal population, primarily motivated themselves as neoliberals, probably era. The new so-called Nobel Prize by the sales effort, leading to the because they remembered the in Economics, or the Sveriges creation of enormous information- devastating socialist critiques of Riksbank (Bank of Sweden) Prize technology monopolies. neoliberal ideology in the 1920s, in Economic Sciences in Memory Vast increases in inequality and referred to themselves as of Alfred Nobel, established by and wealth were justified as returns classical liberals; they stated that the Bank of Sweden in 1969, for innovation. In the new era neoliberalism was not a separate was controlled from its inception of expropriation, all was up for political ideology but only an by ultraconservative neoliberal grabs: education, health systems, extension of classical liberalism and economists. Seven members of the transportation, housing, land, cities, attributable to inherent features of Mont Pèlerin Society, including prisons, insurance, pensions, food, human nature. In this way, as Michel Hayek, Friedman, Stigler, and entertainment. All exchanges in Foucault (French philosopher) Buchanan received the prize between society were to be fully commodified, argued, it was converted into a kind 1974 and 1992, while even mildly corporatised, and financialised, with of biopolitics. social-democratic economists were the funds flowing into financial Till the 1960s, figures like all but excluded. centers and feeding speculation on Mises, Hayek, Friedman, and James Neoliberalism as an economic capital gains, leveraged by debt. Buchanan remained on the margins, ideology was largely ineffectual Human communication was itself though heavily bankrolled by private in normal economic-policy terms, to be turned into a commodity. All foundations. But with the return of judged by its lack of success in in the name of a free-market society. economic stagnation in the 1970s, promoting growth. But for big For the powers that be, this neoliberal intellectuals were actively business, it was a huge success as strategy was enormously successful. recruited at the apex of monopoly the surplus capital in the hands of The financialisation process managed capital in order to provide the the corporate rich not only increased, to counter economic-stagnation ideological basis to launch the but by virtue of financialisation, tendencies to some extent, but at corporate campaign to restructure globalisation, and the revolution in the cost of periodic financial crises the capitalist economy, deliberately digital technology, new forms of layered over the normal business targeting labour, the state, and amassing wealth were created. cycle. Nevertheless, the amassing the underdeveloped economies of Financialisation—the relative of wealth at the top continued the global South. By now, along shift of the economy from production to accelerate, with financial with the Mont Pèlerin Society, to finance—opened up vast new crises themselves leading to even the Department of Economics at avenues to speculation and wealth greater financial concentration and the University of Chicago too had formation, relatively removed from centralisation. become the bastion of neoliberal capital investment in new productive The state too became subject to ideology, as several leading believers capacity (that is, real capital the financialisation policy, shifting in this ideology were teaching there. accumulation). Globalisation meant its overall role to protecting the value Central to neoliberal philosophy not only new markets, but, more of money. In the Great Financial from the beginning was the defense importantly—through the global Crisis of 2007–09, the big banks of concentrated corporate capital labour arbitrage—the appropriation and corporations were almost all and class dynasties, which were of huge economic surpluses from the bailed out; the population was not. portrayed as representing free-market overexploitation of low-wage labor While this crisis, the worst faced by competition and entrepreneurship. in the periphery that ended up in the the capitalist world since the Great The very virulence of neoliberal financial coffers of multinational Depression of 1929–37, should have anti-socialism meant that it corporations and wealthy individuals raised questions about the efficacy represented the drive to a complete in the rich countries. of neoliberalism, what has actually market-privatisation of social life. Meanwhile, digital technology happened is its exact opposite—the JANATA, May 26, 2019 9 neoliberal ideology has become so the model of the corporation or the Trump is no mere aberration. strongly entrenched that the Great market. As Mises openly declared in Financial Crisis only gave it further The state must not “correct the 1927 in another work, Liberalism: impetus! destructive effects of the market,” “It cannot be denied that Fascism A characteristic of this new era where these fall “on society” outside and similar movements [on the of financialised accumulation is that the market, but rather take advantage right] aiming at the establishment it is so far removed from the realities of these destructive effects to impose of dictatorships are full of the best of production and use value that it further measures that extend the intentions, and that their intervention, has led to “a social and ecological reach and penetration of the market. has, for the moment, saved European planetary emergency.” This is most The goal is to shackle the state to civilisation. The merit that Fascism evident in the rapid destruction of the monopolistic–competitive ends has thereby won for itself will live the natural environment. Fossil fuels of capital, so as to limit any changes on eternally in history.” Hayek, are entered as financial assets on the that would negatively affect the along with other neoliberals books of corporations, even when value of money. Hence, both fiscal such as Friedman and Buchanan, they exist only in the form of reserves and monetary policy are increasingly actively supported General Augusto buried in the ground. Trillions of put out of reach of the government Pinochet’s coup in Chile in 1973, dollars of Wall Street assets are itself—in those cases where changes overthrowing the democratically thus tied up in fossil capital. This going against the vested interests elected socialist government of has made it doubly difficult to shift are contemplated. Central banks Salvador Allende and imposing an away from the extraction and use have been transformed into largely economic shock doctrine on the of fossil fuels to more sustainable autonomous branches of the state, population. Hayek, during a trip to alternatives, such as solar and wind in fact controlled by the banks. Chile in 1978, personally warned power. No one owns the sun’s rays Treasury departments are shackled Pinochet against a resurrection of or the wind. Hence, there is less by debt ceilings. Regulatory agencies “unlimited democracy.” During a of a vested interest in these forms are captured by monopoly–finance second visit in 1981, he stated that “a of energy. In today’s capitalism, capital and act, for the most part, in dictatorship . . . may be more liberal more than ever before, current and the direct interest of corporations in its policies than a democratic potential future profits dictate all, at outside governmental control. assembly.” the expense of people and the planet. Such an attempt to construct a so- Neoliberalism, in short, is not a The human population stands by, called self-regulating market society mere paradigm that can be dispensed seemingly helpless, watching the therefore requires constant state with, but represents the absolutist destruction of the climate and the loss interventions on behalf of capital, tendencies of the system in the age of of innumerable species, all imposed undermining the very foundations of monopoly finance. In this new phase by the ostensibly overwhelming force society and life itself. Neoliberalism of monopoly capitalism, its survival of market society. thus extends the structural crisis can only be ensured for a time by the Neoliberalism has always of capitalism in its globalised singular application of its economic been directly opposed to strict monopoly–finance phase to all of logic to all of sociological existence. laissez faire since it has invariably society and makes it universal. The Reduced, however, to a pure Midas emphasised a strong, interventionist, answer to every failing of capitalism principle, capitalism is ending up by and constructionist relation to the is thus to turn the screw further— destroying everything in existence state, in the direct service of private with each failure opening up new with which it comes into contact. capital and market authoritarianism. areas of profitability for a few. The But if capitalism has now failed, the In the neoliberal view, the role of result of this irrational logic is not question becomes: What next? the state is not simply to protect merely economic and ecological property, as maintained by Smith, disaster, but the gradual demise of What Next? but extends to the active construction the liberal–democratic state itself. In his magisterial The Age of of the domination of the market Neoliberalism thus points inevitably Extremes: A History of the World over all aspects of life. This means to market authoritarianism and even 1914–1991, the renowned socialist refashioning the state and society on neofascism. In this respect, Donald historian Eric Hobsbawm, viewing 10 JANATA, May 26, 2019 the approach of the twenty-first present, namely “the theological faith history can never be predicted. The century, indicated that there were in an economy in which resources only thing certain about historical reasons to be concerned that the were allocated entirely by the totally change is the existence of the new century might be even more unrestricted market, under conditions struggles that drive it forward and threatening to humanity than the of unlimited competition,” carried that guarantee its discontinuous “age of extremes” that had preceded out by ever more concentrated character. Both implosions and it, a century that had been punctuated corporations. Chief among the explosions inevitably materialise, by world wars, imperial conflicts, dangers of such a system was the rendering the world for new and economic depressions—and in likelihood of “irreversible and generations different than that of which humanity was confronted for catastrophic consequences for the the old. History points to numerous the first time with the possibility natural environment of this planet, social systems that have reached of its own self-annihilation. Yet, including the human race which is the limits of their ability to adapt looking forward, he concluded, part of it.” their social relations to allow for the new century (and millennium) Hobsbawm’s position was the rational and sustainable use offered even greater dangers. roundly criticised at the time, even of developing productive forces. “We live in a world,” Hobsbawm by many on the left, as overly Hence, the human past is dotted observed in 1994, “pessimistic” with regard to the by periods of regression, followed uprooted and transformed by course of capitalist development. by revolutionary accelerations that the titanic economic and the techno- Today, however, a quarter-century sweep all before them. scientific process of the development later, it is clear that he hit the Could such a revolutionary of capitalism . . . it cannot go on mark, as the concerns that he acceleration of history, though on an ad infinitum. The future cannot voiced then are even more evident incomparably greater scale, happen be a continuation of the past, and today. Nevertheless, there are still in the twenty-first century? there are signs, both externally, progressive intellectuals in the As a direct result of capitalist and, as it were, internally, that we wealthy countries who hope that the social relations, the material have reached a point of historic pendulum will swing back again, challenges now facing humanity crisis. The forces generated by leading to a more affirmative-style are greater than anything ever the techno-scientific economy are liberalism or social democracy. This seen before, pointing to an now great enough to destroy the sustains the belief that the failures accumulation of catastrophe along environment, that is to say, the of unregulated capitalism can be with the accumulation of capital. material foundations of human life. countered by a return to regulated Hundreds of millions of people The structures of human societies capitalism, a new Keynesian age— under these circumstances are themselves, including even some as if history had stood still. already being drawn into struggles of the social foundations of the This, however, denies the with the system, creating the basis capitalist economy, are on the point material reality that neoliberalism of a new worldwide movement of being destroyed by the erosion today is ingrained in capitalism toward socialism. Yes, the working of what we have inherited from the itself, in the phase of monopoly– people can indeed change the world, human past. Our world risks both financial capital. The earlier age but they can only do so through explosion and implosion. It must of industrial–capital dominance, a unifying struggle by workers change. . . . If humanity is to have a on which Keynesian economics and peoples aimed at genuine recognisable future, it cannot be by was based, is now gone. Even socialism. prolonging the past or the present. If if progressive or socialist or left It may be objected that socialism we try to build the third millennium parties come to power in these has been tried and has failed and hence on that basis, we shall fail. And the circumstances, and attempt to no longer exists as an alternative. price of failure, that is to say, the implement Keynesianism, they will However, like the earliest attempts alternative to a changed society, is invariably fall prey to the laws of at capitalism in the Italian city-states darkness. motion of capitalism in this phase. of the late Middle Ages, which Hobsbawm left little doubt as So, the question arises, what were not strong enough to survive to what the principal danger was at next? Of course, the actual course of amongst the feudal societies that JANATA, May 26, 2019 11 surrounded them, the failure of the measures that could be taken up, but planning, and democratic action than first experiments at socialism presage which are completely excluded under ever before, suggest that there are nothing but its eventual rebirth in the present mode of production. It is countless paths forward to a world a new, more revolutionary, more not physical impossibility, or lack of substantive equality and ecological universal form, which examines and of economic surplus, that stands in sustainability once the world is freed learns from the failures. Even in the way of the satisfaction of basic from the fetters of capital. failure, socialism has this advantage needs—clean air and water, food, The mainsprings of human over capitalism: it is motivated by clothing, housing, education, health action throughout history lie in the the demand for “freedom in general,” care, transportation, and useful drive for human freedom and the rooted in substantive equality and work—for all. It is not the shortage struggle to master our relation to the sustainable human development— of technological know-how or of world. The first of these ultimately reflecting precisely those collective material means that prevents the demands equality and community; social relations, borne of historical necessary ecological conversion to the second, human development and necessity and the unending struggle more sustainable forms of energy. sustainability. It is on these struggles for human freedom, crucial to human All of this is within our reach, but for collective advancement that we survival in our time. requires pursuing a logic that runs must ultimately rely if humanity is It is capitalism’s undermining of counter to that of capitalism. to have a future at all. the very basis of human existence The very waste and excess of that will eventually compel the today’s monopoly–finance capitalism, (John Bellamy Foster is professor world’s workers and peoples to seek together with the development of new of sociology at the University of new roads forward. An inclusive means of communication that allow Oregon and editor of the American movement toward socialism in this for greater human coordination, socialist magazine, Monthly Review.) century will open up the possibility of qualitative new developments that the anarchy of the capitalist- Defiant Resistance: The Venezuelan Crises market society with its monopolistic and the Possibility of Another World competition, extreme inequality, and institutionalised greed cannot possibly offer. It introduces the prospect of Jeremiah Gaster long-term democratic planning at all levels of society, allowing decisions Bob Dylan once said, “Let us not politics is collective, and there is to be made and distributions to talk falsely now, the hour is getting a deep form of solidarity across occur outside the logic of the cash late.” February 23rd, 2019, was communities along with an abiding nexus. Socialism, in its most radical the day that Juan Guaidó, the self- interest in building a different form form, is about substantive equality, proclaimed President of Venezuela, of politics. In short, if one does not community solidarity, and ecological had “authorised” “humanitarian unearth this collective politics, one sustainability; it is aimed at the aid” to enter Venezuela, an attempt cannot understand what is happening unification—not simply division—of to force the Maduro government, in Venezuela. labour. and thus the Venezuelan people, to While in Venezuela doing field Once sustainable human their knees. There is great urgency work in July 2018, in conversations development, rooted not in exchange as an ever-increasing escalation of with many Venezuelans, I noted the values, but in use values and genuine violence is being perpetuated by consistent insistence that Venezuela human needs, comes to define those who would destroy Venezuela, must be respected. historical advance, the future, which including several attacks on A primary feature of Venezuelan now seems closed, will open up in a Venezuela’s electrical grid over the life is that politics is not only myriad ways, allowing for entirely last few weeks. But let me be clear: discussed but is everywhere, and new, more qualitative, and collective the Venezuelan poor are resilient, as such, many Venezuelans could forms of development. This can be and any change will be on their teach graduate courses in political seen in the kinds of needed practical terms. Most importantly, Venezuelan science. This is well exemplified 12 JANATA, May 26, 2019 in a recent news item on the Real Then in the early 1980s, the state Venezuelan army, Hugo Chávez News Network in which a woman shut off the small flow of oil money Frías, led an attempt to end the state’s on the street, clutching a well-worn to the poor, and thus, poverty in continued repression, and when this copy of the constitution, says to the Venezuela grew to 62 per cent, and failed, he took responsibility for interviewer, “If Juan Guaidó needs extreme poverty grew to 30 per cent. it. Chávez, born poor, being Afro- a constant reminder” she “will be In 1989, in the wake of re- Indigenous, recognised that the happy with her fellow citizens to electing Carlos Andres Perez marginalised had to be the major read him the constitution every as president, Venezuelans were force in any political project geared day”. That a factor of everyday life hopeful. However, in the week toward their particular and specific is the importance of the Venezuelan after his inauguration, Venezuelans needs. constitution is not to be discounted learned Perez intended to integrate and helps us understand something the state even closer with global The Revolution, Cemented essential: the gravity of politics for capital, pushing further austerity. In After serving some time in jail, Venezuelans. Another core aspect response, on February 27, 1989, a Chávez ran for president in the 1998 of this is the ease with which poor series of bus and food riots started elections. His win did not start the Venezuelans viscerally, expressly, that lasted almost a week. This revolt revolution, but rather, cemented it. and collectively are directly involved throughout Venezuela by the poor While still an uphill battle, even with politics. It was not always thus. against the state and society was with Chávez at the helm, the state called the Caracazo ( the explosion itself was restructured to support Pacted Political System of Caracas). In its attempt to quell communities. This restructuring Early in the twentieth century, the revolt, the state killed upwards was unthinkable just prior to his oil was found in Venezuela. Soon of 2000 people. Nevertheless, since election. Turning it into something Venezuela’s elites became capitalist, the Caracazo, the state and elites quite unthinkable to us here in rich beyond imagination, and they found themselves unable to govern Canada. In him, the poor found a also grew concerned that they faced Venezuela as before. friend, a teacher, a comrade. Now too much disruption from rural and Rather than the elites governing without him, a common phrase is urban crowds who had a tendency Venezuela, the poor, those who that “Chávez is a seed in all,” and toward fomenting strikes and other were starving, those informally this keeps them fighting. political upheavals. In 1958, three working, other workers including Many benefits continued political parties implemented a the underemployed or unemployed, to accrue to those from whom pacted political system wherein in farmers, Afro-Venezuelans, Venezuela’s wealth had once been one election, Action Democratic Indigenous Venezuelans, the robbed, including huge advances would win, and in the next election, differently abled, LGBTQ, youth, in access to healthcare, education, the Social Christians would win, seniors, women working in their and a general well-being for all and so on. While the third party homes caring for their children, Venezuelans, especially the poor. quickly disappeared, this pact, women working outside the home Pursuant to Nicolás Maduro’s which continued for several decades and then keeping house, people second election, twenty years since against the threat of communist forgotten by politics of exclusion, Chávez’s first, unlike in many organising and against the poor, came down from the barrios (means other states around the world that eventually joined by the Catholic neighbourhoods, especially the impose austerity and neoliberally Church, business leaders, and even slums of urban cities), changing reorganise state services, there unions. Venezuela. Consider that for the remains in Venezuela the sense In the 1970s, following a next decade the average number that the state must provide for its successful decade of pacted of protests grew to over 1000 per citizens. Significantly, the current democracy, flush with oil monies, year, an increase from the pre-1989 economic and political crises under the Venezuelan state started a few average of 200, signifying that all- such intense misinformation and social welfare programs. While some across Venezuela there were at least international scrutiny are not the Venezuelans began to experience a two protests every day during this result of Venezuelan state policies. measure of relief, poverty persisted. period. In 1992, a Colonel in the While some monetary inflation is JANATA, May 26, 2019 13 an indirect result of state policies, based on the mandates to provide Significantly, the Venezuelan state the crises are a direct result of various social services and to is not the site of counter-revolution. speculation and inflation sparked foster community production. The Even though it is a residual capitalist by Venezuelan capitalists and the government provides support, but state, against which the masses horrific interventions, meted out these organisations are run by the constantly battle for their gains, it by some nations, including Canada communities themselves, and they is not the state who wars against and the USA, such as sanctions and have done so for the past two the masses; rather in Venezuela, the blockades. decades. Presently, tens of thousands state is with the masses’ revolution. On one hand, free or low-income of such community organisations Although new elites have emerged, housing, universal healthcare, exist throughout all of Venezuela. and problematise the revolution, public and universal education There has also been exponential the revolution is neither the state (including the distribution of free growth in communes throughout nor the new elites, and for sure, it tablets or computers to all children), Venezuela. In areas where several is not the old elites. Rather, even subsidised gas, the provision of community councils intersect though in any society in which basic food stuffs to all who need (thousands of members in the cities, they exist they are the fulcrum, it it—the Venezuelan state’s social less in the rural areas), further is the poor’s gravitonic pull which programs remain sturdy despite entrenchment of community explains politics in Venezuela, the manufactured economic and organisations has been fostered. and in Venezuela the poor have political crises of 2019. When I was Communes that intersect have begun the slow and long process of there in July 2018, because the cost begun to institute communal cities ending these residual conditions of to print urban public transit tickets of 20,000 members each. These inhumanity. in Caracas was more expensive than institutional structures, and the the government was willing to make communities’ protagonism and Elites Try for a Comeback the price, public transit was free. Of cooperation forming them, reveal the No longer rulers of Venezuela, course, Maduro remains accused of depth of the change during the last the old elites after Chávez’s death “buying votes” via these programs. two decades in Venezuela. in 2013 and with the subsequent The beneficiary of current One thing is clear: in all of these fall of oil prices, saw an opportunity Venezuelan government policies social endeavors the revolution is to reassert themselves, attempting continues to be the poor themselves. constituted through the multiple to construct a perfect storm by Significantly, what has been tendencies of Chavismo, and it increasing their economic war Venezuela’s strength even more is only through the masses in against their fellow citizens. than the social welfare policies their work against all forms of Excluded from their “natural place” themselves, as revolutionary as they domination that the revolutionary at the top of state and society, are in this current world of austerity, state exists. Notably, Chavismo the elites remain frustrated; they is the fact of community control is a consciously socialist-feminist have been ineffectual against the of this revolution, for they control practice throughout all of Venezuela. masses. World leaders as “diverse” the process. Through Chavismo, Many communities that before as Trudeau, Harper, Martin, and many communities have arranged were denied their dignity, have Chrétien; Bush, Obama, and Trump; themselves into organisations as collectively altered their country and many others of Latin America community councils, misiones, and based on principles of social equity and the European Union have also various other forms of assemblies. and egalitarianism. Changes have long hated the revolution. The government is involved, been happening here that have rarely There are many reasons for the e.g., the government mandates happened at any point in human imperial desire to end the Bolivarian that a community council is to be history. revolution, including wanting to constituted of two hundred families To be certain, Venezuela as a suppress the control and involvement (less in rural and Indigenous areas), country remains capitalist, colonial, exercised by the Venezuelan people must meet quorum, etc., and then racist, machista, and embedded in over themselves. The fact that the government provides funds imperialism’s world; the state is a state Venezuela is rich in natural resources to the community organisation with all of its corresponding dangers. such as petroleum, natural gas, gold, 14 JANATA, May 26, 2019 bauxite, iron ore, and diamonds by definition, has more than in Venezuela, especially since just adds to the frustration with 500 seats for both regional and Chávez’s first election in 1998. In the revolution. These “leaders” sectoral representatives. Despite the 2019, presuming to have the right have contributed to the economic opposition’s call for a boycott of the to stop the Bolivarian experiment, war with ever increasing sanctions elections, the eight million who did the elites started a new initiative (especially since early 2015) and vote is a tangible and meaningful aimed at ending the Maduro blockades of imported essentials voter expression. The day after the government, and so bringing an such as medicine, food, and other ANC vote, all violent protests ceased end to the revolution. Beyond the goods—a war that has had quite a until 2019’s return to violence. opposition’s base, and its reliance violent outcome against a sovereign This shows the value of the ANC on the obvious Trojan horse of US people. as two years of social peace was and Canadian “humanitarian aid,” Presently, high inflation is a wrought even though the brutality the early 2019 gambit of Guaidó’s serious problem in Venezuela, but of the economic war remained. The “presidency” has not culminated in significantly, neither production nor persistent violence of the opposition the desired end. Neither sparking distribution are under government to the revolution is clear, and the violence in the streets, nor in the nor specifically community control. rejection of such violence by the claim of the “abandonment” of Private ownership and the imperial majority of Venezuelan society is Maduro’s presidency, Guaidó’s blockades strangle the Venezuelan also obvious. coup has failed at the time of writing economy, “making it scream” (As Since the 2017 elections of the (the second week of April). This Nixon and Kissinger conspired to do ANC, three more Chavista electoral failure is due to the absence of the in the Chilean economy against the gains have been made, winning the masses of Venezuela, who remain experiment of socialist-democracy majority of governorships (October the core of any substantial change in the early 1970s in Chile). An 2017) and city councillorships in Venezuela. Tensions remain high example of how Venezuelans resist (December 2018), flipping many as the opposition claims the right this problem can be seen in the opposition strongholds. Maduro to “invite” invasion to secure their growth over the last decade of urban also had a substantial May 2018 power, but this only reveals their cultivation, and in their return to the presidential win with more than six very illegitimacy. land to produce what they need. million votes and a hefty four million The government, having Loyalty to the revolution is lead over the closest rival. These consistently renounced violence, has evidenced in the outcomes of the considerable votes are not negated, always been open to direct talks with last several elections. In both 2014 even with the opposition’s attempted the opposition, if they too renounced and in 2016–2017, the opposition boycott of the election. violence. However, the elites are held increasingly violent protests. The 2015 NA is old news with reluctant, for they know that without In the December 2015 election, new NA elections long scheduled for violence they are unlikely to prevail. the National Assembly (AN, 167 next year. The NA itself is a remnant The elites know that for the majority seats total) was completely flipped of old state formations contained of Venezuelans, the opposition is in favour of the opposition, which within a contradictory process, and worthless and the elites themselves won 109 seats and received almost Venezuelans know this. The poor are superfluous. 8 million votes in contrast to the are waging a war on both capitalism Chavista parties who received and the capitalist state in the name Concluding Thoughts almost 6 million votes, winning of a communal state, and they know So, what can we do? Despite an only 55 seats. that it is only through the current inhumane blockade enacted over In response to the increasing Maduro / Chavista government that the past four years, Venezuelan violence on July 30, 2017, following they can achieve their victory. While poor continue to receive greater constitutional procedure, a new reserving their right to tell him how benefits from their government than constituent assembly (National things should be done, Maduro Canadians, for example, have ever Constituent Assembly, ANC) was remains their president. received from ours. Consequently, elected with more than eight million Manifestly Venezuela’s elites if what Venezuelans participate in is votes. The ANC, plenipotentiary have been increasingly isolated democracy, then what the rest of the JANATA, May 26, 2019 15 world has is not. In short, the poor The Yellow Vests of France: in Venezuela are the government. Thus, to support Venezuela is to Six Months of Struggle fight for a better world, one wherein the poor are the government too. Richard Greeman Fighting back against neoliberal restructuring of Canada, resisting I am writing you from nowhere’, with autonomous local the continued formation of the Montpellier, France, where I am a units springing up all over France “common-sense” of austerity, participant–observer in the Yellow like mushrooms, demonstrating on resisting all of the accompanying Vest (Gilets jaunes) movement, traffic circles (roundabouts) and horrors of early twenty-first century which is still going strong after toll-gates, marching every Saturday capitalist imperialist states is how six months, despite a dearth of in cities, including Paris. But unlike we can support Venezuela. information in the international all previous revolts, it was not Paris- As stated at the outset of this media. centered. The humid November article, in Venezuela, it is oft repeated But why should you take the soil from which these mushrooms that “Venezuela must be respected.” time to learn more about the Yellow sprouted was the near-universal This phrase is the basis for the Vests? The answer is that France frustration of French people at the fact that Venezuelans resist rather has for more than two centuries abject failure of the Confédération than simply folding in the face of been the classic model for social générale du travail (CGT) and aggressions by the opposition and innovation, and this unique, original other unions to effectively oppose other countries. Venezuelans have social movement has enormous Macron’s steam-roller imposition taken to heart the lessons of Chile international significance. The last Spring of his historic Thatcherite 1973, and both the military and Yellow Vests have already succeeded ‘reforms’: an inflexible neoliberal the Venezuelan people will defend in shattering the capitalist myth of program of cutting benefits, themselves if attacked. It is also ‘representative democracy’ in the workplace rights, and privatising clear that there is much that we age of neoliberalism. Their uprising or cutting public services, while can learn from them. Nevertheless, has unmasked the lies and violence eliminating the so-called Wealth Tax the positive in Venezuela is still of republican government, as well designed to benefit the poor. exceptional, and Venezuelan as the duplicity of representative The immediate cause of this resistance to neoliberalism is institutions like political parties, spontaneous mass uprising was ever more an example to us all. bureaucratic unions, and the to protest an unfair tax on fuel In conclusion, whilst undergoing mainstream media. (fiscal justice), but the Yellow many challenges, Venezuela remains Moreover, the Yellow Vests Vests’ demands quickly expanded the place where human possibilities represent the first time in history that to include restoration of public have been flourishing, and this a spontaneous, self-organised social services (transport, hospitals, expression of direct democracy will movement has ever held out for half schools, higher wages, retirement be protected by Venezuelans and a year in spite of repression, while benefits, healthcare for the poor, must be respected. retaining its autonomy, resisting peasant agriculture, media free of cooptation, bureaucratisation and billionaire and government control, (Jeremiah Gaster is both a political sectarian splits. All the while, and, most remarkably, participatory theorist and a comparativist. He standing up to full-scale government democracy. Despite their disruptive writes for Socialist Project, a Toronto repression and targeted propaganda, tactics, the Yellow Vests were, from based organisation that promotes it poses a real, human alternative to the first, wildly popular with average socialist thought and action.) the dehumanisation of society under French people (73 per cent approval), the rule of the capitalist ‘market’. and they are still more popular than Janata the Macron government after six is available at A Different Kind of Uprising months of exhausting, dangerous Six months ago, on November occupations of public space, violent www.lohiatoday.com 17, 2018, Yellow Vests burst ‘out of weekly protests, and slanderous 16 JANATA, May 26, 2019 propaganda against them. sensational images of the violence weeks the League for the Rights of Tired of being lied to, cheated, (to property) of the Black Block Man and other such humanitarian manipulated, and despised, the vandals at the fringes of Yellow groups have at last turned out Yellow Vests instinctively from Vest demonstrations, never on to protest police brutality, while the beginning rejected being the human victims of systematic committees of artists and academics instrumentalised by the corrupt government violence. A popular have signed petitions in support ‘representative’ institutions of slogan proclaimed in Magic Marker of the Yellow Vests’ struggle for capitalist democracy—including on a demonstrator’s Yellow Vest democratic rights, condemning political parties, union bureaucracies, reads: “Wake up! Turn off your TV! the government and media. At and the media (monopolised by Join us!” the same time, Yellow Vests are billionaires and subsidised by Since the Yellow Vests have more and more converging with the government). Jealous of their no recognised spokespersons, Ecologists (“End of the Month/End autonomy, a concept which radical government propaganda, abetted of the World/Same Enemy/Same intellectuals have been exploring for by the media, has had a free hand Struggle”) and feminists (who play years, the Yellow Vest movement to dehumanise them in order to a major role in the movement). eschewed ‘leaders’ and spokespeople justify treating them inhumanly. Workers have also played an even among their own ranks, and are Macron, from the height of his important role, many of them active even now very gradually learning to monarchical presidency, at first as opponents of the bureaucracy federate themselves and negotiate pretended to ignore their uprising, in their unions. Red CGT stickers convergence with other social then attempted to buy them off with on Yellow Vests are now frequent movements. crumbs (a very few crumbs, which sights at demos. Philippe Martinez, were rejected) and then denounced the General Secretary of the CGT, Macron’s Repressive Response them as “a hate-filled mob.” (N.B. In who has heretofore been sarcastic Right from the start, the real life the Yellow Vests are largely and negative about the Yellow Vests, Yellow Vests’ basically non-violent low-income middle-aged folks has now been forced to admit that the unauthorised gatherings were met with families from the provinces cause of their rise was the failure of by massive police repression— whose trademark is friendliness the unions, “a reflection of all the teargas, flashballs, beatings, 10,000 and improvised barbecues.) Yet union deserts”. He was referring to arrests, immediate drum-head for Macron and the media they “small and medium size businesses, trials, and stiff sentences for minor constitute a hard-core conspiracy retired people, poverty people, infractions. The Macron government of “40,000 militants of the extreme jobless people, and lots of women” just passed a new “anti-vandalism” right and the extreme left” often (the demographic of the Yellow law making it virtually impossible characterised as “anti-Semites” who Vests) that the unions have ignored. to demonstrate legally. Macron’s threaten the Republic. The Yellow Vests are still here, orthodox neoliberal French Republic Small wonder that, subjected to in the fray, holding the breach open. has arguably become as repressive increasing violence and continuous The crisis in France is far from over. of domestic opposition as the right- slander, the numbers of Yellow Vests If and when the other oppressed wing ‘populist’ regimes in Poland, willing to go out into the streets to and angry groups in France— Hungary, and Turkey. protest every week has diminished the organised workers, ecologists, Macron’s violent repression of over 27 weeks. But they are still out North African immigrants, students political opposition is responsible for there, and their favorite chant goes: struggling against Macron’s at least two deaths, 23 demonstrators “Here we are! Here we are! What educational ‘reforms’—also turn blinded in one eye, and thousands if Macron doesn’t like it? Here we off their TVs and go down into seriously wounded. It has been are!” (On est là! Même si Macron ne the streets, things could change condemned by the UN and the veut pas, On est là!) radically. The Yellow Vests’ avowed European Union. But Macron has goal is to bring France to a grinding never acknowledged these injuries, Finally, Support from Other halt and impose change from below. which are rarely shown in the Groups What if they succeed? We know media. The TV news concentrates on Fortunately, in the past few what the ‘success’ of structured JANATA, May 26, 2019 17 parties like Syriza in Greece and with the Yellow Vests, something (Richard Greeman is a socialist Podemos in Spain led to. Maybe a our group in Montpellier has been scholar long active in human horizontal federation of autonomous working toward for months. On rights, anti-war, anti-nuclear, base-groups attempting to re-invent May 18th, for the first time, we are environmental and labor struggles democracy could do better. meeting with the other Yellow Vest in the US, Latin America, France, P.S. Latest news: the CGT groups in our region. “On ne lâche and Russia.) just held its convention and voted rien!” (Nothing escapes us, we don’t unanimously for “convergence” give in).

How is Mexico’s Fourth Transformation Progressing?

Claudio Fabian Guevara

As he nears his sixth month in media that is a strong supporter of greed of the previous regime. office, Mexican President Andrés the traditional corrupt elites who These mass meetings are turning Manuel López Obrador (popularly had been in power for decades out to be a huge success, with people known as AMLO) travels around before finally being defeated in participating in them in very large the nation holding public events the Presidential elections held last numbers. The local municipal and to report on his social policies and year, one of the first steps taken state authorities also participate asking citizens for help in removing by AMLO was to organise long in these meetings, in which the the vices of the old regime from the morning press conferences, where programmes and works undertaken State. he is accompanied by specialists, by the federal government and funds AMLO exhibits a unique secretaries and ministers who report allocated for them are announced. leadership in this enormous country, on the what has been happening The whistles and shouts of the which he knows from end to end, and in each area of governance. people, especially when they see an where he managed to organise a great Thus, he achieved a direct line official with an unsavoury reputation national coalition around himself. He of communication, without in the President’s entourage, add a is one of the few presidents with the intermediaries, with millions of condiment of colour and spontaneity ability to speak and reply for hours, people. to the meeting. The political ironies without assistants or teleprompters, This strategy was deepened and puns of the main speaker on countless aspects of the country’s with his tours around the country, complete the show. public life. He is the author of 17 and organising face-to-face mass Andrés Manuel’s public books, has a political career of over meetings with citizens. In these meetings are, like his morning press three decades and is an unparalleled public interactions, the Mexican conference and many other elements personality in Mexico today. president speaks colloquially of his government, a communication After running for the presidency and intimately, accompanied by policy of great originality. What is three times and finally defeating members of his cabinet, about AMLO’s central message in this the electoral fraud apparatus of the how the transformation process is campaign? What is he saying to the PRI – PAN, Andrés Manuel (as he progressing. He provides figures people during the first six months of is affectionately called by those and data on the social welfare his government? who have followed him for years) programs launched. He justifies Here is a summary of the main proposes to achieve the fourth how these expenses are financed points he conveys in his public historical transformation of Mexico, with the money previously used for pronouncements: an ambitious goal that has led to corruption. And he preaches moral him being labelled “arrogant” and principles with historical themes 1) The first priority is to pacify “messianic”. as a backdrop to these policies. He the country: Mexico’s statistics In order to defeat a hostile also tells anecdotes of the waste and of violence, especially after the 18 JANATA, May 26, 2019 launch of Felipe Calderón’s war by land, sometimes in four-hour There is an insistent moral message on drugs, show that the country is trips, because he deactivated the against the greed that underpinned suffering from a real internal war. air fleet which was grossly misused the open pillage of the nation’s AMLO proposes to stop it along by the ruling elite: “They went by public coffers and wealth: “Those three axes: i) Giving attention to helicopter to play golf.” sick of corruption must be cured. young people by providing them To defeat corruption, it must be scholarships, full employment and 3) Fighting corruption and stigmatised. Before it was a merit, opportunities to study, in order to promoting social programs, hand an act of audacity, a prototype. . . . move them away from the mafia. ii) in hand: The Mexican president Now we have to change that.” The legalisation of drugs to weaken claims to have severed corruption He has also made many bold the power of criminal cartels, as “from the head”. As part of the fight and innovative pronouncements, well as the decriminalisation of against corruption, the government such launching a debate for the drug users. iii) Greater availability claims that huachicoleo (organised legalisation of drugs, and has also of personnel for internal security. To theft of gasoline from the state oil explicitly rejected agro-toxins and this end, the constitution has been company Pemex) has been reduced transgenics. modified to allow the creation of the by 95%. The savings generated by On June 1, 2019, AMLO will National Guard, by which the Army eliminating corrupt practices and complete six months in office. In and Navy participate in internal cutting down wasteful government his public agenda there is much security operations. This gesture expenditure are being used to more: the Mayan Train megaproject, earned him harsh criticism from the finance social welfare programs. reversing of the energy and Zapatistas, who accuse AMLO of The government has launched a mix education reforms sanctioned by the having deployed more troops than of scholarship programs for students previous government, a proposal to any previous government. and pensions for the elderly, the combat illegal immigration through disabled, some of universal scope development plans and economic 2) Austerity, by example: The and others sectoral. These funds have integration with the neighbouring PRI presidential staff had thousands also been used to finance programs nations. He also has to wage a of staff employed for its security. such as interest-free loans for small political battle against the old elites AMLO has transferred them to and medium-sized entrepreneurs and displaced from power who promote internal security and now they merchants. a battery of criticisms and negative take care of the people. Cuts have According to the Welfare propaganda through their control been made in the salaries of the Census, the benefits reach 24 million of the media. The Zapatistas also public employees getting very high people. The government’s strategy oppose him—they have fiercely salaries, and the lowest salaries have is to make them available to the opposed his Mayan Train project been raised. A law has been passed people without intermediaries, or and consider his policies to be a capping the highest salaries. No one by directly depositing the money revamped and deceitful version can earn more than the president, in people’s accounts. The problem: of the neoliberal development whose salary is a modest 108,000 only around 40% of Mexicans have model that was implemented by the pesos a month, equivalent to about bank accounts. previous governments. 5600 dollars. The million-dollar On the other hand, the Mexican pensions for former presidents 4) Moralising public life with President has also generated have been eliminated. The former traditional values: There is a strong considerable hope among the President Peña Nieto’s expensive component of traditional values citizenry. He also the support of a presidential plane in California was and principles in the messages of formidable number of intellectuals put up for sale. “Let’s see if Trump President Andrés Manuel López and first-rate political cadres, apart will cheer him up,” AMLO ironically Obrador. They are open and broadly from the apparatus of his Morena says, “because even Trump doesn’t inclusive messages, most of them party (a heterogeneous grouping of have a plane like that.” As a part of about traditional values, which his own party leaders and recycled his policy of austerity, the president would suggest an attempt to balance leaders of the former governing now travels with his entourage a wide range of currents of opinion. party).. JANATA, May 26, 2019 19

AMLO travels around Mexico arrogant northern neighbour. Will his predecessor, saying that it was pushing an elephant. It is a peaceful, he succeed? equivalent to theft by gangsters. gradual, and law-abiding process that Note by Editors: On May 20, seeks to pacify a country ravaged by 2019, AMLO announced that his (Claudio Fabian Guevara is mafia pacts and internecine wars, government is going to end the an Argentinian journalist and modernise an inefficient and corrupt tax breaks of billions of dollars researcher.) state, and maintain peace with its given to the large corporations by

Youth Strike Once Again Globally

Julia Conley

People in more than 100 On March 15, an estimated 1.6 climate protests have successfully countries are expected to take part million people demonstrated in 123 pressured some government leaders in well over 1,000 strikes on Friday, countries. The number of planned into officially recognising the climate May 24 to demand climate action protests for Friday surpassed the crisis and pledging to take action. from their governments. 1,325 which took place two months Lawmakers in England, Ireland, Two months after what was ago. Scotland, and Wales officially reportedly the largest international 350.org called on supporters to declared a climate emergency in the climate demonstration ever, young stand with the students leading the wake of mass protests by the global people around the world are expected global call for an end to fossil fuel movement Extinction Rebellion in to make history again on Friday with extraction in order to keep global April. And the head of the European a second global climate strike. warming under 1.5 degrees Celsius. Commission pledged in February to Sixteen-year-old Greta Thunberg held the first climate spend a quarter of the EU's budget Thunberg, who began the global strike last fall, holding a one- on combating the climate crisis movement in which students around person protest outside Swedish beginning in 2021, under pressure the world have walked out of their Parliament and demanding that her from Thunberg. classrooms on a weekly basis since elected officials begin a shift toward "Activism works. So act," last fall to demand climate action, renewable energy sources to help Thunberg tweeted this week, sharing reported Tuesday that at least 1,351 stem the warming of the globe. a video featuring young people who separate strikes are now scheduled Young people who have plan to walk out of their schools on to take place all over the world on organised their own protests in recent Friday. Friday. months argue that they will still be Climate justice advocates plan relatively young in 2030, the year (Jon Queally is managing editor to walk out of their schools and that the Intergovernmental Panel on for Common Dreams and Julia workplaces on every continent on Climate Change (IPCC) warns the Conley is a journalist who writes for the globe and in more than 100 climate crisis will be irreversible Common Dreams, an independent countries. unless world leaders take action now non-profit newscenter based in the Two strikes are planned in to stop the carbon emissions which USA.) Antarctica, according to a map on are rapidly warming the planet. the #FridaysForFuture website; While government officials who Spectre of Fascism countries including Afghanistan, refuse to act now may not have many Contribution Rs. 20/- Namibia, and Uzbekistan are each more decades left on the planet, Published by planning at least one strike, while youth organisers argue, young hundreds of rallies have been people will face the consequences Janata Trust & Lokayat D-15, Ganesh Prasad, planned across Germany, France, of that inaction. Naushir Bharucha Marg, the US, and several other countries. In recent weeks, grassroots Grant Road (W), Mumbai 400 007 R.N.I. NO. 1855/1957 20 JANATA, May 26, 2019 Postal Registration No. MCW/275/2018-2020. License to Post without prepayment WPP License No. MR/Tech/WPP-210/West/2019 Published on Sunday, May 26, 2019 & Posted on Wedenesday, May 29, 2019 at Mumbai Patrika Channel, Mumbai GPO-1

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Vol. 74 No. 19 Gandhi's Last Message June 2, 2019 Sudhir Chandra Is This My Vote? Anupam Saraph Reassurance That Isn’t Gandhi . . . had wanted to avoid humans from humans, by saving Apoorvanand the country’s partition. Failing their humanity for them? . . . Debate: Beware Glib Explanations for in that, he engaged himself in Gandhi’s helplessness was such Modi's Election Victory preventing the division of hearts, that he was reduced to admonishing Dilip Menon emphasising that even as the country everybody by turn because How the BJP’s Political Narrative Filled the Holes in the NDA's had been divided, the hearts must everybody was succumbing to the Actual Performance not be divided. Also knowing that prevailing frenzy. He knew, and was Arun Kumar if the hearts had not been divided, repeatedly saying so, that between Searching for Glimpses of Nehru in a the country could never have been the Hindus and Muslims [both of Parochial, Post-Nehruvian India divided and contending with this whom had become animals] for Avijit Pathak paradox, because he understood one to refrain from becoming an CO2 Levels Hit 415 PPM for First Time in 3 Million+ Years that neither India nor Pakistan stood animal is the only straight way to Jon Queally to gain in the absence of mutual get out of this violence. But no one Students from 1,600 Cities Protest friendship. Should one become hell, was ready to heed him, to refrain Climate Change the other can never be heaven. from becoming an animal. When Suyin Haynes Seventy years have since gone he admonished the Hindus and the Atomic Veterans Were Silenced for by. In the meantime, the division Sikhs, he was told to see what the 50 Years. Now, They’re Talking Emily Buder of hearts has perhaps deepened in Muslims in Pakistan were doing, both countries—across the border and also that the Muslims staying Editor : G. G. Parikh and within the border as well. on in India were traitors. Gandhi Associate Editor : Neeraj Jain People’s hearts have experienced would listen attentively and respond new divisions. Gandhi’s warning has publicly. But such had become Managing Editor : Guddi assumed greater relevance today as people’s mentality in the midst of Editorial Board : compared to earlier periods. that collective hysteria that Gandhi’s B. Vivekanandan, Qurban Ali But only if we are able to slightest concern for the Muslims Anil Nauriya, Sonal Shah see, which is not easy. And when seemed like outright favouritism to people cannot see, saying or doing the Hindus and Sikhs, and when he Amarendra Dhaneshwar, something to reach out to them criticised the Muslims or gave them Sandeep Pandey becomes that much more difficult. advice, he was disregarded. . . . D-15, Ganesh Prasad, Why was Gandhi running in his Gandhi laid stress on, along with Naushir Bharucha Marg, old age from pillar to post? To be humanity, civic responsibility in a Mumbai - 400 007. immortalised in history? To save democracy: the Hindus and the Sikhs from the Had man not become so ruthless Email : [email protected] Muslims? To save the Muslims from as to commit atrocities against his Website:www.janataweekly.org the Sikhs and the Hindus? Or to save brother, these thousands of men, 2 JANATA, June 2, 2019 women and innocent children [in courage in every way to take this How did Gandhi’s mind work? refugee camps] would not have rightful step, the refugee problem How could he visualise and project, been so helpless, and in many will become very easy to handle. in that impossible situation, the cases hungry . . . Was all of this Then not only Pakistan but the whole possibility of a humane beginning? inescapable? A strong voice came world will acknowledge their claims. Did he have any notion of the from within me: ‘No’. Is this the first They will save Delhi and India from impossible? fruit of a month of independence? . . disgrace and destruction. Was Gandhi’s desire plain . Have the citizens of Delhi become “Those who want justice will impossible? mad? Do they not have even a shred have to do justice.” This was not We must, each one of us, reflect of humanity left in them? Does mere idealism. Gandhi was providing on this question in our individual the love for their country and its a formula for a viable morality. ways. We must also reflect on how independence not appeal to them at In any civilised society, said that desire came so naturally to all? I may be forgiven for putting the Gandhi, if avenging ill-will is Gandhi. In that savage time, how blame primarily on the Hindus and considered proper, it can be done could he even think that, regardless the Sikhs. Can they not be worthy as so only through the agency of the of the happenings in Pakistan, humans to halt this tide of hatred? I government, certainly not through India’s Hindus and Sikhs would would strongly urge Delhi’s Muslims individual interventions. . . . recall the displaced Muslims, and to let go of their fear, put their trust Gandhi believed that if the safety do that with love and respect? If in God and surrender all their of the Muslims was assured in India, we could somehow understand this, firearms to the government. Because he would be able to go to Pakistan we would have little difficulty in the Hindus and the Sikhs are afraid and do a great deal for the minorities accepting that such an eventuality that the Muslims possess firearms, it there. . . . He said: would actually have made it possible does not mean that they do not have What shall we do about the for Gandhi to go to Pakistan and, weapons of their own. It is only a Muslims who have left? I have without dying, do much for the question of degree. Some may have stated that we will not bring them Hindus and Sikhs there. less, some more. To obtain justice, back right now. We will certainly If the law of action and reaction the minorities will either have to not bring them back by means of the drives human nature as powerfully depend on God or on the human police and military. We will bring as we think it does, the justice and created by Him, or they will have them back only when the Hindus and respect accorded to the Muslims in to depend on their guns, pistols and Sikhs tell them, you are our friends, India would surely have made an other weapons to protect themselves please return to your homes, you impression on the Muslim rulers and against those whom they do not trust. don’t require the military or police, people of Pakistan. This is not mere My advice is firm and we are your military, we are your logic. Take the change of attitude unchanging. Its truth is self-evident. police, all of us will live as brothers. towards Gandhi that the Muslims Have confidence in your government If we are able to accomplish this in demonstrated following his fast that it will protect every citizen from Delhi I assure you that our way will unto death in Calcutta. It provides those who commit injustice, no become absolutely clear in Pakistan. ground for supposing that if the matter how many more and superior And with that will commence a new condition of Muslims had improved weapons they may have . . . By their life. When I go to Pakistan I will not across the country, their attitude actions the people of Delhi will only let them off easily. I will die for the towards the common Hindus and make the task of seeking justice from Hindus and Sikhs there. I would be Sikhs, too, would have undergone a the Pakistan government difficult. happy to die there. I would be happy similar change. We shall see ahead Those who want justice will have to to die here, too. If what I say cannot that Gandhi’s fast unto death in do justice. They should be guiltless be achieved here, then I must die. Delhi was quite effective in creating and true. Let the Hindus and Sikhs That a new life should commence goodwill in Pakistan. take the rightful step and ask the was Gandhi’s desire. He was desiring The question was, as it invariably Muslims who have been chased out this amid the barbarity of 1947. It is in such human predicaments, of their homes to return. was either this or else a vow of self- whether anybody was willing to take If the Hindus and Sikhs have the annihilation. the initiative to break the vicious JANATA, June 2, 2019 3 cycle of action and reaction—the So dependent have we become on be impossible for us. initiative to stop being an animal. the armed forces for controlling Though not in its present The initiative of believing in communal conflagrations that our virulent form, the problem of the what Gandhi called the “effect of energies remain almost entirely communalisation of the armed decency”, and acting accordingly. focused on devising methods to make forces, the administration and the When an initiative towards those forces effective instruments for council of ministers was not entirely decency begins to seem impossible, maintaining social peace. absent in Gandhi’s time. In the what remains possible? What we have started believing discourse in which he expressed Only that the police will step to be possible—is that really the hope of the beginning of a new in and suppress the violence of possible? It is, perhaps, our limited life [18 September 1947], Gandhi citizens. In course of time, the and illusory idea of the possible that mentioned a “big complaint” that police too will be seized by the prevents us from accepting Gandhi’s had come to him: communalism that affects the idea of the possible. Our idea of the Our police and military, which citizens. Paramilitary forces will possible further prevents us from comprise Hindus, Sikhs, Christians then be created and pressed into seeing that what we believe to be and Gorkhas, are supposed to be action in such situations. They will possible is itself impossible. It is the protectors, but they have become also undergo a similar psychological problem, not the solution. predators instead. How true this transformation, causing the army Our inability to distinguish is I don’t know. But I want to to be summoned to maintain civil between the possible and the communicate to the policemen peace. How long will the troops impossible has, by and by, brought that they should be upright. I have remain untouched by communal us to a point where communal heard that in some places they rancour? Assuming that they do violence results not from the frenzy themselves have indulged in looting. remain unsullied, will the rulers of citizens alone but is orchestrated I was told today about an incident who are elected democratically by under the direction of a state’s in Connaught Place where the a society steeped in communalism popularly elected government. soldiers and policemen stationed call them out and leave them free to Where a coalition of political parties there started looting. Perhaps the do their work? ensconced in power at the centre information is false. But if there is These are not mere academic chooses to maintain a deafening an iota of truth in it then I would questions. Gandhi could not even silence on the misdeeds of that remind the police and the military think of employing the police or the state government. Where, not just that the days of the British are past. army as a solution to the problem in the immediate wake of that Then they could do as they pleased of communalism. Today our very violent frenzy but five years later as but today they are soldiers of India; first response is to want the army to well, in a comparatively restrained they must not become enemies of the be deployed to control communal atmosphere, the people of that state Muslims. When they are ordered to violence, even though we may later reward such misdeeds by re-electing protect them, they should protect talk about the need for far-reaching the same government to power with them. interventions. In fact, the question of a heavy majority. Gandhi’s hope of a new life, far-reaching interventions is nothing Gandhi used to emphasise a without which any democracy would more than an academic exercise basic principle: “A civilised society be inconceivable, has not become in the prevailing state of affairs. should not need the protection of any more possible in our public Indeed, the argument today is that guns to uphold fundamental rights.” life than it was in his lifetime. If the police, defence and other armed But here even guns are failing to anything, the relationship between forces, and administrative services protect the fundamental rights of the the possible and the impossible will, in the absence of adequate minorities—not just the Muslims— in the past 60 or more years has minority representation within and of the weaker sections of society. got inverted in much too vulgar a them, continue to be influenced They will remain unprotected so long manner. What Gandhi considered by majoritarian communalism as Gandhi’s possible—which is no possible—the practicability and and hence will be incapable of more than an essential requirement utility of which many of Gandhi’s discharging their duty honestly. of a democratic polity—continues to contemporaries, too, had begun to 4 JANATA, June 2, 2019 appreciate—has started appearing materialising. Two months later [21 a 100 mosques were vandalised— all but impracticable and impossible November 1947], he was obliged to temporarily—during the riots in today even as it seems useful and say in his prayer discourse: Delhi and there was similar—and necessary. On the other hand, we As per the information I have more lasting—destruction in other have made possible what to Gandhi received, about 137 mosques of parts of the country. But, Gandhi was inconceivable. Delhi have been virtually destroyed apart, even the collective conscience In the course of this inversion, in the recent riots. Some of them of the country had not surged with the good has been pushed in the have been turned into temples. One pride on account of those misdeeds. direction of the impossible, and the such mosque is near Connaught Many were seized by the hysteria bad has been made eminently viable. Place, which no one can escape of revenge then. Yet, there was For instance, the path of ahimsa, noticing. An Indian flag is flying within a feeling of shame, a feeling which Gandhi considered a difficult over it today. It has been turned that what had happened was not but the only straight and clear path, into a temple and an idol has been right. There was also a realisation has seemed increasingly impossible placed in it. To despoil mosques in that what Gandhi said was right. and impractical. There is another this manner is to put Hindu and Sikh There wasn’t that ideological aspect of this inversion which can be religions to shame. In my opinion fervour which, forgetting Gandhi’s understood through a remark made this goes against every tenet of simple question—“will you raze in the same discourse [18 September religion. . . . The magnitude of this the mosques”, today honours the 1947]. Referring to the Muslims act cannot be mitigated by saying destroyers of mosques as supreme who had fled their homes and sought that Muslims in Pakistan have also well-wishers of Hindu religion and refuge in Delhi’s relief camps as well despoiled Hindu temples or turned the Indian nation (the two being as those who had gone to Pakistan them into mosques. In my view, any inseparable); rewards and enthrones out of fear, Gandhi said: such act would destroy the Hindu them; or renders them incapable of The world’s largest mosque, the religion, the Sikh religion and Islam. grasping Gandhi’s warning: “If we Jama Masjid, is situated here. What The situation went from bad raze their sacred sites, we too will will happen to this mosque if we kill to worse. Twenty days later, in the be obliterated.” most of the Muslims, and the ones month of December 1947, Gandhi Gandhi’s fear ran very deep. who survive go to Pakistan driven said: If the worsening situation was not by fear? Will you send the mosque to I hear speeches are being brought under immediate control, it Pakistan or raze it or convert it into given—I will not disclose the names would have inconceivably dangerous a Shiva temple? Suppose that some right away for all the particulars consequences. His idea of control, as Hindu presumes to build a Shiva have not come to me as yet—that we have seen, did not mean keeping temple there or the Sikhs consider only a few Muslims remain here communal violence under check by building a gurudwara there. That, if and they will not be allowed to stay whatever means possible. It was you ask me, would be but an attempt on. Whatever mosques remain will imperative to change people’s way to bury the Hindu and Sikh religions. be occupied for Hindus to live in of thinking. So, determined to do or Religion cannot be preserved this them. What they will do next, God die, Gandhi devoted every moment way. alone knows, I do not . . . We are of his to reason with the people. Gandhi has no more than an committing acts of destruction. Gandhi reached Delhi on 9 inkling of the kind of presumption Gandhi really did not know. September. For three months he that he cautions against, warning that Who knows if God did? We do did everything he could, but the this would destroy religion itself, not know. Now. ‘atmosphere’ of Delhi did not just the Hindu or Sikh religion. He Gandhi was seized by an change. Finally, he was convinced was afraid that, forgetting the essence unimaginable fear. We have that the time to ‘die’ had arrived. . . . of religion under the impact of made possible what for him was Gandhi commenced his fast unto communal frenzy, people—average unimaginable. It has taken us a little death on 13 January 1948. Hindus and Sikhs—might actually over 40 years to turn into a virtue (Excerpted from historian Sudhir translate their vain presumption into what to Gandhi and his time was Chandra’s book, Gandhi: An public action. His fears soon started reprehensible. Granted, more than Impossible Possibility.) JANATA, June 2, 2019 5 Is This My Vote?

Anupam Saraph

Electronic voting machines imitating instructions was not a legitimate voters and were all meant (EVMs) are magic machines sufficient condition to conclude that for the candidate. that convert candidates into machines were intelligent or that Currently no EVM can establish representatives. This magic depends they could think. He required ones that the meaning in votes is unaltered on the number of votes counted on that are challenged with questions to and that every vote cast is genuine the EVM as having been cast in have the ability to establish meaning and counted in favour of the favour of a candidate. Candidates in order to declare that they could candidate it was meant for. and people accepting the EVM count think. Searle devised a test called the Like the voting test, neither the as a representation of the people’s Chinese Room Test to demonstrate Turing test nor the Searle test can mandate depends on their trust in the ability of a machine to respond recognise different responses at EVMs. to questions in Chinese on the basis different times or non-deterministic The trust in the EVM’s ability of a script and rules and thereby responses. At most, such seeming to capture votes and count them illustrate that the machine still had randomness, if recognised at all, correctly comes from the conviction no means to establish the meaning may be taken for intelligence. The that the polling agents of various of the questions or answers. assumption is that there is nothing political parties participate in a While Searle may not have that can alter the response from time mock election conducted by the provided a test for intelligence, he to time. presiding officer in each voting undisputedly demonstrated that Joseph Weizenbaum, Professor booth. The mock election is meant the inability to distinguish between at the Massachusetts Institute of to demonstrate that the tally of votes the responses of a machine and a Technology and one of the fathers of cast in favour of the candidates human was insufficient to establish modern artificial intelligence, created by each polling agent is reflected intelligence. ELIZA3, an early natural language correctly on counting. This voting What would undisputedly processing computer program, to test, in other words, declares a establish the ability of a machine demonstrate the superficiality of machine to be capable of capturing to capture votes and count them communication between humans votes correctly if it is impossible correctly? and machines. The response of to distinguish between results ELIZA to human interaction varied declared after a manual counting of The meaning of a vote to the same question, giving it votes recorded on paper and after a The meaning of a vote lies in it the appearance of being human. counting by the machine. being cast by a real voter and then Weizenbaum established how a The voting test is eerily similar being counted for the candidate it simple set of instructions can allow to the test of machine intelligence was intended for. The meaning of a the machine to respond differently devised by Alan Turing, the vote is altered by allowing it to be to the same question. founding father of computer science. cast by a non-existent voter or by According to the Turing test, a counting it as a vote for an unintended Auditing the code machine will be declared intelligent candidate. To demonstrate that an Without auditing the code of a if an interrogator cannot distinguish EVM can capture votes and count computer program, it is foolhardy to between the responses of a machine them correctly, it will have to allow assess the behaviour of a computer and a human challenged with similar the voter to verify that his/her vote program. The program embedded in questions. [1] has not only been counted but the chips of the EVM is not available John Searle, Professor Emeritus counted for his/her candidate. It will in the public domain. It is therefore of Philosophy at the University of have to allow candidates and voters impossible for anyone to inspect it California Berkeley, challenged to verify that the votes polled by a and certify its behaviour. There is the Turing test [2], asserting that candidate were all cast by real and no third-party audit of the program 6 JANATA, June 2, 2019 supplied for embedding into the chip makers build backdoors[6] coded results of the entire Lok Sabha chips and the one that is embedded for future exploitation of hardware. election on its website a good 10 into the chips. Unsurprisingly, Unfortunately, there is no way of days before voting was over.[13] there is a petition seeking an audit guaranteeing that chips have not This led Subramanian Swamy to of the source code pending before been tampered with. Experts note petition the courts for EVMs that the Supreme Court. To complicate that as few as 1,000 transistors in had Voter Verified Paper Audit Trails matters even more, this program a chip could cause them to do a lot (VVPATs). Hundreds of candidates is embedded into the chips by of “very interesting” things with across India have cried foul over vendors outside India [4], and the extra transistors. If the rogue EVMs when the machines appear Electronics Corporation of India transistors, or transistors that are to have favoured their opponents. Limited and Bharat Electronics not part of the original design, are Even political parties have not Limited only assemble the EVMs. programmed to respond to a specific demonstrated trust when they have In a meeting I had in August 2009 512-bit sequence of numbers, you suffered and have forgotten the with the then Chairman of the might have to cycle through every unfairness once they are in power. Technical Committee of the Election possible numerical combination of Behind closed doors, they are Commission of India and the then 512-bit sequences to discover the familiar with the technical details Election Commissioners, they rogue code, using software testing. of hacking EVMs in a block where confirmed that they had not used any Surveillance cameras[7] across their opponents have more support. mechanism besides the voting test to the world have been recognised as It is little surprise, therefore, that a verify that the EVM was running the easy targets for hackers.[8] These 2011 Report of the National Institute program supplied by them. can also work in tandem with other of Standards and Technology found In March 2017, WikiLeaks devices in their proximity to regulate that voter-marked paper ballots are disclosed that “the CIA [Central rogue chips. Security experts say the only way to securely record and Intelligence Agency] lost control of maintenance, repair businesses, preserve voter intent.[14] the majority of its hacking arsenal and subcontractors may also pose a By now it should be obvious including malware, viruses, trojans, greater danger to hacking hardware. that like any machine subjected to weaponised ‘zero day’ exploits, [9] Even missile systems have the Turing or Searle test, an EVM malware remote control systems been hacked remotely due to such subject to the voting test can be and associated documentation. This vulnerabilities.[10] programmed to work differently at extraordinary collection, which “Even if most voting machines different times, either triggered by amounts to more than several aren’t connected to the Internet,” a stimulus, internal programming or hundred million lines of code, says the cybersecurity expert Jeremy simply by randomness. The machine gives its possessor the entire hacking Epstein[11], “they are connected passing the voting test is no evidence capacity of the CIA. The archive to something that’s connected to of its inability to generate votes appears to have been circulated something that’s connected to the on its own or to not count votes in among former US government Internet.” Adds Alex Halderman, a favour of one candidate over votes hackers and contractors in an computer scientist at the University for another. unauthorised manner, one of of Michigan: “Before every election, Consider the likelihood that you whom has provided WikiLeaks the voting machines have to be will deposit money in a machine that with portions of the archive. The programmed with the design of is demonstrated to accept money to a malware includes ‘software that the ballots—what are the races, particular bank account in a test, but enables hackers to remotely control who are the candidates.”[12] The it does not issue any receipt of the a compromised device—are “very, programming is usually done on a transaction and neither does it have very complex”’.”[5] The malware computer in a central election office the possibility of an audit to verify also includes code that can be or by an outside vendor. that the deposits not only went to the implanted in devices not connected correct account but also that they did to the Internet by using thumb drives VVPATs not get altered. Why should you do or other devices. In 2009, I reported to the Election any differently with your vote that is It is also widely known that Commission of India the presence of a blank cheque to not just your tax JANATA, June 2, 2019 7 money but also to your rights? an audit trail of votes cast on an booth VVPATs for counting would EVMs do not provide voters EVM. The VVPAT is an audit trail be poor to certify that the control with a receipt of the vote they assuming each voter has verified the units have counted the correct votes. cast. It is a huge leap of faith that vote printed by the VVPAT EVM. That said, the VVPAT itself does the machine not only allocated If the printouts are voter-verified not satisfy the Auditability test. the vote to the candidate intended votes, they can be counted to verify The Auditability test requires the by the voter but also allowed the the votes counted from the control EVM to allow voters to verify that same vote to be counted for the units of EVMs. The control units their vote has not only been counted same candidate. Given the stakes, would have counted correctly if the but counted for their candidate electoral malpractices are rampant. VVPAT votes match. even after it is cast. Voters have no The Election Commission has To confirm that the votes counted means to confirm verification of the not simplified voting; it has made across EVMs by the control unit are printout shown to them. The printout the simple process of making a the same as those counted by the is merely a paper vote, it is not a choice extremely complex, drawing VVPAT, the votes polled for each voter-verified vote. The voter has attention away from the ability candidate on the control unit and no recourse to cancel or object to of the vote to be counted to the in the paper trail should not be an incorrect printout without facing paraphernalia of elections. This is statistically different. To determine disproportionate penalties and no almost like the magician or thief who this, statisticians compare the means to demonstrate the stealing of distracts the attention of people from votes counted from a sample of the votes. The term VVPAT is therefore what they are really doing in order to EVMs using both the methods. The incorrect. There is no means to perform magic and trickery. question is, how many comparisons establish that voter verification will establish confidence that their happened. Auditability test choice of EVM was not biased or The Auditability test also There is no certainty unless the just a fortuitous one? requires that voters or candidates EVM passes the “Auditability” test. A good deal about choosing the can verify that the votes polled by The Auditability test will need the number of EVMs to count depends a candidate were all cast by real EVM to allow voters to verify that on the variability expected between and legitimate voters and were all their vote has not only been counted the EVMs. Each EVM or booth has meant for the candidate. The printout but counted for their candidate even demographically high variation or of the VVPAT does not have any after it is cast. It will have to allow could be homogeneous. For example, means of authenticating itself as a the voter or candidate to verify that because of their demographic make- voter-verified or genuine vote. It the votes polled by a candidate up, some polling booths could is quite possible that the counted were all cast by real and legitimate be expected to be favouring one printouts from VVPAT were not voters and were all meant for the candidate over another. In case of the ones printed during the voting. candidate. This will necessitate high variability, a larger number of The printouts can neither establish providing voters either a receipt booths will need to be compared that they were cast by legitimate or a vote “account”, like a bank for VVPAT and control unit counts. voters nor that they were cast for account, whose “balance” they can There was an average of 1,708 EVMs the candidate they indicate. The verify. This will also require the in every parliamentary constituency printouts from the VVPAT are not ability to audit the votes deposited in in 2014. While each EVM can counted by any third-party auditor. each candidate’s account and verify store 3,840 votes, an average of The same entity that has counted them as having been generated by a 904 voters were assigned to cast the votes on the control unit counts genuine voter, and not spontaneously votes on every EVM during the the VVPAT. This is bad auditing by the program itself, and having 2014 election. This means a greater practice. been meant for the candidate. variability was introduced between For the Auditability test to work, Subramanian Swamy’s petition booths than necessary. Typically voters will need a receipt or a to the courts resulted in EVMs that for constituencies that have 1,708 passbook entry that their vote has were called EVMs with VVPAT. The EVMs and high variability in booth been deposited to the account of the VVPAT was introduced to create voting, a choice of less than 200 candidate. They will need the ability 8 JANATA, June 2, 2019 to verify, any time, that the Election confidence in the US electoral constitutional promise of protecting Commission records still have the system and affect the outcome of the sovereignty, democracy and the same entry as in their passbook. US presidential election.[17] republic. This defines national Hacking elections to steal them Elizabeth Warren told CNN that interest. Representative politics has is unfortunately widespread across the 2016 Democratic Party primary evidently become more concerned the world. The use of electronics has was rigged.[18] Interestingly, an with majoritarianism and winning made it easier, not more difficult, to analysis of US Democratic Party elections rather than protecting hack into elections as such hacks primaries with or without paper public and national interests. are difficult to detect. The 2006 trails shows a voter preference As pointed out by Prof. Lawrence Robin Williams starrer Man of the for Bernie Sanders over Hillary Lessig of Harvard Law School, Year is the story of the United States Clinton wherever the paper trail our choice of representatives has presidential elections being fixed was used, casting a shadow on the already been hijacked by those, like by EVMs. While we have focussed lack of transparency of electronic political parties and their anonymous only on EVMs, it is important to voting.[19] According to the donors, who choose and restrict recognise that strategies to steal Electronic Privacy Information the candidates we can vote for.[22] an election combine the use of Centre, “investigations undertaken In the process we have forgotten electronics not just for the casting of by private security firms, apart from that democracy is not about voting votes but also for deciding who can the FBI, indicate that the attacks on or winning an election but about cast votes, which votes get counted, the 2016 US presidential election participation in decision-making to who gets to be a candidate, who gets also threaten democratic institutions protect public interest and national to reach out to voters and also what in other countries”.[20] interest. We urgently need better messages get seen by whom. The Channel 4 secretly filmed the ways to provide equity in decision- Election Commission of India has managing director of Cambridge making than to simply leave it to demonstrated naivete if not ignorance Analytica’s political division Mark “elected” representatives. Counting in asserting that electronics makes Turnbull and the chief executive votes on EVMs or fighting to save elections unhackable.[15] Alexander Nix boasting about EVMs certainly does not help us to tampering with over 200 elections accomplish that. Undermining people’s voices around the world, in places like Sri The multiple ways in which Lanka, Nigeria, India and Argentina. (Anupam Saraph is Future Designer electronics undermines people’s [21] and Professor, Symbiosis Institute voices in elections was evidenced of Computer Studies and Research, in the 2016 US presidential election. Gloomy future Pune.) According to the Federal The future of trusting the vote Bureau of Investigation (FBI), in the machine is dull, dark and References Russia allegedly took advantage of gloomy. Machine readable ballots 1. Turing, Alan (1950): Mind, Volume the many online vulnerabilities in are a possible way that provide LIX, Issue 236, pp 433–460, October 1, https://doi.org/10.1093/ US’ voting network to control the auditability. mind/LIX.236.433 2016 presidential election.[16] The By defending the EVMs 2. Searle, John. R. (1980): “Minds, voting network that was allegedly needlessly, the Election Commission Brains, and Programs”, Behavioral compromised includes software has neglected its mission of protecting and Brain Sciences, 3 (3): 417–457, companies, online registration sites the representation of people. https://www.law.upenn.edu. and vital information that election Democracy has apparently given way 3. Weizenbaum, Joseph (1966): “ELIZA—A Computer Program officials willingly send to each other to majoritarianism of representative for the Study of Natural Language over email. The hack reportedly politics. Representation cannot Communication Between Man and affected 39 States, twice as many as be about majoritarianism but Machine”, Commun. ACM 9 (1), pp were originally reported. According about delivering the constitutional 36-45, January1966, http://dx.doi. to the CIA, the FBI and the National promise of justice, equality, liberty org. 4. http://eci.nic.in/eci_main1/current/ Security Agency, they had evidence and fraternity. This defines public FAQ-English14012017.pdf of Russian efforts to undermine interest. It is about delivering the 5. https://wikileaks.org/ciav7p1/? JANATA, June 2, 2019 9

6. “The Hunt for the Kill Switch”, May 1, 2008, https://spectrum.ieee.org. Reassurance That Isn’t 7. “Surveillance Cameras Made by China Are Hanging All Over the Apoorvanand U.S.”, November 12, 2017, https:// www.wsj.com 8. Ibid. Commenting on Prime Minister Hindu majority. It is the catholicity, 9. “Counterfeit Chips Raise Big Narendra Modi’s victory speech, The diversity and openness of Hinduism Hacking, Terror Threats, Experts Say”, October 1, 2009, https:// Indian Express wrote: “In his speech which has made secularism the most www.popularmechanics.com. in Central Hall in Parliament on natural state-principle in India. 10. “German Missiles 'hacked By Saturday, the first after being elected Returning to the immediate Foreign Source'”, July 8, 2015, leader of the BJP-led NDA, Prime context of the PM’s speech, it was http://www.newsweek.com. Minister Narendra Modi struck a only right that the rest of the editorial 11. “If Voting Machines Were Hacked, heartening note of magnanimity. explained that the feeling of fear and Would Anyone Know?”, June 14, 2017, https://www.npr.org. Among other things, he said the new persecution among minorities was 12. Ibid. government would make efforts to not a product of their imagination. 13. “How Secure Are India’s earn the trust of minorities, and of While it is right to ask Modi to rein Elections?”, May 14, 2014, https:// those who disagree (with the BJP– in his leaders, and also mind his www.huffingtonpost.com. NDA). He urged the newly elected tongue, it would have been better if 14. https://www.elections. virginia.gov/Files/Media/ MPs to puncture the ‘myth’ or he was reminded of his own words Agendas/2017/20170908BWP.pdf. illusion of fear among the country’s after his first victory in 2014. Even 15. http://eci.nic.in/eci_main1/current/ minorities . . . these are statements that time, he was magnanimous to FAQ-English14012017.pdf of inclusive intent.” (“Weight of the minorities in intent. Was that 16. “Russia Hacked Voting Systems words”, IE, May 27.) translated into action? in 39 States Before the 2016 The editorial rightly asserted that Should it take a faraway voice Presidential Election”, June 13, 2017, https://www.vox.com. we need more to be reassured. This to tell us that the leader himself 17. “Russia Election Hacking: implies that such statements should was the source of fear and also Everything We Know About be backed by actions. Yet, the word the justifier of the persecution of US Investigations into Alleged “magnanimous” was particularly minorities, especially the Muslims? Interference”, May 18, 2017, hurtful and cruel. Assurance of Did he not lead his ministers and https://www.independent.co.uk. inclusion to the minorities is not an members of his party in making 18. “Elizabeth Warren Agrees Democratic Race 'Rigged' for act of large-heartedness in a secular the Muslims figures of hate? Did Clinton”, November 3, 2017, democracy. It is not something he not make them the other that the https://www.bbc.com. granted to them by the majority. It Hindus should dread? It was not just 19. https://drive.google.com/file/ pertains to rights that flow from the the desperation of electioneering d/0B6mLpCEIGEYGY l9RZWFR Constitution—and not the intent which drove him towards it. The past cmpsZk0/view?pref=2&pli=1 of the rulers. The use of the word, five years bear ample proof that it 20. https://epic.org/ foia/fbi/russian - hacking/ “magnanimous” cannot be ascribed was he and his party president who to carelessness or a lapse of attention. instigated the desire to dominate One would like to believe that the among the Hindus. Who, after Spectre of word was used to convey irony, since all, were to be dominated? It it expresses the state of helplessness was not only his silence on the Fascism of those who believe in secular hate crimes against Muslims and Contribution Rs. 20/- principles in India—we are expected Christians but his incitement for to be thankful or grateful to those Hindu mobilisation, which was Published by being generous to us. Is this not what most threatening to the minorities. Janata Trust & Lokayat the minorities have been told all This includes the scaremongering D-15, Ganesh Prasad, along? Not only by the RSS but even in Gujarat about Muslims during the Naushir Bharucha Marg, by well-intentioned people who hold assembly elections in 2017. Grant Road (W), Mumbai 400 007 that India is secular because of its The Muslims are thus allowed 10 JANATA, June 2, 2019 to vote but not aspire to lead. It is Modi is a master of the art are contrary to the Constitutional the pleasure of the majority Hindus of deception. Or, it would be values. Therefore, we have no reason they should try to earn. This is more correct to say that he is to applaud his patronising words the message that the first Modi both transparent and crude in his now. The minorities have survived regime has effectively conveyed to deceptive acts. It is actually the the worst phase of their existence Muslims: they need to follow the media and analysts who are looking in Independent India. The question rules framed by the Hindu majority, for ways to justify him. Or is it now is whether the republic itself that too in the language framed the popular mandate that inhibits will survive another five years under by the BJP and its affiliates. More us in calling him by his name? the same leadership. So, it would than physical violence, it is this Do we disrespect the people when be our duty to keep calling people feeling of being dominated and we say that the leader they have by their names and not clothe them disciplined by a patron, which is chosen has been violating the oath in words which express our pious humiliating to the Muslims. It is he has taken in the name of the wishes. unacceptable that Hindus—however Constitution? Sadly, the last stint (The writer teaches Hindi at Delhi largehearted—should be the big of Modi proved that his instincts University.) brothers of Muslims. Mahatma Gandhi had asserted that Muslims are not the vassals of Debate: Beware Glib Explanations for Hindus. It was this insistence of the Modi's Election Victory Mahatma that led to his murder. We must not forget this foundational Dilip Menon principle of the Indian republic. It is this principle which has been Indian elections are preceded was about the personality of Modi; repeatedly violated not just under the by predictions such as either X that the BJP campaign had been run watch of PM Modi but he himself is will win with a majority, or Y will like a presidential campaign; that a repeat offender in this respect. win with a majority. If neither gets the Congress and “liberals” were Modi has also maligned and a majority they will team up with not disciplined enough to create an criminalised the language of other parties. It is also possible that election machine, and so on. rights—the language which human X or Y may get less votes than they Increasingly, there is the idea rights workers tried to use while thought. This mindless psephology being put around that Modi won combating his majoritarian project. finds its counterpart in post factor because India identifies with him. He denigrated them as five-star stocktaking in which intellectuals This is wisdom after the fact, since activists and called them the Khan and columnists work backwards to before and during the elections, Market gang, while his ministers show that the election results were farmers marches, diatribes about hounded them by calling them the inevitable and provide arguments of demonetisation, public hilarity tukde tukde gang. much sophistry and sophistication. about the photo-op prime minister One sometimes feels that we It was only a misguided few and the unprecedented spike in are so embarrassed about the prime or those who live in the eternal stand-up comedy routines about minister that we try to live in denial. sunshine of the thoughtless mind Modi indicated that there was much We tend to believe that the leader who believed that the Bharatiya skepticism both about the person and does have noble intents but is Janata Party would not win the 2019 his policies. troubled by his unruly followers. We Lok Sabha elections. It was always a In a post-election column for ignore that it is he who follows the question of the margin of victory. The the Indian Express, one of our most lumpens. It is he who fashions and results have surprised everyone; not astute public intellectuals, Pratap instigates the majoritarian instinct in only the majority that the National Bhanu Mehta, has expressed the the Hindus. So, much more than his Democratic Alliance commands in view that “All our normal categories followers, it is Modi who needs to parliament, but the decimation of of political analysis and statistical be watched for his words and actions the Congress. There has been much jugglery come to nought when they and held accountable at each step. ink spilt since on how this election are faced with Narendra Modi.” To JANATA, June 2, 2019 11 use the BJP’s supercharged Hindu science establishment. This desire a discourse of rights, equality and vocabulary, Modi is a brahmastra, that caste will softly and silently governance which has been realised he is the visvaroop of Vishnu in the vanish away has been with us since in substantial measure. face of which all words succumb and independence, connected as much It remains to be seen whether the so on. This is neither here nor there. with Marxist misunderstandings BJP can transform its parliamentary The inability of a person to analyse of caste as merely a mystification mandate and bring a measure of a phenomenon does not mean that of class, as much as the belief of economic progress and social the phenomenon is in itself beyond an upper caste establishment that justice to the historically backward rational explanation. Otherwise, all affirmative action was a needless states where it has largely won. our social science students would challenge to the idea of inscrutable Or whether we have another five get away with a mere sense of awe merit. years ahead of a degeneration of before questions. What is clear is that the near the public sphere, attacks on Dalits Mehta offers three ineffable extinction of the Left in Bengal has and Muslims, and an erosion of postulates: first, that Modi “is the to do with the internal dynamics institutions which are portrayed only purest distillation of the idea of of Hindu bhadralok politics in the within a retrograde vocabulary of politics” – a 100% proof single region as much as the bleeding of sickularism and libtardness. Modi malt in the face of country liquor; CPI(M) cadres and votes to the and Amit Shah have shown what is second, that “he has fully grasped BJP in the face of the Trinamool possible through a radical recasting the potential of a dangerous idea in Congress’s prior destruction of an of grassroots organisation and of democracy”—quite unlike amateurs elite Left politics which had been working diligently at the local level. like Golwalkar and Savarkar before Hindu in all but name. This is what the Congress and the him, Modi is the fulfilment of all Again, the destruction of the Left did. Once. It’s probably time to that went before him; and finally, SP and BSP in Uttar Pradesh had to do so again, before the apocalypse. that “he has crafted a way of being do with the particular form of the everywhere”—he is ubiquitous politics of patronage and corruption (Dilip Menon is Mellon Chair in like brahman, he “colonises our and not a rejection of caste politics Indian Studies and Director, Centre imaginations”. This febrile prose, as such. It remains to be seen as for Indian Studies in Africa at the which suggests that Modi is ineffable to what new form of caste politics University of the Witwatersrand in essence as much as corporeal will emerge in UP. Hindutva has Johannesburg, South Africa.) politician is startling. triumphed not in some final and eternal sense, but conjuncturally, A landscape of corrupt midgets given the rotten state of politics in Janata Subscription Such discourse becomes the states where it won and was possible in a political landscape expected to win. Not Odisha; not Annual Rs. : 260/- of corrupt midgets, with the likes Kerala; not Punjab; not Andhra of Digvijay Singh, Mayawati, Pradesh; not Tamil Nadu. That the Three Years : 750/- Mulayam Singh, Sharad Pawar BJP won in the BIMARU states Demand Draft / and so on. There has also been a where development has been a Cheque on triumphalism regarding what is chimera for over 70 years is not being seen as the “decimation” unsurprising. Mumbai Bank of the Left, in which the story of While there has been much chest- in favour of Bengal has been conflated with that thumping about vikas, swacchata of Kerala—where the BJP has not and so on, it is clear that in the states Janata Trust secured even one seat. where there has been governance It is also being put about and development, the BJP has little D-15, Ganesh Prasad, that this victory is the end of to offer except its Hindu rhetoric. Naushir Bharucha Marg, the identitarian politics of caste, Both in Tamil Nadu and Kerala, Grant Road (W), that bugbear of upper caste BJP the struggle against caste from the Mumbai 400 007. supporters as much as of our social early 20th century has produced 12 JANATA, June 2, 2019 How the BJP’s Political Narrative Filled the Holes in the NDA's Actual Performance

Arun Kumar

The Bharatiya Janata Party It is clear that a political narrative foreign dignitaries becomes a (BJP)—and more than that, Narendra can either emerge or be created that symbol of India’s growing external Modi—has come back with a larger diverts the attention of the public clout and is more important than the mandate than what it was given by from the critical issues facing the content of the relationship with those India’s voters in 2014. country. Modi has managed to nations. Obama’s chiding Modi for At one level, this is remarkable do that by focusing on muscular a deteriorating communal climate is given the economic distress all nationalism. This trumped the key less important than his hug. Trump’s around, which should have led to issues of youth unemployment, the praise is more important than the a strong anti-incumbency and a farmer crisis and growing alienation spoke he has put in our relationship decline in the saffron party’s votes. of minorities. with Iran and the impact it will have The mandate is, in part, a reflection In media interviews and ground on our energy security. of short-term politics trumping the reports, many of the poor said yes The well-being of people is longer term issues facing the nation. they were hurting but when the not just economic but has political This is not the first time that this nation is in danger that is more and social features which may be has happened in India. important. more important, depending on the In 1984, after Indira Gandhi was Many, believing that the nation situation. Slogans that have a ring assassinated, her son came to power is in danger, wanted a strong leader with the public have often mattered with a majority that even Nehru and Modi projected himself as just more than the issues. So, garibi hatao never had. In 1991, when Rajiv that. If the threat was from Pakistan, became a big pull. Now it is nation Gandhi was assassinated between it was easy to consolidate the Hindu in danger. the two rounds of elections, the vote. Finally, the opposition was When one’s own life is precarious vote share of Congress dramatically projected as a rag-tag grouping due to economic hardship, it is easy increased in the second round. It without a common strong leader— to believe that the nation is in danger. came to power as the single largest so, there was no alternative (TINA). Modi’s two big economic party with P.V. Narasimha Rao The BJP also strongly pushed the actions—demonetisation and the becoming prime minister. narrative that nothing had happened Goods and Services (GST) regime— In 1984, the big issue in the last 65 years and all gains in were projected as being inherently confronting the nation was the the country were achieved in the nationalistic. Demonetisation was separatist movement in Punjab. last 5 years. said to be a mahayagya for the nation How voting massively for Rajiv in which everyone had to give ahuti Gandhi—a reluctant politician, with Missing the forest for the trees by bearing hardships. A parallel was little experience of politics and the It’s often easy to think of the drawn between jawans standing at issues at hand—would solve the immediate and not the long-term. the border and people standing in problem was not of concern to the An immediate retaliation against queues at the banks. voters. Pakistan is seen as more important GST was projected as a new Similarly, for the 1991 elections, than having a nuanced foreign freedom and unification of the nation. the critical issue was a sinking policy which serves the wider But ultimately, these nationalistic economy. Many voters who were long-term national interest. For a issues were hardly used in the not voting for the Congress suddenly majority, India’s isolation in the election campaign as they sparked shifted allegiance to that party neighbourhood and an ineffective crises in the unorganised sector of because its leader was assassinated. foreign policy vis a vis China matter India’s economy. The critical issue at hand became little. Indeed, these economic shocks immaterial. Instead, the bear hug with were neatly sidestepped. At the JANATA, June 2, 2019 13 time of the Uttar Pradesh elections economy, rising unemployment and inadequate and the fiscal deficit was soon after demonetisation, people a farm crisis. This has meant a loss likely to rise. willingly accepted their hardship of Rs 25 lakh crore in incomes in the There was a rush to give the because they felt that it was done to unorganised sectors of the economy first tranche of Rs 2,000 before tackle the menace of black economy. in the last two and a half years. the announcement of the elections They believed that the rich and the Firstly, there was partial but only about 10% of the farmers poor had been brought into the same compensation for this loss through could be identified and given queue and those with black money schemes like Ujjwala, Mudra and the first tranche. Its various state had been hurt and irretrievably Swachh Bharat, whose aim was governments offered loan waivers to damaged. They felt that justice had to primarily build rural assets, but farmers. Allocation to MGNREGS been done. This narrative changed whose implementation has not been was jacked up to Rs 60,000 crore to when it was realized that all the the best. provide work in rural areas. money had come back to the Reserve The messaging around the All these steps were taken even Bank of India and none of the black different programmes was excellent. though many of them go against the money was demobilised. So, in the The BJP in particular did a good job economic and social rhetoric that the national elections this issue could of publicizing them, though many BJP often deploys. not be used. Similarly, GST had of the schemes were not new and The crisis many poor Indians hurt the economy with hundreds of merely continued the efforts of past faced due to economic shocks also changes in the last 22 months and governments. opened them to the idea of a nation could not be used as an issue of For instance, rural electrification in crisis, caused by outside forces or nationalism. has been going on for the last 70 the ‘other’ in society. If these two issues had years. Before this government took These immediate issues have been highlighted, especially as over, electricity had reached 6.3 lakh taken precedence over long-term nationalistic moves, it would have villages. Modi’s government added ones. Building a harmonious society backfired upon the BJP. What another 20,000 villages but tried to becomes secondary to defending came in handy was the Pulwama portray as if they had electrified all one’s faith and imposing one’s and Balakot incidents. The first villages in the country. beliefs on the other. The other is reflected the danger confronting the These schemes, however, did not projected as a source of trouble and nation and the second highlighted give the BJP a significant advantage must be subjugated. a muscular response establishing in the recent 2018 assembly elections India is not alone in this trend of Modi’s credentials as a strong where it lost. Even in specific by- short-term trumping the long term. leader. People forgave or did not elections in Uttar Pradesh, the BJP It is visible globally in the election recall Modi’s unscheduled stop in lost. The question then becomes why of Trump, vote for Brexit, rise of Le Pakistan to greet Nawaz Sharif or these schemes yield dividends in Pen in France, decline of popularity the invitation to ISI after the terrorist the national elections but not in the of Angela Merkel, rise of Erdogan attack in Pathankot. Modi repeatedly assembly elections? in Turkey, what is happening to referred to martyrs of Pulwama and That Pulwama and Balakot the ANC in South Africa or to Suu invoked Balakot to appeal to the turned the tide in favour of the Kyi in Myanmar, changes in Egypt, voters. He asked the first-time voters saffron party is clear from the fact Brazil, Philippines and so on. Modi to vote for the men who executed the that there was some amount of is in step with this global trend. surgical strike (meaning his party). panic within the BJP till these events But India is far more heterogenous occurred. For instance, to overcome than any of the countries mentioned On the economic front the perceived anti-incumbency, above and needs a far more nuanced f there was economic distress in the budget on February 1, the approach to its problems—will this at various levels, how was this government offered Rs 6,000 per now happen? contained? We know that India’s annum to 12 crore farmers, pension poorest were hit by the two big to the unorganised sectors workers, (Arun Kumar is Malcolm Adiseshiah shocks to the economy which led to and tax concessions to the middle chair professor, Institute of Social a decline in the growth rate of the class—even though revenues were Sciences.) 14 JANATA, June 2, 2019 Searching for Glimpses of Nehru in a Parochial, Post-Nehruvian India

Avijit Pathak [May 27 is the death anniversay of Jawaharlal Nehru. This article is being published courtesy The Wire.]

India was in my blood and there was much in her that instinctively thrilled me. And yet I approached her almost as an alien critic, full of dislike for the present as well as for many of the relics of the past that I saw. To some extent I came to her via the West, and looked at her as a friendly Westerner might have done. I was eager and anxious to change her outlook and appearance and give her the garb of modernity. And yet doubts arose within me. Did I know India? Jawaharlal Nehru, The Discovery of India

May 27, 1964: I was a student of of the day. The spectacular victory point in human thinking through Class II, and my father told me about of Rajiv Gandhi notwithstanding, the the discourses of Marx, Freud and the demise of Jawaharlal Nehru. It Congress system was falling apart. Darwin, liberal philosophy, and was a small sleepy town in West Coalition politics, the rise of regional above all, the method of Marxian Bengal, and even as a small child I forces, the blooming of identity historical method and socialist could feel the moment of mourning markers as part of Machiavellian experimentations—Nehru embraced and sadness all around. However, calculations, and the normalisation the spirit of modernity. everything moves, and with the of corruption and scams—it was Yet, his modernity was subtle, passage of clock time I too grew clear that the political realm had with a deep sense of humility and up, and experienced many political/ become increasingly separated from wonder. This possibly led him to historical transformations. Gandhi’s conscience and Nehru’s ‘discover’ India. In a way a careful The grandness of Nehru—say, vision. And now as my hair is reader of The Discovery of India the visual depiction of Nehru with turning grey I see yet another twist would agree that it was the story of Nasser and Tito generating the spirit in our political history—the unholy a romantic (yet critical) engagement of non-alignment; or Nehru with a alliance of neoliberal economics between a modern mind and an old red rose pinned close to his heart and the social conservatism of civilisation like ours with its many hoisting the national flag as my early religious nationalism. Under these layers, and peaks and valleys. Far memory of calendar art—did remain changed circumstances filled with from debunking all civilisational in my consciousness. But then, after violence, herd mentality and anti- values and aspirations, Nehru could the brief tenure of Lal Bahadur intellectualism, I ask myself whether retain a sense of enchantment. At Shastri, we saw the arrival of a major it is still possible to revisit Nehru, Sarnath near Benaras, he could symbol of power, the charismatic and learn a couple of lessons from see the Buddha preaching his first Indira Gandhi reminding me of the him. sermon; he could still hear the brilliant letters her father wrote to inspiring Upanishadic prayer: “Lead her, her golden moments during the Modernity and romance with a me from the unreal to the real, from Bangladesh liberation movement, civilisation darkness to light, from death to and eventually the manifestation To begin with, I think, it is immortality!” And in the Bhagavad of her authoritarianism causing important to understand the mind Gita, he saw “an inner quality the toughness of Emergency and of Nehru and his worldview. Yes, he of earnest enquiry and search, of simultaneous growth of the civil was ‘modern’ in the sense that, as The contemplation and action, of balance liberties movements in India. Glimpses of World History would and equilibrium in spite of conflict Indira’s rise and fall, from her indicate, he was heavily influenced and contradiction.” No wonder, far early ‘socialist’ gestures to Operation by the major transformations from erecting a wall between new Bluestar leading to her assassination that post-Enlightenment Europe age and old civilisation, Nehru had illustrated the way in which the was passing through. The critical the sensibility to observe: political landscape of India was enquiry of science, the promise of We can never forget the ideas changing. Violence became the order industrial revolution, the turning that have moved our race, the dreams JANATA, June 2, 2019 15 of the Indian people through the shocked after the assassination no dearth of critics. For instance, ages, the wisdom of the ancients, the of Mahatma Gandhi—history Nehru’s ‘state-centric development buoyant energy and love of life and posed new challenges. No wonder, planning’—its centralising tendency, nature of our forefathers, their spirit Nehru’s agenda of nation-making, or its reliance on techno-economist of curiosity and mental adventure, ‘national philosophy’ assumed three experts (symbolised by the Bhabha– the daring of their thought, their central characteristics. Mahalanobis duo), its biases towards splendid achievements in literature, First, the state, he thought, heavy industry—is said to have art and culture, their love of truth, ought to become an ethical state created unevenness in the country beauty and freedom, the basic values endowed with the responsibility of and led to the devaluation of they set up. modernising a traditional country agriculture and the rural economy, Yet, despite this romance, Nehru like ours with its new educators— the withering away of local resources retained the spirit of critical enquiry. economists, scientists, technologists, and knowledge traditions, and the It is important to have sensitivity artists—promoting a ‘scientific widening cleavage between the to the past. But we should not keep temper’, a secular ethos with educated elite and the masses. glorifying the ‘golden past’ because, composite culture and a broadly Likewise, as ‘subaltern’ as he reminded us, such a ‘foolish pan-Indian national identity. historians see the limits to ‘nationalist/ and dangerous pastime’ would Second, with a mix of Fabian bourgeois’ historiography and plead take us nowhere because spiritual socialism and mixed economy, the for the ‘autonomous domain of greatness could not be founded on state ought to play a great role in people’, we witness yet another starvation and misery. ‘India’, he building the economic infrastructure. critique. The meta narrative of asserted boldly, ‘must break with Big industries (or ‘temples of new Nehru is seen with suspicion, and the much of her past, and not allow it India’), science labs, institutes of histories, struggles and resistances to dominate the present’. technology and new universities for of the peasantry, the working class, One way of doing this was to creating a resurgent human force: Dalits and adivasis are seen as popularise ‘scientific temper’—or, rational, secular, and progressively counter narratives. And again, there “the adventurous and yet critical nationalist. are political philosophers who would temper of science, the search for Third, despite his charisma and argue that there was a mismatch truth and new knowledge, the refusal immense popularity, and at times an between the Nehruvian rhetoric to accept anything without testing uneasy relationship with the radical and the actual performance. His and trial, the capacity to change left as well as the extremist right, socialism remained half-hearted; previous conclusions in the face of he took great care to strengthen the it could not really break the hold new evidence”—which could help pillars of liberal democracy with of semi-feudal landlords and us to come out of the “heavy burden periodic elections and a delicate the industrial capitalists; science of the past”. Well, with some amount balance of centripetal and centrifugal eventually became the language of metaphysical wonder Nehru felt forces implicit in a country with of the state, and its secularism that there were ‘invisible’ domains mind-boggling diversities. remained elitist because it could not that science could not explain. Yet, articulate itself through the language for him, there was no escape from Hearing the Lost Voice of people’s folk religiosity. science because “it is better to Wrote Nehru in his Yet, I feel it is difficult to understand a part of truth and apply autobiography, “We cannot stop resist the call of Nehru. We are it to our lives, than to understand the river of change or cut ourselves living at a time when mainstream nothing at all.” adrift from it, and psychologically politics has lost even the slightest As he became the iconic prime we who have eaten of the apple of trace of idealism; its business-like minister of a newly independent Eden cannot forget that taste and go instrumental character retains no country—traumatised by partition, back to primitiveness.” philosophic engagement, no grand characterised by unstable Nehru’s admirers are many. dream, no romance with ideas and foundations, worried about autonomy And at the same time, with the rise visions. Nehru reminded us of this and sovereignty in a divided world of ecological consciousness and lost idealism. Even in this cynical because of Cold War politics, and neo-Gandhian radicalism, there is era, when I invoke Nehru’s ‘tryst 16 JANATA, June 2, 2019 with destiny’ it enchants me; it CO2 Levels Hit 415 PPM for makes me feel that politics ought to be a vocation with a missionary zeal. First Time in 3 Million+ Years His writings, his speeches, his grand vision: we see a source of great Jon Queally treasure that should not be allowed to be forgotten—especially given the Atmospheric levels of carbon In the Pliocene, it was much mood of our times. registered 415 parts per million over hotter. In the Pliocene, oceans were With neo-liberal global the weekend at one of the world's key much higher, maybe 90 feet higher. capitalism, we have an aspiring class measuring stations, a concentration That is our fate, folks. That is that cherishes reckless consumerism level researchers say has not existed what 415ppm produces. It is only and the gospel of privatisation of in more than 3 million years—before a matter of time, and some of the resources, a team of economists the dawn of human history. sea level rise will come quickly. whose principle of ‘growth’ is Taken at the Mauno Loa Amsterdam, New Orleans, Lisbon, devoid of social justice with the Observatory in Hawaii by the Scripps Miami – the list of cities that will be minimalist role of the government, Institution of Oceanography, the submerged is enormous. and a brigade of hyper-masculine measure continues the upward trend Elsewhere online, reaction to the nationalists for whom the state is of atmospheric carbon concentration unsettling milestone was met with a that lies at the heart of the global mix of frustration, alarm, and fresh essentially a militaristic institution. warming and climate crisis:. demands for urgent action to address Under these circumstances socialism Meteorologist Eric Holthaus, a the crisis. seems to have become a bad word. journalist who covers the climate Despite the new measurement, Nehru was not an ideal socialist. crisis for Grist, contextualized the it is not as if humanity has not been Yet, he brought socialism in the latest readings in a tweet that was endlessly warned that this is the path collective conscience of the nation. shared widely on Sunday: it's on. And today amidst jobless growth and This is the first time in human "If the threshold seems the increasing insecurity amongst history our planet's atmosphere has unremarkable (it shouldn't)," wrote the poor and the underprivileged, had more than 415ppm CO2. Not Jonathan Shieber at TechCrunch, we need this spirit of socialism—an just in recorded history, not just "it's yet another indication of the ethical state deeply engaged with since the invention of agriculture unprecedented territory humanity is collective welfare. 10,000 years ago. Since before now charting as it blazes new trails modern humans existed millions of toward environmental catastrophe." Finally, when the onslaught of years ago. We don't know a planet While scientists have stated majoritarianism or the assertion of like this. that much of the future warming is narrow parochial identities—‘I am One person responded to the already "locked in," Cole points out my religion, my caste, my race, my Holthaus tweet by asking, "How that humanity's main focus must be ethnicity’—is taking us to a dark, is this not breaking news on all to make sure all efforts are made to segmented world, Nehru’s spirited channels all over the world?" reverse the emissions trend in order humanism or cosmopolitanism can Rich Pancost, head of the School to limit the scale of the destruction. be seen as a refreshing departure: a of Earth Sciences at the University of "What can be stopped is its path leading to pluralism, the fusion Bristol in the U.K., said that the best getting any worse," Cole concluded. of cultures and traditions and a blend guess of the scientific community "But that would require moving with of nationalism and internationalism. is that global atmospheric carbon blinding speed to wind and solar Amidst the noise of loud, narcissistic levels have not been this high for power and electric cars." politics, are we ready to hear the call "about 3 millions years . . . maybe And the message from the global more." climate justice movement has been of this lost voice? Writing on his Informed crystal clear: It's an emergency. Act Comment blog Monday, historian like it. (Avijit Pathak is a Professor at Juan Cole said that life on Earth (Jon Queally is managing editor for the Centre for the Study of Social in that pre-historic era, known as Common Dreams, an independent Systems, Jawaharlal Nehru the Pliocene Period, is not a place and progressive non-profit University, New Delhi.) humans would recognize: newscenter based in the USA.) JANATA, June 2, 2019 17 Students from 1,600 Cities Protest Climate Change

Suyin Haynes

Hundreds of thousands of environmental issues more now, but told TIME. “They are the real students around the world walked they need more pressure,” she said. heroes.” Photos and videos from out of their schools and colleges Voting across the European Union strikers in the eastern hemisphere Friday in the latest in a series of takes place May 23–26, where the started flooding social media in the strikes urging action to address the 751 representatives of the European morning, ranging from Seoul, South climate crisis. According to event Parliament will be elected by citizens Korea to Auckland, New Zealand, organisers Fridays for Future, over across the continent. Recent polling and later in the day images of crowds 1664 cities across 125 countries suggests environmental issues and surfaced in European cities such as registered strike actions, with more policies tackling climate change Berlin and Paris, where organisers expected to report turnouts in the are high on the agenda for voters say an estimated 23,000 turned out coming days. considering who to elect. (European to demonstrate. The “School Strike for Climate” Parliament election results are out Here is a look at some of the movement was first started by and the Greens have made gains, places around the world where Swedish teenager Greta Thunberg, winning 69 seats, 17 more than the young people took action on May 24. who began her strike outside the previous election, out of 751 seats – Sweden: Thousands of students country’s parliament in Stockholm Note from Editors.) and young people took part in in August 2018 and has said that The school strike movement Friday’s strike marching through she will continue to strike until has emerged in tandem with the streets of Stockholm. While Sweden is aligned with the goals other environmental movements there’s an acknowledgement that of the Paris Agreement. Since then, worldwide. The British-based the strikes have placed the climate her singular action has spread into direct action group Extinction crisis back on the agenda in Sweden, an international climate movement, Rebellion occupied major locations for Thunberg it is not enough— organised by young people around in London for ten days in late her focus is on the global carbon the world. This strike followed the April, and their first demand, for emissions, which continue to rise. last co-ordinated event on March the British government to declare However, in the nine months since 15, which saw over 1.6 million a state of “climate emergency,” she first started her strike, her cause people across 133 countries turn received approval from parliament has galvanised support from a wide out at demonstrations, according to on May 1. And in the US, the young cross section of Swedish society, organisers. activists of Sunrise Movement have with grandparents and scientists Thunberg was recently profiled pushed to transform climate action turning out to support the strike on on TIME’s global cover as a Next into a political reality by calling May 24. Generation Leader, along with nine for a Green New Deal, attracting Philppines: In the Philippines, other people shaping the world’s the support of several legislators one of the countries most vulnerable future. “This is not about truancy or and 2020 Democratic presidential to climate change, organisers say civil disobedience, this is about the candidates. there were strikes in at least fifteen climate and the ecological crisis, While Thunberg is well-known cities. In recent years, the archipelago and people need to understand that,” worldwide, she says it is the strike of islands has been hit by a series of Thunberg told TIME in Stockholm, a organisers in each country that she extreme weather events, such as couple of weeks ahead of the global looks up to. “Young people who Typhoon Haiyan (known as Super strike. are in developing countries are Typhoon Yolanda in the Philippines) “May 24 is the last chance to sacrificing their education in order in 2013. affect the E.U. elections. Politicians to protest against the destruction Australia: Australia has just are talking about the climate and of their future and world,” she experienced its hottest summer on 18 JANATA, June 2, 2019 record with the country’s farmers UK Houses of Parliament, chanting facing a punishing drought, and and holding the inventive placards recent research has shown that that have become hallmarks of the warming seas are preventing the strikes. The scene was replicated at Great Barrier Reef’s ability to cities across the UK. regrow. As well as strikes in Sydney, South Africa: Along with around 1000 activists staged a die-in Nigeria, Kenya and several other in the heart of Melbourne’s business countries across Africa, students district just after lunchtime, “acting and young people in South Africa as physical reminders of Earth’s sixth organised actions on May 24 mass extinction which scientists have and 25 to coincide with Africa attributed to anthropogenic climate Day, commemorated on May change,” organisers Extinction 25. As part of a continent-wide Rebellion Australia told TIME. campaign #AfrikaVuka, organisers Young people also gathered outside are demanding that local leaders Parliament House in Perth, Western “commit to building a fossil free Australia, a state where mining Africa that puts people and justice accounted for 85% of exports in before profits.” 2017–18. India: In Delhi, schoolchildren Support for the climate strikes marched carrying a banner referring Adults have backed the to the Intergovernmental Panel school strike movement, with on Climate Change (IPCC), the several prominent thinkers and leading international body for the activists including Naomi Klein, assessment of climate change. In Bill McKibben and Margaret October 2018, the IPCC stated that Atwood supporting the movement’s the impact of a 1.5C increase in global next event, a global strike on 20 temperatures over pre-industrial September, saying that “disrupting levels would “disproportionately our normal lives is the only way to affect disadvantaged and vulnerable secure our future.” Leading scientists populations through food insecurity, and academics had also previously higher food prices, income losses, The Unemployment signed an open letter in support of lost livelihood opportunities, adverse Greta Thunberg and the school strike Crisis: health impacts, and population movement in February. displacements.” Reasons and While Thunberg may have started Germany: With more than 218 Solutions her strike alone, May 24 proved that strike events listed on the Fridays for people all around the world are Future website, Germany is expected Contribution Rs. 25/- in solidarity with her and willing to host more events on May 24 than to spread the message. “I’m not any other country in both big and Published by planning to stop this movement, and small cities. Recent polls have shown I don’t think anyone else is either,” Janata Trust & Lokayat that German voters think climate she told TIME. “We have to start D-15, Ganesh Prasad, and environment protection are the Naushir Bharucha Marg, biggest challenges for the future of acting now, even if we don’t have all Grant Road (W), the EU, ahead of other issues such the solutions.” Mumbai 400 007 as migration. United Kingdom: Hundreds of (Suyin Haynes is a Senior Reporter school children gathered outside the with TIME Magazine.) JANATA, June 2, 2019 19 Atomic Veterans Were Silenced for 50 Years. Now, They’re Talking

Emily Buder Nearly everyone who’s seen it and panic that followed the blasts. an enemy they could never defeat. and lived to tell the tale describes They talk about how they’ve been It was something really difficult for it the same way: a horrifying, haunted—by nightmares, PTSD, and them to describe.” otherworldly thing of ghastly beauty various health afflictions, including What appalled Knibbe the most that has haunted their life ever since. cancer. Knibbe’s spare filmmaking was how the US government failed “The colors were beautiful,” approach foregrounds details and the veterans. “Until this day, a remembers a man in Morgan emotion. There’s no need for archival lot of what has happened—and Knibbe’s short documentary The footage; the story is writ large in the the radiation-related diseases the Atomic Soldiers. “I hate to say that.” faces of the veterans, who struggle veterans have contracted and passed “It was completely daylight at to find the right words to express the on to the generations after them—is midnight—brighter than the brightest horror of what they saw during the still being covered up,” Knibbe said. day you ever saw,” says another. tests and what they struggled with in “The veterans are consistently denied Many tales of the atomic bomb, the decades after. compensation.” however, weren’t told at all. In Knibbe told me that he has “For 10 years now, I’ve been addition to the hundreds of thousands long been fascinated with the self- trying to get compensation, but the of Japanese civilians who died destructive tendencies of mankind. government does not want to admit in Hiroshima and Nagasaki, an When he found declassified US that anybody was harmed by any estimated 400,000 American soldiers civil-defense footage of soldiers radiation,” says one man in the film. and sailors also observed nuclear maneuvering in the glare of the Knibbe said he has spoken with explosions—many just a mile or mushroom cloud of an atomic bomb, more than 100 US atomic veterans, two from ground zero. From 1946 to he was “absolutely amazed and all of whom share similar stories 1992, the US government conducted wanted to learn more about their of the government’s intransigence. more than 1,000 nuclear tests, during stories.” His efforts to dig deeper One of the few studies conducted on which unwitting troops were exposed were curtailed by the fact that most of atomic veterans found that the 3,000 to vast amounts of ionizing radiation. the information about the nuclear tests participants in a 1957 nuclear test For protection, they wore utility was classified—including reports on suffered from leukemia at more than jackets, helmets and gas masks. They the illnesses the veterans suffered twice the rate of their peers. were told to cover their face with and the radioactive pollution that Bill Clinton relieved the veterans’ their arms. was released into the environment oath of secrecy in 1994, but the After the tests, the soldiers, many around the test sites. “I was baffled announcement was eclipsed by news of whom were traumatized, were by the lack of recorded testimonies from the O.J. Simpson trial. “Most sworn to an oath of secrecy. Breaking available,” he said. of the atomic veterans didn’t even it even to talk among themselves was Knibbe began trying to contact know the oath of secrecy was lifted,” considered treason, punishable by a veterans through the National Knibbe said. Most went on to believe $10,000 fine and 10 or more years Association of Atomic Veterans, that they were not allowed to talk in prison. eventually travelling across the about their experiences, even to seek In Knibbe’s film, some of these United States to meet them and help for their health problems. Many atomic veterans break the forced hear their stories. He was stunned took the secret to their grave. silence to tell their story for the very and saddened by what he learned. “It haunts me to think of what first time. They describe how the blast “They were confronted by such an I had witnessed,” says a man in the knocked them to the ground; how incredible destructive power that film, “and not realized at the time they could see the bones and blood they were immediately shocked into the import of what we were doing . . vessels in their hands, like viewing an existential crisis,” Knibbe said. “It . serving as guinea pigs.” an X-ray. They recount the terror was like they saw the creation of the (Emily Buder is a film curator at The in their officers’ faces and the tears universe. They were confronted with Atlantic.) R.N.I. NO. 1855/1957 20 JANATA, June 2, 2019 Postal Registration No. MCW/275/2018-2020. License to Post without prepayment WPP License No. MR/Tech/WPP-210/West/2019 Published on Sunday, June 2, 2019 & Posted on Wedenesday, June 5, 2019 at Mumbai Patrika Channel, Mumbai GPO-1

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Vol. 74 No. 20 Modi’s Electoral Triumph June 9, 2019 Prabhat Patnaik Over 4 Crore Are Jobless Now, Much More Than Earlier Subodh Varma The result of the recent Indian therefore, there was no mention “Sabka Vishwas” Tracker elections, which gave Narendra of “development” at all. This Basavanna: India’s First Free Thinker Gauri Lankesh Modi’s Hindu Supremacist Party a only shows that fascism has no UK Mobilises to Make Sure Trump second five-year term, confirms the economic programme and relies on Knows He 'Is Not Welcome' basic argument regarding the nature a discourse shift, towards Hindutva Jake Johnson of fascism. There is a fundamental “nationalism”, to come to power, Regime Change is Urgently Needed . . . in Washington difference between the 2014 which it has done. Andre Vltchek elections that brought Modi to power Looking at the election results, it Building Socialism from Below and the 2019 elections. In the 2014 is obvious that people were not voting Cira Pascual Marquina interviews elections Modi’s victory was made for a flesh-and-blood character Martha Lia Grajales possible by his slogan of “vikas” called Modi, seen objectively for The People are with Evo: A Glimpse of New Bolivia or “development”. He did not spell what he was. Each voter rather saw Interview with Rodolfo Machaca out how he was going to bring about in him an idea: a muscular leader, Yupanqui “development”, which is typical of a “messiah”. They voted for Modi Official Language Vs Social Justice Prem Singh all fascism: his only “analysis” was the concept, not the man. Even Let the Monk of Love Become the that “development” had suffered when he had actually done nothing, Country’s Prime Minister! because of the preceding Manmohan he still got voted because he was Ranganatha Kantanakunte Singh government’s weakness. He seen as the only person capable of Editor : G. G. Parikh would overcome this weakness, doing something! If there were no while pursuing the same neo-liberal incidents on the border, then the Associate Editor : Neeraj Jain policies with greater vigour. credit went to him: the neighbouring Managing Editor : Guddi While he won those elections, country was afraid of taking liberties his five years in power have brought because he was at the helm! And if Editorial Board : little respite from the crisis; on the there were incidents then there were B. Vivekanandan, Qurban Ali contrary the crisis has worsened. compelling reasons to vote for him, Anil Nauriya, Sonal Shah The real per capita income of the for he alone could stand up to the Amarendra Dhaneshwar, agriculture-dependent population neighbour! Sandeep Pandey has barely moved up after 2013–14; Thus, no matter what happened, within it the peasants and agricultural he got the credit for it. No matter D-15, Ganesh Prasad, labourers must have become worse what he did, he was still applauded. Naushir Bharucha Marg, off. Unemployment is reportedly Incidents which should have Mumbai - 400 007. at a 45-year high, prompting the discredited the government brought Email : [email protected] government to suppress employment him kudos. Modi had become a Website:www.janataweekly.org data altogether. In the 2019 elections myth, a concept manufactured 2 JANATA, June 9, 2019 to fulfill people’s needs which of stability of preferences, but normal times; but in 2019 when themselves had been largely created. altered at the margin by unfolding the electorate had been fed on a It is now clear that his first term new issues like peasant distress, diet of hatred and insecurity, its in office was spent not in coping were completely off the mark. consciousness was not what it would with the country’s problems but The 2019 elections lead have been in normal times. In future in manufacturing this mythical irrevocably towards a fascist State; it would not be enough simply to image of himself. Helped with a the 2014 elections were not so clear change the discourse, to make it pliant media, with an army of trolls about where they would lead, but more bread-and-butter-focussed; employed to take on critics on the not the 2019 elections. They have there must be a credible face to social media, and huge funds from been won by a non-existent person. lead the opposition alliance who the corporates, he has manufactured Pointing to his non-existence will be has much greater moral stature than this mythical image of himself. His deemed “sedition”. Modi and can take him on. Even always referring to himself in the Breaking myths is not easy, Parliamentary systems, and not third person is symptomatic of this. but eventually people must tire just Presidential ones, require clear Myth-making must be of myths when their stomachs leaders with sufficient moral stature. distinguished from charisma. are empty and when they remain Nothing should be left to chance Charisma is based on some real jobless. The Modi administration when it comes to fighting fascism. achievements; it is not conjured will keep diverting attention from out of thin air. But myth-making the discourse of material deprivation (Prabhat Patnaik is Professor entails creating a persona that has to one of national security which can Emeritus at the Centre for Economic no real counterpart. The Modi be more easily nourished by tales, Studies and Planning, Jawaharlal government has little to show by as the Balakot air-strike was. But, Nehru University, New Delhi.) way of achievements in its first term. even this will wear thin after a time. Its two big moves, demonetisation And the spontaneous development and the GST, had disastrous of the crisis as it affects the Indian consequences. Peasant distress, economy will force Modi willy-nilly Janata unemployment, recession, stalk to confront the discourse of material the economy. Besides, there is the deprivation. Subscription destruction of institutions, the attack The Left has been virtually on civil liberties, the terrorising of wiped out in these elections. But the Annual Rs. : 260/- minorities and Dalits by vigilante Left’s strength must be judged not Three Years : 750/- groups and the rampant atmosphere just by the number of parliamentary of hate-mongering. seats won. It still has substantial Demand Draft / It is this hate-mongering and the trade union bases; and it must inculcation of a sense of insecurity resume the peasant mobilisation Cheque among the people that helped in that had got interrupted by the on building the Modi myth. The need for parliamentary elections. It must play a “messiah” got greatly exaggerated. a proactive role not just in mobilising Mumbai Bank Fascism and the “messiah” are all the forces opposed to fascism, in favour of inextricably linked. From this not just in defending the democratic perspective, the 2019 elections institutions, not just in fighting for Janata Trust are completely different from the civil liberties, but also in shifting the elections we have had in the past, political discourse towards bread- D-15, Ganesh Prasad, which is why all predictions about and-butter issues. Naushir Bharucha Marg, the outcome, including most Exit The 2019 elections were also Grant Road (W), Polls, were so completely wrong. fought by an opposition that was Mumbai 400 007. All the usual calculations, based on disunited, and lacked a credible attributing “normal” behavior to the leader who could take on Modi. people, based on assuming a degree This may not have mattered in JANATA, June 9, 2019 3 Over 4 Crore Are Jobless Now, Much More Than Earlier

Subodh Varma

Finally, the government has In numbers, this means some double that of general unemployment released the suppressed report 4.17 crore persons are unemployed rate. on unemployment, now that and willing to take up jobs (Chart In numbers, this means that some elections are done and dusted 1). Included are both those actively 1.1 crore graduates are unemployed. with. Meanwhile, joblessness looking for jobs as well as those An additional 2.2 crore persons who has worsened dramatically with who may have become frustrated are between 10th to 12th standard an estimated 4.17 crore people and were, at the time of survey, not pass-outs are unemployed. Not unemployed, according to another actively looking for jobs. surprisingly, illiterate persons have recent report of the CMIE (Centre The CMIE’s report, released a the lowest unemployment share of for Monitoring Indian Economy), few days ago, makes for shocking about 2%, mainly because they are based on a similar sample survey. reading. There has been an over the poorest and have to undertake The government had directed the 24% increase in the number of whatever kind of job is available in National Sample Survey Organisaton jobless persons since January–April order to survive. (NSSO) to carry out the Periodic 2017 to the same period in 2019. But, what happened to all the Labour Force Survey (PLFS) to The major part of this increase has skill development programmes and get estimates of employment and actually taken place between 2018 the entrepreneurship incentives unemployment on an annual basis. and 2019, coinciding with the period (like Mudra) which the Modi 1.0 The first such survey was done in when the government was actively government had tom-tommed? That’s 2017–18. That report had said that suppressing the PLFS report. something Modi 2.0 needs to answer joblessness was at a 45–year high of because if they simply continue 6.1%. But the latest report of CMIE’s 17% Graduates Jobless with that approach, joblessness periodic surveys shows that the As has always been the trend, is not going to get controlled. unemployment rate was much higher unemployment is particularly high Prime Minister Narendra Modi has in 2017 (7.66%) and has steadily among those with a graduate degree appointed senior BJP leader Nitin worsened since then, standing at a or higher qualifications. CMIE’s Gadkari as the MSME (medium, whopping 9.35% as of April 2019 report says that in Jan–Apr 2019, small and micro enterprises) minister (see Chart 2). joblessness among these educated which means they want to give this sections was 17% (Chart 4), almost sector (destroyed by the twin shocks

Chart 1: Number of Jobless (crore) Chart 2: Unemployment Rate (%) 4 JANATA, June 9, 2019

Chart 3: Number of Jobless Gradua tes (lakh) Chart 4: Percentage of Graduates Jobless

Chart 5: Joblessness among Men and Women (%)

of demonetisation and GST) some This is another area that has or discontent on it. attention. But what will that be? received much lip service but As the situation continues to practically no attention on the deteriorate, and in the absence of any High Women’s Unemployment ground, in terms of policy. effective measures, the blowback is Another feature of the unbridled bound to come. Modi 2.0 needs to jobs crisis is women’s joblessness. Winning Elections Does Not Solve prepare for it. It was always high but as Chart Unemployment 5 shows, the crisis has worsened. Perhaps it may seem to the (Subodh Varma is a senior According to the CMIE report, Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) journalist.) women’s joblessness rate stands at that since it handsomely won the an incredible high of 25.7%—that elections, the joblessness issue has means every fourth woman in the vanished, or that it was nothing but labour force is unemployed. hoopla. Nothing could be further Janata With men’s joblessness at 6.8%, from truth. Because the ruling party clearly a disproportionately large did not talk about the jobs crisis, and is available at number of women are unemployed, the Opposition too failed to raise it although this is a constant feature of effectively, the voters were left with www.lohiatoday.com the Indian economy. no choice but to put aside their anger JANATA, June 9, 2019 5 “Sabka Vishwas” Tracker

On May 25, 2019, two days is one of the accused. Eight people Delhi: Well-known gynaecologist, after sweeping back to power, Prime arrested, including the three victims Dr. Arun Gadre from Pune, was Minister Modi made a speech at the of the violence. staying at the Young Men’s Christian Central Hall of Parliament. He said, May 22, Manekwada village, Association (YMCA), Jantar Mantar. “We belong to those who voted for Gujarat: A 17-year-old Dalit, He was in the city to deliver a lecture us and with those who consider us Rajesh Sondarva was hacked to organised by the Indian Medical their enemy.” He spoke of minorities death by those accused of his father’s Association. A group of men stopped living in fear, but claimed that this murder. Nanjibhai Sondarva, an him near the Hanuman Temple in fear is an imaginary creation of RTI activist, was killed a year ago Connaught Place, where he’d gone vote-bank politics. In his speech, for demanding transparency and for a walk. He was forced to shout he evoked the memory of Baba asking for details about funds spent “Jai Shree Ram”. Saheb Ambedkar as the camera on the construction of a village road. May 26, Singampalli village, panned obligingly to the portrait of The village sarpanch is among the Andhra Pradesh: Bikki Srinivas, him hung in the historic hall. Modi accused. a Dalit man, was chased, thrashed said the new government must take May 25, Muzaffarnagar, Uttar with sticks and murdered for stealing it upon itself to win the faith of all Pradesh: A 14-year-old Dalit girl mangoes from the orchard of an minorities: “Sabka Vishwas”. was gangraped, murdered and her upper-caste man. His body was taken May 18, Tiruchi, Tamil Nadu: body burnt in a brick kiln. The to the local panchayat office and Abdullah, a 32-year-old auto driver accused have been booked under hanged from the ceiling to project was beaten to death for trying to the Scheduled Castes and Scheduled that he had committed suicide. defend a female passenger from Tribes Prevention of Atrocities Act. May 27, Banaras Hindu an inebriated harasser. The police The girl’s father alleges that the University, Varanasi: The incident are calling it a “drunken scuffle”. police and the administration are occured in March, but came to light Abdulah’s wife, Tashmin, insists that colluding to hush up the incident. recently. Two Dalit research scholars he was not drunk and would never May 25, Sakchi, Jharkhand: and one from the ST community be so when driving. Jeetrai Hansda, an Adivasi professor, were forced to clean the toilets by May 20, Padra Taluka, Gujarat: was arrested for a two-year-old a professor from the Home Science A Dalit couple were attacked by over Facebook post about his right to eat Department. The matter is being 200 upper-caste men. His “offence”? beef. The state is ruled by the BJP. probed. Pravin Mackwana had made a May 26, Begusarai, Bihar: May 30, Rashtrapati Bhavan, Facebook post accusing the Gujarat Rajiv Yadav stopped Mohd. Qasim New Delhi: Pratap Chandra Sarangi government of not allowing Dalits on the road and asked him his name. is the newly elected MP from to marry in temples. On realising he is a Muslim, he shot Balasore, Odisha. He has gained May 22, Mumbai: Dr, Payal him and told him to go to Pakistan. huge popularity across the country Tadvi, a postgraduate student Md. Qasim was injured, but survived. for his “humble” background. Photos of gynaecology at the National In the recently concluded general of the frail old man emerging from Topiwala Medical College, took her election, former Union Minister his bamboo hut have turned him into own life. She was hounded, bullied, Giriraj Singh won the Begusarai a hero for BJP supporters. Sarangi called casteist slurs and denied seat. was the head the Bajrang Dal in essential training because she came May 26, Gurgaon, Haryana: A Odisha in 1999 when Australian from Tadvi Muslim Scheduled Tribe. 25-year-old Muslim man wearing a missionary Graham Staines and May 22, Seoni, Madhya skull-cap was stopped by a gang of his two sons who were only 7 and Pradesh: Three Muslim youth, youth and forced to shout “Bharat 11 years of age were burnt alive in including one woman, beaten up Mata Ki Jai”. He was then asked the vehicle they were sleeping in. on suspicion of carrying beef. They to shout “Jai Shree Ram”. When he They were in Manoharpur in Odisha were made to shout “Jai Shree Ram”. refused, he was beaten up. at the time. The Bajrang Dal has Ram Sena leader Shubham Baghel May 26, Connaught Place, New been linked to the murders. Sarangi 6 JANATA, June 9, 2019 has several other cases pending thunderous applause at the country's This list is sourced from news against him for rioting, arson and seat of power. He will hold two reports and is by no means complete. damage to government property Minister of State portfolios in the among others. He was sworn in to new government. Courtesy: Indian Cultural Forum

Basavanna: India’s First Free Thinker

Gauri Lankesh

Today, on May 9, Basava experience of the labouring classes Basavanna’s most famous Jayanthi is being celebrated would be the well-spring of his vachana says: across the state. The tragedy is social movement. In fact, most of The rich that most Lingayats, who say they the things that Basavanna did was to Will make temple for Shiva, admire Basavanna, neither follow turn Brahminical beliefs on its head. What shall I, A poor man do? his religious teachings nor live Basavanna founded the My legs are pillars, according to the credo propagated Anubhava Mantapa (hall of spiritual The body the shrine, by Basavanna and other Sharanas. experience) where people of all The head of cupola of gold. Let’s take B.S. Yeddyurappa, who segments—be he a cobbler or she a is considered as the strongman of sex worker—could articulate their (translation A K Ramanujan) Lingayats in the state, as an example. thoughts. In his times, women were Since temple entry to non- Basavanna proscribed worshipping not only considered ‘second class’, Brahmins was prohibited, through idols and fire. But one would be they were also denied the right to this vachana Basavanna turned both hard put to find a single idol that offer worship. Basavanna, however, idol worship and temple entry into Yeddyurappa has not prayed to; and gave women equal status in his erroneous issues. Since Basavanna no one has kept score of the yagnas movement. In order to take the social had declared that the Ishtalinga and homas he has performed. movement closer to the people, (which is worn around the neck near The revolution that Basavanna Basavanna and all the other Sharanas the heart) is one’s innate god and that led in the twelfth century is unique voiced their concerns in simple everyone is a ‘mobile temple’ the in Indian history. Many, many years Kannada so that even lay people shudras and the untouchables found after Buddha, it was Basavanna and could comprehend them. Basavanna it unnecessary to worship idols in his contemporary Sharanas who asked everyone to not only share temples. launched a very strong spiritual, their lived experiences, but to also The concept of heaven, hell, social and religious rebellion against share the fruits of their labour. punya, paapa, rebirth, moksha, Brahminical hegemony. This had a two pronged purpose. etc. are all products of the ‘Karma’ Hundreds of years before Sharing the fruits of their labour and philosophy and form the basis German philosopher Friedrich participating in community dining of Brahminism. The Sharana Engels said “labour created man’’, encouraged a feeling of kinship movement rejected all such concepts Basavanna had declared “Work is overcoming caste and class barriers. and stressed on good conduct. They worship’’. By doing so, he exalted Thousands of people were not only disapproved of animal and physical labour into a religious attracted to Basavanna since human sacrifice (even the symbolic ideology and gave a severe blow to he stressed on egalitarianism, sacrifice of coconuts and pumpkins a society which looked down upon humanitarianism and rationalism were frowned upon) as part of different professions since labour which were sorely absent in a rituals, they also strove to fight was intrinsically woven in the fabric Brahmin-dominated society. It is against superstition. of caste. for this reason that the Sharana Basavanna empathised with the Born into a Brahmin family, movement is not only recognised as oppressed ‘lower castes’ in one of his Basavanna was taught the Vedas, the first major revolt of the working vachanas where he said, “I am born Shastras and the Upanishads. But classes for social equality but also as to the servant of Madara Channaya he rejected both his caste and its the first anti-priestly struggle after and the tanner maid of Kakkayya.’’ scriptures and said that the spiritual Buddhism. JANATA, June 9, 2019 7 Even today, ‘dishonour killings’ UK Mobilises to Make Sure Trump Knows take place when individuals from different castes or communities dare He 'Is Not Welcome' to fall in love with one another. But nearly 900 years ago, Basavanna had Jake Johnson encouraged inter-caste weddings. That the wedding plans of a cobbler June 3, 2019: seventy years.” boy Sheelavantha and a Brahmin girl With the city of London Khan's view of Trump as the Lavanya ended in tragedy is another effectively on "lockdown" in face of a global far-right movement matter. anticipation of the protests— was echoed by the organisers of The fact that Basavanna, other complete with the now-famous Tuesday's demonstrations, which Sharanas and their followers had Trump Baby Blimp—that are are expected to bring hundreds of dared to even think of such an inter- expected to flood the city's streets thousands of people into the streets caste union is remarkable indeed. on Tuesday (June 4), US President across the UK. Basavanna was clearly way Donald Trump touched down in the Anna Vickerstaff, part of the ahead of his times. When there United Kingdom on Monday, June existed great discrimination on the team of demonstrators that will be basis of caste, gender and class, 3, for his first state visit shortly after "babysitting" the Trump blimp on Basavanna and his contemporary tweeting an attack on London Mayor Tuesday, said the protests against the Sharanas strived for an egalitarian Sadiq Khan. US president are about far more than society. When blind faith was the “Sadiq Khan, who by all displaying a silly balloon designed order of the day, they spoke about accounts has done a terrible job to humiliate Trump. rationalism. When feudalism was the as Mayor of London, has been “We know Trump isn't a joke— accepted structure of society, they foolishly ‘nasty’ to the visiting he is responsible for rampant spoke about a shared existence. No President of the United States, by xenophobia, sexism, and transphobia wonder, Basavanna is considered by far the most important ally of the and the creeping rise of far-right many as India’s ‘First Free Thinker’. United Kingdom,” Trump tweeted politics,” Vickerstaff wrote in an op- Basavanna had said, “Things just before landing at the Stansted ed for The Independent on Monday. standing shall fall, but the moving Airport in London on Monday. “He “His climate denial and persistent ever shall stay.’’ It is disheartening is a stone cold loser who should facilitation of the fossil fuel industry to note that today his supposed focus on crime in London, not me.” is a death sentence for communities followers are doing their very Trump's attack on Khan came in the global south. But if flying a best to destroy both Basavanna after the London mayor—who balloon caricature is what gets under and his philosophy. Because they granted permission for protestors his skin—then that's exactly what are celebrating Basavanna in the to fly the Trump baby blimp during we're going to do.” static form of busts and statues Tuesday's mass demonstrations— “Our balloon,” wrote Vickerstaff, while simultaneously ignoring his accused the US president of behaving “is part of a proud history of political teachings. It’s not enough to celebrate like "the fascists of the 20th century satire in the UK that sends a clear, Basavanna’s birth anniversary. The to garner support" and said he orange, message to Trump and his ideals of the revolutionary Sharana would join the UK Labour Party in politics of hate that they are not movement should be propagated. boycotting the state visit. welcome here.” Because those ideals are very similar “Donald Trump is just one of According to the UK-based to the resolve we have made in the the most egregious examples of a Metro, a “huge police and security preamble of our Constitution: to make India a sovereign, socialist, growing global threat,” Khan wrote operation” is in place as London secular and a democratic republic. in an op-ed for The Guardian on June authorities prepare for the mass 1. “The far-right is on the rise around protests against the US president's (Gauri Lankesh was a journalist the world, threatening our hard- three-day state visit. turned activist from Bangalore, who won rights and freedoms and the In addition to the Trump baby was murdered by assailants outside values that have defined our liberal, blimp, the Metro reported, a “16ft her home on September 5, 2017.) democratic societies for more than talking robot of Mr. Trump sitting 8 JANATA, June 9, 2019 on a gold toilet is also expected to Jones emphasised this point in “Our movement is about joining make an appearance. It depicts the a column ahead of Tuesday's mass the dots between hate, bigotry, and American leader with his trousers demonstrations, noting that the inequality,” Aziz said. round his ankles while tweeting protests “aren't just about Trump, The demonstrations and marches and says some of his well-known they're about everything he stands kicked off on Tuesday morning phrases such as ‘stable genius’ and for.” as Trump met with British Prime ‘no collusion’, as well as breaking “These protests won't simply Minister Theresa May, who is wind.” be about Trump and the perverse resigning on Friday after failing to Ahead of Trump's arrival in reality TV show he's treated the negotiate a Brexit deal. the UK, The Guardian expressed world to,” Jones wrote. “The protests Jeremy Corbyn, the leader of the view of many Britons when it will be about Trumpism: about the British Labour Party, declined declared in an editorial on Sunday confronting a resurgent global far to attend a state banquet for Trump that “the president is not welcome.” right, defending the rights of women on Monday night and joined “Mr. Trump is a demagogue and minorities, fighting the climate demonstrators in the streets after who represents a threat to peace, emergency, opposing the threat of calling the protests “an opportunity democracy, and the climate of our war, and standing against an attempt to stand in solidarity with those he's planet," the newspaper said. "As to gut the NHS and trash hard-won attacked in America, around the elected leader of the UK's closest rights and freedoms.” world, and in our own country.” ally, he can't be ignored. But making Journalist Shaista Aziz echoed him, his wife, and four adult children Jones, telling the crowd gathered (Jake Johnson is a staff writer for the honored guests of the Queen at a London rally on Tuesday that Common Dreams, a non-profit, risks legitimising his destructive “this protest is about Trumpism—the independent newscentre created in policies, his cronyism, and his hatred and poverty that is spreading.” 1997 and based in the USA.) leanings towards autocracy.”

June 4, 2019: Regime Change is Urgently Needed . . . Protesting both the individual in Washington cruelty of US President Donald Trump and the globally ascendant “politics of hate” he represents, Andre Vltchek tens of thousands took to the streets in London and across the I am surprised that no one else were inhabited by irresponsible UK on Tuesday as Trump enjoys is saying it, writing it, shouting it toddlers, who are being chased “royal treatment” from the British at each and every corner: It is not and disciplined by sadistic adults, government on his first official state Venezuela, Cuba, Nicaragua and with rulers and belts in their hands visit. Iran that are in dire and crucial need yelling with maniacal expressions Trump claimed in a tweet on of ‘regime change’. It is the United on their faces: “Behave, do as we Monday that he had not “seen any States of America, it is the entire say, or else!” protests yet”, but the demonstrations European Union; in fact, the entire It all would be truly comical, on Tuesday will be impossible to West. if it weren’t so depressing. But . . miss, with the 20-foot-tall Trump And the situation is urgent. . nobody is laughing. People are baby blimp flying over London and The West has gone mad; it has shaking, sweating, crying, begging, crowds of Britons pouring into the gone so to speak, bananas; mental. puking, but they are not chuckling. streets throughout the country. And people there are too scared to I see it everywhere where I “We are here to take on even say it, to write about it. work: in Asia, Latin America, Africa misogyny, racism, fascism and One country after another is and the Middle East. hatred,” Guardian columnist Owen falling, being destroyed, antagonised, But why? Jones declared during a speech in humiliated, impoverished. Entire It is because North American London. continents are treated as if they and European countries are actually JANATA, June 9, 2019 9 seriously delivering their ultimatum: colonised, plundered and subjugated. ‘democracy’ left in this world, you either obey us, and prostrate Now it is all moving in the same as there is near zero respect for yourself in front of us, or we will direction. If the West is not stopped, international law in North American break you, violate you, and if our planet may not survive at all. and European capitals. Colonialism everything else fails, we will kill And let us be realistic: begging, has returned in full force. Western your leaders and all of those who are logical arguments and goodwill imperialism is now almost fully standing in our way. will not stop Washington, Paris controlling the world. This is not really funny, is it? or London from plundering and And begging, trust me—begging Especially considering that it is enslaving. and talking of peace is not going to being done to almost all the countries Anyone who has at least some help. in what is called Latin America, to basic knowledge of world history During WWII, fascism had to many African and Middle Eastern knows that. be stopped. If not, it was going to nations, and to various states on the So why is the world still not devour the entire planet. In the past, Asian continent. forging some true resistance? tens of millions have already died And it is all done ‘professionally’, fighting for freedom and for our with great sadistic craftsmanship and *** mankind. Yes, some nations tried to rituals. No one has yet withstood Is Venezuela going to be the last compromise and negotiate with Nazi ‘regime change’ tactics, not even straw? And if not Venezuela, that is Germany, but we all know where it the once mighty Soviet Union, nor if Venezuela is allowed to fall, is it all ended. tremendous China, or proud and going to be Nicaragua, Cuba or Iran Now, the situation is the same. determined Afghanistan. next? Is anything going to propel Or worse, perhaps much worse, Cuba, Venezuela, DPRK and people into action? because the West has nukes and a Syria may be the only countries that Are we all just going to tremendous propaganda apparatus: are still standing. They resisted and look passively how the socialist it controls human brains all over mobilised all their resources in order Venezuela, a country which has the world with ‘mass media’, and to survive; and they have survived, already given so much to the world, ‘education’. but at a tremendous price. Venezuela which managed to create And because the citizens of beautiful visions and concepts for the West are now much more *** our humanity, is going to be burned brainwashed than the Germans and The victims keep crying. to ashes, and then robbed of all Italians were in the late 1930s and A few independent countries keep of its dreams, its resources and its early 1940s; more brainwashed, expressing their outrage. But so far, freedom? more scared, submissive and more there is no grand coalition, which Are we all such cowards? Is this ‘disciplined’. would be ready to fight and defend what we—human beings—have *** each other: “one for all, all for one”. actually become; been reduced to? Until the recent ‘rebellion’ at Cowards and cattle, selfish and Look, seriously: are the people the UN, no one has been openly submissive beings; slaves? who are now writing those “peace and seriously suggesting that All this, simply because people essays”, in which they argue with the international law should apply to are too scared to confront the Western regime about who is right all nations of the world, equally. empire? Because they prefer to hide and who is wrong, seriously thinking People talk about ‘peace’. and pretend that what is so obvious that they are going to move people Many are begging the brigands to is actually not taking place? like Donald Trump, or Pompeo, or ‘stop’, ‘have mercy’, show some Therefore, let me pronounce it, Abrams, or Rubio? compassion. But neither Europe so at least my readers do not have Do they believe that Washington nor North America has ever shown that ‘luxury’ of claiming that they is going to stop murdering millions any compassion, for long, terrible were not told: of people all over the world? Or that centuries. Look at the map of the This world is being brutalised the neo-colonialist plunder would beginning of the 20th century, and controlled by the fascist clique stop, after the US Congress and for instance: the entire world was of Western nations. There is no Senate suddenly understand that 10 JANATA, June 9, 2019 they have been on the wrong side that is sincerely trying to stop the proud country. of history? assassins. It is time to stick a big metal rod This is not some rhetorical into its mouth. Now, immediately; question. I am serious: I demand *** before it gets too late. answers! Right now, Venezuela needs Let us shout LONG LIVE Does ‘peace movement’ thinks solidarity. It requires direct help, VENEZUELA! But with our hands, that by amassing arguments it could actions; not words. And so do many muscles and purses, not just with stop Western expansionism? Yes or other countries. our mouths. no? Instead, it gets an endless And let us not be scared to Do they believe that Pompeo avalanche of best wishes, as well as declare: if anywhere, it is Washington or Trump will suddenly hit their premature obituaries. where regime change is truly and foreheads and exclaim: “You people The Bolivarian Revolution has urgently needed! are correct! We did not see this!” gotten plenty of colorful words. But And call their troops, their thugs and what it urgently needs is volunteers, (Andre Vltchek is a philosopher, mercenaries back? money, and internationalist brigades! novelist, filmmaker and investigative If not, if this is not what peace I know that billions of people journalist.) movements believe would be done all over the world are now cheering by North American and European from their armchairs; in fact, Spectre of Fascism leaders, then why all those thousands doing absolutely nothing, while Contribution Rs. 20/- of wasted pages? also spending zero. Their love for Published by Would you go near a crocodile Venezuela is ‘platonic’. that is ready to devour an innocent I have just left Syria, where I was Janata Trust & Lokayat D-15, Ganesh Prasad, child, and try to reason with it? covering the Idlib war zone. There Would you, seriously? Do you think Naushir Bharucha Marg, was not one single foreigner near Grant Road (W), Mumbai 400 007 it would stop, drop a few tears, wag me, during those days. Eva Bartlett its tail and leave? and Vanessa Beeley usually work all over the toughest areas in Syria, *** but how many others do? And most Sometimes I tend to believe that of the time we work with near zero ‘peace movements’ in the West are backing, just because we feel that making things worse. They create it is our moral obligation to inform false hopes, and they behave as if humanity. the empire is some entity that has I am wondering, how many a soul, and understands logic. They foreigners are fighting for Venezuela, grossly underestimate the threat, the right now? danger. Who is going to face the Western And they tend to analyse the spooks implanted into the Caracas Western threat from a Western and the Venezuelan borders with perspective, using Western logic. Colombia and Brazil? A few RT and It somehow gets lost in TeleSur reporters, those true heroes, interpretation that fascism, terror yes, but who else? and bestiality have to be confronted Only direct action can save and fought. Venezuela, and the world. One cannot negotiate with a This is no time for debates. group of countries which are already This is worse, much worse than bathed in the blood of some 80% the late 1930s. of the planet. If it was to happen, The proverbial crocodile is here; it would just be a mockery and it its enormous ugly mouth open, ready would simply humiliate everyone to devour yet one more brilliant, JANATA, June 9, 2019 11 Building Socialism from Below

Cira Pascual Marquina interviews Martha Lia Grajales

[Martha Lia Grajales is part of and political organising for subaltern shouldn’t be considered the main the Surgentes Collective (a human groups. Expanding and deepening objective. rights organisation) and a founding popular organisation in Venezuela Thus, the problem is not that member of the San Agustin Convive has been, without doubt, one of popular power has been promoted cooperative in Venezuela. She is a the Chavista government’s goals, from above. The problem is lawyer, and has a master’s degree and we can count the build up of that often those operating in the in human rights and democracy. In grassroots organisations on a large government conceive of popular this interview, we ask her questions scale as one of its big successes. power as something that is merely about the relationship between state What is the problem then? First, auxiliary and which is only good power and popular organisation, the work that is done ‘from above’ for maintaining formal or traditional with a view to understanding how should not replace or appropriate power. This conception strips popular grassroots initiatives might breath that which is done ‘from below’. power of all of its transformative new life into the socialist project.] That’s to say, state institutions potential. It treats the masses as Cira Pascual Marquina shouldn’t manage or instrumentalise passive recipients rather than as (CPM): From the beginning, the (that is, trivialise) popular power. political subjects with the capacity Chavista movement had two ways There are many conceptions and power to guide the revolutionary of understanding and carrying of popular power, and one of them process. out politics: on the one hand, considers it simply as an instrument But it should be said that this is there was popular protagonism, for seizing state power. However, not only a question about how the direct democracy and grassroots once the power is in your hands, then state does things. Popular forces also organisation. On the other hand, you appeal to ‘historical necessity’ need to strategise their approach, the Chavismo also pursued state and and ‘national interest’ to justify most important requirement being institutional power. This double centralising power. In this way, that they need to develop economic approach was productive for a time, the party and the state gradually autonomy, which not only politicises and it opened the way for unforeseen supplant popular projects and the their movements but also limits the expressions of popular power. Now, autonomous organisations of the possibility of state co-optation. however, there seems to be a clear oppressed classes. A popular movement that does prevalence of state-level politics The other conception of popular not have its own economic muscle over popular power and grassroots power, which is the one we believe and depends completely on state organisation. What’s going on? in, considers popular power to be resources is very vulnerable. If it Martha Lia Grajales (MLG): both a means and an end. Popular does not behave as the state expects The state is a disputed territory, power is about creating a new set it to, it will lose support and its and entering into it is necessary of social relations that are outside organisational work can easily if we want to promote popular the logic of capital, and the aim is collapse. Or when the government, interests, but state power is not in self-government. Chávez warned wanting to support the initiative, any way the goal. In any effort to that the state or party should not is lacking in resources, that can build popular power, there must be institutionalise or co-opt popular also lead to the collapse of the synergy between the bottom and the power. That, obviously, does not movement’s organisational efforts. top. The key issue here is that what is mean we should take an isolationist So when popular power builds a done “from above” must strengthen attitude and cut off all relations with relationship of dependence on the popular power from below. the state for fear of losing autonomy. state, that reduces its capacity to We can’t ignore the important As I said earlier, the state is a self-govern. role that the government has played disputed terrain which the popular Obviously, all this doesn’t mean in fostering spaces of participation movement must not ignore, but it that popular organisations should 12 JANATA, June 9, 2019 reject state support, but it does mean MLG: The crisis in Venezuela socialist model hasn’t failed. Quite that when support is received, it must is much more than a struggle to the contrary, these projects go to be oriented towards collectively maintain state power. It is about the show us that the way out of the developing and collectively owning struggle to maintain socialism as a current crisis involves placing our the means of production according to strategic goal, not only in Venezuela bets on a truly emancipatory course a logic that is different from capital, but in the continent as a whole. of action. and which must be sustainable In this regard, in the midst of the There are so many projects that without the state’s intervention. brutal blockade and with internal show this. Plan Pueblo a Pueblo is Otherwise it will be impossible errors having been made in the a project involving some seventy to advance on the path of self- direction of the political process, small campesinos—essentially government and transitioning to there is now a strong national and farming families—and it manages socialism. international tendency claiming to distribute food to more than This is a complicated business, that Venezuela’s attempt to build 1,200 urban families every week. because here the government must an alternative to capitalism is a In three years, they have produced support the initiatives for building of huge failure. Moreover, it is said more than 1,000 tons of fruits and popular power that should gradually that the problems that we are now vegetables on their own. They are replace the government itself. In that experiencing are associated with also recovering native seeds and process, we will naturally run into the socialist model. This view agroecological practices, while resistance from constituted power, associates socialism with scarcity of promoting campesino organisation which does not want to be replaced. food, widespread impoverishment, not only for the sake of food However, it is only if this transfer the restriction of political rights, sovereignty, but also with a view to of power takes place, that we can corruption, etc., and uses this a building an independent distribution advance toward socialism. reason to reject it as an alternative network. This initiative generates The role of a popular government to capitalism. new fraternal relations between is to contribute to building power So when I talk about the need the people of the countryside and from below, fostering a constant for the Chavista popular movement the city, and productive relations modification in the relations of to organise and reorient itself, one geared towards common welfare and power in favour of the people. There of the things I’m talking about is towards eliminating intermediaries. must be a process of permanently publicising and popularising all Pueblo a Pueblo’s internal generating conditions for the growth those grassroots projects that have organisational process helped raise of popular power. Paraphrasing taken shape during the emergency— the small farmers’ capacity to grow Miguel Mazzeo (noted Argentine all those communal projects that, and distribute in an independent intellectual–activist) : those from in the midst of this crisis, cast their and autonomous manner, which in above should foment, not replace lot with building alternatives to turn helped them get better pay for popular power. capitalist relations, to colonialism their labour. At the same time, the CPM: You have claimed that the and to heteronormativity (the belief organised buyer communities are Chavista popular movement needs that heterosexuality is the norm – able to purchase food with around to organise all of its forces, with the Editor)—and which layout the path 60% savings when compared with aim of reorienting the Bolivarian to socialism as a strategic horizon. standard market prices. All this Process. The popular movement— In the midst of this profound happened in the midst of a terrible consisting of people organised crisis, these grassroots efforts crisis, and it was made possible, first, in communes, cooperatives, expand and enrich participation by planning production; second, worker councils and autonomous in politics. They also produce and through the organisational work feminist organisations—must guarantee food in a sustainable both in the countryside and in the become something that can guide and sovereign way. In other words, city; and, third, by eliminating the masses. This requires a great those who are self-organised and intermediaries from the productive deal of collective work but also, collectively manage shared assets chain. This shows that organisation and very importantly, an effective are more protected. These grassroots can not only help us overcome communications strategy. experiences are living proof that the the crisis, additionally, it’s also a JANATA, June 9, 2019 13 game-changer, allowing us to avoid it is also to generate spaces of of subsidised food) or the UBCh capitalist pragmatism, and deepening encounter, articulation and collective (Bolivar-Chavez Battle Units, our commitment to socialism as a action that must be promoted beyond which are the basic organisational strategic goal. the local level where each initiative structures of the Socialist Party of So we have to question both the is taking place. Venezuela at the local level). In other usual explanation of the causes of the I would also like to add cases, it’s simply because solving harsh situation that we are currently something in response to those day-to-day problems takes a lot of facing and at the same time publicise who think that it’s naïve to imagine time and effort, due to the crisis. all those practices that are led by solving crisis from below, from the However, it’s a different story subaltern groups: projects that will local level, and step by step. Well, we with the organisational efforts that allow us to find a way out of this are not naïve, we are not forgetting are being made to respond to the crisis while radicalising the process. the struggle that must take place at crisis, such as: the projects that This, however, requires a big the level of state politics. But it is operate outside the logic of capital effort on the part of the popular precisely by accumulating grassroot and address people’s material needs, movement to generate spaces force—through organisational work such as food, and do this with of articulation. That’s because, and forging alternative productive a practice that turns people into whenever these initiatives get going, chains—that we can develop real protagonists and political subjects pragmatists will always say that one capacity to exert our influence at the again, as opposed to the clientelistic truck of produce by a cooperative level of state politics. logic promoted by the government; will not solve the huge difficulties CPM: In the face of the crisis the projects that question the logic that we are living. (and governmental responses that of privileges in the distribution of When faced with such often involve reducing popular scarce resources; the initiatives arguments, I would answer in two participation) new grassroots that promote relationships built on ways. First, this is not only about the projects have been emerging. These transparency and equality. These collective effort that is promoted at projects are often self-managed and kinds of organisational initiatives a local level, because undoubtedly try to solve problems outside the have managed to maintain such an effort taken in isolation is logic of capital. We have seen people themselves and grow, not only from absolutely insufficient. The aim here using new organisational forms an economic standpoint, but also is to multiply the local productive that are much more democratic and politically. These organisations have projects based on the characteristics horizontal. These spaces have been not only survived, they have also of each territory and what is needed important for re-politising people been growing and getting stronger. for reproducing life there. The local during the crisis and in the face of This shows that it’s not just projects should also be linked to imperialist aggression. about solving the food issue (which other such projects, allowing for MLG: As a result of the multi- is what the CLAP tries to do), but the growth of what Chavez called dimensional crisis that we are facing also about doing this in ways that a great spider web: a new geometry in Venezuela, many people from the are opposed to the logic of capital, of power. This new power might popular classes no longer involve through methods that are collective well have its epicenter at the local themselves in state-sponsored and democratic. In the words of level, but its true power consists organisations. In some cases, this Mazzeo, it’s about government by in the capacity to connect people is due to their understandable anger an entire class and not by an elite. and communities across the entire with the government—both with Those efforts seeking to build region. It is in this way that what regards to the overall orientation popular power from below—and might seem insignificant at a local of its national policies, and the that do so by developing forms level can contribute to new practices, behaviour of its local representatives that allow for a more collective new policies and new economic in the local territory, particularly the and democratic way of doing relations which could meet the most people assigned from above to head politics, while also addressing serious needs of the people. the CLAP (Local Food Production people’s material needs—work to Thus, the objective is not only and Provision Committees, re-politise the population and raise generating local productive projects, which organise the distribution public morale. This recharges and 14 JANATA, June 9, 2019 strengthens the mass organisation, experience that showed that because, to build our non‐capitalist while maintaining socialism as a cooperative and collective action alternative, we have had to overcome strategic goal. Even though they can protect us, in the midst of the condition of being merely don’t actually get us to socialism, Venezuela’s deep crisis. Thanks to dependent ‘recipients’ and remake they work to build conditions for it. the organisational work we have ourselves as political subjects CPM: Finally, I would like to done, people in the cooperative have capable of critically addressing ask you about Unidos San Agustin access to food with more than 60% our reality and of organising to Convive, as a concrete self-organised savings compared with the regular transform it. It is not about waiting project. If you could describe it, that market prices (which, in turn, means for the solutions to arrive from would help us to understand the that we are likely to be eating more above, it is about building them from practical experience and its political and better). The cooperative also below. Of course, for something reverberations. We would also like decreases our level of dependence, like this to work, everybody has to to learn how this experience re- making us more autonomous and less participate and get involved. politises people and raises morale, vulnerable. Finally, the experience and how it belies the claim that demonstrates, in the midst of a (Cira Pascual Marquina is Political socialism has failed and the only brutal crisis, that the only way out Science Professor at the Universidad solution now is privatisation. is through collective projects, not de Bolivariana de Venezuela in MLG: San Agustín Convive through capitalism. Caracas and is staff writer for is a cooperative formed mainly The project re-mobilises us Venezuelanalysis.com.) by women from 13 communal councils in the San Agustin del Sur barrio in Caracas. It got going in The People are with Evo: August almost three years ago. The A Glimpse of New Bolivia cooperative took shape to deal with the issue of food. When it started in 2016, there was one hub made up of Interview with Rodolfo Machaca Yupanqui five communal councils, and now there are three hubs bringing together [As the general elections in very important that our indigenous people from 13 communal councils. Bolivia are approaching and the peasant grassroots movements Besides the distribution of food in campaign for socialist president Evo were taken into account in the collaboration with the Plan Pueblo a Morales is gaining vigour, Peoples Bolivian state structure. This means Pueblo, the cooperative is also taking Dispatch interviewed Rodolfo having political rights, including steps to develop textile and food Machaca Yupanqui, the leader of the the right of indigenous people production; the making of sauces, Unified Confederation of Bolivian and peasants to become president, jams, and ice cream; and children’s Peasant Workers Union (CSUTCB). member of parliament, legislator, social and leadership activities—all The CSUTCB is the largest peasants’ judge, attorney general, professor this through a self-managed and union in Bolivia. Since 1967, it has or university teacher—basically, the deeply democratic process involving been continuously struggling for right to be treated on par with any collective organisational forms. It is various transformative processes. other citizen. an attempt to develop revolutionary President Evo Morales is also a Social rights are the next thing we theory through practical work. member of this confederation.] fight for. It is important to have equal Thus, it is not just an effort aimed Peoples Dispatch: What are the rights in health care and education, at meeting specific demands, it is main agenda points and objectives without being discriminated on the also about building the conditions of your organisation? basis of culture and language. for socialism to take shape, starting Rodolfo Machaca Yupanqui: We also fight for economic at the local level. The primary objective is to rights. It is worth mentioning that How does it re-politise and organise people. The indigenous we, as peasants, farmers, livestock re-mobilise people? Well, it re‐ peasant sector has been historically breeders, fishermen and craftsmen, politicised people through practical marginalised and forgotten. So it was also want to have our own form of JANATA, June 9, 2019 15 economy. We want an economy based forgotten or marginalised in the past. sectors. These economies have been on community and social values. How to fight for building such a incorporated within the structure We do not want a private economy state, and what would be its form, are of the state. Earlier, the private or capitalism or neoliberalism. the issues that we discuss and debate economy was the main driving force So, these are the reasons why we in the meetings between trade union of the economy. Only the rich and mobilise. leaders, indigenous people, peasants the powerful could manage and head As a result of years of struggles, and workers from all over the world it while we, the indigenous, peasant we have Evo Morales as the president and this must continue progressing. and poor people were subservient of Bolivia. He is the first indigenous PD: What have been the to this model. Similarly, societal peasant to lead the country. significant changes brought about control has been strengthened The second important objective by Evo Morales’ government? Which instead of private control. So, these is to fight for universal human rights. are the sectors that benefited from are the most important changes that We, the indigenous peasant people, these changes? have taken place in Bolivia. have our own knowledge, wisdom RMY: A major change that is The Bolivian state has also taken and experiences. We want a social an example for the whole world is over the natural resources such environment in which these are that after being marginalised and as petroleum, hydrocarbons and recognised. neglected for hundreds of years, the mining industry, as well as the While we are an indigenous the indigenous people, peasants, telecommunication, electricity and people’s organisation, we have workers and labourers have been transportation sectors. We have taken also built international linkages. incorporated into the state structure control of all the strategic areas, and We have organised at continental through the constituent assembly. whatever resources are generated level, at global level with La Through Morales’ reforms, from there are invested by the state Via Campesina and we also are these sectors have all the essential in roads, education, construction of members of the Social Movements rights that the rich, powerful and schools, hospitals, communication of ALBA. It is worth noting that all strong people have. Now, even one centers, universities, etc. indigenous organisations and unions of us can become the president. It is We are confident that in the in the countryside, as well as in the not just the elite, but an indigenous coming decades, because of these cities—whether they be of salaried person and a peasant who can also profound advances, Bolivia will be employees or the self-employed, of run the country. We have the right as developed as China or any other mine workers, transport workers, to be a member of the assembly, a advanced country. factory workers, retail and wholesale member of parliament, a governor, a PD: What can you tell us about traders or craftsmen—all unite at the judge or a lawyer. We have the right the upcoming presidential elections global level to fight for our demands. to join the military academy and the in Bolivia? This is very useful for peasants from police academy, and to participate in RMY: Sometimes, the set of rules across the globe. The reason for elections and win electoral power, of a state, in the name of democracy, organising a common struggle at which controls the democratic places limits on a president even a global level is to defeat all those system in the country. though his administration might plans of the ruling classes that are Another significant change has have been good. For example, Evo capitalist, oligarchic and sectoral, been breaking with the neoliberal Morales has been governing the and to fight the governments that notion of the state that only recognises country for 12 years and they did only serve the rich people. the private sector. We have built not want him to stand in elections In order to defeat these plans, it what is called the state economy, in again because of these constitutional is necessary to fight for a new model which the state takes control of the limitations. of a state that would be closer to our wealth and not only regulates it, but We, the indigenous people, needs, a model of a people oriented also has administrative control. peasants, social movements and state. In this model, the form of We have also implemented a people’s organisations, demanded government and the structure of community-based economy, which that the rules be changed so that a the State should be such that it recognises the economy of the president who does positive things includes those sectors that have been poorest people and the unionised for the benefit of the people should 16 JANATA, June 9, 2019 continue. We believe that 12 years Official Language Vs Social Justice are not enough for profound changes to materialise. For this reason, we are re-nominating president Evo Prem Singh Morales for 2020–2025. On behalf (This paper was first presented The deprived and the oppressed of our party, the Movement Towards at a five-day conference on ‘Indian sections of Indian society, for Socialism (MAS), his nomination Constitution and Social Justice’ whom the Constitution’s provision has already been registered with the held in Mysore in 1995, under the for social justice was specially electoral body. joint auspices of Indian Institute formulated, are the ones who really The elections are a challenge. of Advanced Study, Shimla and are denied the same. The general The Latin American continent is Dhwanyalok Center for Indian opinion after forty-five years of the going through a very difficult and Studies, Mysore. It generated implementation of the Constitution complicated situation, where the considerable controversy then, as is that the ‘development’ and the neoliberal and fascist model is the author had written and presented ‘progress’ made by free India has dominant again. It has returned to it in Hindi, even though a summary only resulted in making the rich, power in Brazil and it is there in of the article had been circulated in richer and the poor, poorer. The Argentina. Ecuador had a socialist English for benefit of the non-Hindi causes for this are complex and leader but his successor is actually scholars. As the language question multifaceted. Significant among serving the capitalists. Venezuelan is again under discussion spotlight these is the constitutional acceptance president Nicolás Maduro is after the publication of the draft given to English as the Official suffering a brutal frontal attack. National Education Policy (NEP) Language of the country. The The big capitalists are attacking 2018, it is being published here once Constitution makers obstructed our presidents from popular again.) the process of social justice in the backgrounds. very beginning by bestowing upon We are going through difficult I English the position of Official times, but we are confident that there The pledge to make “social, Language in the country, though is light at the end of the tunnel and economic and political justice,” that after independence Gandhi had that we will set an example for the is ‘social justice’ available to all the voiced his apprehensions about this: world. Only by organising ourselves citizens of the country, is the pledge “Unless the government and their expressed in the Preamble of the secretariats take care the English and continuously resisting without Indian Constitution. Constitution language is likely to usurp the place arms will democracy triumph again. makers have made provisions to of Hindustani. This must do infinite These are great challenges, but they facilitate the availability of social harm to the millions of Indians who can be won with unity that is rooted justice to all people and groups, would never be able to understand in the diversity of social movements. without “discrimination on the English.”[1] In free India, after The secret is in uncompromising grounds of religion, race, caste, sex Gandhi, Lohia argued consistently resistance. If we resist, we will win or place of birth”. The intention that the language issue has a direct for sure. A new dawn will come. behind this is the creation of an bearing upon the social justice and We hope that in the world and in egalitarian society. Ideas of social democratic process. the Latin American continent, in the justice witnessed on the international A long ‘Mahabharata’ has been coming years progressive presidents political scene contain sharper fought on the multifaceted language will come to power and work for the and revolutionary perceptions as problem in the country. But the poor, who are the most neglected compared to the Indian Constitution. entire focus of the discussion gets people on this planet Earth. The revolutionary parties within suffocated and killed in limiting the India itself are not completely argument to merely Hindi versus (People’s Dispatch is an international satisfied with this constitutional English, and Hindi versus other media organisation whose mission is delineation of social justice. The Indian languages. Like the monkey to highlight voices from people’s scope of this paper does not allow in the fable who devoured the loaf movements and organisations across one to go into the details of the other while meting out ‘monkey-justice’ the globe.) concepts of social justice. to the quarrelsome cats, English has JANATA, June 9, 2019 17 kept winning at the cost of Indian languages were, for the time being, Universities and institutions are laden languages which are unable to arrive incapable of functioning as vehicles with English texts and journals. This at any solution among themselves. of communication and knowledge. includes work done on the subject English was given the status And English ‘as one of the major of social justice and revolution. All of the Official Language of India achievements made by the country the political parties in India who are for the first fifteen years of the during the foreign rule’, was capable committed to the ideology of social country’s independence. But of building up national integration justice carry out their work in the the position has not changed till and bringing the country at par with English language. There is hardly today. English has also achieved the international scene of science and any national or regional political the position of a language which technology. The first two Education party which has its manifesto, policy commands power and social status. Commissions, the Radhakrishnan etc. written down originally in Deeply responsible for this are those Commission (1947) and the Kothari Indian languages. This includes the English-knowing elite who keep the Commission (1966) agreed that party led by Ram Manohar Lohia common public away from socio- Indian languages should be the which had pledged to do away with political processes. Also responsible medium of instruction at universities, English “today and now” because for this are those who play political so that the chasm between the English it hampered social justice in the games in the name of the language knowing elite and the common country. The Marxist parties inspired issue. Responsibility rests upon masses is obliterated. The advocates by the revolutionary goal, the highest those ‘progressive’ thinkers too, who of English however refused to form of social justice, carry out all believe that English is necessary for believe that English could be the their official proceedings in English. the development of both capitalism cause for this gap. The progressive English, already endowed with as well as socialism. Commenting on writer, Mulk Raj Anand, considering the responsibility of unifying the such thinkers, Ram Vilas Sharma, the English to be synonymous with country as a ‘nation state’, is also Marxist thinker and linguist, writes: knowledge itself, said that the burdened with the responsibility “some progressive thinkers like to “brown-sahibs” apart, the country of organising ‘revolution’ in the quote with pride Gandhi’s ideas has a “sincere English-knowing country. Prakash Karat maintains on the subject of state formation intelligentsia” which can make that after the formation of states on on language basis. But they very social justice and human dignity language basis “one of the obstacles conveniently ignore what Gandhi possible not only at the national to communist leadership links said about doing away with English. level but also at the international between states could be the gradual These thinkers represent those level. This intelligentsia, committed displacement of English . . .”[4] middle class intellectuals who are to giving concrete shape to the The mere knowledge of hopeful of being admitted into India of Nehru’s dreams, cautioned English has come to be accepted official positions at all-India level us against the usage of Indian as the touchstone of knowledge for by allowing English to continue at languages, which, they believe, achieving distinctive positions in the the Centre”.[2] Gandhi and Ram confine us to being mere “suburbans, field of education, administration, Vilas Sharma both advocate the use provincials and village idiots”.[3] judiciary and defense services. The of Hindi–Hindustani in place of As per the wishes of this “sincere same is true in the private sector as English. The reference to both these intelligentsia” consisting of scholars well. But what has been the outcome luminaries has been made not to like Mulk Raj Anand and other of all this? The result is simply the prove the validity of their argument supporters of the English language, formation of a powerful and well- in favour of Hindi–Hindustani, but most of the work in advanced cushioned elite class on the one in order to underline the fact that education and research institutions hand, and the deprived, oppressed they both consider English to be a (except the work being done in common public on the other. The weapon in the hands of a particular academies of Indian languages), is in masses are unable to comprehend class, which it uses against the the English language. Consequently, complex ideas regarding humanism, remaining common people. most of the research and scholarship liberalism, socialism, communism, in the country is done only in English nationalism, pluralism, etc. and the II language. The natural fallout of elite are victims of alienation unable It was argued at the time of the situation is that English alone to identify with the cultural roots and Independence that the Indian becomes the yardstick of excellence. the common man. 18 JANATA, June 9, 2019

Language is a medium of maintained that: “A village normally The country is endangered once exchanging views. In India, the speaking is backward intellectually again by the shadows of slavery. This English language performs this and culturally and no progress can be time, tagging along with political function only within a very limited made from a backward environment. servility is the threat of a sub- circle. For the remaining people, its Narrow minded people are much culture. Will the intellectuals who role is that of a barrier which has a more likely to be untruthful and propound ‘universal’ ever pause and deep and long-term effect in delaying violent.”[5] Ambedkar too, wrote off think about the possibilities of the the process of social justice. English, the villages as “a den of ignorance ‘local’? This is the area in which from the very beginning, has been a and illiteracy, a habitat which live crores and crores of people, dark shadow between the common perpetuates both physical and mental whose hands have not yet reached man and the constitutional promise ill health.”[6] Thus, the responsibility the basic requirements of life and of social justice. Viewed in the light of nation-building was placed on whose feet have been uprooted from of Lohia’s words, English divides the the progressive intelligentsia whose their soil. These are the people whose nation into “two castes” and to quote minds have been illuminated by intervention and participation in the Rajni Kothari, into “two Indias”: the English. socio-political processes have been English knowing elite India on the However, today, the class interest almost blocked. one hand, and the poor, oppressed which lies behind this apparent If those who plead for the masses on the other. national interest is no more a alternative ideology of ‘humane The ‘international language’ thus concealed truth. The acceptance of governance’ or those thinkers accomplishes the job of keeping English as the Official Language by and leaders who strive towards the majority of India’s population the supporters of the language and the ideology of ‘revolutionary away from the social and political our Constitution-makers has proved democracy’ actually wish to make processes. Since all projects, to be the secret door from which the people’s participation in the socio- programs and plans are drafted in entry of the neo-imperialism has been political processes a reality, then they English by English-knowing people, made possible. The New Economic must learn from the mistakes made in the non-English knowing public is Policies, liberalisation, the GATT the past. The philosophy and politics unable to partake in the conception agreement, etc. are a slap on the of the liberation of the masses is and implementation of any of these face of the same “sincere English- possible only in the languages used programs and projects. Public knowing intelligentsia” who upheld by the masses. This is the bare, hard opinion is limited to just elections. the use of English in the name of lesson of which history is the proof. This, then, is the plight of the ‘largest social justice, human dignity, national democracy’ of the world—where integration, abundance of knowledge, (Dr. Prem Singh teaches at the Dept. a mere two to four percent people international relations and so on. of Hindi, University of Delhi.) reign over the remaining ninety-eight The extent to which English has percent. contributed to the wisdom within the References country is proven by the fact that the 1. Gandhi, Thoughts on National III larger section of the intelligentsia is Language, Navjivan Publishing It has been assumed that the content with simply circling around House, Ahmedabad, 1956, p. 168. 2. Ram Vilas Sharma, Bhasha Niti aur rich indigenous experience and our the synthetic–cosmetic socio-cultural Gandhiji, Pratipaksh, New Delhi, ancient institutions, distanced from and economic–political questions June 1990. elitist India, are worthless for the thrown up by the developed nations. 3. Mulk Raj Anand, “A Plea for English work of ‘nation-building’. It is not The documents related to the for Higher Education”, Language merely a coincidence that Gandhi, blue-print of the future of India are and Society in India, Indian Institute of Advanced Study, Shimla, 1968. who supported the ‘local’ in form being prepared abroad by officials 4. Prakash Karat, Language and of village panchayats, and Lohia, sitting in world institutions. The Nationality Politics in India, Orient who upheld the same in the form ‘Bhagiraths’ who claimed to flood Longman, New Delhi, 1973, p. 73. of ‘Chowkhamba Raj’, were both India with the Ganges of wisdom 5. Pyare Lal, Towards New Horizons, opposed to English and those leaders brought in through the medium of Navjivan Publishing House, who uphold the ‘universal’ in the form Ahmedabad, 1959, p. 5. English are now searching for their 6. Dharam Pal, Constituents Assembly of centralised governance uphold the new roles in this new-fangled press- Debates on Panchayati Raj, Award, use of English in the country. Nehru button technique of nation building. New Delhi, 1961. JANATA, June 9, 2019 19

Let the Monk of Love Become the Country’s Prime Minister! Ranganatha Kantanakunte

They say that the country's PM works for 18 hrs, Like a machine! No need – Let him work just 8 hours as our workers do. Let him rest when tired, Sleep when sleepy, Smile when he dreams, like a baby, Enjoy the beloved's hug. Let him not set on fire those who are in embrace.

Let a human being become our PM instead of a machine!

They say the PM has no family! That he doesn't make money or property. No, I wish our PM has a family. Let him work & earn some money and property to take care of his family, Let him stop spending people’s money on globetrotting. Let him have children, grandchildren… a huge family. Let him know what relationships mean, Let him not raise the cost of fuel that cooks the poor man's food, Let him be aware of the price of salt, millet, jowar, maize, vegetables. Let him know how our farmers sweat to earn a few paise, And let him handcuff those who steal the fruit of the sweat. Let him first realise that beef is part of the nation's food culture, And that a man's life is more sacred than a piece of beef.

They say our PM's chest measures so many inches… But no, to become a human you don't need a 100 inch chest, Doesn't matter if he has a heart, the size of a tiny sparrow, parrot or crow. Let him consider all as his own. Let him love people, Let him not be a cruel beast who divides, kills and rules!

They say our PM is a good speaker, That he can speak for hours. No, it’s OK even if our PM doesn't speak. Let him not attack his opponents in fury, Let his words not sow fear in anybody's heart, Let him have a heart to listen to the twitter of birds and lovers' whispers. Let him be aware that no crown sits on one's head forever, Let him be a people's leader having won their love, Let him not talk of atom bombs, So we don't see a self-glorifying monster on the country's throne.

They say our PM is the upholder of our Dharma! No… No religion has uplifted people in this world till now. We don't need a religion for that. What people need is work and water to quench their thirst and fatigue. A peaceful town. Food, cloth, shelter and knowledge. Work is the religion of workers.

Let the monk who walks barefoot on the path of the religion of love, be our PM. May the light of Buddha Purnima become the light of our people.

(Ranganatha Kantanakunte teaches in Government First Grade College, Honnavara, Karnataka. This poem has been translated from Kannada by Suma Embar.) R.N.I. NO. 1855/1957 20 JANATA, June 9, 2019 Postal Registration No. MCW/275/2018-2020. License to Post without prepayment WPP License No. MR/Tech/WPP-210/West/2019 Published on Sunday, June 9, 2019 & Posted on Wedenesday, June 12, 2019 at Mumbai Patrika Channel, Mumbai GPO-1

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Vol. 74 No. 21 When Girish Karnad Joined the Fight to June 16, 2019 Preserve Bababudangiri The Gathering Storm Clouds of Recession Prabhat Patnaik The 'Liberal' Education Envisaged by the Draft Gauri Lankesh NEP Has No Role for Dissent Pratishtha Pandya When the saffron brigade had asked, “Shall we make a trip there to AIFRTE Condemns Threats to the Life and laid siege to the Bababudangiri understand the ground reality before Liberty of Dr. Ram Puniyani Dargah in Karnataka, calling it the the communal harmony conference Congress Socialist Party's Separation from the Congress (1946–48) ‘Ayodhya of the South’, journalist on December 7 and 8?” Narendra Kumar Singh & Anand Prakash Singh Gauri Lankesh mobilised writers “It’s a beautiful idea, let’s go,” I They Cannot Stop Us. and intellectuals to rally against the said. Karnad, Dr K. Marulasiddappa, We Will Live and Triumph. Hindutva surge in the historical site. G.K. Govind Rao, Shudra Shrinivas, Bertha Mojena Milián In this piece published on December Professor V.S. Sridhara and I headed May Day 2003 Fidel Castro 3, 2003 in Lankesh Patrike, Gauri to Chikmagalur in a Tata Qualis. Is Amit Shah Seeking to Push NRC Across India? had recalled how Girish Karnad had On the way we discussed the Whither Nehru’s Dreams after Seven Decades eagerly joined the effort to preserve uniqueness of Bababudangiri and of Indian Democracy communal harmony. The Special the poisonous environment being Harasankar Adhikari Investigation Team probing Gauri’s created around it by the saffron Total Civil Disobedience and Strike Begins in Sudan assassination has found evidence brigade. It is no secret that the Pavan Kulkarni that suggests that Karnad had been monkeys of the Bajrang Dal are Terror Accounts For 0.007% Of Indian Deaths, first on the hit list of the same right- gearing up to create disruptions at Ill-Health 90% Swagata Yadavar wing group that killed Gauri. We are Bababudangiri this year. The slogans publishing this piece, taken from The of the Bajrang Dal last year stand Editor : G. G. Parikh Wire, in memory of Girish Karnad, testimony to this. Shridhar showed Associate Editor : Neeraj Jain who passed away on June 10. me the photos taken last year. One Such amazing things happened of the photos had a banner with the Managing Editor : Guddi over the two weeks when we slogan: ‘Committed to friendship, Editorial Board : organised communal harmony but ready to destroy!’ meetings at Chikmagalur and Karnad was furious when he B. Vivekanandan, Qurban Ali Bababudangiri, and called upon read this. He thundered, “Whom do Anil Nauriya, Sonal Shah people to stop Karnataka from they want to destroy? Look at the Amarendra Dhaneshwar, becoming another Gujarat and words they use. ‘Muscle power’, Sandeep Pandey Bababudangiri from being turned ‘streams of blood’, ‘destroying the into Ayodhya by the saffron brigade. enemy’ . . . Is this even Kannada?” D-15, Ganesh Prasad, . . . I am confused about where to Marulasiddappa remarked, “Our Naushir Bharucha Marg, even begin! culture was shaped by Basavanna, Mumbai - 400 007. The writer Girish Karnad, who Sharif, Kanakadasa and Kuvempu. Email : [email protected] had already expressed his support to ‘Compassion is the core of religion’. Website:www.janataweekly.org protecting Bababudangiri which is a . . This is the basis of Karnataka’s symbol of harmony, called me up and religion. But these Bajrang Dal types 2 JANATA, June 16, 2019 know only the language of Modi and above all, one needs to appreciate helping them. Some, impressed by Togadia.” the stand taken by the shakhadri, the love, compassion, and tolerance That photo had also captured the hereditary administrator of the shown by Dada Hayat, converted the ‘demands’ of the Bajrang shrine. Himself a Muslim, he had to Islam while many others became Dal—offering pooja at Dattapitha, said that this holy space does not devotees of Dada Hayat without installation of an idol, appointment belong to just Muslims but as much severing ties with their old religion, of a priest, the removal of the tombs to Hindu devotees. It is to be equally but by calling him an avatar of around Dattapitha and declaration of appreciated that Hindus, who are Dattatreya himself. There is a reason this entire region as a holy place for petitioners, have not claimed that the for this too. In Hindu mythology, the Hindus. place is exclusively of the Hindus Vishnu takes the avatar of Dattatreya The Bajrang Dal has made the even though it has paadukas and to free people from slavery. So the same demands this year too. The nanda deepa. Hindu devotees saw Dattatreya in Bharatiya Janata Party has declared The Muslims who have Dada Hayat and gave him a Hindu its full support to them. been worshipping at this place name. It was common to give But every demand of the Bajrang for hundreds of years have never Muslim Sufi saints Hindu names Dal stands in direct contravention claimed this space exclusively for back then. For example, Bijapur’s of the Supreme Court’s judgment. themselves, the court noted. The Sufi saint Khwaja Ameenuddin Meeting even one of these demands Wakf Board, meanwhile, is trying Allah was called Brahmanandayike would amount to contempt of court. to stake a claim over this space. Swamy by the Hindu devotees and It is no surprise that the ignorant BJP When the world is falling apart Tintini’s Moiddeen was ‘Hinduised’ supporters are unaware of this. because of fissures between religions as Muniyappa. We discussed the judgment of the and castes, this contentious centre, In due course, the two names Supreme Court on Bababudangiri. Guru Dattatreya Bababudanswamy Dada Hayat and Dattatreya became According to this judgment, only Dargah, is a great example of real one, and in the land documents of the rituals that were practised till secularism, the judges said. the dargah, the shakhadri came to be June 1975 can be continued and It is an act of evil that in such a called ‘Jagadguru’. Both Hindu and no new rituals are to be allowed. place, an orthodox Hindu party like Muslim kings have been devotees It had also listed the religious the BJP and its hell-raising arm, the of this place for centuries. There practices that were being followed Bajrang Dal, are demanding the was a steady flow of money to this in Bababudangiri. appointment of a priest (I need not dargah during Rani Chennamma’s Many of the rituals seen in emphasise that it will be a brahmin) time. Haider Ali also provided Hindu temples are followed here. and the razing of tombs. They are resources for its upkeep. Tipu Sultan They are: keen to proclaim it a Hindu holy granted hundreds of acres of land. Sri 1. Offering flowers to the paadukas place. Krishnaraja Wodeyar III visited the (footwear of the godhead). Girish Karnad ridiculed the dargah multiple times for religious 2. Lighting the lamp. whole idea, saying, “Datta Jayanti counsel from the pir. Not just that, 3. Giving theertha (holy water) to or Datta Maala are not our tradition the Mysore king provided special the devotees. at all. It is not religion but politics in privileges to 16 Hindu religious 4. Breaking coconuts as an offering. the name of religion that is behind authorities and Shri Guru Dattatreya 5. Paying respects to the religious such practices. It is very easy to Bababudanswamy Jagadguru. No heads of Hindu mathas. understand the conspiracy behind other Muslim religious head was 6. Blessing devotees by stroking brahminising the Dattatreya of the given this privilege. their heads with peacock feathers. Natha tradition who had rejected the In such a place the saffron The judges of the Supreme Court caste system.” brigade now wants homa, yoga, who wrote the judgment (in 1975) The Guru Dattatreya yagna, pooja . . . and such other extolled the uniquely harmonious Bababudanswamy Dargah has its pointless rituals. character of this holy shrine. In the own history. Dada Hayat, who had judgment they said that while all come to Chandra Drona Mountain (Gauri Lankesh was a journalist the talk of ‘Ram-Rahim’ is often from Arabia, won the appreciation turned activist from Bangalore, who a cliché, it is a living tradition of shudras and dalits, then suffering was murdered by assailants outside here. The judges further said that at the hands of local chieftains, by her home on September 5, 2017.) JANATA, June 16, 2019 3 The Gathering Storm Clouds of Recession

Prabhat Patnaik

The Index of Industrial like India and China via a lower available, it is not clear how much of Production has for the first time since growth rate of exports. But the a difference that would have made, June 2013 contracted in absolute lower growth-rate of exports is not but with credit availability itself terms by 0.1% in March 2019 even partially counterbalanced by being subject to some tightness, a compared to a year ago. This comes any stepping up of growth of the mere lowering of the rates will not on top of a mere 0.07% increase in domestic market. On the contrary, increase credit disbursement to any February, a 1.7% increase in January, the home market is also shrinking significant extent. a 2.6% increase in December, and at the same time because of rural What is needed is fiscal a 0.3% increase in November. distress, because of the second-order expansion, but here we come to the Industrial growth in short has been effects of the slowing down of export nub of the matter. In this election slowing down for some time now growth, and also because of the season, various political parties have and the latest figure only reaffirms growing weight of non-performing been promising larger transfers to this trend emphatically. assets, also on account inter alia the rural poor, which would certainly Within industrial production, the of the slowing down of industrial expand the home market and cause manufacturing sector which has a growth, which squeezes credit some revival in industrial output. weight of 77.6%, declined by 0.4% availability for undertaking larger The Modi government’s budget in March compared to a year ago, expenditures. The slowing down had promised Rs 6,000 per capita and this arose because of a decline of export growth in other words, annually to about 12 crore persons of 8.7% in capital goods, a decline of far from being counterbalanced, is belonging to small peasant families. 5.1% in consumer durables, a decline further compounded by a shrinking The Congress has gone much further of 2.5% in intermediate goods and of the home market. in its election manifesto. It has a rise by 0.3% in consumer non- This is clear from the fact that the promised under its NYAYA scheme durables. For the financial year consumer durables sector has shrunk to give Rs 6,000 per month, i.e., 2018–19 as a whole, the growth in and the consumer non-durables sector Rs 72,000 per year, to the bottom the index of industrial production has remained virtually stagnant in quintile of the households, which is was a mere 3.6%, which is lower April compared to the previous about 5 crore households. than the 4.4% of 2017–18; but it is April. And the contraction in capital While these schemes, especially in the later months of the financial goods output which comes on top the NYAYA scheme, which is year that the recession has gathered of a contraction that had already much more ambitious, will help momentum. occurred in February, suggests that in expanding the home market, the This recession in a sense is investment in the economy is falling. question is how the resources for inevitable. It is a symptom of the fact The Reserve Bank of India has it can be raised. Taxing the rich, that the Indian economy, like other already twice announced cuts in especially through wealth taxation economies of the world, is caught in the Repo Rate, of 25 basis points which is virtually absent in India and a limbo, with neoliberalism having each; but this is unlikely to make which can therefore raise substantial reached a dead-end and no other much difference. What is holding up revenues precisely because it is economic regime based on the home credit disbursement is not so much absent in India, is the obvious market having come to replace it. the cost of credit as its availability, way of mobilising resources; but The world economy has been which has got impaired by its being this is going to be stoutly opposed witnessing a slowdown which has locked up in non-performing assets. by international finance capital. now begun to affect economies Of course, even if credit was easily Manmohan Singh had said, rather

(This article was written before the election results were announced on May 23. The figures that have been released by the Modi Government 2.0, and some of its policy decisions, more than bear out the analysis done in this article, so we are publishing it.) 4 JANATA, June 16, 2019 diplomatically when the NYAYA hidden from public view because the financial inflows in such a situation scheme was being launched, that government has simply refused to would not have made much of a there should be no problems about publish any data on unemployment difference to the country’s ability raising the resources; but finding for over two years. But a leaked to finance its current account deficit resources for it within a neoliberal report from the Statistical Office which would have narrowed anyway regime will be exceedingly difficult. of the government puts the because of trade controls. Likewise, if the scheme is even unemployment rate at 6.1% which But the Modi government partially financed by an increase in is the highest in the last 45 years. The appears to have little awareness the fiscal deficit, then the magnitude Centre for Monitoring the Indian of the fact that neoliberalism has of the fiscal deficit will exceed its Economy has put the unemployment reached a dead-end. The industrial target of 3.4% of GDP, and this rate at 7.6% in April. It should recession therefore is likely to is likely to lead to a downgrading be noted that while movements accentuate. of India’s credit-rating, making in the unemployment rate give it extremely difficult to finance an indication of the direction of (Prabhat Patnaik is Professor the current account deficit on the movement of unemployment, the Emeritus at the Centre for Economic balance of payments. This problem rate itself does not capture the Studies and Planning, Jawaharlal will become even more acute if magnitude of the problem. This is Nehru University, New Delhi.) India falls in line with the American because employment rationing in demand to stop buying oil from Iran, India takes the form of most people which is cheaper than the spot oil being employed for only a part of the prices that India would otherwise time, rather than some being fully Janata have to pay. The Modi government employed and others being fully has already indicated its willingness unemployed. is available at to fall in line with the American Clearly therefore the government demand; if it comes back to power will have to do something to www.lohiatoday.com then it will simply reiterate this ameliorate unemployment; but doing position. anything will destabilise the balance Oil prices are already firming of payments within the neoliberal up, which will widen the current paradigm. The neoliberal chickens Janata Subscription deficit; if the US sanctions against in short are finally coming home Iran are also taken into account, to roost. Annual Rs. : 260/- then the current deficit will widen Since neoliberalism itself is further. And if in addition the fiscal running into a dead-end, this should Three Years : 750/- deficit figure exceeds its target, then have been an ideal time to disengage Demand Draft / the inflow of finance will dry up as from it by introducing trade and India’s credit rating will drop, and capital controls. As the United States Cheque there will be little hope of meeting is introducing trade controls already, on this deficit in the normal course. India could have introduced such We therefore are in a bizarre controls in the shadow of US action. Mumbai Bank situation. If the government tries to And with such controls in place, in favour of overcome the gathering recession, it could have introduced a wealth then it will find it difficult to meet the tax, and an inheritance tax. It could current account deficit; on the other then have delivered on its promise Janata Trust hand if it does nothing to counter the of making transfer payments to D-15, Ganesh Prasad, recession, then the unemployment the poor households, and thereby Naushir Bharucha Marg, situation which is already grim, will expanded the domestic market, become even grimmer. and followed it up by taking steps Grant Road (W), The grimness of the to increase the rate of growth of Mumbai 400 007. unemployment situation has been foodgrain production. A drying up of JANATA, June 16, 2019 5 The 'Liberal' Education Envisaged by the Draft NEP Has No Role for Dissent

Pratishtha Pandya

The draft National Education carpentry and engineering to music, potential. Policy (2019) is right in emphasising painting and dance. “A liberal While the notion of an individual what it calls “liberal” higher arts education, as so beautifully freeing himself from constraints of education but the manner in which described and practiced in India’s nature by learning an art has been it redefines the term robs it of its past,” says the NEP, “enables one with us from the beginning, the very essence. to truly develop both sides of the free individual was always socially The increased privatisation of brain—both the creative and the situated, culturally circumscribed. higher education, and the handing analytical side” (page 224). We know that at the origins of both over of its vision, provision and Liberal education is redefined in Indian and Western traditions, the delivery largely to private hands the entire document as this “Indian” legitimate acquisition of education are features that have been seen concept of education across kalas. In remained restricted to the few at in earlier policy documents. Over a determined gesture to resurrect and the top. The ‘liberal’ in liberal the past decade, these documents locate the foundation of the present education has, therefore, remained have viewed an education in and a future within an untainted a contested term, debated across languages and the humanities as golden epoch in ancient Indian feudal, industrial, capitalist, and being antithetical to a professional history, the document divests the neo-liberal societies because of its education—considered to be the term ‘liberal’ of both its inherent inbuilt ambiguity. sole responsibility of private potential and aspiration to realising In the late 20th and early 21st stakeholders. If an education in individual freedoms as well as century, a number of movements for humanities had to be offered, it was its evolutionary understanding of social and political rights across the the task of the government. enlightenment. world brought in a new criticality In sharp contrast to this trend, Etymologically speaking, to the notion of ‘liberal’ education, the draft NEP 2019 advocates the word ‘arts’ comes from the reinforcing the centrality of dissent building new institutions of higher Latin root ars, or art meaning and leading to changes in the education which are essentially skill acquired through learning or vision, structures and curriculum multidisciplinary in nature, in practice. Areas of study during the of departments within the academy. addition to ones focusing on the study Middle Ages were classified as the The NEP draft fails to make of Pali, Prakrit, Persian and Sanskrit. artes mechanicae or “the mechanical any connections to this dialogic It further departs from existing arts” and the artes liberales or “the tradition of liberal education since policy in the way it seamlessly liberal arts”. it ignores the ‘how, when and weaves the professionalisation of Artes Mechanicae included where’ of the term liberal. The higher education with a redefined seven areas such as tailoring/ case for liberal education is made notion of what ‘liberal’ education weaving, agriculture, masonry, in the name of employability and entails. warfare/martial arts, trade, cooking, choice, or flexibility in designing a It effects a shift in the meaning metallurgy. The seven artes liberales study plan. The development of the of the term ‘liberal’ across the comprised the trivium (grammar, individual is seen in terms of her neo-liberal universe by giving a rhetoric and logic) and the productive engagement with the clarion call to return to the great quadrivium (arithmetic, geometry, economic progress of her society Indian traditions of the Lalitavistara music and astronomy). that now requires a certain flexible Sutra, Bhavbhuti’s Kadambari and The Latin word liberalis means disposition. Choice and flexibility Yashodhara’s Jayamangala, all of free. The seven liberal arts of are inherent in the idea of liberal which define an educated person as classical antiquity, therefore, were education but they in themselves do a master of a number of kalas. deemed essential for the education not make liberal education. In and Kalas include everything from of a free person to fully realise his of themselves they do not hold the 6 JANATA, June 16, 2019 liberating, democratic, dissenting curriculum of such an education. idea of education? potential which is at the heart of However, the report’s understanding It is in this space defined by these liberal education. They are mere of critical thinking has less to do tensions that education happens attendants. with independent thought or free and a central component of this The proposed new programme in and critical inquiry into received education is dissent. Incubation Bachelor of Liberal Arts or Bachelor traditions and wisdom and more to centres and venture studios cannot of Liberal Education, however, is do with courses in statistics, data be the sources of creativity or defined in terms of the flexibility analysis and quantitative methods innovation. Creativity by definition it offers a student in terms of the (page 229). The spirit of dissent is situated within dissent. The history courses she wants to study, when she that has come to characterise liberal of humankind is a history of a series wants to study, as well as how long education and the idea of critical of informed dissents, and constant she wants to study. The multiple exit thinking is completely absent from struggles that have brought about and entry point with either a degree this document. greater freedoms, better political or diploma in a four years honours The end goal of liberal education systems, new inventions and visions programme becomes the high point has a free thinking individual at of a better society, and a better of ‘liberal education’. the centre—free to think, question world. A multidisciplinary environment and critique. The elimination of In every age and place within higher education institutions, this essential component of liberal where education has been used according to the NEP, can facilitate education, namely the ability to to reproduce social and political such flexibility and therefore dissent, is in harmony with an overall power structures, we have heard becomes desirable. The integration culture of corporate efficiency, a voice that reinstated dissent at of Humanities and STEM (Science, productivity and market relevance the centre-stage of education—a Technology, Engineering, and that the universities of the new Socrates, a Freire. Let us not forget Mathematics) is being advocated knowledge economy are meant to that the establishment of Takshashila on the grounds of a proved impact serve. and Nalanda, which the NEP so of such integration on positive A number of business leaders proudly reclaims as part of a glorious learning outcomes like increased across the globe have embraced Indian tradition, also lie in the creativity, problem-solving abilities, this same tamed version of liberal Buddhist traditions of knowledge, teamwork, communication skills education in the interest of producing dissenting from an entrenched and increased social and moral managers and employees who are Brahminical tradition. Dissent is awareness among many others. better problem solvers, better team not only central to creativity and A liberal education based on players, and more innovative and innovation but also to democracy. India’s great legacy in arts and creative workers. The draft document Education for democracy also has to sciences is seen as the key towards uses the liberal education idiom to be an education in freedom. India’s success in the 21st century build a neo-liberal world, where A policy for education that wants and the fourth industrial revolution, liberal education is at the service of to embrace liberal education cannot which then seamlessly weaves life-long learners/employees getting afford to blank out the complexities industry alliances and community ready not for their first job but for involved in such an education for service into its fabric. The goal their second, the third and beyond. the teacher, the taught, and the of this education is articulated The practice of liberal education content of what is taught. Great in terms of its ability to develop is tough to imagine in a knowledge institutions are built on the infinite broad capacities and important economy that ties the future of the freedom of the human mind, on the dispositions. university with global trends and indefatigable courage, to borrow the The idea of developing national economies. The question words from Thomas Jefferson, “to disposition is antithetical to the though remains: can we take away follow truth wherever it may lead” idea of a liberal education as well the internal tensions between and “to tolerate any error so long as to the idea of critical thinking, freedom and discipline, the self and reason is left free to combat it.” which the document says should the other that characterise liberal (Pratishtha Pandya teaches at be included in the common core education without shortchanging the Ahmedabad University.) JANATA, June 16, 2019 7

Press Statement by Presidium, AIFRTE AIFRTE Condemns Threats to the Life and Liberty of Dr. Ram Puniyani

All India Forum for Right to Hindu’. Dr. Puniyani was threatened concerned authorities. The lives of Education (AIFRTE) unequivocally with dire consequences if he did not a number of leading democratic condemns the dastardly threats stop his activities and leave the city rationalists and intellectuals, to the life and liberty of noted within 15 days. Dr. Puniyani has filed particularly in Maharashtra and academic and former Professor of an FIR with the Powai police station neighbouring Karnataka, have IIT Mumbai, and a leading figure in Mumbai and also written to the already been lost at the hands of in the movement for defence of civil Police Commissioner. The National suspected adherents of a right-wing liberties, Dr. Ram Puniyani. Human Rights Commission has also hindutva organization that is active The articles, lectures and books been approached. in the region. of Dr. Puniyani, who is also a However, it is essential This politics and ideology of member of the Advisory Board • that all democratic organizations hatred and physical elimination of the AIFRTE, are an important and civil society groups unite cannot be allowed to function as if it resource for all civil society groups to demand protection for Dr. has some form of ‘immunity’ under and activists in the struggle for Puniyani and his family. the current political dispensation. promoting rationalism and scientific • that the Govt. of Maharashtra It has to be put a stop to, and that temper and opposing the Hindutva take immediate action to identify must be done right away. forces and ideology that are and proceed against those The ruling parties and communalizing India’s polity and persons who have threatened governments at the level of the social life, in blatant violation of the him and reveal the organizations state and the centre must condemn Constitution. which are behind their actions. these threats and provide credible The cowards, who failed to • that the National Human Rights assurance that the criminals behind identify themselves, telephoned his Commission respond and act such actions and these continuing home on the night of 6th June 2019. urgently on this case. threats will be identified and dealt They used highly abusive language AIFRTE demands immediate, with severely, as per law. and accused him of being ‘anti- stern and stringent action by the

Congress Socialist Party's Separation from the Congress (1946–48)

Narendra Kumar Singh & Anand Prakash Singh

Right from the outset, the role of of the paper is chiefly to analyse [1] An Augusters' conference was the Congress Socialist Party (CSP) the role of Jayaprakash Narayan organised at Bombay on 18–20 within the Indian National Congress regarding the brèak. May 1946, in which a number of (INC) was a debatable one. However Jayaprakash Narayan (JP) prominent leaders from different on the eve of independence the was released from Agra jail on parts of India who played an active relationship between the two became 10 April 1946. Immediately after role in the Quit India movement, incompatable on several issues. For this, he discussed the functioning participated. In this conference, there this reason both parties decided to of the party within the Congress were three main trends regarding the part ways. The present paper deals with Acharya Narendra Dev and reorganisation of the CSP.[2] with rightist–socialist relations other leaders. Sardar Patel also i) There was no need for a party alongwith the socio-economic desired to discuss the matter with separate from the Congress. factors responsible for the separation JP. Nevertheless due to the busy ii) An Augusters Party should be of the CSP from the INC. The object schedule of JP, this was not possible. organised. 8 JANATA, June 16, 2019 iii) The Party may be reorganised In fact the object of his acceptance disrupt the Congress, of discrediting and vigorously pushed. of WC membership was to mould it in order to capture power. In The first trend had little the opinion of Congress in favour response, JP addressing a meeting in support. The second had vociferous of the socio-economic programmes Calicut, said that Sardar's advice was support, but it was realised that of the CSP.[5] unneccessary, as Socialists had no a jumble of individual could not After the Meerut Conference of intention of leaving the Congress till make a political party with hardly the Congress in November 1946, independence was achieved. He also any positive programme. Thus, Jayaprakash Narayan was very said that Patel was trying to suppress inspite of sufficient support, this disappointed. In his letter to the new the growth of the Socialist Party.[12] idea was dropped. The third trend Congress President, J.B. Kripalani, In his reply to JP, Patel argued that found general acceptance and the he expressed his despair over the WC since his release he had tried his best responsibility for reorganisation of list.[6] JP reminded the president to bring about a fusion between CSP the party was given to leaders like about their Meerut discussions in and the Congress. Unfortunately he JP, Narendra Dev, Ram Manohar which Kripalani gave an assurance had failed to convert JP, although Lohia, Achyut Patwardhan and that the person commanding the he had succeeded in convincing Aruna Asaf Ali. confidence of the Socialists would other important members about his Meanwhile, after being elected be appointed the general secretary of views. He assured JP that he had the Congress president in 1946, the Congress. He was specially upset done nothing either in thought or Jawaharlal Nehru offered JP and with the exclusion of Mridulaben in action to injure the cause of CSP Ram Manohar Lohia the membership and Ram Manohar Lohia from the or to do any harm to any individual of the Working Committee (WC), WC. In these circumstances he member. He regretted that at a time but the CSP leaders placed three resigned from the WC.[7] He also when there was a need to stand conditions for membership: pressed for the acceptance of his together, JP was ‘consciously or (i) None of the Working Committee resignation because he did not think unconsciously trying to divide our members will be a minister in the that he was of any use for the type of forces’.[13] government. work that was before the Committee It was the assumption of the (ii) Congress members will be in those days.[8] Socialists that after the formation allowed enlightened criticism of On 28th February 1947, the of the Interim government, the the government. Working Committee of the CSP Congress would be totally centred (iii) The Congress President shall not decided to drop the prefix ‘Congress’ on running the government. Thus hold any post in the government. and opened its door for non-Congress the common or united front character Inspite of lengthy talks, members.[9] This change in the of the Congress was naturally going Jawharlal Nehru refused to accept name of the Party was a turning point to weaken and a struggle for power the first two demands and accepted in the history of Indian socialist within the Congress would grow in the third partially. JP and Lohia movement as well as its relations intensity. In these circumstances, therefore refused the membership with the Congress. Now, JP was of said JP, “The Party shall endeavour to of the WC.[3] the opinion that the Indian National push the Congress towards socialism Subsequently JP accepted thè Congress should be disbanded so and to prevent its capture by the membership on the request of Nehru. that a new Party could emerge on vested interests. If this endeavour JP later justified his change of stand a new socio-economic programme. succeeds, the Congress will rise by saying that within two months the [10] Thus the CSP marched one step to greater heights of influence, circumstances had totally changed, further in the direction of separation effectiveness and service. If it fails, and it was therefore necessary for from the Congress. the Congress must split.”[14] each and every Congressman to Meanwhile, Sardar Patel In his efforts to minimise their fight the coming danger unitedly. He appealed to the Socialists to hold differences, Congress President assured that if his WC membership their hand for just one year more J.B. Kripalani proposed to JP to created any hinderance in the and then they could do what they discuss the points of difference, and revolutionary struggle, he would not thought best. But at the same time, if possible arrive at a solution which hesitate to leave this membership.[4] he accused the Socialists of trying to may bring about solidarity and JANATA, June 16, 2019 9 strength in the Congress organisation. you and your party, but everytime Labour Party. Accordingly Congress [15] After this proposal, JP wrote a we have met with a rebuff. It is was advised to move in a socialist letter to Jawaharlal Nehru in which my sad experience that although direction: “The transformation of JP accepted that he did not exactly often you agreed with our decision the National Congress into Socialist know what to do in this matter since or our policy when you were with Congress will help to galvanise the he personally felt very diffident us, you disagreed afterwards on country into a new mood of creative towards Kripalani. However, he grounds of party discipline or party adventure.”[21] was prepared to do whatever Nehru interest.”[19] Patel felt that much of The Congress was neither advised.[16] In another letter to the indiscipline in the Congress was prepared to dissolve itself nor to Kripalani, JP suggested that casual due to the existence of CSP in the accept the socialist programme conversation with one or the other Congress also of the party members and policies. Sardar Patel was not of the leaders was not fruitful and working solely in its interest. He also present in the discussion. He talked that it would be better for two or referred to the naval rating incident to Narendra Dev and Ram Manohar three top ranking Congress leaders in Bombay created by some CSP Lohia regarding the matter. On 14 to thrash out the matter with a few leaders with the cooperation of the June 1947, Sardar Patel reiterated socialist representatives. He also Communists, as well as some of in the AICC meeting that unity of referred to his discussion with JP's charges against the Congress the Congress was essential, but Nehru in Delhi on this problem.[17] ministries. there was no place for different Kripalani regretted that his invitation Regarding Patel's reconciliation groups in the Congress.[22] Here was misjudged and was given little and cooperation move, JP responded what is important in understanding value, even though it was sent in that it was rather an astounding Patel's role in forcing the Socialists his official capacity as Congress statement. He had never known out of Congress is not that he had President. He also referred to the of any serious attempt made to differences with them but that he had complaints from Congress workers secure CSP’s cooperation. He also decided now that the Socialists either in every province that they did not stated that his cooperation had not had to disband their organisation receive any cooperation from the been accepted even when offered within the Congress or get out.[23] Socialists and that the Socialists at a critical time. Nevertheless, he In 1947 when Kripalani resigned exploited every situation to harass pointed out that as Socialists were from the presidentship, Gandhi and discredit them and the Congress not a power group in the Congress, suggested that either JP or Narendra ministeries. He complained that as so their cooperation depended on Dev may be elected as the president JP had found it more convenient to political adjustment between the of the Congress. As JP was closer to discuss this matter with Jawaharlal ideologies and programme of the Nehru and played a historical role in Nehru, so he had nothing more to High Command and their group. the revolutionary movement of 1942, say.[18] [20] He also believed that such so he discussed the idea with him On the question of differences, an adjustment was not impossible (Nehru). Strangely enough, Nehru Sardar Patel wrote that no useful though it depended more on Patel said that many other senior members purpose would be served by raking up than on anyone in the Congress. were present in the Congress. Then the past in which he may have much On the occasion of the Congress the name of Narendra Dev was more to say against JP than JP may Working Committee meeting in proposed. This time Sardar Patel have against him (Patel). Actually Delhi, a series of talks took place and Shankar Rao Dev opposed. it might have all been due to lack of between leaders of the Socialist They were of the opinion that contact or misunderstanding or other Party and members of the Congress until and unless Narendra Dev was reasons. He clarified further that if Working Committee. Mahatma associated with a minority Party he had done anything against JP and Gandhi attempted to resolve the within Congress, it would not be the CSP, it had always been done in differences between Socialists fair to make him the President of the self-defence. He defended himself and Congress. In the meeting, the Congress.[24] Thus even Gandhi's by saying that “I have made earnest Socialists demanded that during the personal influence and efforts failed endeavours to make reconciliation transitional period, Congress should to resolve the issue. and to secure cooperation from dissolve itself into a Liberal or The Mountbatten Plan of 10 JANATA, June 16, 2019

India's partition was also a bone [28] In a circular issued to all the object of this amendment was to of contention between CSP and Provincial Congress Committees, create a condition in which the the Congress. The offensive role Congress members were prohibited parties working within or outside of Muslim League and its 'Direct from attending meetings organised the Congress would either have to Action' compelled Congress leaders by the Socialists. It was directed dissolve themselves or merge with like Nehru and Patel to accept the that Congress members should the Congress or be compelled to plan of partition of India, while not participate in the welcome break with the Congress. In these Socialists like JP and other leaders meetings and functions of the circumstances, there was no other were not prepared to accept the Socialist leaders, as in such meetings option for the Socialist Party but partition of India and were preparing Socialists propagated the policies to quit the Congress. The new for final and decisive struggle. In and programmes of their party Congress constitution, as well as fact, their strategy depended on the and always criticised Congress the inner logic of development, assumption that the Congress would leadership. ended the long period of organic not accept partition of India at any In spite of all these controversies association of the Socialists with cost and then final struggle would be and differences, the Socialists were the Congress.[33] After the Nasik inevitable.[25] Thus the differences indecisive and followed a policy decision, the Socialist Party directed between the Congress and Socialists of wait and see. The Socialist the party members to withdraw from broadened. Addressing a group Party weekly Janata advised the the Congress. The party members of Socialists, JP declared that in party: “The wiser course in these were to resign from the primary the coming AICC session, if the circumstances for the Socialist Party membership, elected Congress Congress accepted their programme seems to be, for the time being at Committees, local bodies and the the Socialists would be there, but if least, to stop thinking of separation legislatures also.[34] Thus ended a not then they would have no place from the Congress and for its leaders historical chapter of CSP–Congress in it.[26] The resolution passed by to assume actual responsibility for association and cooperation during the general council of the Socialist government wherever possible in the pre-independence era. Party at Nagpur on 30–31 August association with Congress".[29] 1947 declared that the Socialist Party However, a year earlier, Aruna Notes and References and the Congress differed not only Asaf Ali had clearly been of the 1. Jayaprakash Narayan (JP) papers, in aim but also in policies, action opinion that if the Socialists were File No. 7, Sardar Patel's letter to and in organisational forms. It said unable to make the Congress move JP, 18 N.M.L., New Delhi. 2. Report of the Special Convention further that in the next meeting of out of its rut, they must not remain of the Socialist Party, Pachmarhi, the AICC, these three groups of rooted in it.[30] In January 1948, the 23–27 May 1952, p. 20. differences would be discussed. The National Executive of the Socialist 3. Ram Manohar Lohia, Guilty Men of decision taken by the Congress on Party decided not to have any India's Partition, Hyderabad, 1970, these vital isues would determine representation on the Working p. 32. the Socialist Party's relations with Committee of the Congress.[31] 4. JP Papers, File No. 32, JP’s press the Congress.[27] Aruna Asaf Ali once again strongly statement, 16 September 1946, Meanwhile Congress General advocated the Socialist Party's N.M.L., New Delhi. 5. Home (Pol), File No.7/4/47. Secretary Shankar Rao Dev blamed separation from the Congress. She 6. JP Papers, File No. 3, Correspondence the Socialists, especially JP, for said that for achieving socialist ends, with J.B. Kripalani, 2 December non-cooperation with the Congress. Socialists would need to break with 1946, N.M.L., New Delhi. He warned that if the socialists the Congress past and direct their 7. Ibid. wanted to non-cooperate, they steps single-mindedly towards a 8. JP Papers, File No.4, Correspondence should leave Congress membership. socialist future.[32] with J.B. Kripalani, 12 December He reiterated that the Socialist Party In March 1948, Congress 1946, N.M.L., New Delhi. was openly criticising the Congress amended the party constitution 9. The Search Light, Patna, 3 March 1947, N.M.L., New Delhi. leadership and its administration according to which no member of 10. JP Papers, File No. 32, JP's letter as well as launching an election any other party could be a member to Fisher, 24 March 1947, N.M.L., campaign against the Congress. of the Congress Party. The sole New Delhi. JANATA, June 16, 2019 11

11. The Bombay Chronicle, Bombay, the Socialist Party’, Janata, New Party Circular No. 5, 25 March 15 April 1947, N.M.L., New Delhi. Delhi, 14 March 1948. 1948. 12. Ibid., 23 April 1947. 33. Report of the Sixth Annual 13. JP Papers, Correspondence with Conference of the Socialist Party, (Sourced from: Proceedings of the Vallabh Bhai Patel, letter to JP, 23 Nasik, 1948, p. 40 . Indian History Congress, Vol. 63 (2002), April 1947, N.M.L., New Delhi. 34. JP Papers, File No. 53, Socialist pp. 819–826.) 14. Jayaprakash Narayan, 'The Party and the Congress', Janata, New Delhi, 30 March 1947, N.M.L., New Delhi. They Cannot Stop Us. 15. JP Papers, File No.3, Correspondence We Will Live and Triumph. with J.B. Kripalani, Kripalani's letter to JP, 5 May 1947, N.M.L., New Delhi. Bertha Mojena Milián 16. Ibid., File No.7, JP's letter to Pt. Jawaharlal Nehru, 10 May 1947, N.M.L., New Delhi. The Trump administration’s about Cuban support to Venezuela 17. Ibid. hostility toward our country seems and Nicaragua. 18. Ibid., File No.3, Correspondence to have no end. Yesterday (June 4, What should worry him is the with J.B. Kripalani, Kripalani's 2019), the US Treasury Department example of Cuba before the world, letter to JP, 13 May 1947. added to sanctions announced a small island that for more than 60 19. Ibid., correspondence with V.B. April 17, and the activation of years has resisted the attacks of the Patel, Patel's letter to JP, 23 May Title III of the Helms-Burton greatest empire history has known, 1947. 20. Ibid., JP's letter to Sardar Patel, 29 Act, the prohibition of “people to and extends its solidarity to all May 1947, N.M.L., New Delhi. people” cultural and educational peoples in need, sharing not what 21. Achyut Patwardhan, 'Socialist trips, plus other restrictions on we have left over, but even what we plea for united work', Janata, New travel and transportation services, lack, as Army General Raul Castro Delhi, 1 June 1947. remittances, banking, commerce, Ruz said. 22. Indian Annual Register, Calcutta, and telecommunications. Cuban Foreign Minister Bruno 1947, Vol.1, p. 135. According to a press release Rodríguez Parrilla tweeted on 23. Myron Weiner, Party Politics in issued by the department, private Tuesday that differences must be India: The Development of a Multi Party System, New Jersey, 1957, and corporate planes, cruise resolved on the basis of dialogue p.56. ships, sailboats, fishing boats, and and cooperation, adhering strictly 24. Mukt Behari Lai, Acharya Narendra similar vessels will be prohibited to international law, and strongly Dev: Yug Aur Netritva, Varanasi, from traveling to Cuba, although denounced the new sanctions, 1970, p. 222. an “exemption” is available for saying, “They intend to strangle 25. Report of the Sixth Annual certain previously authorised group the economy and damage Cubans’ Conference of the Socialist Party, educational visits, for which at least standard of living, to wrest political Nasik, 1948, pp. 90–91 . one transaction related to the trip, concessions from us. They will fail 26. The Search Light, Patna, 9 November 1947, N.M.L., New such as the purchase of a ticket or once again.” Delhi. reservation, was completed before President Miguel Díaz-Canel 27. ‘Resolution’, Socialist Party, 1947, June 5. Civil aircraft that operate Bermúdez insisted that Cuba will p. 31. under Air Carrier Certificates or not be intimidated or distracted by 28. The Search Light, Patna, 14 August other specifications of the Federal new threats or restrictions. “Work, 1947. Aviation Administration will be creativity, effort, and resistance is 29. ‘The Week in India’, Janata, New authorised to travel to the island. our answer. They have not been Delhi, 19 October 1947. Treasury Secretary Steven able to asphyxiate us. They cannot 30. ‘Travel Talk’ , Janata, New Delhi, 29 September 1946. Mnuchin stated that the restrictions stop us. We will live and we will 31. ‘The Week in India’ , Janata, New are meant to put a brake on “the triumph,” he said. Delhi, 18 January 1948. destabilising role of Cuba in Latin 32. Aruna Asaf Ali, ‘Why I Must Join America,” and that he is “worried” (Courtesy: Granma English, Cuba.) 12 JANATA, June 16, 2019 May Day 2003

Fidel Castro

Text of a speech given by Dr. tyranny with 80,000 men under arms and economic warfare that has lasted Fidel Castro Ruz, President of the imposed by the US government. for almost half a century, Cuba was Republic of Cuba, at the May Day Cuba was the first territory free able to eradicate in just one year rally held in Revolution Square on from imperialist domination in Latin the illiteracy that has still not been May 1, 2003 (Note from Editors: America and the Caribbean, and overcome in the course of more Speech has been edited by us for the only country in the hemisphere, than four decades by the rest of the reasons of space.) throughout post-colonial history, countries of Latin America, or the Distinguished guests, Dear where the torturers, murderers and United States itself. fellow Cubans: war criminals that took the lives of It has brought free education to Our heroic people have struggled tens of thousands of people were 100% of the country’s children. It has for 44 years from this small Caribbean exemplarily punished. the highest school retention rate— island just a few miles away from the All of the country’s land was over 99% between kindergarten and most formidable imperial power recovered and turned over to the ninth grade—of all of the nations ever known to mankind. In so doing, peasants and agricultural workers. in the hemisphere. Its elementary they have written an unprecedented The natural resources, industries school, students rank first worldwide chapter in history. Never has the and basic services were placed in in the knowledge of their mother world witnessed such an unequal the hands of their only true owner: language and mathematics. The fight. the Cuban nation. country also ranks first worldwide Some may have believed that In less than 72 hours, fighting with the highest number of teachers the rise of the empire to the status of ceaselessly, day and night, per capita and the lowest number of the sole superpower, with a military Cuba crushed the Bay of Pigs students per classroom. and technological might with no mercenary invasion organised by All children with physical or balancing pole anywhere in the a US administration (in 1961), mental challenges are enrolled in world, would frighten or dishearten thereby preventing a direct military special schools. the Cuban people. Yet, today they intervention by the US and a war Computer education and the use have no choice but to watch in of incalculable consequences. The of audio-visual methods now extend amazement the enhanced courage Revolution already had the Rebel to all of the country’s children, of this valiant people. On a day like Army, over 400,000 weapons and adolescents and youth, in both the today, this glorious international hundreds of thousands of militia cities and the countryside. workers’ day, which commemorates members. In 1962, Cuba confronted All citizens have the possibility the death of the five martyrs of with honour, and without a single of undertaking studies that will take Chicago, I declare, on behalf of the concession, the risk of being attacked them from kindergarten to a doctoral one million Cubans gathered here, with dozens of nuclear weapons. degree without spending a penny. that we will face up to any threats, It defeated the dirty war that Today, the country has 30 we will not yield to any pressures, spread throughout the entire country, university graduates, intellectuals and that we are prepared to defend at a cost in human lives even greater and professional artists for every our homeland and our Revolution than that of the war of liberation. It one there was before the Revolution. with ideas and with weapons to our stoically endured thousands of acts There are schools for the training of last drop of blood. of sabotage and terrorist attacks artists and art instructors throughout What is Cuba’s sin? What honest organised by the US government. It all of the country’s provinces, where person has any reason to attack her? thwarted hundreds of assassination over 20,000 young people are With their own blood and plots against the leaders of the currently studying and developing weapons seized from the enemy, Revolution. their talent and vocation. Tens of the Cuban people overthrew a cruel While under a rigorous blockade thousands more are doing the same JANATA, June 16, 2019 13 at vocational schools, and many twice as many as those that follow of that. of these then go on to undertake closer. Cubans have the best Light years separate our society professional studies. healthcare system in the world, and from what has prevailed until today University campuses are will continue to receive all services in the rest of the world. We cultivate progressively spreading to all of absolutely free of charge. brotherhood and solidarity among the country’s municipalities. Never Social security covers 100% of individuals and peoples both in the in any other part of the world has the country’s citizens. country and abroad. such a colossal educational and In Cuba, 85% of the people The new generations and the cultural revolution taken place as own their homes and they pay no entire people are being educated this. It will turn Cuba, by far, into property taxes on them whatsoever. about the need to protect the the country with the highest degree The remaining 15% pay a wholly environment. The media are used of knowledge and culture in the symbolic rent, which is only 10% to build environmental awareness. world, faithful to Martí’s profound of their salary. The development of wholesome, conviction that “no freedom is Illegal drug use involves non-professional sports has raised possible without culture”. a negligible percentage of the our people to the highest ranks Infant mortality has been population, and is being resolutely worldwide in medals and honors. reduced from 60 per 1000 live births combated. Lottery and other forms Scientific research, at the service to a rate that fluctuates between 6 of gambling have been banned since of our people and all humanity, has and 6.5, which is the lowest in the the first years of the Revolution to increased several-hundredfold. As hemisphere, from the United States ensure that no one pins their hopes a result of these efforts, important to Patagonia. Life expectancy has of progress on luck. medications are saving lives in Cuba increased by 15 years. There is no commercial and other countries. Infectious and contagious advertising on Cuban television and In no other people has the spirit diseases like polio, malaria, neonatal radio or in our printed publications. of international solidarity become so tetanus, diphtheria, measles, rubella, Instead, these feature public deeply rooted. mumps, whooping cough and dengue service announcements concerning Our country supported the have been eradicated; others like health, education, culture, physical Algerian patriots in their struggle tetanus, meningococcal meningitis, education, sports, recreation, against French colonialism, at the hepatitis B, leprosy, hemophilus environmental protection, and cost of damaging political and meningitis and tuberculosis are fully the fight against drugs, accidents economic relations with such an controlled. Today, in our country, and other social problems. Our important European country as people die of the same causes as in media educate, they do not poison France. We sent weapons and troops the most highly developed countries: or alienate. They do not worship to defend Algeria from Moroccan cardiovascular diseases, cancer, or exalt the values of decadent expansionism, when the king of accidents and others, but with a consumer societies. this country sought to take control much lower incidence. There is no cult of personality of the iron mines of Gara Djebilet, A profound revolution is around any living revolutionary, near the city of Tindouf, in southwest underway to bring medical services in the form of statues, official Algeria. closer to the population, in order photographs, or the names of streets At the request of the Arab nation to facilitate access to health care or institutions. The leaders of this of Syria, a full tank brigade stood centers, save lives and alleviate country are human beings, not gods. guard between 1973 and 1975 suffering. In-depth research is being In our country there are no alongside the Golan Heights, when carried out to break the chain, paramilitary forces or death squads, this territory was unjustly seized mitigate or reduce to a minimum the nor has violence ever been used from that country. problems that result from genetic, against the people; there are no The leader of the Republic prenatal or childbirth-related causes. extrajudicial executions or torture. of Congo when it first achieved Cuba is today the country with The people have always massively independence, Patrice Lumumba, the highest number of doctors per supported the activities of the who was harassed from abroad, capita in the world, with almost Revolution. This rally today is proof received our political support. When 14 JANATA, June 16, 2019 he was assassinated by the colonial had supplied to them or helped struggles for the independence of powers in January of 1961, we lent them to produce, with the full other sister nations. However, there assistance to his followers. Four knowledge and complicity of the US is not one single Cuban property years later, in 1965, Cuban blood government. in any of those countries. No other was shed in the western region Throughout the course of almost country in our era has exhibited such of Lake Tanganyika, where Che 15 years, Cuba had a place of honour sincere and selfless solidarity. Guevara and more than 100 Cuban in its solidarity with the heroic people Cuba has always preached by instructors supported the Congolese of Vietnam, caught up in a barbaric example. It has never given in. rebels who were fighting against and brutal war with the United It has never sold out the cause of white mercenaries in the service of States. That war killed four million another people. It has never made the man supported by the West, that Vietnamese, in addition to all those concessions. It has never betrayed is, Mobutu, whose 40 billion dollars left wounded and mutilated, not to its principles. There must be some that he stole—nobody knows in mention the fact that the country was reason why, just 48 hours ago, it which European banks they are kept. inundated with chemical compounds was reelected by acclamation in the The blood of Cuban instructors that continue to cause incalculable United Nations Economic and Social was shed while training and damage even today. The pretext for Council to another three years in the supporting the combatants of the the US invasion: Vietnam, a poor Commission on Human Rights, of African Party for the Independence and underdeveloped country located which it has now been a member for of Guinea and Cape Verde, who 20,000 kilometers away, constituted 15 straight years. fought under the command of a threat to the national security of the More than half a million Cubans Amilcar Cabral for the liberation of United States. have carried out internationalist these former Portuguese colonies. Cuban blood was shed together missions as combatants, as teachers, The same was true during the ten with that of citizens of numerous as technicians or as doctors and years that Cuba supported Agostinho Latin American countries when health care workers. Tens of Neto’s MPLA in the struggle for Che Guevara was murdered on thousands of the latter have provided the independence of Angola. After instructions from US agents in their services and saved millions independence was achieved, and Bolivia, when he was wounded and of lives over the course of more over the course of the next 15 being held prisoner after his weapon than 40 years. There are currently years, hundreds of thousands of had been rendered useless by a shot 3000 specialists in Comprehensive Cuban volunteers participated in received in battle. General Medicine and other defending Angola from the attacks The blood of Cuban construction healthcare personnel working in the of racist South African troops that workers, who were building an most isolated regions of 18 Third in complicity with the United States, international airport vital for the World countries. Through preventive and using dirty war tactics, planted economy of a tiny island fully and therapeutic methods they save millions of mines, wiped out entire dependent on tourism, was shed hundreds of thousands of lives every villages, and murdered more than fighting in defense of Grenada, year, and maintain or restore the half a million Angolan men, women invaded by the United States under health of millions of people, without and children. cynical pretexts. Cuban blood was charging a penny for their services. In Cuito Cuanavale and on the shed in Nicaragua, when instructors Without the Cuban doctors Namibian border, to the southwest from our Armed Forces were training offered to the United Nations, the of Angola, Angolan and Namibian the brave Nicaraguan soldiers crucial programs urgently needed forces together with 40,000 Cuban confronting the dirty war organised to fight AIDS would be impossible troops dealt the final blow to the and armed by the United States to carry out, without which entire South African troops. This resulted against the Sandinista revolution. nations and even whole regions of in the immediate liberation of There are so many more sub-Saharan Africa face the risk of Namibia and speeded up the end of examples. Over 2000 heroic Cuban perishing. apartheid by perhaps 20 to 25 years. internationalist combatants have The developed capitalist world At that time, the South Africans had given their lives fulfilling the sacred has created abundant financial seven nuclear warheads that Israel duty of supporting the liberation capital, but it has not in any way JANATA, June 16, 2019 15 created the human capital that the an intelligent people, increasingly thousands of armies, that would Third World desperately needs. united, educated and combative. constantly reproduce themselves Cuba has developed techniques . . . and make the enemy pay such to teach reading and writing by [Despite this admirable record] a high cost in casualties that it radio, with accompanying texts now in Miami and Washington they are would far exceed the cost in lives available in five languages—Haitian now [once again] discussing where, of its sons and daughters that the Creole, Portuguese, French, English how and when Cuba will be attacked American people would be willing and Spanish—that are already being or the problem of the Revolution will to pay for the adventures and ideas used in numerous countries. A be solved. of President Bush. Today, he enjoys similar program to teach literacy For the moment, there is talk majority support, but it is dropping, by television in Spanish is nearing of economic measures that will and tomorrow it could be reduced completion, of exceptionally high further intensify the brutal blockade, to zero. quality. These are programs that were but they still do not know which The American people, the developed in Cuba and are genuinely measures to choose, and how millions of highly cultivated Cuban. We are not interested in effective these measures would be. individuals who reason and think patents and exclusive copyrights. There are very few left for them to and uphold basic ethical principles, We are willing to offer them to all choose from. They have already used are sooner or later going to show that of the countries of the Third World, up almost all of them. you cannot fool all of the people, and where most of the world’s illiterates A shameless scoundrel with the perhaps not even part of the people, are concentrated, without charging a poorly chosen first name Lincoln, all of the time. One day they will put penny. In five years, the 800 million and the last name Dfaz-Balart, a straightjacket on those who need illiterate people in the world could be an intimate friend and advisor it before they manage to annihilate reduced by 80%, at a minimal cost. of President Bush, has made this life on the planet. After the demise of the USSR enigmatic statement to a Miami TV On behalf of the one million and the socialist bloc, nobody would station: “I can’t go into details, but people gathered here this May Day, have bet a dime on the survival of we’re trying to break this vicious I want to convey a message to the the Cuban Revolution. The United cycle.” world and the American people: States tightened the blockade. The What methods are they We do not want the blood of Torricelli and Helms-Burton Acts considering to deal with this vicious Cubans and Americans to be shed were adopted, the latter extra- cycle? Physically eliminating me in a war. We do not want countless territorial in nature. We abruptly with the sophisticated modern number of lives of people who could lost our main markets and supplies means they have developed, as Mr. be friends to be lost in an armed sources. The population’s average Bush promised in Texas before the conflict. Never has a people had calorie and protein consumption elections? Or attacking Cuba the such sacred things to defend, or such was reduced by almost half. But our way they attacked Iraq? profound convictions to fight for, to country withstood the pressures and If it were the former, it does not such a degree that they would rather even advanced considerably in the worry me in the least. The ideas for be obliterated from the face of the social field. which I have fought all my life will Earth than abandon the noble and Today, it has largely recovered not die, and they will live on for a generous work for which so many with regard to nutritional long time. generations of Cubans have paid the requirements and is rapidly If the solution were to attack high cost of the lives of many of their progressing in other fields. Even Cuba like Iraq, I would suffer greatly finest sons and daughters. in these conditions, the work because of the cost in lives and the We are sustained by the deepest undertaken and the consciousness enormous destruction it would bring conviction that ideas are worth built throughout the years succeeded on Cuba. But, it might turn out to more than weapons, no matter how in working miracles. Why have we be the last of this Administration’s sophisticated and powerful those endured? Because the Revolution fascist attacks, because the struggle weapons may be. has always had, as it still does would last a very long time. Let us say like Che Guevara and always will to an ever-greater The aggressors would not when he bid us farewell: degree, the support of the people, merely be facing an army, but rather Ever onward to victory! 16 JANATA, June 16, 2019 Is Amit Shah Seeking to Push NRC Across India?

Throughout the 2019 election Before the amendment, those excluded in the first list have campaign, Bharatiya Janata Party undocumented immigrants in other reapplied to assert their citizenship, president Amit Shah made it a states were tried before a local court The Hindu reported. point to announce that if his party under the Passport Act, 1920 or Officials said that an individual is re-elected, it will ensure passage the Foreigners Act, 1946. If found who still does not find her name of the controversial Citizenship guilty, they were imprisoned for in the final list can file a fresh Amendment Bill. The Bill allows three to eight months and detained in application to the tribunal. The refugees belonging to virtually all special centres thereafter, until their amended order also allows district religions except Islam to acquire respective countries took them back. magistrates to refer such individuals citizenship in India. With the amendment, to tribunals. At the same time, he coupled the state governments and district message with the promise of having collectors/magistrates can now Criticisms the National Register of Citizens locally constitute a special tribunal The BJP’s hardline Hindutva (NRC) process implemented in all anywhere in India to “detect” and approach both at the Centre and in states. The NRC, until now, is a take action against an “infiltrator”. Assam has instilled fear in parts of process monitored by the Supreme The order also laid out guidelines the population that measures like Court to identify undocumented to “detect, detain, and deport foreign the NRC and Citizenship Bill, if immigrants in Assam and deport nationals staying illegally across the implemented across India, will be them to their respective countries. It country”, reported The Hindu. used to deny minorities their rights. has run into controversy as a number The NRC is a related but distinct Campaigners against the NRC of legitimate citizens—among process under which every person and Citizenship Bill believe that them Muslims born in India—were living in Assam was required to such an amendment that empowers reportedly left out of the list. submit documents proving their even district authorities to “detect” Upon taking over the Ministry Indian citizenship. Some 40 lakh foreigners may be interpreted by of Home Affairs, it appears Shah is people have been unable to satisfy the courts as “violative of the basic all set to fulfil his promise of driving the authorities and their fate will tenets of the Indian Constitution and out ghuspethiyas—or infiltrators, the eventually be handled by Foreigners’ Citizenship Act itself.” word he uses for migrants—who Tribunals. They argue that the NRC exercise he thinks are nothing more than The MHA had recently set in other states will subvert the “termites”. up 1,000 tribunals in Assam to principles of natural justice. A person On May 30, the Union home complement the work of finalising who is branded an undocumented ministry quietly amended the the NRC by July 31, as the Supreme immigrant by the state authorities Foreigners (Tribunals) Order, 1964, Court had instructed the registrar will have to carry the burden of a necessary first step to eventually general to do. The process involved proving herself a legitimate citizen, expanding the scope of the NRC drawing up a list of those who had rather than the other way around. beyond Assam. entered Assam from Bangladesh Unlike regular criminal courts, “the The amended order empowers after March 25, 1971 without proper person under question will have to state governments and even district authorisation—a cut-off date agreed prove both the authenticity of their magistrates of all states and Union upon by all parties in the Assam citizenship and the authenticity of Territories to set up tribunals to Accord, 1985. the documents to build his/her case,” identify a “foreigner” who is living When the registrar general notes a report in SabrangIndia. in India illegally. submitted a draft list last year, The report further notes that the Until now, only the Centre nearly 40 lakh people were termed as amended order restricts appeals for had the power to constitute such illegal, leading to a huge controversy. such persons solely to the tribunals tribunals, which were essentially This had prompted the apex court to under specific terms and conditions, quasi-judicial bodies unique to intervene and set a new deadline and that may increase the “possibility Assam. for the body. Around 36 lakh of of bias or an erroneous judgement”. JANATA, June 16, 2019 17

Centre’s clarification Letter to Editor However, the Centre has now clarified that the amendment was Whither Nehru’s Dreams after Seven done to facilitate the foreigners Decades of Indian Democracy tribunals to decide on appeals made by people “not satisfied with the Harasankar Adhikari outcome of claims and objections filed against the NRC”. The MHA Pandit Jawaharlal Nehru in his address to Aligarh Muslim University on said that the May 30 order is applicable only to Assam for “all 24th January, 1948, hoped, “I wish to say that, in spite of everything, I have practical purposes” as the NRC is a firm faith in India’s future. . . . Although many of my old dreams have been going on only in that state. shattered by recent events, yet the basic objective still holds and I see no Assam Tribune reported that reason to change it. That objective is to build a free India of high ideals and the official spokesperson of MHA noble endeavours where there is equality of opportunity for all.” said that “since the foreigners What has happened to his dreams after seven decades of his lecture? tribunals under this order have been India’s democratic culture has been institutionalised through a fully functional established only in Assam and in electoral system. This culture has strongly established political democracy. no other state of the country, this It has ensured political and civil rights, constitutionalism, the rule of law, amendment in effect is going to be and so forth. But it does not ensure free and fair vote because people of relevant only to Assam”. India witness violence, torture and murder during election time. Further, The report said that MHA sources this political democracy fails to guarantee economic well-being, ending of claimed that major amendments to caste discrimination and gender injustice, and secularism. It is evident that the Foreigners (Tribunals) Order, everyday people (especially in rural areas) face terrible hardships of poverty, 1964 was done in 2013 and the malnutrition and disease. May 30 order only followed it up It is evident that political democracy of India has become impotent to meet to empower state governments and its promises—rights, justice, freedom, equality, and human dignity. India’s district magistrates. They said that electoral democracy has been transformed into a universal adult franchise there is “nothing Like the 2013 which is limited to so-called political freedom. But people remain unequal amendments, the latest amendment and ‘unfree’ in their daily lives. is also applicable to the whole The speech of Nehru in the Constituent Assembly in 1947 while moving country.” the ‘The Resolution of Aims and Objectives in the Constituent Assembly’ “Therefore, there is nothing new stated, “The first task of this assembly is to free India through a new in this regard in the latest amendment constitution, to feed the starving people, and to clothe the naked masses, and of May 2019,” the report noted. to give every Indian the fullest opportunity to develop himself according to his Courtesy: The Wire capacity.” This thus called for extending the promises of formal democracy into the economic, social, cultural and domestic sphere. Spectre of But where is the fullest opportunity for people to develop themselves according to their inherent capacity seven decades after Nehru expressed this Fascism hope? The educated youth of this country are deeply mired in the crises of unemployment. No effort is being made to provide them decent jobs. They are forced to work in temporary and low-paid jobs in the service sectors, like Contribution Rs. 20/- for example working in the sales department of shopping malls or becoming Published by food delivery boys of Swiggy or Zomato. Political parties of India are trying to make further false promises of Janata Trust & Lokayat D-15, Ganesh Prasad, providing doles to the suffering of India, in the name of direct cash transfers Naushir Bharucha Marg, to their bank accounts. When will they think of fulfilling the dreams of Nehru, Grant Road (W), Mumbai 400 007 the promises made by him to the citizens of the country? Have they forgotten them, or are they deliberately ignoring them? 18 JANATA, June 16, 2019 Total Civil Disobedience and Strike Begins in Sudan

Pavan Kulkarni

Millions of people in Sudan have making transactions through banks. presence of food and drinking joined a general strike called by The Central Bank of Sudan, sources for the residents of the Sudanese Professionals Association whose employees were terrorised neighborhood, especially the (SPA), shutting down the centres by militiamen for undertaking strike elderly, the children and the needy”, of cities across the country despite action on May 28 and 29, released “relocation of emergency patients a wave of arrests and intimidation. an official statement saying that the to hospitals in coordination with The SPA, which led the protests bank will not be participating in the the sub-medical committees” and that overthrew former president current strike, called as a part of the spreading information to houses Omar al-Bashir in April, has been civil disobedience action. However, in the neighbourhood to raise demanding that the Transitional most employees reportedly did not awareness about the political Military Council that succeeded him report to work. situation and explain the goals of hand over power to civilian forces. Attempts of the military to force the civil disobedience. The civil disobedience campaign the striking staff of Port Sudan to With the internet blockade still aimed at forcing the ruling military work failed and as all operations in place, all the coordination and junta to accept civilian rule began there were brought to a halt. A awareness raising work is being on Sunday, June 9, after the military number of workers in aviation, carried out mostly through SMS, and the notorious paramilitary banking and electricity sector have and also through hand-written notes force, the Rapid Security Forces been detained and the SPA said they circulated by committees formed in (RSF), forcibly dispersed the sit-ins fear the move was in an attempt to the neighbourhoods. organised by the SPA outside the force them to work. Unconfirmed The SPA has also called for army headquarters in Khartoum and reports estimate the total number of protesters to erect barricades other army posts across the country, arrests over the last few days to be on all major roads and bridges. killing over a hundred, injuring more several hundred. However, unlike the barricades than 700 and raping many men and According to a statement by the that were erected around the sit-in women. SPA, heavily armed paramilitaries demonstrations that were dispersed, Several people have been from the Rapid Support Forces these barricades are not to be killed by the RSF since the civil (RSF) have “completely shut down” guarded. disobedience began. The RSF has eight hospitals. The militia men In order to avoid confrontation been patrolling the streets of the attacked the doctors who were with the RSF militia, the SPA capital and other cities of Sudan treating the protesters injured in has given a call to “barricade and on pick-up trucks mounted with last Monday’s massacre and forced withdraw”. Should the barricades machine guns, terrorising the many patients out and beat many be demolished by the militia, the civilians. Despite the repression, to death. protesters have been advised not to the civil disobedience has continued. intervene but to withdraw to safety For the past few days, banks, Preparations for civil disobedience quickly, and then rebuild after they airports, public transport etc. have has been made in advance leave. been completely paralysed. Most of One day prior to the start of “They dismantled the barricade, the shops remain shuttered and the the civil disobedience, the SPA put we built it again. They dismantled business district in central Khartoum out a statement announcing that again, and we rebuilt it. It was is deserted. the preparations were complete. a game of cat and mouse,” one In order to deny the military junta Committees have been formed in protester was reported to have the access to finances and paralyse all neighbourhoods, with different said, recounting his experience on the state apparatus, the SPA has also people tasked with different the streets, which protesters are called on all Sudanese, including the responsibilities. attempting to reclaim again. diaspora staying abroad, to avoid These include “ensuring the In the city of Omdurman, a mass JANATA, June 16, 2019 19 rally took place on Friday night, Terror Accounts For 0.007% Of Indian followed by smaller marches on Saturday. Rallies in the city of Bahri Deaths, Ill-Health 90% (known also as Khartoum North), which lies to the north of the capital Swagata Yadavar city in Khartoum state, reportedly came under attack prior to the start of the civil disobedience. “One has to be alive to be (254,500), suicides (210,800), Update: On June 13, the media a patriot,” former Indian health infectious diseases (2 million) and reported that the SPA has called off secretary K Sujatha Rao wrote on non-communicable diseases (6.2 the civil disobedience movement after Twitter on May 13, 2019, referring million) put together are 8,000 times the Transitional Military Council to election debates that focussed on the deaths caused by terrorism (766). (TMC), in its meeting with Ethiopian issues of “nationalism and terror and One reason for the large number special envoy Mohamoud Dirir, not health”. of deaths in India due to disease is agreed to release political prisoners. The data back Rao’s assertion of India’s low public health spending. This was one of the confidence misplaced priorities. India’s public health spending is building measures demanded by the In 2017, terrorism claimed the among the world’s lowest. With opposition following the massacre of lives of 766 Indians, or 0.007% a fifth of the world’s population, more than 100 protestors, before it of all deaths, while health reasons India’s public expenditure was resumed talks with the TMC. claimed 6.6 million Indians, or 90% 1.02% of gross domestic product of all deaths. (GDP) in 2015. (Courtesy: People’s Dispatch, an in- 8,000 times more deaths from While India’s health budget ternational media organisation with ill-health than terror is rising—in 2018 it was double the mission of publicising voices from There were 9.9 million deaths in of what it was in 2010—it is still people’s movements and organisa- India in 2017, with a death rate of inadequate, considering that India is tions across the globe.) 717.79 deaths per 100,000 people, home to a third of the world’s stunted according to the 2018 Global Burden children, has the highest number of of Disease (GBD), a global estimate tuberculosis patients and reports of morbidity and mortality published among the world’s highest out-of- by the University of Washington. pocket expenditure, an indicator of Communicable, maternal, public healthcare failures. neonatal and nutritious diseases The National Health Policy of caused 26.6% of all deaths in India, 2017 talked about increasing public- and non-communicable diseases health spending to 2.5% of GDP by caused 63.4% of all deaths, while 2025, but India has not yet met the injuries accounted for 9.8%. 2010 target of 2% of GDP. Deaths by conflict and terrorism Poor investment in health and fall under the “interpersonal education directly impacts the violence” category, accounting country’s productivity and economic for 0.007% of all deaths, or 766, growth. Indians work for six-and- according to GBD data. a-half years at peak productivity, Terrorism claimed even fewer compared to 20 years in China, lives than the above number, 16 in Brazil and 13 in Sri Lanka, according to another database: there ranking 158th out of 195 countries were 178 terror incidents reported in an international ranking of human nationwide in 2017, killing 77 and capital. injuring 295, according to the South Asia Terrorism Portal. (Yadavar is a principal correspondent Deaths due to diabetes with IndiaSpend.) R.N.I. NO. 1855/1957 20 JANATA, June 16, 2019 Postal Registration No. MCW/275/2018-2020. License to Post without prepayment WPP License No. MR/Tech/WPP-210/West/2019 Published on Sunday, June 16, 2019 & Posted on Wedenesday, June 19, 2019 at Mumbai Patrika Channel, Mumbai GPO-1

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Vol. 74 No. 22 What’s the Score: 100 Children June 23, 2019 Dead and Counting, Sir Democracy Can Die in Daylight Too Krishna Prasad Samar Crimes Against Nature and Society Are Not “Satyagraha” “How many wickets”, asked The behaviour of the two Vandana Shiva Mangal Pandey, Health Minister of ministers sum the state of public From Swaraj to Swastika Bihar during a press conference to health in India where the authorities Uday Dandavate know the current status of India– wake up only after such tragedies, Have You Heard of the CIA’s Pakistan clash in the ongoing Cricket that too if they make it to media Iran Mission Center? World Cup. It is just that he asked the scrutiny and public outrage. The Vijay Prashad question in the middle of a meeting outrage was there this time. People Remembering Patrice Lumumba Georges Nzongola-Ntalaja of health department to tackle the across India could see horribly outbreak of Acute Encephalitis inadequate number of beds in the Farmers Protest in Mandsaur on Second Anniversary of Firing Syndrome (AES) in the state which Intensive Care Units forcing 3, at has already killed over 100 children times 4, kids to share them. They Microplastic Pollution ‘Absolutely Everywhere’ in just one hospital—Sri Krishna could see that the number of doctors Damian Carrington Medical College and Hospital was far from required. They could WWII Could Not Have Happened (SKMCH), Muzaffarpur. The Union see doctors telling on camera, and Without US Help in Health Minister of India Dr. Harsh thus on record, that they do not have Rearming Germany Vardhan, his junior, Minister of enough medicines to treat AES. Jay Janson State (MoS), Health Ashwini Kumar They know that only thing Editor : G. G. Parikh Choubey and health department which can avert such tragedies is officials were also in the meeting. an urgent and immediate overhaul Associate Editor : Neeraj Jain The apathy, the disdain for the lives of the public health system and Managing Editor : Guddi of the children leaves nothing more institutions in India, as the poor can to say. Or perhaps it does. afford only them. Yet, they try to Editorial Board : Mr. Pandey was not the only hoodwink the people with knee jerk, B. Vivekanandan, Qurban Ali Minister worried more about the cosmetic remedies, promise overall Anil Nauriya, Sonal Shah cricket score while children died on overhaul of the system to stop such Amarendra Dhaneshwar, his watch. MoS Choubey had pulled tragedies from recurring. Once the Sandeep Pandey out a feat of his own before this situation comes under control, they meeting. He was caught sleeping in go back to business as usual waiting D-15, Ganesh Prasad, a press conference addressed by Dr. for another crisis. Naushir Bharucha Marg, Harsh Vardhan, though he later tried Think of it, this is not the first Mumbai - 400 007. to escape the criticism by claiming outbreak of AES in the area. AES, Email : [email protected] that he was ‘meditating’ and not along with Japanese Encephalitis, Website:www.janataweekly.org sleeping. is a recurrent killer in the region. 2 JANATA, June 23, 2019

It has claimed lives of over 6,000 a standard operating procedure Legal Resource Centre / Asian children in the Baba Raghav Das (SOP) in 2015. The SOP included Human Rights Commission, Hong Medical College and Hospital household surveys by the auxiliary Kong.) in neighbouring Uttar Pradesh’s nurse midwife (ANM), accredited Gorakhpur. The story remains the social health activists (ASHA) and same in Muzaffarpur as well—AES anganwadi employees to check if killed 379 children in SKMCH alone any child has symptoms of Japanese Press Statement, June 19, 2019 in 2014. It had caused a similar encephalitis and AES. The efforts outrage then too. The then, and paid up. Death toll started going Brain Fever also current, Union Health Minister down. As against a toll of 424 in Deaths In Bihar's Dr. Harsh Vardhan had rushed to 2012, 222 in 2013 and 379 in 2014, Muzaffarurpur then too—just like the next four years—2015, 2016, Muzaffarpur he did now. He had then announced 2017 and 2018—saw a considerable [Institutions associated with a plethora of measures—a 100- fall with a toll of 90, 103, 54 and 33, prominent freedom fighters Abbas bed super specialty hospital, with respectively. Tyabji and Mahavir Tyagi—the a 10-bed facility for treatment of Of course, losing even 33 young Abbas Tyabji Educational and children. He had also promised lives is losing too many. But in a Charitable Trust and The Mahavir to build a virology laboratory in country where the lives of the poor Tyagi Foundation for Political and Muzaffarpur, which is both the come dirt cheap, the dip was enough Economic Decency—have issued the hotbed of AES as well as has the only to chase the issue out of national following statement.] state-run hospital in the area, even gaze. Then 2019 happened. And the The encephalitis scourge has if inadequately equipped, to which gaze returned. So did the ministers, been affecting east Uttar Pradesh and people from neighbouring districts even if repeating promises, sleeping, Bihar (India) for decades. like Sitamarhi and Motigari also rush meditating, and asking about scores. The death roll this year of in case of emergencies. Can anything get worse than suspected encephalitis cases in Cut to 2019, a full 5 years after this? Of course, it can. So after the Bihar’s Muzaffarpur has already those announcements. Returning ministers came ‘electronic media’. crossed 100. This is at the gates of as Union Health Minister in the The prime time anchors entered the Champaran, the site of Mahatma reelected government, Dr Harsh Intensive Care Units without gowns Gandhi’s first major intervention Vardhan rushed to the SKMCH and gloves and almost shoved their after returning from South Africa. and repeated all the announcements microphones in the mouths of the Gandhiji had invariably down to the virology laboratory overburdened doctors and nurses: intervened in public health issues while his junior, MoS Health Mr. Why there are not enough beds? both in India and in South Africa and Choubey slept away to glory or Why you are not attending this kid his work at the time of Plague in both meditated—whatever one wants to (the doctor was attending another)? countries is well known. believe. Not a single journalist in Why do you not have the necessary In this 150th birth anniversary the presser asked him why the same equipment? year of Mahatma Gandhi, we call promises made in 2014 remained But they did not care to ask any upon conscientious individuals and unfulfilled until the second bout of of these questions to the authorities socially sensitive organisations, the outbreak. duty-bound to provide these particularly Gandhi-related The reason behind that is not hard facilities. They told them the score, organisations and organisations to guess though. The 2014 outbreak of the India–Pakistan cricket match, working for medical inclusion, of AES killing 379 children had led to when asked. to draw national attention to this a massive uproar, and consequently, So what’s the score now? 130 continuing catastrophe and to some action had been undertaken by children dead, and counting, Sir, confer with medical personnel and the government, both at the state and until the next. immunologists on ways to control union level. The Bihar government and wipe out this scourge both by went into consultations, particularly (Samar is Programme Coordinator way of all possible relief and further with UNICEF, and came up with – Right to Food Programme Asian focused research. JANATA, June 23, 2019 3 Democracy Can Die in Daylight Too

Krishna Prasad

Modesty is not a virtue of the investigate, and to make sense, newspaper offices in Ahmedabad media in the pixel age, in which in the words of the British media in the 1990s, well past midnight, preening is a 24x7 pastime. There scholar George Brock—was always to have a cup of tea with useful is neither a demand for it from a vital weapon in the manufacture reporters on the political beat—it is consumers, nor a supply of it from of consent for the ‘Gujarat Model’. the ease with which he, the ‘pradhan the practitioners. Equilibrium has Despite early failures as Chief sevak’, was able to negotiate a ‘with- been achieved in the marketplace Minister, Mr. Modi deftly achieved me-or-against-me’ arrangement of the mind. Even so, while print, this goal. Established media houses across the landscape that staggers electronic and digital news purveyors were tamed by patronising their the mind, and serves as a sobering use the benefit of hindsight to retro- competitors. Some pesky editors reminder of the limits of the free fit Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s were reined in or eased out by press. “Democracy dies in darkness” “stunning” victory into a grand intimidating owners. Advertisements is the Washington Post motto. Here, narrative arc, it should not escape were turned off and on to let the it would appear, it died in broad the attention of the discerning that bottom line send signals to managers. daylight. an otherwise boastful section of Result: by 2014, without being From North and South America the media is uncharacteristically, explicitly coercive, Mr. Modi was (Donald Trump, Jair Bolsonaro) modestly, not acknowledging its able to manage the headlines, craft to West and East Asia (Recep own not insignificant part in paving respectability and plug himself into Tayyip Erdogan, Rodrigo Duterte), the way for India’s precipitous lurch the consciousness of the capitalist the playbook of the 21st century to the right. classes as the poor, incorruptible, populist–nationalist politician reformist Hindutva icon—the son contains the same to-do list: (i) Elephant in the room of the soil who was a victim of the turn the public against the media Whilst any number of ‘ex liberal English media. by berating them as an “enemy of post facto’ rationalisations may be During the 2017 Assembly the people”; (ii) delegitimise the adduced to explain the Bharatiya election campaign in Gujarat, a media by ascribing motives, calling Janata Party’s logic-defying triumph, BJP TV commercial unwittingly them news traders, “presstitutes”; it is impossible to ignore the elephant reminded voters of how the Modi (iii) choke the media by limiting in the room: a large and influential machine viewed the media. Two access; distorting the discourse part of the news media which young men are discussing Mr. with fake news, alt-right media; blithely abdicated its role as the eyes Modi in a barber shop. One of them (iv) intimidate the media with and ears of the people—and turned calls him a “dictator” and says he draconian laws; by trolling, doxxing, into an undisguised, unthinking and has harassed them a lot. They are threatening journalists; and (v) unquestioning mouthpiece of the interrupted by a third person who bypass conventional media using reigning ideology. That the same is awaiting his turn and is listening one-way radio addresses, made-for- boosters are now bloviating about in on the conversation. “You look TV events and social media. India’s future as a secular, liberal like reporters,” says the man who As the results of the 2019 election democracy and offering gratuitous identifies himself as ‘Vikas’. In show, the best student in the class— advice to the Opposition is, at best, other words, journalism—asking, the “first Prime Minister in 70 years a self-fulfilling prophecy. At worst, criticising, digging, unearthing—is to know where the camera was”, in it is a parody. an obstacle in the grand project. the words of one political scientist— Notwithstanding Mr. Modi’s Inasmuch as this is revealing of was able to alternately emasculate advertised disdain for journalists, a cultivated anti-media mindset— and weaponise media, and turn it making the media forget their core cultivated, because Mr. Modi, the into a force multiplier at the ballot tasks—to witness, to verify, to ‘pracharak’, would often wait outside box. The searing commentary in the 4 JANATA, June 23, 2019 foreign media of what is in store the Information and Broadcasting of democracy”, it is useful to wonder shines the mirror on the below-par portfolio after Mr. Modi formed his if they are seeing the cracks in the inquiry by some of our own. And the Cabinet in 2014 will probably go pillar with greater clarity. decision of the Congress, Samajwadi down as a masterstroke in taming the Party and Janata Dal (Secular) to circus, top-down. Dodgy corporates No end date? keep their panelists out of partisan and media houses lived in dread When the media’s darkest days TV debates puts the stamp on the of the taxman. Media licences and — the censorship under Indira perfidy bordering on complicity. clearances were difficult to come Gandhi’s 21 months of Emergency— by. Using carrot and stick, the are invoked, L.K. Advani’s quote ‘Wot won it’ circuits of news flow were rewired, that the press crawled when asked When the Conservative Party the tramlines laid out on who could to bend is airily recalled. But at least unexpectedly came to power in be attacked and who couldn’t be the media of the time was adhering Britain in 1992, Rupert Murdoch’s touched. Still to recover from the to a formal order which had a start mass-selling tabloid The Sun economic downturn that began in date and an end date. In the 21st proclaimed on its front page, “It’s 2007–08, a media aching for ‘achhe century, it didn’t take a presidential The Sun Wot Won It”, to lay claim to din’ fell in line. order for the ‘feral beasts’ to suspend its contribution. It is nobody’s case Self-censorship, co-option, and their instincts, to look the other that the BJP won the 2019 election a free ride followed. From Aadhaar way, to stoke majoritarian fires, to because of the media. India is larger, to Electronic Voting Machines, and fearlessly question not the ruling its democracy more layered, and the from Doklam to Pulwama with Rafale party but the Opposition, and usher media mosaic vastly heterogeneous in between, the biggest scandals lay in Modi 2.0. for such a glib conclusion. But buried. From LPG to GDP, from a closer examination of the last missing planes to missing jobs data, (Krishna Prasad is former Editor-in- five years will reveal the insidious the grandest claims lay unexamined. Chief, Outlook, and former member, role some in the media played in The fake, the frivolous and the Press Council of India.) conditioning minds, building myths, frothy—anthem, flag, beef, love deflecting attention, normalising the jihad, JNU, urban naxals, azaan— abnormal and poisoning the pool. got more air time than subaltern Precisely how this was achieved protests of farmers, weavers and Janata Subscription by a provincial leader, a self-declared workers. And agenda-setting studio “outsider” in Lutyens’ Delhi, is warriors flayed minority ghosts each Annual Rs. : 260/- difficult to put a finger on. Certainly, night—‘Hindus in danger’, ‘illegal Three Years : 750/- home-grown tactics—bogus FIRs, immigrants’—fostering a siege criminal cases, arrests, IT raids, mentality that reeked of victimhood. Demand Draft / monitoring—were improved upon. In the post-truth world, where Cheque Antagonism became the bedrock of social media takes propaganda the relationship. There was no media into the pockets of voters without on interface in the Prime Minister’s filter, there is nothing to suggest the Mumbai Bank Office, just a PRO. The Prime election verdict would have been Minister’s plane was off-bounds for the other way round had mainstream in favour of hacks. There were no press meets. media been less dormant. But Journalists’ deaths were not counted. when a former Chief Justice of Janata Trust Targeted tweets crowned the new the Supreme Court says the media courtiers. In ways subtle and brutal, should not forget that its primary D-15, Ganesh Prasad, the message was conveyed and responsibility is to be a watchdog, Naushir Bharucha Marg, received that hagiography had to not a guard dog for those in authority, Grant Road (W), replace scrutiny. or when a former Chief Election Mumbai 400 007. In retrospect, the move to allow Commissioner warns that “the fourth the Finance Minister to also handle estate has become the fifth column JANATA, June 23, 2019 5 Crimes Against Nature and Society Are Not “Satyagraha”

Vandana Shiva

After a series of 7 public that Bt toxin in crops affects only the and destroying the soil food web. hearings on Bt Brinjal, on February bollworm species and controls it. Since Bt is a toxin which the 9 2010, the then minister of state for This is doubly false. While plant produces in every cell it is Environment of the Govt of India natural Bt affects only the caterpillar affecting biodiversity, soil health announced an indefinite moratorium family, the “high dose toxin” or and pollinators. on introducing Bt brinjal—the first “super toxin” in GMO Bt crops A study published in a peer genetically modifiedfood crop that affects a wide range of species. Other reviewed journal (Jagadish C. would have been introduced for species are also affected. Further, the Tarafdar, Indira Rathore and Vandana mass production in India. bollworm has evolved resistance to Shiva, “Effect of bt-transgenic cotton In June 2019, Monsanto Bt as the Indian experience with Bt on soil biological health”, Applied lobbyists announced that farmers shows. Biological Research, 2012) shows will illegally plant Bt Brinjal as Jonathan R. Latham, in an article that in the Bt Cotton growing areas of a “Satyagraha”. This is outright “Have Monsanto and the biotech Vidarbha, beneficial soil organisms criminal action. As Kishore Tiwari, industry turned natural Bt pesticides have declined, undermining soil Chair of the Maharashtra Govt into GMO ‘Super toxins’?” points health and soil fertility. The result commission on agrarian distress out: revealed a significant decline in has clearly stated, farmers acting According to biotech industry actinobacteria (17%), bacterial count on behest of Monsanto are criminals lore, the Bt pesticides introduced (14%) as well as acid phosphatases and will be treated as such. into many GMO food crops are (27%), phytase (18%), nitrogenase Article 15 of the Biosafety natural proteins whose toxic activity (23%) and dehydrogenase (12%) laws requires govt to act when extends only to narrow groups of activities in Bt cotton fields as the rules are violated. Further, the insect species. Therefore, these compared with non-Bt cotton fields. Environment Protection Act 1986 pesticides can all be safely eaten, The study was repeated in 2015, requires that anyone violating the e.g. by humans. and the soil microorganisms had law faces an imprisonment of 5 This is not the interpretation further declined due to Bt toxin. years. we arrived at after our analysis of The decline ranges between 6 and The reason we have national the documents accompanying the 77% of different parameters, which and international Biosafety laws commercial approval of 23 typical indicate the severe adverse effect is because GMOs cause harm to Bt-containing GMO crops, however. of Bt Cotton on soil biological Biodiversity. Bt crops like Bt Cotton In our publication, authored health. A decrease in bacterial and Bt Brinjal have a gene for along with Madeleine Love and population between 51–77% was producing a toxin inserted in the Angelika Hilbeck, of the Swiss noticed under Bt Cotton growing genome of the plant, thus producing Federal Institute of Technology areas as compared to non-Bt cotton the toxin in every cell all the time. (ETH), we show that commercial soils of different districts. It was known in the 1990s and has GMO Bt toxins differ greatly from Several studies also show that been scientifically confirmed now their natural precursors. These Bt cotton has failed to control that Bt in plants is different from differences are important. They the bollworm and has instead led the naturally occurring Bt in the soil. typically cause GMO Bt proteins to an increase in resistant pests New studies are showing that to be more toxic. Worse, they also (see, for instance: P.C. Kesavan Monsanto took a safe natural pest cause them to be active against many and M.S. Swaminathan, “Modern control agent, Bt, and made it more species than natural forms of technologies for sustainable food a “Supertoxin” by genetically Bt toxins. and nutrition security”, Current engineering it into plants. The Our research has shown that Bt Science, 25 November 2018) scientific fraud begins with the claim Cotton is affecting soil organisms Herbicide resistant Roundup 6 JANATA, June 23, 2019 up Ready Crops have increased is participation in their crimes undertaken by greedy corporate the use of herbicides like Roundup against nature and humanity . interests wherein they are seeking which has been established to be Satyagraha is based on higher to equate the imposition of Seed a carcinogen. Roundup also kills consciousness, to promote ahimsa Slavery with Gandhi’s Satyagraha. biodiversity of plants and pollinators and stop brute law based on violence. Monsanto is not Gandhi. Crimes dependent on them. It has also led to Thoreau engaged in civil against nature and society are not emergence of superweeds. Roundup disobedience against the poll tax Satyagraha. We will uphold the Ready Bt Cotton is being illegally which supported slavery. Gandhi integrity of Satyagraha—the force spread in India with no action undertook Satyagraha against of truth—and not allow the idea from the government against the apartheid in South Africa, against and moral force of Satyagraha to perpetrators of this crime. the forced cultivation of indigo in be degraded and misused by those Bt Brinjal will spread the Champaran in 1917, and against the engaging in crimes against nature failure and tragedy we have already imposition of the Salt Laws in 1930. and people. witnessed in Bt Cotton. Worse, Following in Gandhi’s footsteps we We count on the Government since Bt Brinjal is a food crop, there have undertaken Seed Satyagraha of India to strictly implement the will be harm to public health. No since 1987 to prevent the Poison Bt Brinjal ban, to uphold India’s independent research to prove the Cartel from controlling our seeds, Biosafety and Environmental law, safety of Bt Brinjal exists. There are our agriculture, our food. India and Gandhi’s legacy. no long-term studies of more than 90 has Art 3j in our patent law which days or human feeding studies. prohibits patents on plants, animals (Vandana Shiva is an Indian Bt Brinjal also contains and seeds, since they are not human scholar, environmental activist, antibiotic resistant genes and poses inventions. food sovereignty advocate, and serious public health concerns with During Gandhi’s 150 anniversary, alter-globalisation author, based the possibility of 'horizontal gene we will not allow criminal actions in Delhi.) transfer' of antibiotic resistance. Antibiotic resistance is already a From Swaraj to Swastika major public health problem. There are tried, tested, and successful alternatives for controlling Uday Dandavate pests that do not harm public health or environment. The victory of Bharatiya Janata elections, the Bharatiya Janata Party, India is the Centre of Origin/ Party (BJP) is a victory of the ideology the political wing of the Rashtriya Diversity of Brinjal with more than that impedes the establishment of a Swayamsevak Sangh (RSS), 4500 varieties. The government true social democracy. Dr. B.R. systematically and aggressively cannot allow a gang of criminals Ambedkar, the author of India’s promoted the idea of Hindu sponsored by criminal corporations constitution, wrote, “Political Nationalism, which undermines to violate India’s Biodiversity Act democracy cannot last unless there the immense potential of India’s to contaminate and pollute this rich lies at the base of it social democracy. diversity. diversity. What does social democracy mean? It In seeking freedom from the The higher common good and means a way of life which recognises British, India rejected slavery larger public good is what our liberty, equality, and fraternity as the to establish its own vision of Biosafety and Environmental laws principles of life.” For those of us participatory democracy (self-rule) are supposed to protect. who want India to become a modern as elaborated in Gandhi’s book Hind Deliberately acting against laws society based on humanitarian, Swaraj. Mahatma Gandhi believed ecological and secular values, the that “Swaraj is vitally connected that protect the common good for challenge is to regain people’s trust with the capacity for dispassionate the greed of a Poison Cartel of three in the values that establish a social self-assessment, ceaseless self- global gene giants which already democracy. purification, and growing self- control 60% of the world’s seed The faltering dream of Swaraj reliance.” supply through such illegal actions, During the recent Parliamentary Though India achieved political JANATA, June 23, 2019 7 independence more than seventy the sacrifices they made fighting for need. The VHP is committed to years ago, in 1947, Swaraj has liberty and freedom from the British. undo the historical insult to the not been achieved for all sections The post-independence generations last nuts and bolts and it is this of society. Feudalism, economic were fortunate to enjoy the fruits of determination of the VHP that disparities and social inequalities the struggles and sacrifices of their has instilled a spirit of righteous continue to get in the way of creating parents. Their notion of patriotism militancy in the Hindu society. equal opportunity for social mobility has been shaped by the India– • The aim is to activise the dormant and prosperity for all. Pakistan conflict and the fight against Hindu society, to make it come In recent times, the growth cross-border terrorism. out of its self-oblivion and of the RSS and the spread of its The Congress party, which was realise its past mistakes, to instill idea of Hindu Nationalism puts in power for the longest period after in it a firm determination to set the underprivileged sections at a India became independent from them right, and finally to make it disadvantage and undermines the the British, exploited the patriotic bestir itself to reassert its honor dream of Swaraj. The top-down sentiment of the nation and the and self-respect so that no power authoritarian culture of the RSS party’s role in the freedom struggle on earth dares challenge it in the and other organisations in its to its advantage for several decades. days to come. ideological fraternity fundamentally Meanwhile, the RSS focused on The following extract from the impedes the creation of participatory promoting ‘Hindu Nationalism’. mission statement makes it clear democracy. Each time Indian The Ram Janmabhumi movement that notwithstanding the Prime masses have opted for a strong and initiated by Shri L.K. Advani leading Minister’s frequent proclamations autocratic leader, it has derailed the up to the demolition of the Babri of “Sabka Saath, Sabka Vikas”, cause of establishing a participatory Mosque was a systematic social his alma mater is hell bent on democracy. The declaration of engineering exercise to neutralise homogenising the multicultural Emergency in the 1970s is a testament the impact of the social justice Indian society under the umbrella that the concentration of power in a movement. The Sangh Parivar of Hindutva. single individual or a coterie leads understood that it could unite • The world is looking for a viable to the suppression of dissent and the Hindu voters only by creating and universally acceptable life- alienation of the masses from the fear of a common enemy—the vision. It is Hinduism alone power structure. Power in the hands Muslims of India. The RSS has been which is in a position to provide of an authoritarian leader inevitably admirably successful in this; the such a vision. leads to nepotism, violation of supporters of Hindu Rashtra have • A lasting solution to the human rights and corruption. managed to convince the majority economic crisis can come only The progressive forces need Hindu population to support Hindu from cultural rejuvenation and to reenergise, and reaffirm our Nationalism as an assertion of Indian re-assertion of Hindu values. belief in a secular and participatory identity. (Extracted from the RSS website: democracy. The electoral battle is To spread its propaganda http://rss.org/Encyc/2012/10/22/rss- lost, but the real war is ahead of among the Hindu masses, the RSS vision-and-mission.html, updated on us — we must continue to uphold began organising a devout cadre of June 12, 2019.) and advance the dream of an activists that is trained in “righteous Today India has stepped away inclusive society in the imagination militancy” to reassert the honour from the legacy of the freedom of the masses. Hindu Nationalism and self-respect of Hindu Society. struggle. The proponents of a is not a sustainable platform for The following extract from the RSS modern India, driven either by the achieving social justice, economic mission statement serves as an alert: Gandhian philosophy of inclusive, progress or peace with neighboring • There was also need to bring all grassroots-level democracy, or by the countries. sadhus sannyasins and orthodox Western ideals of liberal, secular and mathadhipatis on a common socialist democracy, were defeated A legacy dismantled platform, so that their combined by the same forces that ridiculed and An average Indian is religious influence could be channelised assassinated Gandhi, and derided (and superstitious) at heart and for the common good of the secularism and liberal thinking. The fiercely patriotic. The patriotism of entire Hindu society. The VHP acrimony in the social media of the the older generation was shaped by was founded in 1964, to fill this past several months has left no doubt 8 JANATA, June 23, 2019 that in the prevailing conditions, a perceived common threat or 11. Disdain for Intellectuals and significant section of the Hindus of foe: racial, ethnic or religious the Arts: Fascist nations tend India have been won over to the idea minorities; liberals; communists; to promote and tolerate open of asserting their Hindu identity. A socialists, terrorists, etc. hostility to higher education and poisonous cocktail created from the 4. The supremacy of the military: academia. It is not uncommon mixing of religion and politics is Even when there are widespread for professors and other leading India to dismantle the legacy domestic problems, the military academics to be censored or of the freedom struggle. is given a disproportionate even arrested. Free expression amount of government funding, in the arts is openly attacked, Ominous Signs and the domestic agenda is and governments often refuse to The recent election campaign neglected. Soldiers and military fund the arts. generated acrimonious, hateful, service are glamorised. 12. Obsession with Crime and and abusive conversations on social 5. Rampant Sexism: The Punishment: Under fascist media. Ideas that are far removed governments of fascist nations regimes, the police are given from the ideal of unity in diversity tend to be almost exclusively almost limitless power to enforce surfaced in these conversations. male-dominated. Under fascist laws. The people are often An atmosphere of xenophobia regimes, traditional gender willing to overlook police abuses blinded people to the long-term roles are made more rigid. and even forego civil liberties in consequences of their participation Opposition to abortion is high, the name of patriotism. in this hateful discourse. as is homophobia and anti-gay 13. Rampant Cronyism and Political scientist Dr. Lawrence legislation and national policy. Corruption: Fascist regimes Britt wrote an article in which he 6. Controlled Mass Media: The almost always are governed identifies fourteen characteristics of media is directly or indirectly by groups of friends and fascism (Free Inquiry, Spring 2003, controlled by government associates who appoint each page 20): regulation; censorship, other to government positions 1. Powerful and Continuing especially in wartime, is very and use governmental power and Nationalism: Fascist regimes common. authority to protect their friends tend to make constant use 7. Obsession with National from accountability. It is not of patriotic mottos, slogans, Security: Fear is used as a uncommon in fascist regimes symbols, songs, and other motivational tool by the for national resources and even paraphernalia. Flags are seen government over the masses. treasures to be appropriated everywhere, as are flag symbols 8. Religion and Government are or even outright stolen by on clothing and in public Intertwined: Governments in government leaders. displays. fascist nations tend to use the 14. Fraudulent Elections: 2. Disdain for the Recognition most common religion in the Sometimes elections in fascist of Human Rights: Because of nation as a tool to manipulate nations are a complete sham. fear of enemies and the need for public opinion. Other times elections are security, the people in fascist 9. Corporate Power is Protected: manipulated by smear campaigns regimes are persuaded that The industrial and business against or even assassination of human rights can be ignored aristocracy of a fascist nation opposition candidates, use of in certain cases because of often are the ones who put legislation to control voting “need”. The people tend to the fascist government leaders numbers or political district look the other way or even into power, creating a mutually boundaries, and manipulation of approve of torture, summary beneficial business/government the media. Fascist nations also executions, assassinations, long relationship and power elite. typically use their judiciaries to incarcerations of prisoners, etc. 10. Labour Power is Suppressed: manipulate or control elections.” 3. Identification of Enemies/ Because the organising power of Most of these signs and Scapegoats as a Unifying labour is the only real threat to a characteristics are already noticeable Cause: The people are rallied fascist government, labor unions in the current politics of the Sangh into a unifying patriotic frenzy are either entirely eliminated or Parivar. “Eternal Vigilance” is over the need to eliminate a are severely suppressed. required to preserve the liberties JANATA, June 23, 2019 9 which our forefathers fought for. liberal, compassionate and creative contemporary symbols and rituals India, led by people who deserve for a secular society that will inspire Absence of an alternative respect. We must educate people the youth. The younger generation In the current Indian political about why separation of religion and worldwide is recognising that it is atmosphere, humanitarian, politics is essential in a participatory possible to be spiritual without being ecological, and secular values democracy. religious, that one does not need have disappeared from the political Dan Arel, an award-winning religion to be moral and just. discourse. The progressive parties, journalist and author, references a which previously represented the study conducted by the University of There is hope hopes and desires of the population, Chicago which found that children The movement for total have drifted away from their ideals, raised in non-religious households revolution led by JP and the Lok Pal and lost the hearts of many of their are kinder and more altruistic than movement created hope for Social would-be supporters. those raised with religion. They Democrats. These movements People are dismayed by the observed 1170 children between the inspired by Gandhi’s concept of general state of politics and have ages of 5 and 12 years in six countries Swaraj were compromised by power lost hope for an alternative. In their (Canada, China, Jordan, Turkey, mongering. dismay, they have bought into the USA and South Africa), and inferred: My hope for the future stems narrative promoted by the Sangh “Across all countries, parents in from the fact that as much as India is Parivar that though the BJP is not religious households reported that fiercely religious and nationalistic, at perfect, the Congress party is not the their children expressed more heart it is also compassionate. I see alternative. The Congress party did empathy and sensitivity for justice an opportunity for those who want to not have the credibility to challenge in everyday life than non-religious experiment with a new future based the BJP. On issues that should parents. However, religiousness was on inclusive ideologies. We should have been damaging to the BJP, inversely predictive of children’s tap into India’s compassionate soul the Congress was also vulnerable. altruism and positively correlated and rebuild a new politics. The path Unable to defend its complicity in the with their punitive tendencies. to building the modern India of our mass killings of Muslims in Gujarat, Together these results reveal the dreams has become harder, but not BJP countered with the issue of the similarity across countries in how impossible. massacre of Sikhs under the watch religion negatively influences The transformation of society of Rajiv Gandhi; the Rafael deal was children’s altruism, challenging can happen when citizens start questionable, but Rahul Gandhi was the view that religiosity facilitates thinking creatively about building taunted with the counter-argument prosocial behavior.” tools and institutions to strengthen that his father was “Bhrashtachari The purpose of citing this study democracy. For example, Ushahidi, No. 1”(corrupt No. 1). The Modi is not to challenge people’s religious a non-profit technology company government’s bonhomie with a beliefs, but point out that practicing was first developed to map reports select group of business houses and religion is not necessary for character of violence in Kenya after the its failure to deliver on promises building nor for cultivating kinder post-election violence in 2008. from the 2014 election was eclipsed and altruistic traits in our children. Since then, thousands have used by the war hysteria provoked before We must inculcate in children its crowdsourcing tools to raise the election. the values we cherish. A section their voice. It has empowered of the younger generation seems marginalised people raise their Reclaiming the dream to have lost interest in secularism. voice. At the same time it has also To reclaim the dream of Much of this loss of interest is due to provided organisations and people’s Swaraj, the fight against Hindu loss of credibility of the leaders who representatives a communication Nationalism has to continue. We championed the secular cause. The channel that helps them listen and must replace hatred in people’s RSS and BJP campaign magnified respond to their constituents. minds with compassion, and create the contradictions between the Closer to home, “I Paid a Bribe a new national ethos that is more rhetoric and lifestyle of the leaders (IPAB) is an online initiative started empathetic and inclusive. We must who preached secularism, to turn by Janaagraha is the largest online counter the mission of the RSS with voters against their politics. crowd-sourced anti-corruption the mission of a modern, secular, There is a dire need to create platform in the world today. IPAB 10 JANATA, June 23, 2019 uses a crowd-sourcing model janaagraha.org/i-paid-a-bribe/). Swastika over Swaraj. However, to collect bribe reports, and to These examples demonstrate there is hope for a turnaround. Let build a repository of corruption- how systemic transformation of the the din on social media not confuse related data across government society is possible through innovative us. Let the outcomes of elections not departments. Most importantly, it tools for participation of citizens in deter us. Let us make India a social empowers citizens, governments, democracy. Co-creating a vision democracy dedicated to the cause and advocacy organisations to tackle of participatory democracy will of Swaraj. retail corruption. As of June 2017, initiate the building of institutions IPAB has partnered with 30 other that over time can bring alive the (Uday Dandavate is the founder countries to create replica IPAB dream of Swaraj. This is a cathartic and CEO of SonicRim, a global sites and begin an international moment in the nation’s psychology. design research company engaged Crowdsourcing Against Corruption The results of this election sends a in studying people, cultures, and Coalition.” (source:http://www. message that India has chosen the change around the world.)

Have You Heard of the CIA’s Iran Mission Center?

Vijay Prashad

US Secretary of State Mike Iran for the incident. The Norwegian Trump be mad enough to launch Pompeo was adamant—just hours government remained silent as missiles? Will the United States of after it happened—that the explosions well—no threats of any kind from America want to open wider the on two Norwegian and Japanese oil Oslo. The shipping company said an doors of hell in West Asia, doors that tankers were the responsibility of investigation would be conducted in the United States opened wide with Iran. Iran did this, he said, and Iran due course. its illegal war on Iraq? would have to pay the price. The The crew from both the vessels United States government offered no had been rescued by US and Iranian Iran Mission Center evidence for this claim, apart from a boats and taken to safety. In 2017, the US Central grainy video that showed little that Chief of Staff of Iranian Armed Intelligence Agency (CIA) created seemed conclusive. Pompeo took no Forces Major General Mohammad a special unit—the Iran Mission questions. Hossein Baqeri said that his military Center—to focus attention on the It is important to know that the will not try to close the Strait of US plans against Iran. The initiative Japanese Prime Minister Shinzo Abe Hormuz by deceit. If they want to for this unit came from CIA director was in Tehran at that time. Abe, who close the strait, he said, it will be an John Brennan, who left his post has been trying to maintain the Iran open military operation. He fully as the Trump administration came nuclear deal, made no belligerent denies that Iran hit those two tankers. into office. Brennan believed that comments, nor did he storm out No US ship was assaulted. These the CIA needed to focus attention of the country. The head of the incidents took place in international on what the United States sees as Japanese shipping company said that waters—in the Strait of Hormuz, off problem areas—North Korea and there was no evidence that this event the coasts of Iran and Oman. Not on Iran, for instance. This predated the had been conducted by Iran. In fact, US territory, nor on a US military Trump administration. he disputed the claim that a limpet base or on US government property. Brennan’s successor—Mike mine had been attached to his ship. Yet, it was the US government Pompeo, who was CIA director He said that “flying objects” had that made the claims and made the for just over a year (until he was struck the ship. threats. This has become an ugly appointed US Secretary of State)— The Norwegian shipping habit. continued this policy. The CIA’s company did not make any kind of It has also become impossible Iran-related activity had been statement about the events either, for the region, where there remains conducted in the Iran Operations certainly not anything that blamed an electric sense of foreboding. Will Division (Persia House). This was JANATA, June 23, 2019 11 a section with Iran specialists who worldview of the Saudi royal family. a financial firm with investments— built up knowledge about political These are men who are reckless with which it admits—would benefit and economic developments inside violence, willing to do anything if it from “instability in the Middle Iran and in the Iranian diaspora. means provoking a war against Iran. East.” Working with UANI and It bothered the hawks in Nothing should be put past them. the Counter Extremism Project is Washington—as one official told D’Andrea and the hawks edged Norman Roule, a former national me—that Persia House was filled out several Iran experts from the intelligence manager for Iran in the with Iran specialists who had no Iran Mission Center, people like US Office of the Director of National special focus on regime change in Margaret Stromecki—who had Intelligence. Iran. Some of them, due to their long been head of analysis. Others who Roule has offered his support to concentration on Iran, had developed want to offer an alternative to the the efforts of the Arabia Foundation, sensitivity to the country. Trump’s Pompeo–Bolton view of things run by Ali Shihabi—a man with people wanted a much more focused either have also moved on or remain close links to the Saudi monarchy. and belligerent group that would silent. There is no space in the Trump The Arabia Foundation was set provide the kind of intelligence that administration, a former official told up to do more effective public tickled the fancy of his National me, for dissent on the Iran policy. relations work for the Saudis than Security Adviser John Bolton. the Saudi diplomats are capable of To head the Iran Mission Saudi Arabia’s War doing. Shihabi is the son of one of Center, the CIA appointed Michael D’Andrea’s twin outside the Saudi Arabia’s most well-regarded D’Andrea. D’Andrea was central to White House is Thomas Kaplan, the diplomats, Samir al-Shihabi, who the post-9/11 interrogation program, billionaire who set up two groups played an important role as Saudi and he ran the CIA’s Counterterrorism that are blindingly for regime change Arabia’s ambassador to Pakistan Center. Assassinations and torture in Iran. The two groups are United during the war that created al-Qaeda. were central to his approach. Against Nuclear Iran (UANI) and These men—Kaplan and Bolton, It was D’Andrea who expanded Counter Extremism Project. There is D’Andrea and Shihabi—are eager to the CIA’s drone strike program, in nothing subtle here. These groups— use the full force of the US military particular the signature strike. The and Kaplan himself—promote an to further the dangerous goals of signature strike is a particularly agenda of great disparagement of the Gulf Arab royals (of both Saudi controversial instrument. The CIA Muslims in general and of Iran in Arabia and of the UAE). When was given the allowance to kill particular. Pompeo walked before cameras, he anyone who fit a certain profile—a Kaplan blamed Iran for the carried their water for them. These man of a certain age, for instance, creation of ISIS, for it was Iran— are men on a mission. They want war with a phone that had been used to Kaplan said—that “used a terrible against Iran. call someone on a list. The dark arts Sunni movement” to expand its reach Evidence, reason. None of this of the CIA are precisely those of from “Persia to the Mediterranean.” is important to them. They will not D’Andrea. Such absurdity followed from a stop until the US bombers deposit What is germane to his post fundamental misreading of Shia their deadly payload on Tehran and at the Iran Mission Center is that concepts such as taqiya, which Qom, Isfahan and Shiraz. They will D’Andrea is close to the Gulf Arabs, means prudence and not—as Kaplan do anything to make that our terrible a former CIA analyst told me. The and others argue—deceit. Kaplan, reality. Gulf Arabs have been pushing bizarrely, shares more with ISIS than hard for action against Iran, a view Iran does with that group—since (Vijay Prashad is an Indian historian, shared by D’Andrea and parts of his both Kaplan and ISIS are driven by editor and journalist.) team. For his hard-nosed attitude their hatred of those who follow the toward Iran, D’Andrea is known— Shia traditions of Islam. ironically—as “Ayatollah Mike.” It is fitting that Kaplan’s anti-Iran Janata D’Andrea and people like groups bring together the CIA and is available at Bolton are part of an ecosystem money. The head of UANI is Mark of men who have a visceral hatred Wallace, who is the chief executive www.lohiatoday.com for Iran and who are close to the of Kaplan’s Tigris Financial Group, 12 JANATA, June 23, 2019 Remembering Patrice Lumumba

Georges Nzongola-Ntalaja

Patrice Lumumba, the first atomic weapons, the Hiroshima and and the secessionist regimes in the legally elected prime minister of Nagasaki bombs. mineral-rich provinces of Katanga the Democratic Republic of the With the outbreak of the Cold and South Kasai. Since Lumumba's Congo (DRC), was assassinated War, it was inevitable that the US physical elimination had removed on 17 January 1961. This heinous and its western allies would not what the West saw as the major crime was a culmination of two be prepared to let Africans have threat to their interests in the Congo, inter-related assassination plots by effective control over strategic internationally-led efforts were American and Belgian governments, raw materials, lest these fall in undertaken to restore the authority which used Congolese accomplices the hands of their enemies in the of the moderate and pro-Western and a Belgian execution squad to Soviet camp. It is in this regard that regime in Kinshasa over the entire carry out the deed. Patrice Lumumba's determination to country. These resulted in ending the Ludo De Witte, the Belgian achieve genuine independence and Lumumbist regime in Kisangani in author of the best book on this crime, to have full control over Congo's August 1961, the secession of South qualifies it as "the most important resources in order to utilise them Kasai in September 1962, and the assassination of the 20th century". to improve the living conditions Katanga secession in January 1963. The assassination's historical of our people was perceived as No sooner did this unification importance lies in a multitude of a threat to Western interests. To process end than a radical factors, the most pertinent being the fight him, the US and Belgium social movement for a "second global context in which it took place, used all the tools and resources at independence" arose to challenge the its impact on Congolese politics their disposal, including the United neocolonial state and its pro-Western since then and Lumumba's overall Nations secretariat, under Dag leadership. This mass movement legacy as a nationalist leader. Hammarskjöld and Ralph Bunche, of peasants, workers, the urban For 126 years, the US and to buy the support of Lumumba's unemployed, students and lower civil Belgium have played key roles in Congolese rivals, and hired killers. servants found an eager leadership shaping Congo's destiny. In April In Congo, Lumumba's among Lumumba's lieutenants, 1884, seven months before the assassination is rightly viewed as most of whom had regrouped to Berlin Congress, the US became the the country's original sin. Coming establish a National Liberation first country in the world to recognise less than seven months after Council (CNL) in October 1963 the claims of King Leopold II of the independence (on 30 June, 1960), in Brazzaville, across the Congo Belgians to the territories of the it was a stumbling block to the river from Kinshasa. The strengths Congo Basin. ideals of national unity, economic and weaknesses of this movement When the atrocities related independence and pan-African may serve as a way of gauging the to brutal economic exploitation solidarity that Lumumba had overall legacy of Patrice Lumumba in Leopold's Congo Free State championed, as well as a shattering for Congo and Africa as a whole. resulted in millions of fatalities, blow to the hopes of millions of The most positive aspect of this the US joined other world powers Congolese for freedom and material legacy was manifest in the selfless to force Belgium to take over the prosperity. devotion of Pierre Mulele to radical country as a regular colony. And it The assassination took place at change for purposes of meeting the was during the colonial period that a time when the country had fallen deepest aspirations of the Congolese the US acquired a strategic stake under four separate governments: people for democracy and social in the enormous natural wealth the central government in Kinshasa progress. On the other hand, the of the Congo, following its use (then Léopoldville); a rival central CNL leadership, which included of the uranium from Congolese government by Lumumba's followers Christophe Gbenye and Laurent- mines to manufacture the first in Kisangani (then Stanleyville); Désiré Kabila, was more interested JANATA, June 23, 2019 13 in power and its attendant privileges Congo is the ideal of national unity. will remain utterly steadfast in their than in the people's welfare. This is Recently, a Congolese radio station defence of our national unity. Lumumbism in words rather than in asked me whether the independence deeds. As president three decades of South Sudan should be a matter (Georges Nzongola-Ntalaja is later, Laurent Kabila did little to of concern with respect to national professor of African and Afro- move from words to deeds. unity in the Congo. I responded American studies at the University More importantly, the greatest that since Patrice Lumumba has of North Carolina at Chapel Hill.) legacy that Lumumba left for died for Congo's unity, our people

Farmers Protest in Mandsaur on Second Anniversary of Firing

On June 6, 2019, the second Kisan Mahasabha; Shri Rajendra and sell agricultural produce, they anniversary of the Mandsaur firing, Purohit, MP State President, Shri are all farmers, but caste and money in which six farmers were reportedly Rajesh Vairagi, State secretary, and assumes a dominant role during killed after the police opened fire, Shri Dilip Patidar, Mandsaur district elections and thus their electoral thousands of farmers from across President, Kisan Sangharsh Samiti. power is divided.” the nation, under the banner of the The leaders present at the protest Expressing the fears of the All India Kisan Sangharsh Samiti were angry at the MP Chief Minister, farming community after the (AIKSS), a platform of 208 farmers’ Kamal Nath, who just paid tribute to landslide victory of the BJP, organisations, gathered in Takrawad the martyrs via twitter. The farmer Shailendra Singh from Centre of village, Mandsaur district, Madhya leaders have called this move as Indian Trade Unions (CITU) said, Pradesh (MP) to pay tribute to the “insufficient and insensitive.” “it is not the opposition that has lost martyrs. The farmers are celebrating Former MP and farmers’ leader in the current elections, instead the ‘Shahid Divas’ (Martyrs Day) under from Maharashtra, Raju Shetti, said country's unemployed, farmers and the chairmanship of Balaram Patidar, “Assurances to farmers demand labourers have been at huge loss uncle of one of the martyrs. is not enough anymore. If the and the capitalists have assumed the After paying tributes, the farmer Swabhimani Shantakari Sangathan seats of power.” organisations demanded that the in Maharashtra can force the Warning that the Congress government must erect a memorial government to revise the prices of government in the state might for the sacrifice of the farmers and sugarcane and milk, it surely can lose power if they continue to acknowledge their courageous act in do justice to the farmers of Madhya ignore the demands of the farmers, the history of the farmers movement. Pradesh.” He further added that Kisan Sangharsh Samiti’s Executive They also demanded that the false if their demands are not accepted, President, and former MLA Dr. cases that have been lodged against the farmers will organise their Sunilam, said “the MP Congress the farmers after the 2017 Mandsaur demonstration outside the CM’s government is counting its last protest be withdrawn. Also, the residence. breaths, the oxygen tube is in the alleged murderers, including the Madhuresh Kumar, National hands of Amit Shah and Modi, police personnel who opened fire Convener of National Alliance they can make the government fall on the farmers be arrested. They of People’s Movements said, whenever they want to. In such a also reiterated their long-standing “Our struggle is against atrocities, situation, the Congress Government demand of getting a fair price for exploitation and injustice, whether should immediately take to fulfilling their produce. it is in Narmada, Mandsaur or the farmers’ demands, who have The protest was attended by Tuticorin. Our aim is to change the a considerable contribution to the multiple farmer organisations and present system.” formation of their government.” their leaders, including Comrade MP state president of the All Premsingh Gehlawat, National India Kisan Sabha, Mr. Jaswinder What happened in Mandsaur two Vice President of the All India Singh, said “We are struggling to years ago? Kisan Mahasabha; Comrade Ishwari stop the exploitation of the farmers On June 6, 2017 farmers had Prasad, National Secretary All India and workers. When the farmers buy gathered in Mandsaur, a drought- 14 JANATA, June 23, 2019 ravaged region, to demand fair banks with some farmers alleging farmers more is Kamal Nath’s prices for their produce as 2017 that their names were included in tweet “Today is the second was the second year of a bumper the list of defaulters even when anniversary of Mandsaur firing. onion crop with no buyers, forcing they hadn’t taken a loan or the loan Tribute to six farmers killed in this the farmers to sell their produce at amount was higher than the original barbarous firing.” He also added, Rs 2 to 3 per kg. They were also amount. There have also been “Our government is determined to demanding loan waivers. allegations that not a single farmer punish the accused of this firing, The protest gradually turned has benefited from this waiver as yet. to give justice to the victims and to turned violent and the police as This created immense resentment withdraw the false cases registered well as the jawans from the Central among the farmers and they started against the innocent farmers (during Reserve Police Force started firing losing faith in the Congress. protests).” on the protestors. This led to the Now what has angered the Courtesy: Sabrangindia death of five on the spot and one succumbed to the injuries the next day. Microplastic Pollution ‘Absolutely Everywhere’ After intense protests, the then BJP state government appointed a Damian Carrington commission under the chairmanship of retired High Court Justice J.K. Jain Bolstering global demands to did,” said Christian Dunn at Bangor that was tasked with investigating #BreakFreeFromPlastic and end the University, Wales, who led the the deadly firing. The commission world's worsening pollution crisis, a work. “It is quite depressing they concluded that the police and the new study from the United Kingdom were there in some of our country’s CRPF were not to blame for the found microplastic contamination most iconic locations. I’m sure incident as they were forced to open in the UK’s lake and rivers, in Wordsworth would not be happy to fire and thus were given a clean chit! groundwater in the US and along discover his beloved Ullswater in Subsequently, with elections the Yangtze river in China and the the Lake District was polluted with approaching, the then BJP CM coast of Spain. plastic. Shivraj Singh Chauhan, in a bid Humans are known to consume “Microplastics are being found to win over farmers’ sympathies, the tiny plastic particles via food absolutely everywhere [but] we do launched the Bhavanter Bhugtan and water, but the possible health not know the dangers they could Yojna, which promised to pay effects on people and ecosystems be posing. It’s no use looking back farmers the difference between have yet to be determined. One in 20 years time and saying: ‘If the average sale price and the study, in Singapore, has found that only we’d realised just how bad it government mandated minimum microplastics can harbour harmful was.’ We need to be monitoring our support price (MSP). However, microbes. waters now and we need to think, as farmers alleged that the scheme The new analysis in the UK a country and a world, how we can only benefited the big farmers with found microplastic pollution in be reducing our reliance on plastic.” bargaining power. This was a major all 10 lakes, rivers and reservoirs The River Thames in London factor behind BJP’s defeat in the sampled. More than 1,000 small was found to have about 80 assembly elections. pieces of plastic per litre were found microplastic particles per litre, as Immediately after coming to in the River Tame, near Manchester, was the River Cegin in North Wales. power, MP CM Kamal Nath cleared which was revealed last year as the The Blackwater River in Essex had a proposal for waiving farm loans, most contaminated place yet tested 15. Ullswater has 30 and the Llyn as promised. The entire farming worldwide. Even in relatively remote Cefni reservoir on Anglesey 40. community was euphoric and started places such as the Falls of Dochart Microplastics have been shown applying for the waivers. However, and Loch Lomond in Scotland, two to harm marine life when mistaken the excitement was short lived! or three pieces per litre were found. for food and were found inside Soon after the scheme kicked in, “It was startling. I wasn’t every marine mammal studied in there were reports of scams by the expecting to find as much as we a recent UK survey. They were JANATA, June 23, 2019 15 revealed in 2017 to be in tap water as those linked to the bleaching of and the spillage of plastic pellets around the world and in October to coral reefs. used by manufacturers. The physical be consumed by people in Europe, Defined as smaller than 5mm in breakdown of plastic litter also Japan and Russia. size, microplastics have also been creates them. Rain washes them into “Microplastic has been found found underground in limestone rivers and the sea, but they can also in our rivers, our highest mountains aquifers in Illinois, US, at a level of be blown by the wind and end up in and our deepest oceans,” said Julian 15 particles per litre. This type of fields when treated sewage waste is Kirby, a plastics campaigner at groundwater source provides about used as fertiliser. Friends of the Earth who helped a quarter of the world’s drinking Kirsten Thompson from the collect water samples for the new water. University of Exeter, who is working UK study. He urged MPs to back Other recent studies have found with Greenpeace on a survey of legislation “to drastically reduce microplastics in bottom-living microplastics in the UK’s major the flow of plastic pollution that’s creatures and sediments taken from rivers, said: “We hope our research blighting our environment”. the North Sea and the Barents will help uncover exactly where this Research by the National Sea. High concentrations were plastic is coming from and what University of Singapore found also foundin the middle and lower impact it may be having.” more than 400 types of bacteria on reaches of the Yangtze River and 275 pieces of microplastic collected along the Mediterranean coast of (Damian Carrington is the from local beaches. They included Spain. Guardian's Environment editor.) bugs that cause gastroenteritis and Microplastics are shed by wound infections in humans, as well synthetic clothing, vehicle tyres

WWII Could Not Have Happened Without US Help in Rearming Germany

Jay Janson armored vehicles, submarines and air force, a tiny navy, no armoured Recently, the 75th Anniversary capital ships were forbidden, as were vehicles, no heavy weapons and a of the invasion of Normandy was aircraft of any kind. Compliance small army, could have on its own, commemorated. But here are some with these restrictions was monitored built its armed forces up to the little known facts about World War until 1927 by the Military Inter- most powerful military in the world II. Allied Commission of Control. during the first six years of Hitler’s The sixty or seventy million 1918 to 1929 was a already a rule without the colossal and crucial men, women and children didn’t time of low economic growth and investments in, and joint venturing die because of Adolph Hitler, they mass unemployment. The Wall by, top US corporations in low perished because the wealthy in the Street Crash during the autumn of wage Nazi Germany—in outright US and Western Europe empowered 1929 had grave consequences for violation of the Versailles Treaty Adolph Hitler to make war. Germany. German unemployment prohibition of German rearmament. The Treaty of Versailles that brought suffering to 20 million There is no way Hitler could have ended the First World War forced people. All over Germany there were begun a world war and a multi- reduction of the strength of the people desperate for money needed nation Holocaust when he did German army from 4,500,000 in to feed, clothe and house their without the enormous financial 1918 to 100,000. Its navy was not families. Many of the homeless were and technical help he received to exceed 15,000 men, including camping out in the parks of Berlin. from the United States of America. manning for the fleet, coast defenses, There is simply no way an England and France also cooperated, signal stations, administration, and impoverished and utterly especially in agreeing to allow the other land services. Heavy weapons demilitarised Nazi Germany, with no abandonment of the prohibitions on 16 JANATA, June 23, 2019

German rearmament. Western media Oil of New Jersey hydrogenation Beginning in 1935, GM built defended the building up of Nazi patents and technology to I. G. a factory in Berlin for the purpose Germany’s military as a ‘bulwark’ Farben, Germany produced about of manufacturing “Blitz” trucks against the Soviet Union. 6 1/2 million tons of oil—of which for the Wehrmacht. Ford began Hitler had emphasised 85 percent was synthetic oil using building similar trucks around the Germany’s need for ‘Lebensraum’ the Standard Oil hydrogenation same time, but GM was the number (‘living space’), insisting Germany’s process. . . . one producer of the vehicles that 19th century motto ‘Drang Nach Moreover, American assistance were vital for the quick conquests Osten’ (‘push to the East,’ a slogan to Nazi war efforts extended into of Poland, France, and much of designating German expansion other areas. The two largest tank the Soviet Union. Albert Speer, into Slavic lands), must become producers in Hitler's Germany were the minister of armaments and a reality. All this was strikingly Opel, a wholly owned subsidiary war production, claimed that the proclaimed by Hitler in his book of General Motors (controlled rubber GM supplied was the key to Mein Kampf, which by 1939 had by the J.P. Morgan firm), and the the ability of the Germans to wage sold 5.2 million copies in eleven Ford A. G. subsidiary of the Ford war the way they did. [Michael languages. [Britannica] Motor Company of Detroit. The Dobbs, “Ford and GM Scrutinised Hitler’s uncompromising lethal Nazis granted tax-exempt status to for Alleged Nazi Collaboration”, condemnation of communism and Opel in 1936, to enable General Washington Post, November 30, the very existence of Wall Street’s Motors to expand its production 1998.] archenemy, the socialist Soviet facilities. General Motors obligingly In July 1938, before the outbreak Union, must have impressed the reinvested the resulting profits of war, the German consul at US and European wealthy, whose into German industry. Henry Ford Cleveland gave Ford, on his 75th ‘rule’ was threatened by socialist was decorated by the Nazis for his birthday, the award of the Grand fervor and riots at home, fuelled by services to Nazism. Alcoa and Dow Cross of the German Eagle, the the ongoing Great Depression that Chemical worked closely with Nazi highest medal Nazi Germany could had rendered millions unemployed. industry with numerous transfers bestow on a foreigner. General Newsreels of massive and violent of their domestic US technology. Motors and Ford controlled 70 riots in many US cities can be Bendix Aviation, in which the J.P. percent of the German car market seen on YouTube at ‘Riots Across Morgan-controlled General Motors at the outbreak of war in 1939 America – The Great Depression.’ firm had a major stock interest, and rapidly retooled themselves to Below is an excerpt from British supplied Siemens & Halske A. G. become suppliers of war materiel American scholar Anthony B. in Germany with data on automatic to the German army. American Sutton’s Wall Street and the Rise of pilots and aircraft instruments. . . . managers of both GM and Ford Hitler (Anthony Sutton was research In brief, American companies went along with the conversion fellow at Stanford University’s associated with the Morgan- of their German plants to military Hoover Institution from 1968 to Rockefeller international investment production at a time when US 1973): bankers . . . were intimately related government documents show they The contribution made by to the growth of Nazi industry. It is were still resisting calls by the American capitalism to German war important to note . . . that General Roosevelt administration to step up preparations before 1940 can only Motors, Ford, General Electric, military production in their plants be described as phenomenal. It was DuPont and the handful of US at home.[Ibid.] In 1998, it came out certainly crucial to German military companies intimately involved with that the Third Reich was providing capabilities. For instance, in 1934 the development of Nazi Germany Ford’s factory in Cologne with 1,200 Germany produced domestically were—except for the Ford Motor Russian slaves.[Simon English, only 300,000 tons of natural Company—controlled by the Wall “Ford ‘used slave labour’ in Nazi petroleum products and less than Street elite—the J.P. Morgan firm, German plants”, The Telegraph, 800,000 tons of synthetic gasoline. the Rockefeller Chase Bank and to a November 3, 2003.] Yet, ten years later in World War lesser extent the Warburg Manhattan In 1941, Alcoa had a monopoly II, after transfer of the Standard Bank. on aluminum in addition to owning JANATA, June 23, 2019 17 a massive amount of America’s one hundred Parisian Jews. After the war, I.T.T. and General electricity production and other How Allied multinationals Motors both received millions of minerals. It sent so much of its supplied Nazi Germany even during dollars in compensation for the aluminum product over to Germany World War II is detailed in Trading damage to their factories in Germany that when the US involvement in With the Enemy: An Expose of The from Allied bombing. the war began, there was a massive Nazi-American Money-Plot 1933– Standard Oil shipped enemy fuel aluminum production shortage in 1949 by Charles Higham, Delacorte through Switzerland for the Nazi America. Alcoa essentially sold the Press, New York, 1983. Charles occupation forces in France. On Axis powers much of the material Higham is the son of a former UK September 22,1947, Judge Charles to build their war machines. [Glen MP and Cabinet member. Here is an Clark delivered the final word on Yeadon and John Hawkins, The excerpt from the cover blurb: the subject. He said, “Standard Oil Nazi Hydra in America: Suppressed Behind the patriotic propaganda can be considered an enemy national History of a Century, Progressive that encouraged the working class in view of its relationships with I.G. Press, 2008.] to slaughter each other, war means Farben—after the United States During the early 1930s, Fritz business as usual for international and Germany had become active Thyssen ran a business that he used capital. Higham starts with an enemies.” The appeal was denied. to help finance Adolf Hitler’s rise to account of the Bank for International [“The Treason Of Rockefeller power. Brown Brothers Harriman Settlements in Basel, Switzerland—a Standard Oil During World War II”, was a subsidiary company that Nazi-controlled bank presided The American Chronicle, February he used as a base of American over by an American, Thomas H. 4, 2012.] operations. Prescott Bush, father McKittrick, even in 1944. While The bottom line is that, while of Ex-President George Bush and Americans were dying in the war, British and US soldiers were dying grandfather of Ex-President George McKittrick sat down with his at the hands of the Nazi war machine, W. Bush, was on the board of German, Japanese, Italian, British and Jews were being exterminated in directors for BBH and his business and American executive staff to tens of thousands, British and US dealings continued until his discuss the gold bars that had been companies which had invested in company’s assets were seized by sent to the Bank earlier that year post-WW I Germany continued to the federal government in 1942 by the Nazi government for use by sympathise and trade with the Nazi under the Trading with the Enemy its leaders after the war. This was regime. The bombs that levelled so Act. [Edwin Black, Nazi Nexus: gold that had been looted from many British cities and killed so America’s Corporate Connections the banks of Austria, Belgium, and many women and children may well to Hitler’s Holocaust, Dialog Press, Czechoslovakia or melted down have been manufactured in Germany, 2009.] from teeth fillings, eyeglass frames, but it was largely British and US Dow Chemical was one of the and wedding rings of millions of money that provided Hitler with the companies that provided an insane murdered Jews. parts, and the fuel to dispatch them amount of material to the Nazis, But that is only one of the cases to allied targets. [Rodney Atkinson, including not only raw materials detailed in this book. We have Europe's Full Circle, Compuprint but also American technological Standard Oil shipping enemy fuel Publishing, 1996.] Both at the innovations in regards to oil refinery. through Switzerland for the Nazi Normandy landing and in Russia, The Chase Manhattan Bank’s occupation forces in France; Ford many Nazi tanks had GM motors and form of colluding with the Reich was trucks transporting German troops; downed German planes were found particularly heinous. It functioned as I.T.T. helping supply the rocket to have GE engines. the bank for foreign transactions for bombs that marauded much of That the Second World War fascist Vichy France, and because London ; and I.T.T. building the was a ‘good war,’ a fight against a Carlos Niedermann, Chase’s Focke-Wulfs that dropped those madman who had brought it about, representative in Paris, had very bombs. Long and shocking is the list has been a major and fundamental good personal relations with the of diplomats and businessmen alike deception spread by Wall Street Nazis, he agreed to their request that who had their own ways of profiting owned media and movies. the bank seize the assets of at least from the war. So pervasively universal is the 18 JANATA, June 23, 2019 deception that even the outcry of of whom declared war on the USA far outpaced that in any other the German Counsel for the Defense immediately after Japan’s attack on European country . . . The industrial while summing up his deposition at Pearl Harbor. The Second World rearmament of Germany (despite the the Nuremberg trial, which can be War and the Holocaust, which made strictures of the Versailles Treaty heard in the blockbuster American America the biggest power in the signed at the end of World War One, movie Judgement at Nuremberg, world, is estimated to have taken the which were ignored) was indeed has been largely ignored, “Where is lives of 60 to 70 million men, women facilitated by the American and the responsibility of those American and children. Within this total were British capitalist ruling classes. industrialists, who helped Hitler to 28 million citizens of the Soviet When Hitler annexed Austria and rebuild his armaments and profited Union, which had been the target the Czech Sudetenland in 1938, it by that rebuilding?!! Are we not goal for the rearming of Germany was ignored. This was not out of to find the American industrialists by a consensus of the wealthiest complacent appeasement, as widely guilty?” American and European capitalists. believed, but rather out of a far Edwin Black, in his book A further plus for Wall Street was more active, albeit secretive, policy IBM and the Holocaust raises the that half the cities of its archenemy, of collusion. British Conservative important question as to whether the USSR, lay in ruins. leader Neville Chamberlain and his Hitler’s extermination of the Jews Finian Cunningham’s has ruling cohort were intent on giving would have taken place on such written an excellent article detailing Nazi Germany a “free hand” for a huge scale without the harvest the great deception manufactured by eastward expansionism. of deadly information recorded the media about WW II. He writes The real target for the Western by the Hollerith machines, European fascism headed sponsors of the Nazi war machine on IBM punch cards. In 1933, up by Nazi Germany, along with was an attack on the Soviet Union International Business Machines Mussolini in Italy, Franco in in order to destroy, in their view, the began providing Germany with Spain and Salazar in Portugal, source of international revolutionary punchcard machines that functioned was not some aberrant force that socialism. In the 1930s, the very as precursors to modern computers sprang from nowhere during the existence of capitalism was and databases. Documents have 1920s–1930s. The movement was a teetering on the edge amid the since been uncovered that show that deliberate cultivation by the rulers Great Depression, massive poverty as late as 1941, IBM was working in of Anglo-American capitalism. and seething popular discontent in tandem with the Reich to liquidate European fascism may have been the US, Britain and other Western Jews in Holland. IBM employees labeled “national socialism” but countries. The entire Western were training SS personnel how its root ideology was very much capitalist order was under imminent to use their machines to record one opposed to overturning the threat from its own masses. This the movement, sorting, and mass fundamental capitalist order. It was is the historical context for the execution of people, at times right an authoritarian drive to safeguard Western-backed rise of European in the headquarters of death camps. the capitalist order, which viewed fascism. [Jack Beatty, “Hitler’s Willing genuine worker-based socialism as Look at some of the undisputed Business Partners”, The Atlantic, an enemy to be ruthlessly crushed. figures from the Second World War. April, 2001.] This is what made European . . . Some 14 million Red Army The rearming of Germany made fascism so appealing to the Western soldiers died in the eventual defeat of possible Hitler’s invasions of twenty- capitalist ruling class in those times. Nazi Germany, compared with less two countries and brought world war In particular, Nazi Germany was than 400,000 military each from the to Asia, for Japan would not have viewed by the Western elite as a US and Britain. These figures tell us dared to attack and declare war on bulwark against possible socialist where the Nazi German war effort the United States of America without revolution inspired by the Russian was primarily directed towards— it being able to count on an alliance revolution of 1917. the Soviet Union, as the Western with an awesomely rearmed Nazi It is no coincidence that imperialist rulers had hoped in their Germany, along with Italy, Romania, American capital investment in initial sponsoring of Nazi and other Hungary, Bulgaria and Albania, all Nazi Germany between 1929–1940 European fascist regimes during JANATA, June 23, 2019 19 the 1930s. [Finian Cunningham, Nazi Germany, Stalin derailed for All of Humanity to Tolerate “World War II Continues… Against the moment the West’s plan to have Profitable Genocide Ad Infinitum! Russia”, PressTV, May 13, 2014.] Hitler invade the USSR. This gained Why did Soviet leaders and the Soviet Union the time to build (Jay Janson is an archival writers, even when the West was the tanks that would later defeat the research peoples historian activist, spreading lies about the Soviet Nazi invasion. musician and writer, presently Union during the Cold War, not hold Recently, in 2014, the residing in New York.) the West responsible for WW II by Russian President Vladimir Putin having rearmed Germany, with the in a comment on the Molotov– declared intention of the destruction Ribbentrop pact in 2014 put the of the USSR? This has been a blame for the Nazi-USSR pact on mystery to this peoples historian. All the 1938 Munich Agreement, in the investments and joint venturing which France and Britain appeased of US (and European) corporations Adolf Hitler by acquiescing to his in building up Hitler’s Wehrmacht occupation of Czechoslovakia's to the world’s number one military Sudetenland. in only six years are documented in The arming of Nazi Germany both business records and tax records for an attack on the Soviet Union of US, Germany and other nations was a continuance of the colonial and are in great part available on the powers policy of total destruction Internet with quite comprehensive of the Soviet Russia since it’s statistics, a modest amount of which inception. In 1917, after suffering are presented in this essay. more deaths than the other empires The only plausible answer for in a colonial powered First World this is the shame for the Molotov– War, the Russians had overthrown Ribbentrop pact between the Soviet their Tsar and their capitalists, and Union and Nazi Germany. However, had declared a socialist government. given the fact that the Western Almost immediately, fourteen armies powers were openly arming Nazi of twelve capitalist nations, many of Germany so to make it a “bulwark them former WW I allies of Russia, against communist Soviet Union,” invaded Russia in a bid to overthrow and had refused all entreaties of the the revolutionary regime. The US Soviets to form a protective alliance sent two armies, one to Murmansk, in the face of Hitler’s ever increasing the other to Vladivostok. Their power and belligerence, Stalin’s attempt failed, but the war took the signing of a non-aggression pact lives of millions. with Germany was probably a last The Western corporate arming resort defense of Russia. of Hitler was in all probability the In his book, Mission to Moscow, continuation of the destructive (later made into a film too), Joseph efforts of the US and other colonial Davies, the US ambassador to Russia powers since 1919 to strangulate from 1936 to 1938, chronicles the the Soviet Union. (Churchill had desperation of the Russians in 1937 declared that Bolshevism must be for not being able to get England “strangled in its cradle.”) and France to agree to a defensive alliance. They were fully aware That the Second World War Was that the rearming of Germany was A ‘Good War,’ ‘Good’ Triumphing directed at the Soviet Union. By the Over ‘Evil,’ has been a Gargantuan surprise non-aggression pact with Deception, Ominously Conditioning R.N.I. NO. 1855/1957 20 JANATA, June 23, 2019 Postal Registration No. MCW/275/2018-2020. License to Post without prepayment WPP License No. MR/Tech/WPP-210/West/2019 Published on Sunday, June 23, 2019 & Posted on Wedenesday, June 26, 2019 at Mumbai Patrika Channel, Mumbai GPO-1

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Vol. 74 No. 23 To Sanjiv Bhatt, a Man Who Displayed the June 30, 2019 Highest Courage The Crisis of Nationalism K Satchidanandan Harsh Mander How RSS Betrayed the Anti-Emergency Struggle Dear Sanjiv, district sessions court sentencing Shamsul Islam I don’t know whether you will you to 30 years in prison would We Parched the Country to get to read this letter, and if so have come as a very hard blow. Quench the City, and Chennai Still Cries for Help when. Possibly your indomitable However, I know that you are a very Nityanand Jayaraman life partner Shweta Bhatt will carry brave and determined fighter. You $21 Trillion Hoard Hidden from a copy to you when she goes next to will continue to fight for justice, to Taxman by Global Elite meet you in prison. But she has, at struggle unflaggingly to prove your Heather Stewart this moment, so much to fight and innocence, to one day walk free. The Hybrid War Against Iran cope with, she may well forget the I want you to know, in your Vijay Prashad trivial matter of this letter. solitary moments in the isolation Permafrost Collapses 70 Years Early If you do get this letter ultimately, of your stifling and gruelling Robert Hunziker I grieve as I imagine you reading it in prison cell, that there are a great The Global Rise of Fascism: the loneliness of your severe prison many people in India, and around Capitalism End Game? barrack somewhere in the district the world, who are with you, in Gilbert Mercier of Jamnagar. I have seen the inside solidarity, as you fight your life’s Remembering Che Guevara of many prisons in India’s districts hardest battle. We believe in your James D. Cockcroft during my years in the civil service. innocence, and know that you are Editor : G. G. Parikh I can therefore imagine how hard it being victimised only because you Associate Editor : Neeraj Jain would be for you, each day merging had the singular courage to testify with the monotony of the next, against the most powerful man in Managing Editor : Guddi sleeping maybe on a hard floor, using the country, because you sought Editorial Board : a smelly common toilet, with little to establish his guilt in one of the protection from the hot summer sun, most cruel and brutal massacres that B. Vivekanandan, Qurban Ali and from flies and mosquitoes. independent India has seen, in 2002. Anil Nauriya, Sonal Shah You have already spent the last That what you are undergoing Amarendra Dhaneshwar, nine months in prison. But however is transparently the consequences Sandeep Pandey arduous this would have been, you of the extreme hubris of both him D-15, Ganesh Prasad, would still have had held on to the and the second most powerful man Naushir Bharucha Marg, hope that some court—the district in the country today, and of the Mumbai - 400 007. sessions court, or at least India’s brazen abuse of state power for petty highest courts, in Ahmedabad or revenge against a courageous and Email : [email protected] Delhi—would secure justice for you. undaunted whistle-blower. I cannot Website:www.janataweekly.org Instead, the order of the Jamnagar recall any comparable case of a 2 JANATA, June 30, 2019 whistle-blower in India—of a senior to defend yourself. As I had observed and failure to fulfil his constitutional official who dared to raise his voice then, I have known IAS officers duty. against the person occupying highest who proceeded on unauthorised Your dismissal from service was office—who was punished in the absence sometimes for years, taking as shocking as it was unprecedented. way that you have been, sentenced employment overseas or with private But we thought then that they had to spend the next three decades of companies, but most escape any done their worst by you. We did not your life in jail. punishment, let alone dismissal, for anticipate that much worse was to The fact that you could be years. follow, and that the powers that be punished in this way holds a mirror Even if it is accepted that your would not rest until their revenge first to the craven collapse of the leave was unauthorised, something was complete by ensuring that you integrity and independence of India’s that you contested, ‘a rap on the spend the rest of your life in jail. institutions of criminal justice— knuckles with a written warning Your punishment is a reflection of investigating agencies, the courts or letter of displeasure, and leave how formidable and threatening you and official human rights agencies. without pay for the period of are as a witness in one of independent That you were let down in the end absence, would seem a reasonable India’s most important cases of by your brothers and sisters in khaki and proportionate penalty for the criminal command accountability uniform must hurt enormously, as alleged misdemeanour,’ as I had for communal massacre. Of how would their silence after your life- written then. dangerous was the evidence which sentence. The mystery of why the you brought forth. Of how important The absence of any significant highest powers of the land were so it was to give a message not just to outrage in the media reflects the determined that you be dismissed you but to anyone else in the country extent to which it is willing to from service is easily resolved by who dares to cross swords with the watch the open and wanton misuse the way that you had used those days most powerful in the land: if this can of state power without indignation of ‘unauthorised leave’. You had be the fate of a senior police officer, or protest. daringly, as a serving police officer then what can happen to an ordinary The collapse of state institutions, of the Gujarat cadre of the Indian citizen? even of constitutional bodies Police Service, testified against the There were other police officers like the Union Public Services country’s prime minister, Narendra who were present in the highly Commission (UPSC) have also been Modi, charging him with criminal disputed meeting presided over by on disgraceful display in your case. complicity in mass murder. Modi late on the night of February I had written in Scroll.in about my You had done this before 27, 2002. But they all claim that disappointment at the pusillanimous the Special Investigation Team they do not remember being at silence of the UPSC (set up under of the Supreme Court, and Raju the meeting, or that they do not Article 315 of the Constitution to Ramachandran, the amicus curiae remember that Modi gave the safeguard the independence of the of the Supreme Court (and later instructions which you claim he did, civil services) when in 2015 you filed this as a written statement on or that you were not even present at were dismissed from service, with an affidavit to the Supreme Court). the meeting. But your driver and a the concurrence of the UPSC, for The Special Investigation Team of BBC correspondent who was present the relatively minor misdemeanour the Supreme Court and the amicus with you when you set off to attend of a few days of unauthorised leave curiae were investigating charges by this meeting confirm that you did of absence. Zakia Jafri, widow of the former MP attend this meeting. Dismissal is the gravest Ehsan Jafri. Ehsan Jafri was brutally You knew well that your claim administrative punishment that an killed with around 70 other people at about what chief minister Modi had officer can be dealt with, reserved the Gulbarg Society of Ahmedabad, instructed senior officers to do after in the rarest of cases only for the in 2002. His widow Zakia Jafri had this meeting was utterly explosive. most serious offences by public claimed that the then chief minister, You still chose to speak out. To officials. Yet the UPSC passed Narendra Modi, was the first accused say and do what you did called upon orders dismissing you from service, for a “deliberate and intentional you to summon the highest courage. without even giving you the chance failure” to protect life and property, You said to the SIT and the Supreme JANATA, June 30, 2019 3

Court that Modi had “expressed the have been tested in a court of law. death of a man nine days after being view that the emotions were running Had his advice been accepted, the released from custody 30 years ago. very high amongst the Hindus and it history of India may have been It will not in any way reduce was imperative that they be allowed different, as also your own destiny. your trials and suffering inside to vent their anger”. This rage of It is unlikely to be a coincidence prison to know that there are many Hindus—which Modi said in his that the officer heading the SIT people in India who admire you for public statements at that time was was later to be rewarded—when your sterling courage in raising the a justified reaction—was because Modi was prime minister—with the gravest criminal charges against 58 people, including women and unusual and prestigious posting of one of the most powerful leaders children returning from Ayodhya a police officer as an ambassador that independent India has seen, where they had gone to contribute after his retirement. You, on the other and one known not to forgive. I to the building of a Ram temple, had hand, face nearly a lifetime in prison. know, as you do, and as Shweta and burned alive in a train compartment There was reason enough for your children know, that the battle in Godhra. India’s most powerful men today to for justice which lies ahead of you You also charged that chief hold a deep grudge against you. But will be very protracted, uncertain, minister Modi “impressed upon India’s institutions should not have replete with many disappointments the gathering that for too long the been so feeble to allow what appears and heartbreaks. Gujarat Police had been following to me to be an act of petty vengeance But I know also that you have the principle of balancing the actions and misuse of state power to unfold the strength and the resilience to hold of Hindus and Muslims while dealing the way it has. out, to endure, to continue to fight, with the communal riots in Gujarat. When I speak out today in to stay firm with what you believe This time the situation warranted your support, there are some who to be true and just. And I know that that the Muslims be taught a lesson challenge me, asking how I can one day, one day surely, you will to ensure that such incidents do not defend you when a court has found walk free. With Shweta and your recur.” Your accusations, if accepted, you guilty of custodial torture children, and with large numbers of would have resulted in serious leading to the death of a man in our countrywomen and men, I wait criminal charges against Modi, and custody. for that day. would also have come in the way In all my years in the civil of his rise to the country’s highest service and outside it, I have been (Harsh Mander is a social worker political office. a resolute opponent of custodial and writer.) Your colleagues in the SIT— violence and extra-judicial killings. fellow police officers—rejected However—as a report in the Times outright your allegations, dubbing of India confirms, based on data Janata Subscription you an unreliable witness and from the National Crime Records claiming that you were not even Bureau—180 custodial deaths took Annual Rs. : 260/- present at the meeting. Raju place in Gujarat between 2001 Three Years : 750/- Ramachandran, the Supreme Court’s and 2016, but not a single police amicus curiae, significantly did not personnel has been punished for Demand Draft / Cheque agree with the conclusions of the SIT any of these deaths. I cannot then on Mumbai Bank dismissing your charges out of hand. be convinced that the action against Ramachandran was convinced that you is fair in any way. in favour of the question of whether you were Had all or many of these indeed present in the meeting needed custodial deaths been investigated Janata Trust to be tested in court because the SIT and many police officers been D-15, Ganesh Prasad, itself held the evidence of those punished for these murders, I would present in the meeting unreliable, have supported the action that has Naushir Bharucha Marg, and therefore there was insufficient been taken against you as just. But Grant Road (W), evidence to outright discount your not when only you and another Mumbai 400 007. claims. He felt that your word should officer have been punished for the 4 JANATA, June 30, 2019 The Crisis of Nationalism

K Satchidanandan

The last sun of the century sets diversity of perspective as well as strike populist and anti-elite poses amidst the blood-red colours of the agency of any kind. It claims to even as the State is colonised in West represent “the people” but promotes pursuit of upper class objectives. and the whirlwind of hatred. rank discrimination, articulating it These are precisely the symptoms The naked passion of self-love of violently with a distorted history, of what Umberto Eco calls “ur- Nations, in its drunken delirium of the glorification of death as Fascism” (universal Fascism) in greed martyrdom and the simultaneous his Five Moral Pieces, and they is dancing to the clash of steel and legitimation of killing those who do also bear a close resemblance to the howling verses of vengeance. not subscribe to such views. This is the definitions and explanations a nationalism suspicious of artists of authoritarian populism by Rabindranath Tagore, and intellectuals, which suppresses modern political thinkers and social The Sunset of the Century all opposition, and faults democracy psychologists like Wilhelm Reich, as an inconvenience in the path of Jan-Werner Muller, Hannah Arendt, The forebodings voiced more “development”. What it styles as Talcott Parsons, Timothy Snyder and than a century ago by the composer development reflects the interests others. of our national anthem are being of a miniscule minority of the When Rabindranath Tagore was realised today. Nationalism in our affluent and the powerful. Together, writing his essays on Nationalism— country increasingly reflects the these concepts of nationalism and first put together in the second insular, exclusivist, oligarchic, pro- development prompt violence decade of the twentieth century corporate, upper caste, masculinist against labour and the environment, (Nationalism, New York, 1917)—he and jingoist character of our right- the dilution of existing laws and might not have imagined that by the wing government. It is a nationalism protections, the surveillance of end of the twentieth century several of rapacious greed, of chauvinistic every citizen using all available thinkers across the world were going hatred of minorities and vulnerable technologies, the equation of peace, to echo his critique of the nationalist sections of society. Its culture of negotiation and compromise with ideology, mostly without having violence and suppression of human surrender. Myths and archetypes are read him. Though one may find freedom and basic rights throttles harnessed for propaganda, legends the rudiments of such a critique in the very idea of India propounded by and epics presented as objective thinkers and conscientious objectors our Constitution— as a sovereign, history. The ruling class assumes like Bertrand Russell, Aldous Huxley secular, socialist and democratic the part of a self-evidently superior or Jean-Paul Sartre, Nationalism republic. This nationalism has people and claims descent from the entered modern theoretical discourse eviscerated, one by one, all the earliest inhabitants of the country. in a major way only with Benedict three estates of democratic polity, Its fear of difference and diversity Anderson’s acknowledged classic legislative, executive and judicial; and its contempt for all sorts of Imagined Communities (1983), that as also the media, reckoned to cultural and intellectual pluralism was soon followed by a series of be the fourth estate with its key are legitimated at every turn. treatises on the subject by Ernest role in creating and controlling Everything appears as black and Gellner (Nations and Nationalism, public opinion. We move ever white, leaving no area to subtleties, 1983), Miroslav Hroch (Social closer to the old Nazi ideal with nuances and alternative readings. Preconditions of National Revival its exclusivist definition of the What’s more, the rulers portray in Europe, 1985), Anthony Smith nation, the creation of an “other” themselves as victims while being (The Ethnic Origins of Nations, held responsible for all national in power, so that all dissent gets 1986), Partha Chatterjee (Nationalist ills, the worship of an artificially cast as the work of conspirators and Thought and the Colonial World, constructed tradition. This idea treats seditionists. This way, it becomes 1986) and Eric Hobsbawm (Nations people as a monolith, denying them possible for the government to and Nationalism since 1788, 1990), JANATA, June 30, 2019 5 not to mention innumerable articles museums and a whole paraphernalia oversight. It follows you everywhere, in journals and writings in languages of national emblems like flags, birds knows everything you do, from what other than English. and animals, why, even national you eat to what you say, read, view Benedict Anderson’s book had zoos, parks and gardens. Add to this or even think. A useful concept here defined the nation as an imagined a law against “sedition” that can be is Antonio Gramsci’s “articulation of community. It is “imagined” because used at will to label anyone a terrorist consent”, whereby the ideological its members can, even without or a traitor—and their control over machinery of the State manufactures knowing most of their fellow- the populace is complete. a voluntary-appearing agreement members, conjure up the image In “Nationalism in the West”, to its schemes, using education, of their communion. In Ernest the first in a series of lectures Tagore the State-run press and the whole Gellner’s words, “Nationalism delivered in Japan in 1916, he states Goebbelsian State propaganda is not the awakening of nations his position without much ambiguity: machine. To quote Tagore, people to self-consciousness; it invents “Neither the colourless vagueness are “hypnotised into believing that nations where they do not exist.” of cosmopolitanism, nor the fierce they are free” and they begin to think (Thought and Change, London, self-idolatry of nation-worship is that bartering the higher aspirations 1964, p.169). To him, as in Tagore, the goal of human history.” He of life for profit and power has been the nation is a more rigid fabrication also defines the nation in clear their free choice; the State perfects than something simply imagined terms: “A nation, in the sense of the their instincts of self-aggrandisement into being. The nation, Anderson political and economic union of the and makes them believe this is good. would say, is limited as it has finite people, is that aspect which a whole Look at the way the poor people boundaries demarcating it from other population assumes when organised queued up obediently to exchange nations; it is sovereign as nations for a mechanical purpose.” Tagore their currency when the old currency like to imagine themselves to be free, recognises the problem of races as was declared invalid one midnight, the sovereign state being the gauge the most menacing of the issues recharging the national coffers in and emblem of this freedom; and it faced by India, making our history the interests of crony capitalism is a community as it glosses over a continual social adjustment. Social and a ruling party that serves the its inequalities and is conceived as regulation of differences with a corporates rather than the common a deep and horizontal comradeship spiritual recognition of unity has people. Or the way they did so to for which you can kill or die. The been the twin strategy for her to cope get Aadhar cards made, so that the roots of the nation are cultural and with her ethnic multiplicity. Tagore authorities might gain fuller control the idea of the nation is close to is sharply critical of the rigidity over their lives and movements. Or the religious community and the of social stratification in India and the way they listen raptly, at times dynastic realm as most nations have the crippling minds that results under compulsion, to the hollow their own epics/sacred texts and from insular world views and the rhetoric of the “tea-seller” full of “national” literatures, constitutions, perpetuation of hierarchies. promises he never means to keep. hierarchised bureaucracies, One metaphor that Tagore Or the way people devour the fake anonymous linkages, national employs in his delineation of news churned out every moment by anthems that substitute prayers, nationalism seems especially the “news-breakers” (now proved national censuses, celebrations, relevant to the Indian situation “news-brokers”) who are paid to parades and charades, martyrs, today: the nation as a monster full make and unmake people and events. genealogies and selective chronicles of watching eyes. No one can escape Or the way manufactured WhatsApp that prescribe what to remember and the suffocation of its tightening grip. messages circulate and “go viral”, what to forget. Alongside this exist People live in a perpetual distrust. justifying every atrocity perpetrated national newspapers and a whole Today the state does not need prisons by gaurakshaks against the minorities print–capitalist system and corporate as it can turn the whole country into who are dubbed “haramzade” and media that helps propagate ideas a prison. From the Aadhar card to “beef-eaters”, or by the “sanatanis” across the nation. Then, there are keeping a watch over social media, against rationalists, Gandhians, defined borders, maps considered the authoritarian nationalism in journalists, questioners and true sacred with any deviation treated practice today exempts no area of the spiritualists—from Govind Pansare as treason, calendars, memorials, citizen’s life from its knowledge and and Narendra Dabholkar to Gauri 6 JANATA, June 30, 2019

Lankesh and M.M. Kalburgi—or fight insular and hate-mongering of the nationalist imagination. The by the upper castes against slaving organisations, resisting the markets colligation of nationalism with the dalits who are lynched regularly, and cannons with the ideal of ethical abstract structure of the state, as and the starving adivasis from freedom, the sacredness of law, Hannah Arendt perceptively states, Uttar Pradesh to Kerala; or the the liberty of conscience, thought, was a happening with a limited frequent threats to drive to Pakistan expression and action, the higher history and a limited future; sadly or silence independent artists, obligations of public good above this twinning has worked against journalists and writers from Girish narrower considerations, values the principle of redistributive justice. Karnad and Perumal Murugan to that had helped create civilisation So we need to train our imagination Nandita Das, Mallika Sarabhai, but which now face the crisis of to take the nation out of nation- Anand Patwardhan, Ravish Kumar, commercialism, careerism and state. Mere nationalism that ignores Naseeruddin Shah, Aamir Khan, competition. The main problem redistributive justice can lead us Shahrukh Khan, Kamal, MT in India, he says in his talk in the astray. Vasudevan Nair, to name just a few. US (“Nationalism in India”) in Tagore’s refusal—as was true of Or the way concocted stories are 1917, is the hierarchisation of her Tolstoy, Thoreau and Gandhi—to willingly swallowed, whether about society on the basis of race/caste use rigid intellectual frames and incidents like the inhuman rape and and a blind faith in the authority theoretical jargon may be seen as a murder in Kathua or the killing of traditions. In an attempt to form of revolt against the violence of Junaid or the disappearance of provide an order to society, India often implied by adherence to Najeeb. Or the meek acceptance of denied many the opportunity of technicalities. Tagore’s writings changes of leadership and objectives movement and expansion. We are clearly indicate that he would not in institutions from FTII, ICHR, also trained to think this system of have accepted the jingoist, insular ICPR, ICSSR, NBT and Teen discrimination is eternal. Tagore and violent Hindu nationalism, Murti to IITs and universities like points out that Indians cannot build whose growth began with the JNU, DU, BHU and HCU; or the a political miracle of freedom upon colonial orientalist idea of a unified discriminatory attitude to refugees the quicksand of social slavery: Hinduism proposed by Madan including the homeless Rohingya a truth that B.R. Ambedkar, who Mohan Malaviya, Lala Lajpat Muslims. These unprecedented advocated the annihilation of caste, Rai and others who established assaults fail to generate any realised more than any other Indian the Hindu Mahasabha in 1914, proportionate reaction or resistance leader. In a response to the letters the extremist turn it then took from the affected sections, or from carried by The Modern Review under V.D. Savarkar and with the watchdog bodies, or society at large. of Calcutta in May, 1921, Tagore establishment of the RSS in 1925 by Every step to murder democracy points to the need to liberate man K.B. Hedgevar. The RSS branched is praised by appointed trolls as a from the organisations of “national and developed this phenomenon like progressive measure for the country’s egoism” which he later in the article a national cancer, with the founding “development”. And the reach of the qualifies as “racial egoism”. He of the Bharatiya Jana Sangh by free-thinking intellectuals and of the considers true India an ideal and not Shyama Prasad Mukherjee in 1951, few oppositional and truth-speaking “a mere geographical map”. “The and of the Bharatiya Janata Party journals, mostly online, is extremely idea of India is against the intense in 1980. Its gradual ascendancy limited. This is neither to deny consciousness of the separateness of to power in the following years agency to the common people nor one’s own people from others, and came about through its divisive ignore the fast-growing pockets of which inevitably leads to ceaseless strategies, aggressive propaganda resistance but only to demonstrate conflicts.” (“Tagore’s Reflections on and violent methods. Gandhi too how the mechanism to generate Non-cooperation and Cooperation”, had declared in his newspaper “consent” and shape “common The Mahatma and the Poet, ed. Young India: “Patriotism for me sense” far outsmarts the counter- Sabyasachi Bhattacharya, Delhi, is the same as humanity” (1921), machinery representing the interests 1997.) “it is the narrowness, selfishness of the people and attempting to speak Let us recall what Eric Hobsbawm and exclusiveness which is the truth to power. said: nations do not exist before bane of modern nations, which is Tagore points to the need to nationalism. They are an invention evil” (1925) and again, “through JANATA, June 30, 2019 7 the realisation of freedom of India, majoritarian communalism is to rights organisations, and utilising I hope to realise and carry on the develop a genuine democratic democratic institutions, platforms mission of brotherhood of men” counter-nationalism based on the and legal rights from the right to vote (1929). It can also be inferred from principles of equity and justice. This to the right to information. Intrinsic Tagore’s novels like Gora and will involve an objective study of to this is resistance to any form of Ghaire-Baire that he foresaw the rise history, faith in genuine democracy, suppression of rights or the misuse of Hindu Nationalism as a violent the defence of all independent public of constitutional provisions, such middle class phenomenon, declaring institutions, and ceaseless criticism as in an unjustified declaration of Muslims as its other. of authoritarian tendencies whatever national emergency. A democratic One may well distinguish secular their source. It will mean setting counter-nationalism must defend the mainstream nationalism from the a premium on professional ethics principle of federalism by opposing identitarianism of Hindutva, for by all, from doctors, scientists and any attempt at over-centralisation. they are not coterminous. But it historians to legislators and jurors, Being genuinely patriotic must be would be dangerous to ignore developing a democratic critique understood as opposition to all that is the continuities between them, of the media and of oppressive negative in our heritage, everything especially on the question of national social institutions like caste and that impedes speaking and working identity, which also spills over to patriarchy, as well as caution against for the underprivileged. Doing a Hindu diaspora desperately in paramilitary organisations that all this while steering clear of an search of a lost identity. Today, become the breeding ground of exclusivist and insular nationalist this “Indian” identity has become fascism. The emphasis must be on ideology is paramount. a trademark and an advertising facts rather than empty rhetoric, strategy in the global corporate on getting out of comfort-zones (K. Satchidanandan is a widely market. Whereas colonialism and and addressing the unfamiliar, translated Malayalam poet and race theory had incited the zero-sum upholding religious amity, a bilingual writer, translator and game of conflicting identities earlier, supporting civil society and human editor.) today it is neo-liberal strategies that have normalised competition as the very structuring principle How RSS Betrayed the of existence. Anyone following the media can affirm this: success, Anti-Emergency Struggle not happiness, is the keyword and money seems to have become the Shamsul Islam central quest in life for the already rich as well as the aspiring middle National Emergency was Emergency promulgated by Indira classes in general. The paradox of imposed on the country by then Gandhi heroically and suffered our times is that nations have lost Prime Minister Indira Gandhi on immensely for this resistance. But their sovereignty not to burgeoning June 25-26, 1975, and it lasted for there are dozens of contemporary international collaboration but to 19 months. This period is considered narratives which dispute and decry globalised capitalism. It has brought as ”dark times’ for Indian democratic this claim of the RSS. We will be every nation to heel, subservient polity. Indira Gandhi claimed that referring here to such two narratives to its interests of profit through Jaiprakash Narayan’s call to the by a veteran thinker and journalist exploitation. This is the real armed forces to disobey the ‘illegal’ of India, Prabhash Joshi and T.V. theatre of action, but its instigators orders of Congress rulers had created Rajeswar, former Intelligence make believe that the conflict lies a situation of anarchy and there was Bureau [IB] chief who was the elsewhere, between communities danger to the existence of Indian deputy chief of IB when Emergency vying for scarce resources, Republic, so there was no alternative was imposed. Interestingly, Shiv opportunities and power. The only way to confront but to impose Emergency under Sena, the Hindutva co-traveler this unholy alliance between article 352 of the Constitution. of the RSS, openly supported the corporate capitalism and aggressive RSS claims that it opposed Emergency. 8 JANATA, June 30, 2019

The narrative by Prabhash Joshi Sanjay. But Mrs. Gandhi refused.”[1] Bihar movement without any reason appeared in the article, “And Not In the same interview, Rajeswar . . . Sangh has no relation with these Even a Dog Barked” published in also shared the fact that even after movements . . .”[4] the English weekly Tehelka on the Emergency the “organisation Since Indira Gandhi did not 25th anniversary of the Emergency. (RSS) had specifically conveyed respond to this letter also, RSS According to him even during the its support to the Congress in the chief got hold of Vinoba Bhave who Emergency “there was always post-emergency elections.” It will be supported the Emergency religiously a lurking sense of suspicion, a interesting to note that according to and was a favourite of Indira Gandhi. distance, a discreet lack of trust” Subramanian Swamy also says that In a letter dated January 12, 1976, about the RSS joining the anti- most of the senior leaders of RSS he begged that the Acharya should Emergency struggle. He went on had betrayed the struggle against the suggest the way of getting the ban to say that “Balasaheb Deoras, then Emergency.[2] on RSS removed.[5] Since Vinoba RSS chief, wrote a letter to Indira The contemporary documents in Bhave too did not respond to his Gandhi pledging to help implement the RSS archives prove the narratives letter, Deoras in another undated the notorious 20-point programme of Prabhash Joshi and Rajeswar to be letter wrote in desperation, of Sanjay Gandhi. This is the real truthful. The 3rd Supremo of RSS, “According to press reports character of the RSS. . . . You can Madhukar Dattatraya Deoras wrote respected PM [Indira Gandhi] is decipher a line of action, a pattern. the first letter to Indira Gandhi within going to meet you at Pavnar Ashram Even during the Emergency, many two months of the imposition of on January 24. At that time there among the RSS and Jana Sangh Emergency. It was the time when will be discussion about the present who came out of the jails, gave state terror was running amok. In condition of the country. I beg you to mafinamas (apologies). They were letter dated, August 22, 1975 he try to remove the wrong assumptions the first to apologise. Only their began with the following praise of of PM about RSS so that ban on leaders remained in jail: Atal Behari Indira: RSS is lifted and RSS members are Vajpayee, LK Advani, even Arun “I heard your address to the released from jails. We are looking Jaitley. But the RSS did not fight the nation which you delivered on forward for the times when RSS and Emergency. So why is the BJP trying August 15, 1975 from Red Fort its members are able to contribute to appropriate that memory?” on radio in jail [Yervada jail] with to the plans of progress which are Prabhash Joshi’s conclusion attention. Your address was timely being run in all the fields under the was: “They are not a fighting force and balanced so I decided to write leadership of PM.”[6] and they are never keen to fight. to you”.[3] Despite this betrayal of the anti- They are basically a compromising Indira Gandhi did not respond to Emergency struggle, thousands of lot. They are never genuinely against it. So Deoras wrote another letter to RSS cadres continue to get monthly the government . . .” her on November 10, 1975. He began pension for persecution during TV Rajeswar, who served as his letter with congratulating her on Emergency. The BJP ruled states like Governor of Uttar Pradesh and being cleared by the Supreme Court Gujarat, Madhya Pradesh, Rajasthan Sikkim after his retirement from of disqualification ordered by the and Maharashtra decided to award service, in his book, India: The Allahabad High Court, “All the five a monthly pension of Rs 10,000 to Crucial Years [Harper Collins] Justices of the Supreme Court have those who were jailed during the corroborates the above account declared your election constitutional, Emergency period for more than a that the RSS was supportive of the heartiest greetings for it.” It is to be month and Rs 5,000 to those who emergency. In an interview with noted that the opposition was firmly were jailed for less than a month. Karan Thapar, Rajeswar discloses of the opinion that this judgment had This rule took care of the financial that Deoras “quietly established been ‘managed’ by the Congress. In interest of those RSS cadres who a link with the PM’s house and the course of the letter he declared might have submitted mercy letters expressed strong support for several that “RSS has been named in context completing only one or two months’ steps taken to enforce order and of Jaiprakash Narayan’s movement. jail term. discipline in the country. Deoras The government has also connected Interestingly, in the case of anti- was keen to meet Mrs. Gandhi and RSS with Gujarat movement and British freedom struggle, there is not JANATA, June 30, 2019 9 a single RSS cadre who has claimed We Parched the Country to Quench the City, the freedom fighter pension. Editor’s note: Prabhash Joshi and Chennai Still Cries for Help also writes in the above mentioned article: “Who were the main Nityanand Jayaraman actors during the Emergency? The socialists, young and old. Thirty-four year old G. This tank, since renamed the Red They fought it, went to jail, faced Manimaran is resentful when anyone Hills reservoir, was the first of many torture. George Fernandes was brings up the topic of Chennai’s centralised water projects. a protagonist of rebellion: the water crisis. In his analyses, water is As technology advanced, dynamite case is a clear example. JP not the problem, the city of Chennai local efforts to maintain local clearly said that this struggle is like is. Manimaran’s village, Padalam landscapes and the subsurface as an revisiting the 1942 movement: when in Kanchipuram district, is 75 km infrastructure for water declined— the freedom struggle’s leaders were from Chennai and located on the as did the people’s dependence arrested, the people of India rose in banks of the Palar, a river once on local water and relationship revolt; in dozen places people even famed for its deep sandy bed and to the land. Chennai swings from established their own government. rich groundwater resources. a flood one year to a water crisis The socialists fought the Emergency, Real estate tycoons mined the the next without realising that the RSS did not.” sand to fuel Chennai’s real estate the manner in which the city has [1] “RSS backed Indira Gandhi's boom, lowering groundwater levels abused water to grow is at the heart Emergency: Ex-IB chief”, in the region. Bottling units, cola of both problems. Capitalising September 21, 2015, https://www. companies and alcohol distilleries on the people’s disconnect with indiatoday.in. mined the water to supply rural and nature, governments and private [2] Kira_Stery, “Double Game of Senior urban consumers. “We live so close profiteers used disasters and crises RSS Leaders during Emergency”, to Palar, but even I have a water as opportunities to usher in socially April 9, 2017, https://medium.com. problem. The water in my tap is oppressive, big-budget and hare- [3] Madhukar Dattatraya Deoras, orange in colour, like Mirinda, and brained projects like desalination Hindu Sangathan aur Sattavaadi Rajneeti, Jagriti Prkashan, Noida, I am forced to pay 10 rupees for 20 and interlinking of rivers. 1997, p. 270. litres of drinking water,” Manimaran Like Padalam, [4] Ibid., pp. 272–73. says. Sulerikattukuppam, a fishing hamlet [5] Ibid., 275–77. Chennai’s growth has come at an hour’s drive from Chennai, [6] Ibid., p. 278. the cost of water and the spaces that is another “solution-impacted” nurture water. Between 1980 and community. Until 2011, the villagers (Shamsul Islam is a retired Professor 2010, the built-up area in Chennai had sweet water flowing out of of University of Delhi.) grew from 47 sq. km to 402 sq. km, their shallow hand-pumps. But even as wetlands declined from 186 that changed when officials began The Unemployment to 71.5 sq. km, according to one constructing a 100 million litres/day study by Care Earth, an NGO in (MLD) seawater desalination plant Crisis: Reasons and the city. to supply water to the IT corridor in Solutions the city’s south. All for growth Workers levelled the dunes that Contribution Rs. 25/- The city ran out of water more sustained the subsurface water. Published by than a century ago. In 1876, the To lay the foundation, they were Janata Trust & Lokayat British took over a small aeri (lake) instructed to run massive pumps D-15, Ganesh Prasad, in an agricultural town called Puzhal, 24 × 7 for months to pull out the Naushir Bharucha Marg, now at the northwestern edge of the freshwater that flowed from the metropolis. From its original 500 surrounding sands into the deep Grant Road (W), million cubic feet (mcft), its capacity foundation pits. Structures built Mumbai 400 007 was increased in steps to 3,300 mcft. into the sea for plant construction 10 JANATA, June 30, 2019 triggered sea erosion, which rapidly alleviation or national security— water reservoir in Poondi, 50 ate away the beach and brought will hasten our rendezvous with km from Chennai. In 1942, the the sea dangerously close to the doomsday unless it is designed to government built a dam at a fork fisherfolk’s homes. improve our natural environment. in the Kosasthalaiyar River, at the Water from the hand-pumps All future interventions must point where the Cooum river split turned saline, and the hyper-saline meaningfully increase the availability off as a distributary. The entire flow rejects that the water factory dumped of natural surface and ground water, of the Kosasthalaiyar was diverted to into the sea drove the fish away. enhance biodiversity, enrich local Poondi and from there to Chennai. Now, the fishermen have no fish and economies and fortify the land’s Between 1941 and 1951, no water. They rely on expensive ability to withstand the horrible, and Chennai’s population increased to bottled water. Meanwhile, the inevitable, climate shocks. 1.4 million with a decadal growth of desalinated water bypasses the The disease of viewing water 82% – but this came at a cost. village and rushes to quench the in isolation as a single-dimensional The Cooum now runs dry for the thirst of an IT corridor built on resource, and its availability or first 40 km of its course. The river Chennai’s precious Pallikaranai scarcity as a solution or problem, bed here resembles a healthy scrub marshlands. has a short history. From around 500 jungle replete with stands of tall, Unmindful of the damage CE up until the British crown sank slow-growing palmyra. The flow rendered by the existing desalination its teeth into the Tamil countryside, begins at Thiruverkadu, where the plants, the Tamil Nadu government the region’s early settlers had carved Cooum enters Chennai city. Hereon plans to set up two more: a 150-MLD out more than 6,000 ponds and it is a river of sewage. “The Cooum plant with funds from Germany’s KfW elegantly engineered the irrigation did not die; it was killed,” says and a 400 MLD plant with Japanese tanks we call the aeri. Born in a Venkatesh Ramakrishnan, amateur support. The latter is expected to rain-dependent agrarian culture, historian and chronicler of Chennai’s usher in Japanese investments in these multi-use waterbodies were heritage. the Chennai-Bengaluru Industrial designed to enhance biodiversity and If Chennai wishes to have a Corridor (CBIC). increase availability of natural water. future, it must shrink in size and As it happens, CBIC will pave The palmyra-fringed tank bunds population. That must be done not over the Ennore wetlands in the were a microhabitat for plants and by forcing people out. Instead, the city’s north and run right through the animals. The wetland was the basis government should create land- groundwater-rich agrarian sprawl for multiple economies and cultures. friendly economic opportunities of the Araniyar-Kosasthalaiyar Potters, fishers, hunters, farmers, for people willing to migrate out Basin in Thiruvallur district. It will weavers, toddy tappers, reed-workers to Tamil Nadu’s vast hinterland. It also degrade the infrastructures of and gatherers found succour in is futile to try and engineer one’s natural water and replace them with these wetland complexes. Irrigation way out of ecological collapse. Local dystopian industrial waste-scapes. channels and canals linking streams landscapes must be healed. Water or rivers to engineered wetlands must be harvested where it falls. Killing a river were seldom lined, allowing life to Chennai’s defining element is A UN report, by the thrive and water to percolate and water: the seas, the rains and the Intergovernmental Science Policy reappear as springs and streams rainlessness. Our problem is not Platform on Biodiversity and further downstream. Water was more merely about demand and supply Ecosystem Services, released in than just H2O. of water but a broken relationship May 2019 warned that depletion of Modernity changed that. with water and land. Unless Chennai biodiversity and water resources and Civil engineers replaced artisanal repairs its relationship with nature, degradation of marine and terrestrial engineers who had been educated the city is doomed to drown in a habitats have brought the planet to by their local cultures, ecologies and watery grave or turn into a waterless the brink of ecological collapse. geographies. desert. Humanity is left with no wiggle In 1941, the then mayor S. room. Any intervention—whether in Satyamurti deftly negotiated the (Nityanand Jayaraman is a Chennai- the name of development, poverty construction of a massive drinking based writer and social activist.) JANATA, June 30, 2019 11 $21 Trillion Hoard Hidden from Taxman by Global Elite

Heather Stewart

A global super-rich elite has global economy”. According to assets of these countries are held by a exploited gaps in cross-border tax Henry’s research, the top 10 private small number of wealthy individuals rules to hide an extraordinary $21 banks, which include UBS and while the debts are shouldered by the trillion of wealth offshore—as much Credit Suisse in Switzerland, as well ordinary people of these countries as the American and Japanese GDPs as the US investment bank Goldman through their governments,” the put together—according to research Sachs, managed more than $7tn in report says. commissioned by the campaign 2010, a sharp rise from $3tn five The sheer size of the cash pile group Tax Justice Network. years earlier. sitting out of reach of tax authorities James Henry, former chief The detailed analysis in the is so great that it suggests standard economist at consultancy McKinsey report, compiled using data from a measures of inequality radically and an expert on tax havens, has range of sources, including the Bank underestimate the true gap between compiled the most detailed estimates of International Settlements and the rich and poor. According to Henry’s yet of the size of the offshore International Monetary Fund, also calculations, $10tn of assets is economy in a new report, The Price highlights the impact on the balance owned by only 92,000 people, or of Offshore Revisited, released sheets of 139 developing countries 0.001% of the world’s population-a exclusively to the Observer. of money held in tax havens by tiny class of the mega-rich who He shows that at least $21tn— private elites, putting wealth beyond have more in common with each perhaps up to $32tn—has leaked out the reach of local tax authorities. other than those at the bottom of of scores of countries into secretive It estimates that since the 1970s, the income scale in their own societies. jurisdictions such as Switzerland and the richest citizens of these 139 Assuming the $21tn mountain the Cayman Islands with the help of countries had amassed $7.3 to $9.3 of assets earned an average 3% a private banks, which vie to attract trillion of “unrecorded offshore year for its owners, and governments the assets of so-called high net-worth wealth” by 2010. This means that were able to tax that income at individuals. Their wealth is, as Henry for many developing countries the 30%, it would generate a bumper puts it, “protected by a highly paid, cumulative value of the capital that $280bn in revenues—more than industrious bevy of professional has flowed out of their economies rich countries spend on aid to the enablers in the private banking, since the 1970s would be more than developing world each year. legal, accounting and investment enough to pay off their debts to the industries taking advantage of the rest of the world. (Heather Stewart is joint political increasingly borderless, frictionless “The problem here is that the editor of the Guardian.)

The Hybrid War Against Iran

Vijay Prashad

US President Donald Trump sat limit of Iranian sovereignty. Last Iranian territory. The P-8 shifted in the White House and contemplated week, the United States had two course to leave Iranian airspace, a war against Iran. His army had planes alongside Iran’s coast—an while the Global Hawk continued. been sending surveillance aircraft unmanned Global Hawk drone and Iranian officials say that it was along the Iranian coastline, teasing a manned P-8 spy plane. because the Global Hawk remained Iranian radar, which tracked these Iranian air command radioed the in Iranian airspace that it was shot manned and unmanned planes as US forces to say that both the drone down last Thursday morning at 4 they skirted the 12 nautical mile and the spy plane had come inside a.m. 12 JANATA, June 30, 2019

Trump and his team threatened revenues collapse. The domination at the receiving end of threats and to retaliate. They wanted to shoot by the United States over the world sanctions from Washington. at Iranian radar and anti-aircraft financial system—including the Between 2010 and 2012, facilities. At the 11th hour, Trump international financial institutions four Iranian nuclear scientists said, he decided not to fire at Iranian (the International Monetary Fund were killed. These scientists— targets. The Pentagon had warned and the World Bank) has meant Masoud Alimohammadi, Darioush him that this would threaten US that Iran has not been able to raise Rezaeinejad, Mostafa Ahmadi troops in the area. It was to protect credit on the international market. Roshan and Majid Shahriari—were these troops that Trump did not Difficulty in importing medicines killed either by Israeli intelligence, launch a strike. and food has produced grave the Mojahedin-e Khalq (MEK) or US challenges for the Iranian people. intelligence, or some combination of Sanctions all of them. These scientists were Trump might not have sent in Hybrid War killed inside Iran, in broad daylight. a suite of missiles to hit Iran last Since the Western media It sent a chill through the scientific week, but the United States has— continues to set the terms of community. A US and Israeli created of course—already opened up a international understanding, computer worm—Stuxnet—hit certain kind of war against Iran. A Washington’s interpretation of events Iranian computer systems in 2010, few days before the drone was shot around Iran predominates. Iran has creating damage to Iran’s computers down, the head of Iran’s Supreme never attacked the United States, that held part of its nuclear work. National Security Council—Ali but the US has in fact intervened It was announced that more such Shamkhani—gave a talk in Ufa, several times in Iran. In 1953, the attacks were possible. These took Russia, on security matters. In his US—with the UK—overthrew the place before the nuclear deal was talk, Shamkhani said that the United democratically elected government agreed upon in 2015. But the stench States had squashed the sovereignty of Mohammed Mossadeq and of such attacks remains. of a number of countries. The US over the course of the next two It is this combination of attacks— Treasury Department, he said, had decades provided full support to the sanctions, the information war, become a kind of financial CentCom the unpopular government of the the sabotage—that comprises the (Central Command). Shamkhani Shah of Iran. When the Gulf Arabs “hybrid war” against Iran. This said that the policies pursued by the pushed Saddam Hussein to attack hybrid war continues, with the United States should be considered Iran in 1980, it was the US—and threats of war as part of the arsenal to be “economic terrorism.” Western Europe—that provided Iraq wielded by Washington against US unilateral sanctions are at the with arms and money for a bloody Iran. Even Trump’s statement that heart of this “economic terrorism.” eight-year war. All of this context he withdrew the order to bomb Iran The United States is able to use is lost to the Western media, which just minutes before the attack began sanctions as an effective instrument hyperventilate about fantasy stories is part of this information war; it is against other countries because it has such as Hezbollah in Venezuela or an attempt to terrify Iranians into such enormous power over the world Iranian control over the Houthis. the belief that the US is dangerous financial and monetary system. It is always Iran that is the aggressor, enough to drop bombs at any time. The US dollar is the main reserve even when it has been Iran at the The hybrid war tightens the noose currency and the main currency of receiving end of US aggression. around Iran. international trade. Reliance upon Iran is seen as the cause of the the US dollar and on US financial problem; the idea that Iran is a rogue Group Against Sanctions systems means that most countries or terrorist state is hard to shake off. It is not easy to untangle the are unwilling to stand up against This is part of the information war reliance of the world economy to US pressure. that Iran faces, unable—even with a the US dollar and to US financial Sanctions have meant that Iran— sophisticated foreign minister (Javad systems. Even talk of multilateralism reliant upon the export of oil and Zarif)—to argue its case that it has is premature. It is one thing to call natural gas—has seen its external not been belligerent, but it has been for it and another to recognise that it JANATA, June 30, 2019 13 will take at least a decade to create Permafrost Collapses 70 Years Early the institutions and instruments for multilateralism. Confidence in the Chinese yuan, for instance, will Robert Hunziker need to be built. So will confidence in alternative systems to transfer Fasten your seat belt! Global is located. money and to reconcile trades. The warming is on a rampage. Global warming is prominent European Union said openly that it As a consequence, many throughout the North. Ergo, climate ecosystems may be on the verge of news doesn’t get much worse (well, wanted an alternative mechanism to total collapse. In fact, recent activity actually, it could, and will) than pay Iran for oil, one that would not in the hinterlands surely looks that the collapse of permafrost in the run through US sanctions. But such way. Over time, the backlash for Canadian High Arctic’s extreme an instrument could not be created. civilized society, where people live coldest region: It will take time. in comfort, could be severe, meaning “Observed maximum thaw Meanwhile, on the political extreme discomfort. depths at our sites are already plane, about 25 countries have But still, nobody knows when or exceeding those projected to occur come together to create a platform how bad it’ll get. As it happens, an by 2090.” (Source: Louise M. against sanctions. These countries, ongoing climate catastrophe, like the Farquharson et. al, “Climate Change says Iran’s senior parliamentarian show-stopping catastrophic collapse Drives Widespread and Rapid Mohammad Ali Pourmokhtar, of permafrost in the Canadian High Thermokarst Development in Very will stand together against the Arctic (more on this later) is hard Cold Permafrost in the Canadian “inhumane” US sanctions regime. evidence that climate scientists have High Arctic”, Geophysical Research It is not clear what this group will been way too conservative for far too Letters, June 10, 2019.) be able to do, but it is certainly long. Evidently, they never expected That’s chilling! the case that they will conduct climate change to hit with the force The aforementioned study, from a political campaign against the of a lightening bolt. 2003–2016, found permafrost melt kind of harsh sanctions that are Still, in all fairness, climate up to 240% more than previous currently on Venezuela, Cuba and scientists have been warning about years. In geological terms, that’s like the dangers of global warming winning the Indy 500 (the world's Iran. for decades. Now, it’s happening, oldest major automobile race), It is significant that China in spades. It should be noted that hands down. That permafrost had and Russia will be involved with America’s politicians are guilty of been frozen solid for “thousands this club. In Tehran, Russia’s ignoring warnings by their own of years.” Accordingly, scientists Ambassador Levan Dzhagaryan said scientists. Those warnings officially predicted the permafrost “wouldn’t that China, Iran and Russia will form started 31 years ago when Dr. James melt for another 70 years.” Yet, the a trilateral group to fight against the Hansen, then head of NASA Institute landscape has already collapsed by US unilateral war on Iran. for Space Studies, testified before up to three feet. The group of 25 will struggle the Senate (“Global Warming Has Not only is permafrost against sanctions and the group Begun, Expert Tells Senate,” NY collapsing, it’s reported that houses of three will try to prevent a US Times, June 24, 1988). are “sinking into the earth” in parts war—but whether they can prevail The NYT article of 31 years ago of Alaska, Canada and Russia. is a serious question. The United went on to say: “If the current pace of Alaska’s 92-mile road for Alaska’s States—under Trump—is utterly the buildup of these gases continues, Denali National Park is moving off unreliable, its military arsenal the effect is likely to be a warming center by the forces of slip-sliding ready to be unleashed, its hybrid of 3 to 9 degrees Fahrenheit from land. war already unfurled. These are the year 2025 to 2050, according Bad news often times begets dangerous times. to these projections. This rise in more bad news. Here’s the bold- temperature is not expected to be faced truth about the global warming uniform around the globe but to dilemma: the world is not braced (Vijay Prashad is an Indian historian, be greater in the higher latitudes.” for a turbo-charged climate and editor and journalist.) Hmm, that’s where the permafrost collapsing ecosystems and burn 14 JANATA, June 30, 2019 off of agriculture in mid latitudes. years of airborne measurements) than to stop it, other than a last-ditch Remarkably, even though “global all US commercial CO2 emissions WWII Marshall Plan Worldwide warming” is one of the most biannually, which of course merely Consortium dedicated to converting recognised terms in the world today, serves as supporting evidence for the the world to renewable energy, and nobody is prepared for the onset. absolutely shocking “drop-to-your- forcing removal of CO2 from the Scandalously, America’s role knees news” about the “70-yr too atmosphere, yet, those solutions in the crisis is akin to (actually early permafrost collapse.” take years and years of planning, a carbon copy of) the extreme These instances of collapsing setup, construction, and billions arrogant smugness of General permafrost are deafening bell- upon billions of funding. It’s not George Custer’s leadership directly, ringers and exactly the type of awful happening. headfirst into one of the world’s most news that presages Runaway Global Meanwhile, carbon that has been celebrated mass slaughters. Warming (RGW). trapped in and under permafrost For additional evidence of out of In point of fact, Farquharson’s over eons readies to escape to turbo- control crazy, zany global warming, a “70-yr too early permafrost collapse” charge an already oversaturated photo of sled dogs traipsing thru water makes the onset of RGW look like turbo-charged climate. It’s literally up to their stomachs on Greenland’s a dead-ringer, but when? Still, happening right now. The waiting icy surface recently went viral, as nobody really knows for sure how room is already full. Farquharson’s Steffen Olsen, a climate scientist at horrible it will be for society at study proves it, and Alaska’s the Danish Meteorological Institute, large, but it’s 100% guaranteed to permafrost carbon emissions that led his team to retrieve equipment upend capitalism’s rampant growth compete with US commercial CO2 at a weather station but the normal machine. Functioning ecosystems emissions prove it, as sled dogs wade icy freeze-up wasn’t normal any and roughshod capitalism that through it. longer. willy-nilly consumes ecosystems, It’s postulated that Runaway William Colgan, a senior punctuated by the advent of Global Warming, which could wipe researcher at the institute, plutocracy, don’t jive very well. out huge swaths of civilized society, commented: “It’s very unusual Maybe a change is in order. starts in the North, where few people to have this much melt so early There’s no getting around the live. Egad! They’re already seeing it. in the season… it takes very rare fact that ecosystems are collapsing. conditions but they’re becoming The evidence is too palpable to (Robert Hunziker is a freelance increasingly common” (Source: ignore. It’s serious; it’s deadly, writer and environmental journalist BBC News). Rare climate conditions and it could be too late to do much based in USA.) that “increasingly become common” define dangerous, disruptive climate change. The Global Rise of Fascism: Bottom line, the top 25% of the Northern Hemisphere, where Capitalism End Game? permafrost is ubiquitous, is coming apart at the seams, and climate Gilbert Mercier scientists are behind the eight ball while America’s politicians deny It is everywhere. In a few years, Italy, Hitler in Germany and Franco the legitimacy of science and openly it has metastasized like a cancer, on in Spain were the bloodthirsty tenors spit on the underlying thesis of all continents. Its fervent proponents of capitalism’s symphony orchestra, anthropogenic global warming. and ill-informed supporters call it singing the deadly opera quietly What can be done about that? After all, America’s political system is populism or nationalism. In the Italy, conducted by the military-industrial on trial before a world community Germany, or Spain of the 1930s, complex. When the fascism-induced that fully embraced Paris ’15 to however, this ideology of exclusion collective psychosis was put to restrain global warming as it watches and fear, defined by a hatred of the an end in 1945 by Russia and the ecosystems in America’s Alaska other, together with a tyrannical Western allies, between 68 and 80 collapse and emit more carbon into executive power, was called by its million people had been slaughtered the atmosphere (based upon two- proper name: fascism. Mussolini in worldwide. JANATA, June 30, 2019 15

MAGA is America Uber Alles money may circulate across borders are the top buyers of death made The disease, expressed by without constraint while ordinary in France: a criminal industry that the term Deutschland Uber Alles people may not. employs more than 200,000 people. (Germany above all else), was also There is indeed nothing new contagious. It has been repackaged under the sun. If industrialists today Fascists have built mental walls under the thinly concealed Make profit from wars on both sides of of hatred America—or Italy, Austria, Hungary, conflicts, giant US companies such The likes of Trump, Salvini, Brazil, or Israel—Great Again. The as Ford and General Motors did the Kurz, Orban and Bolsonaro were doctrine of one country above all same in the build up to and even elected largely on the false premise else is, in reality, the best way to during World War II. Historian and racist notion of culture wars and justify the tyranny of the State Bradford Snell wrote, more than 20 clash of civilisations: the mythical against its own population. Constant years ago, that “the Nazis could not threat that, in an already multi-ethnic threats, external or internal, mostly have invaded Poland and Russia world, immigrants, the outsiders fabricated and hugely amplified by without GM.” The cozy relationship often with darker skins or another subservient media, keep societies on of Ford and GM with the Nazi religion, represent an existential edge and make people tolerate or, regime went back to the early 1930s. peril for host countries. The even worse, embrace an omnipresent Henry Ford himself was a Nazi neofascists have risen by building security apparatus, either military or supporter, and Hitler was a fan of the mental walls of hatred in fortress police. Fascist regimes always blur automaker. The two companies, Ford Europe and fortress America. the line between military and police. and GM, credited themselves with The worldwide proliferation of Why not, indeed, be able to deploy being “the arsenal of democracy” by neofascism constitutes a new form your military against your own transforming their production lines of ideological globalisation, and citizens if you have brainwashed for US military purposes, but they global capitalism is banking on it. them with the notion of lurking were also, openly at least until 1942, During World War II the fascist axis internal enemies? After all, fear the arsenal of fascism. powers were Germany, Italy, and and paranoia are the most powerful The same apparent schizophrenia Japan. Now they are the US, Italy, vectors of the global Orwellian is at play today. Just like Ford and Austria, Hungary, Brazil and India to empire we live in. GM were complicit with the Nazis, some extent. All of it has the curious global capitalism, driven by the blessings of the mighty little State The nexus of fascism and merchants of death of the military– of Israel and the large money bags capitalism industrial complex, is profiting called the kingdom of Saudi Arabia The neofascists have draped from war crimes by, for example, and United Arab Emirates. themselves in the flag of populism selling a massive amount of weapons and nationalism and therefore have to the Islamo-fascist regime of Geopolitical conundrum disingenuously convinced their Saudi Arabia, which is currently The global rise of fascism will supporters that they are the champions committing crimes against humanity change a landscape already on shaky of a fight against globalism, elitism, by killing thousands of civilians ground. Trump’s National Security and the corruption of the neoliberal and starving the entire population adviser, John Bolton, has already set political system. They are, however, of Yemen. These war crimes are the agenda and put in the neofascist fierce proponents of dog-eat-dog committed with weapons made in crosshair Venezuela, Cuba, and capitalism and its abject systematic the USA, the UK and France, in the Nicaragua, which he called the exploitation of labor. Fascists respective order of the volumes sold “troika of tyranny.” Naturally, enthusiastically support the global to the Saudis. France has a liberal Bolton counts on the new fascist military–industrial complex as well and pseudo human rights champion regional helpers of US imperialism, as capitalism’s senseless exploitation as its leader in the person of Macron. Colombia and Brazil, to enforce a of resources through mining and Nevertheless the booming French revived full-blown Monroe Doctrine. deforestation. For fascists, just military–industrial complex sells 7 In Europe, neofascists have risen to as for capitalists, wealth must be billion Euros worth of weapons per power in Hungary and the coalition concentrated in fewer hands, and year. India, Saudi Arabia, and Egypt governments of Italy and Austria. 16 JANATA, June 30, 2019

Their ideological comrades in fascism. In the US and in Brazil, the create conflicts and justify massive Germany, Poland, France, Sweden vote of the evangelical Christians military spending. In brief, religious and the Netherlands have not risen was a primary factor in the elections fundamentalists of all stripes are to power, but their political clout is of Trump and Bolsonaro. “Born- today the neofascists’ best assets to quickly growing. This rise of the again” Christian fundamentalists manipulate people and turn them, neofascists, combined with the UK’s in the US are mainly concentrated often violently, against each other. Brexit, is jeopardising the European in the formerly Confederate Union. In these developments, Steve Southern states of the Civil War. Fascism’s unbearable ecological Bannon of the US is playing the part These evangelical fundamentalist footprint of a fascism ideologue and black- communities largely reject evolution, In the mould of Trump in the US clad eminence grise. secularism, and the reality that and Bolsonaro in Brazil, neofascists The Russians, for their part, climate change is man-made. Many are by-and-large climate change have developed a dangerously cozy in these communities believe that deniers, or “skeptics,” as they prefer. relationship with today’s European the US should be a Christian state. After all, the Lord or Allah knows fascists, as if the history of World War These Christian fundamentalists best and holds the key to their II has not taught them anything about are the most reliable voting block destinies. For the rest of us, who do fascism. The pact of non-aggression for Trump, just as they were for not expect God to have an extra planet between Nazi Germany and the George W. Bush. Well-funded far- Earth in his back pocket, the rise of USSR, signed in August 1939, not Right fundamentalist think tanks like global fascism offers a grimmer only allowed Hitler to unleash his The Heritage Foundation have been prospect for humanity’s survival. killing spree on the West, but also pulling the strings in the background Under the jackboots of the global did not prevent the German army since the early 1970s. fascism stormtroopers, the little that from launching an attack two years Brazil’s Bosonaro was raised is left of our shattered ecosystem will later on the USSR. Stalin’s strategic a Catholic, but he became, in meet its final solution. Bolsonaro mistake resulted eventually in the what could be viewed as a cynical could engineer a tabula rasa in deaths of 27 million Soviet citizens. political calculus, a “born-again” the Amazon, which is considered In the current context, it seems that evangelical. The evangelical voting the lung of the earth, due to its a potential dismantlement of the EU block arguably gave him the edge capacity to absorb CO2. The super- is one of the only geopolitical goals on his opponent during the country’s rich who control global capitalism that Russia and the US can agree October 2018 presidential election. will give carte blanche to their on. As an example, the Russians Meanwhile, in what they see as fascist surrogates to grow and use a as well as the US’ Bannon like and fortress Europe, the European massive military–police apparatus to promote Italy’s powerful Interior fascists have embraced their so- repress the billions of climate change Minister Matteo Salvini, a rising called Christian heritage, and they refugees and victims of ecological star of European neofascism and a fuel anti-Islam sentiments, blurring collapse. Despite their assumptions euro-skeptic whose motto is: “Make the line between racism and religious and planning, discretely run by the Europe Great Again!” intolerance. In Israel, under what Pentagon based on climate change can be called PM Netanyahu’s becoming a national security issue, Gott Mit Uns (God with us) Judeo-fascism, Palestinians are climate change will be capitalism’s “Gott Mit Uns,” in raised letters dehumanised and persecuted, as the end game. All the gold and diamonds around an eagle and swastika, was Jews were in Europe’s pogroms. in the world will not stop the storms the inscription that adorned the In Saudi Arabia, the Islamo-fascist or shield the atmosphere from the German army’s belt buckles during Mohamed bin-Salman does the deadly rays of a blazing sun. World War II. If there is a God, his same by painting Iran’s Shiites as power certainly did not much help heretics and terrorists. In India, PM (Gilbert Mercier is a very well the soldiers of the Third Reich! Modi, who is considered by many known French journalist, and the That being said, there is definitely a Indian Muslims to be a Hindu- founder and editor-in-chief of News religious track in the rise of global fascist, is also using religion to Junkie Post.) JANATA, June 30, 2019 17 Remembering Che Guevara

James D. Cockcroft

(We are publishing this article in memory of Che Guevara, who was born on June 14.)

In light of a recent upsurge to mention the mendacious slanders copying Soviet manuals and in denunciations of Che and the spewed forth by the mass media of methods. He had spoken about this Cuban Revolution, it is important to disinformation, including through often, and this is also explicitly stated separate fact from fiction. the social media. in his writings preserved in Cuba Here are five important points Second, Che understood the and available around the world. He to take into account, all in historical centrality of ethics in politics, the observed that the “intransigent context, drawn from countless centrality of subjective factors in dogmatism of the Stalin era has reliable sources. revolution, leading to the rapid been succeeded by an inconsistent First, there is a burgeoning transformation of Cuban society into pragmatism . . . returning to school of professional Cuba bashers, a giant school of reclaiming Cuban capitalism.” He saw the actions including some self-proclaimed culture and ethical values. and programmes of the Cuban leftists, who in effect seek the Hence, the literacy and Revolution as “clashing with what overthrow of the Cuban Revolution. “voluntary labour” campaigns, the one reads in the (Soviet) textbooks” Apparently expecting perfection, advances in education and medicine, and contributed insightful socialist they tend to only see the failures and the large scale involvement of critiques of both capitalist and of the Cuban Revolution and its people in movements for agrarian socialist societies and their theories. historical leaders. In so doing, they reform, housing reform, and so on. Fifth, Che, like Fidel, was distort the truth beyond recognition These movements and campaigns profoundly committed to the cause and base their arguments on such converted idealistic goals largely of peace, but unfortunately had to outright lies as describing Che as based on the thoughts of Martí, Mella, take up arms to move the world “an ardent Stalinist” wedded to Guiteras and other revolutionaries in closer to that ephemeral goal. To “authoritarian ways,” or saying the Cuban history into on-the-ground make a world without war possible, Committees for the Defense of the realities that have continued to Che gave his life, even as Fidel Revolution (CDRs) are used for evolve, making possible what one did. We can learn much from their “spying on and controlling people”. could have never imagined even in examples. In reality, however, the CDRs one’s wildest dreams. were and continue to be key Third, rejecting the use of (James Cockcroft is Internet institutions of the evolving and by no capitalist methods to fight capitalism, professor for the State University means perfect participatory socialist Che and Fidel used the methods of New York, a poet, three-time democracy the young revolutionaries of socialist praxis to transform Fulbright Scholar, and a veteran set about trying to establish in what began as a national liberation activist.) 1959 in the face of continuous struggle into a socialist revolution US aggression abetted by diehard that would transform institutions and supporters of the overthrown Batista social and human relations through Spectre of dictatorship. This offensive has an organised and conscious “praxis” Fascism continued till today, 60 years later, that—despite errors recognised Contribution Rs. 20/- by maintenance of the economic publicly by both of them and their blockade, control over Guantánamo, successors—continues till today. Published by acts of terrorism, military threat, Fourth, Che had repeatedly Janata Trust & Lokayat a sophisticated cultural offensive warned about the dangers of not D-15, Ganesh Prasad, and financing “dissidents”, CIA seeing the deficiencies of “existing Naushir Bharucha Marg, Grant Road (W), Mumbai 400 007 agents and NGOs inside Cuba, not socialism” and of mechanically 18 JANATA, June 30, 2019 JANATA, June 30, 2019 19 R.N.I. NO. 1855/1957 20 JANATA, June 30, 2019 Postal Registration No. MCW/275/2018-2020. License to Post without prepayment WPP License No. MR/Tech/WPP-210/West/2019 Published on Sunday, June 30, 2019 & Posted on Wedenesday, July 3, 2019 at Mumbai Patrika Channel, Mumbai GPO-1

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