Monday, August 20, 2012
Deceit From the Ramparts of Red Fort
Deceit From the Ramparts of Red Fort
G Mamatha
ADDRESSING the country from the ramparts of Red Fort on the 65th anniversary of independence, Prime Minister Manmohan Singh said, “We are committed to the economic, social, political and educational empowerment of SCs, STs, OBCs and minorities.Apart from effective implementation of all existing reservations for them, we have announced major scholarship and development programmes for their benefit. I am happy to say that we have been able to persuade the private sector to some extent to takeaffirmative action to ensure that these sections of society get a fair share of employment in industry and trade.”
According to a newspaper report (The Hindu, July 2, 2012), nearly half of the teaching positions for SCs and STs in Central Universities still remain unfilled. The data provided by the government of India
The prime minister has said that he is happy to have persuaded the private sector 'to some extent to take affirmative action to ensure that these sections of society get a fair share of employment in industry and trade'. One doesn’t know the results of such persuasion. In its election manifesto, UPA-2 has not talked about persuasion and gentle nudges, but promised to enact legislation for providing reservations in private sector. Three years of failure to enact such a legislation does not earn remorse from the prime minister but earns self-praise by indulging in word jugglery! It wants to sugar-coat its betrayal towards dalits with sweet terms as 'persuasion' of the private sector. Never in the history of this government was it able to persuade the private sector to act for social good. Not in the times of rising prices to release the food grains they had stocked. Not in framing tax rules as the Vodafone anecdote reveals. Nor in the way the bankrupt Kingfisher airlines is being dealt with.
Many studies have exposed the nonchalant attitude of the private sector towards employing dalits and the role that caste plays in private sector employment. The book, Blocked by Caste: Economic Discrimination in Modern India, edited by Sukhadeo Thorat and Katherine S. Newman, throws light on some of these aspects. It says, “the people who hold privileged position within large organisations develop a sense that a certain kind of person is especially effective in their roles, leading many managers to favour potential recruits who are socially similar to themselves, a process that Kanter (1977) has termed ‘homosocial reproduction’. Conversely, employers hold stereotypes about certain out-groups as being unsuitable for employment.” It further says, “This field experiment study of job applications observed a statistically significant pattern by which, on average, college-educated lower-caste and Muslim job applicants fare less well than equivalently qualified applicants with high caste (HC) names, when applying by mail for employment in the modern private-enterprise sector. The only aspect of family background that was communicated in these applications was the applicant’s name, yet this was enough to generate a different pattern of responses to applications from Muslims and Dalits compared to those from HC Hindus. These were all highly-educated and appropriately qualified applicants attempting to enter the modern private sector, yet even in this sector, caste and religion proved influential in determining ones job chances.”
The prime minister in his speech said, “We are committed to the economic, social, political and educational empowerment of SCs, STs, OBCs and minorities.” The following table showing the differences in development indicators between SCs and other social groups, even after 65 years of independence, will indicate the hollow intentions of this government and the party heading it, which incidentally ruled the country for most of the post-independent years.
Indicators
|
SCs
|
All groups
|
Literacy (%)
|
63.5
|
72
|
Malnutrition among Women
(BMI<18 .5=".5" nbsp="nbsp" o:p="o:p">
|
41.2
33
Underweight Children (%)
47.9
39.1
Pucca Housing (%)
38.3
66.1
No Toilet Facility (%)
65
49.2
Electricity for Domestic use (%)
61.2
75
IMR ( per 1000 live birth)
66.4
50
U5MR ( per 1000 live birth)
88.1
74.3
Under 5 mortality rate
Child Immunisation (%)
39.7
43.5
Incidence of Poverty (Rural)
20.6
14.9
Incidence of Poverty (Urban)
25.3
14.5
Source: India
The extent to which dalits are 'empowered' in our country can be understood from the simple fact that they are denied access even to police stations and face immense difficulties to lodge FIRs. And even those 'empowered' dalits who 'dare' to lodge a complaint/file a case, can least expect justice to be delivered. According to the government itself, the conviction rate for the cases of atrocities on SCs and STs is between 3 to 8 per cent, while pendency of such cases in courts is 80 to 90 per cent. And trust, these are taken straight from the horse's mouth. Mukul Wasnik, the minister for social justice and empowerment, himself made this statement in the background of the recent judgement on the Bathani Tola massacre, where 21 dalits were killed and the convicts were freed.
What to speak of the 'low-level' police or the magistrate, when the government itself shamelessly violates its own laws. It is not making the stipulated allocations for the sub-plans for SCs and STs (to be allocated in proportion of their population). Even in this budget it had allocated just 7 per cent (against the mandated 16.5 per cent for SC sub plan). In spite of this, the prime minister, an eminent economist, has got the courage to talk about 'economic empowerment' of dalits! With his excellency, the master making his intentions clear, can we expect the humble courtiers to act differently? Unsurprisingly, credit disbursements to dalit entrepreneurs had dropped by 33.8 per cent in the last financial year, according to data released by the RBI.
If someone thinks that the prime minister is a sober character, think again. Despite all his inactions (or rather actions towards exclusion), he courageously promises the country that the 'best is yet to come'. For this, he places his belief on the youth. Let us hear directly from him. “We are a young nation. More importantly, we are a nation of young people. Once unleashed, the energy of our youth will drive India
Yes, in the youth in whose energy the government does not want to invest. For whom the government does not want to take the responsibility of providing quality education, for whom as the tales of our recent Olympic heroines/heroes show, the government is not interested in providing them with facilities to practice their sports. And for the children, whom the government does not want to feed by universalising the public distribution system and allows them to die malnourished. In those children who are made to stand separately in humiliation during the assembly and their lunch boxes checked before they entered their classes, their hair cut, just because they are from the unprivileged sections in the society. It is these malnourished, uneducated, unemployed youth that the government is producing in our country but wants their energy to drive the country on a growth path. Surprisingly, the president of the country had a warning for his government: 'if the concerns of the youth are not catered properly they might take to...paths'.
Prime Minister Manmohan Singh, his government and party would do well to remember that apart from the present Gandhis who are in their fold, there was another who was called Mahatma and whose name they are exploiting. He once said, “An ounce of practice is worth more than tons of preaching”. Forget about walking the talk, the UPA government is not even limping or crawling. If it doesn’t, of course the people are waiting for an opportunity to force it to walk – out of office.
Courtesy: People's Democracy
INDEPENDENCE DAY ADDRESS:
Quagmire of
Neo-Liberal Policies and Corruption
THE prime minister
delivered his customary address from the ramparts of the Red Fort on the 65th
anniversary of independence. The prime minister’s speech on August 15 is
meant to tell the people how the country has shaped up in the past year and to
indicate how the government proposes to meet the challenges faced by the
country.
Independence Day is
being celebrated this year at a time when the country is beset with serious
economic difficulties. The
people are groaning under severe price rise and the food inflation rate
announced on the eve of Independence Day stands at over 10 per
cent. Drought conditions exist in different parts due to deficient
rainfall. Industrial
production has fallen to a new low. Exports
have registered a sharp fall. All
these portend gloomy prospects for the employment and the livelihood of the
people.
In these
circumstances, the address of Dr Manmohan Singh was particularly
lacklustre. This was a
speech which displayed all the characteristics of the UPA-2 government in its
fourth year in office – of a government flailing about, caught in the quagmire
of neo-liberal policies and corruption.
The prime minister
stated in his speech that “As far as creating an environment within the country
for rapid economic growth is concerned, I believe that we are not being able to
achieve this because of a lack of political
consensus on many issues.” This
is a deceptive statement. The
prime minister and his government have
been trying to push through neo-liberal measures by hook or by crook. Recently, the prime minister lifted
the prohibition on the transfer of government land to private parties in the
PPP projects without cabinet approval. Such
land transfers by executive decision are open to corrupt practices. Similarly, the government has not
cared for any political consensus when it comes to opening up of various
sectors to FDI. Making the
current economic slow down as the excuse, the prime minister and the finance
minister are busy in pushing through a series of measures to help foreign and
Indian capital and corporates and to help them circumvent taxes.
In the Independence Day
address last year, the prime minister had talked about controlling rising
prices as the topmost priority. He
had also promised a new Land Acquisition and Rehabilitation law which would
protect the interests of those dependent on land. In the present address, there
is no mention whatsoever of the steps taken in this direction. Prices continue
to spiral and the Land Acquisition and Rehabilitation law has not been adopted
by parliament even after a year. The prime minister was also silent on the Food
Security law which is urgently required.
The prime minister
had devoted substantial space in his 2011 address to the issue of corruption.
He had said, “In some other incidents, government discretion is used to favour
a selected few. There are
also cases where government contracts are wrongfully awarded to the wrong
people. We cannot let such
activities continue unchecked.”
The massive
corruption which has become the hallmark of the UPA regime has, once again been
exposed with the latest CAG report on the coal block allocations. It is estimated that a loss of Rs 1.8
lakh crores was incurred in awarding
these contracts.
An effective Lokpal
Act was promised to be enacted in the address last year as one of the measures
to check corruption. The
prime minister is being disingenuous in announcing in his speech that, “I am
happy to state that during the last one year we have achieved good progress in
this area.” For
this, the prime minister has cited the Lokpal Bill adopted in the Lok
Sabha. The UPA government
has tried its best to get an ineffective Lokpal legislation adopted in
parliament. In the Rajya
Sabha, last December, the amendments proposed to make the Lokpal more effective
were sought to be scuttled. The
Congress leadership has shown remarkable consistency in trying to protect those
guilty of high level corruption.
The prime minister
expressed concern at the large-scale communal violence in the Bodoland
territorial area in Assam India
The pledge to be
taken on the occasion of Independence Day is to step up the struggle against
the rampant exploitation which the people suffer from and the growing
inequalities. The quest for the economic and social emancipation of the people
has to be pursued. Only this can fulfill the goal of true independence.
(August
15, 2012 )
Courtesy: People’s Democracy
Sunday, August 19, 2012
Monday, August 13, 2012
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