New Democracy, August 2014

Organ of the Central Committee, CPI(ML)

August, 2014August, 2014

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Union Budget 2014-15

For the Corporate;Against the People

The Union Budget for 2014-'15 presented by the Finance Minister onJuly 10th is, in its basic features, a continuation of the neoliberal policiesof erstwhile Manmohan Singh-Chidambaram dispensation. It demonstrateson the one hand, that all talk of change by the ruling class parties isessentially a call to preserve the status quo and on the other, it alsodemonstrates broad consensus among ruling class parties on theseeconomic policies. This Budget ignores the concerns of common people,the problems faced by them in their daily lives, which were showcased bythe BJP for coming to power in the recently held elections- like price-rise,increasing unemployment, rampant corruption and worsening conditions ofthe people.

No measures have been announced by the Govt. to check the rise inprices of essential commodities, rather the Union Govt. has steeply hikedpassenger fares and freight charges for railways, the latter having acascading effect on the prices of all essential commodities. Moreover,prices of petroleum products including kerosene and cooking gas havebeen increased which will further increase the economic burden on thecommon people, already groaning under heavy economic burden. Similarly,no concrete measures have been announced to address stagnation anddownturn in the basic sectors of economy like agriculture and industrywhich provide employment to overwhelming sections of the people of thecountry. The Finance Minister has adopted a symbolic approach on seriousquestions, forming committees here and making token allocations there.BJP Govt. has basically lived upto Modi’s statement in the course of recentelections that his Govt. would continue the economic policies of ManmohanSingh Govt.; rather, speeding up implementation of these policies whereManmohan Singh Govt. had faced difficulties. Arun Jaitley sounded justlike his predecessor, Chidambaram, announcing scheme after scheme withtoken allocations, most of which are just repackaging and renaming ofexisting schemes. On the other hand, the Finance Minister announced bigconcessions to corporate, both foreign and domestic.

Over the years the Budget has lost much of its sheen through yearround increase in administered prices and new taxes; rather there areseldom new taxes levied in the Budget. The data used in the Budget isalso manipulated to paint a rosy picture which does not exist. Budgetestimates of revenue receipts are inflated to contain fiscal deficit on paper.When Chidambaram had, in his interim Budget, announced a hefty increaseof over 17% in the revenue receipts with just 4.5% economic growthprojection, then opposition, BJP, had criticized this jugglery with figures.But now Arun Jaitley has retained the very same figures with very sameeconomic growth projection. On the other hand, many allocations on socialsector have been announced without there being any intention to spendthat amount. Lower expenditure on these heads than that budgeted show apattern over the years. To make their allocations sound much higher thanin the past, it has become a habit of Finance Ministers to compare theirBudget estimates, particularly on the expenditures on social sector, withactual expenditure incurred in the past which is invariably lower.

Despite declining credibility of its numbers and allocations particularlyrelating to social sector spending, the general direction of the policy canbe discerned from the Budget. And here it is a continuation of earlier policiespursued by UPA Govt. Only the general direction of burdening the commonpeople and giving largesse to MNCs and also Indian corporate has beentaken further. The Central Govt. has no desire to address the real causesof the economic downturn and has pinned all hopes on inviting FDI andopting for Public Private Partnership (PPP) mode (public expenditure andprivate profit) for accelerating the economy. It does not wish to acknowledgeor understand that this policy framework is at the root of the presentdeepening economic crisis. It is offering more of the same.

Introducing his Budget proposals, the Union Finance Minister mentionedthe serious situation of the world economy, declining rate of growth inemerging economies and growing conflicts in the Middle-East as excusesto say that there is “extremely limited fiscal space” available to him. Thatthis was merely an excuse is apparent from his Budget proposals for hespurned all avenues wherefrom he could enlarge this space. He made emptyclaims of achieving high growth rate in three to four years but did not outlineany measures to achieve that except pinning his hopes on FDI and PPP tosomehow achieve this. Obviously these dreams are being sold to gulliblepeople. Ignoring the deep crisis affecting agriculture and manufacturing



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sectors, he laid one sided emphasis on construction industry andinfrastructure for achieving higher growth which, in the absence of growthin agriculture and industries, will only lead to further deepening of crisisand increasing the debt burden.

Budget proposals and the Economic Survey presented a day earlierdisclose a deep economic crisis. Revenue deficit is continuously rising.Revenue income of the Central Govt. (share of Central Govt. in taxescollected) is over 30 % less than the routine expenses (non-plan expenditure)of the Govt. Payment on debts (interest payment and payment ofinstalments due) is nearly one third of the total expenditure and more thanhalf of the revenue income of the Central Govt. Indian Govt. has nearly 60lakh crore rupees of loan of which 22 lakh crore is foreign loan. Along withit, nearly a third of Govt. expenses are incurred on Armed Forces andCentral Police Forces while more than a fifth of expenditure is incurred onGovt. employees (their salaries, pensions and other benefits). Obviouslythere is nothing left for spending on people. Symbolic schemes,announcement of schemes which are not to be implemented and emptydemagogy is kept for the people. All work of economic growth anddevelopment is left to FDI and PPP mode.

Like its predecessor govts. Modi Govt. has taken recourse todisinvestment through which it plans to generate 63,000 crore rupees, twothird of which will come from disinvestment in public sector industries.This selling of family silver, the assets created by the hard toil of Indianpeople, to meet the day to day expenditure of the Govt., shows the direstraits the economy is in as well as the willingness of the NDA Govt. to doeverything to benefit the corporate and to not tax the rich.

BJP Govt has made much of the subsidy burden on account of food,fertilizer and fuel subsidies. Though Mr. Arun Jaitley has not announcedany cut in them in the Budget, he has formed a committee to review them,thus hanging a Damocle’s sword over them. On the other hand there is nomeasure for recovering Non-Performing Assets from corporate nor any talkof the heavy subsidies given annually to big capitalists in the form of taxesforgone.

Another important feature of the Budget is a continuous decline in thegrowth of Plan expenditure. This growth rate was over 20% in 2008-09. Inthe year 2013-14 (last year) it declined to 6.58 % and in the current budget

it has been further decreased to 3.54 %. This is the truth of Modi’s sloganof development!

Modi Govt., like its predecessor Govt., is prepared to do everything toattract Foreign Direct Investment (FDI). It has announced its intention ofraising FDI cap in insurance to 49% and allowing 49% FDI in defenseproduction thus allowing increased foreign control in the vital sectors ofdefense production and capital generation. In a queer turn of phrase, Modidescribes this permitting of 49% FDI in defense production as a step inachieving self-reliance in defense production. India is one of best performersin insurance sector and finance firms are eyeing its insurance sector togain control of the domestic capital generation.

Several concessions have been announced in the Budget for foreignfunds investing in Indian share market as well as for Indian companiesraising loans in the foreign markets. The Finance Minister has alsoannounced the intention of his Govt. to speed up mining, particularly miningof minerals which is obviously in the interest of MNCs and Indian corporate.Financial sector reforms have been announced to increase trade in currencyand for increasing loan facilities to corporate.

The problems of agriculture, the biggest employer of the work force ofthe country, have been ignored. The amount of credit has been enhancedonly for land owners in agriculture, which would benefit a handful of landlordswhile peasants are getting increasingly crushed by burden of debts leadingto continuing suicides by peasants. There is meagre allocation to “PrimeMinister Irrigation Scheme” while agriculture in the major part of India isstill rain dependent. Govt. of India does not want to address the systemiccauses of stagnation in Indian agriculture and land reforms have been allbut forgotten. There has been no announcement to give relief to small andmedium peasants. Govt., besides making available increased loans tolandlords, also wishes in their interest to allow use of MGNREGS foragricultural operations. Govt. has also ignored the falling rate of growth inagricultural production in the areas of so-called Green Revolution. The Govt.has also started the process of interlinking of river basins. This will lead tomassive displacement of peasantry, huge use of energy and would affectthe rights of states over river waters.

The second biggest employer, the manufacturing sector, has also beenneglected in the Budget and no steps have been announced for removing



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the causes for deep crisis in this sector. A fund has been established forsmall and medium industries but no attention has been paid to their biggestproblem i.e. ensuring a market for their products. Textile industry, one ofthe big employers, has been cursorily dealt with and an announcement hasbeen made of setting up six mega centres with 200 crore rupees allocation.Without any plan or policies to address the crisis of manufacturing sectordue to the falling demand in foreign markets and stagnant demand indomestic market, the plan of industrial corridors and of setting up of urbancentres in them which will displace peasants and other people on a bigscale, would only be a bonanza for real estate magnates.

It may be relevant to point out the direction of BJP Govt., that in theBudget income from customs (tax on imports from foreign countries) hasbeen reduced while income from excise (tax on domestic production) hasbeen increased. Swadeshiwallas are silent on this.

Govt.’s main emphasis is on construction industry and infrastructurefor which several concessions have been announced. In this regard thedirection of past years’ budgets has been carried forward. For this foreignand corporate capital is being invited on a large scale. But there is noteven a mention of the conditions of construction workers who work andlive in inhuman conditions. Govt. has announced operationalization ofexisting Special Economic Zones (SEZs) and establishment of 6 new SEZswhich is but another name for granting unbridled rights to foreign anddomestic corporate to not implement labour laws (which the NDA Govt.any way wishes to amend, abridging workers’ rights), for grabbing the landof peasants and not to pay due taxes. BJP Govt. has once againresurrected SEZ model of development.

BJP Govt. has continued with the neglect of social sectors like Healthand Education. The announcement of opening of new institutions is notmatched by allocations made for them. With govt. continuing to ignore thepeople’s needs in health and education, these sectors have become happyhunting ground for profit makers, a large amount of black money beinggenerated in these sectors. The Finance Minister has also announcedpromotion of solar energy but the allocation made in the Budget does notshow seriousness of the Govt.

Tax cuts have been announced on some items of consumption byurban middle classes, but on the whole economic burden on the common

people has been increased.

Neglect of rural areas is quite evident in the Budget proposals. Bigreduction has been made in Prime Minister Rural Road DevelopmentScheme and Indira Awas and Grameen Vikas. While allocation for the formerhas been reduced from Rs. 21,700 crores to Rs. 14,391 crores, for thelatter the allocation has been reduced from Rs. 21,184 crores to Rs. 16,000crores. The allocations for Mididay Meal, Drinking Water Supply andCleanliness, Sarva Siksha Abhiyan and MGNREGS have been kept almostat the existing levels. For implementation of Food Security Act (FSA), Rs.1 lakh 13 thousand crores have been allocated. It is of interest to note thatearlier during discussion on FSA in Rajya Sabha, the then opposition leaderin the House, the same Mr. Jaitley, had said that the allocation for earlierschemes which the govt. had included in the Act was already to the tune ofRs. 1 lakh 13 thousand crores. The Govt. had then estimated the totalexpenditure on the implementation of the Act as Rs. 1 lakh 25 thousandcrores. Opposition leader Jaitley had ridiculed the allocation terming it atalmost the level of the existing schemes, but Finance Minister Jaitleybrought it even further down to the level of already incurred expenditure.There have been no steps in the Budget to check the rise in the prices ofessential commodities or to increase employment opportunities.

This Budget of Modi Govt., full of jugglery of figures, hiding of realintent and making of symbolic announcements for the people, is in fact forthe corporate. It is payback time to the corporate who had done everythingto bring Modi led BJP to power. It neglects concerns of the people, ratherincreases burden on them. This carries forward the same policies whichare responsible for the present economic crisis and for increasing poverty,destitution, miseries and hardships of the people. Issues of workers,peasants, youth and oppressed sections have been sidelined.

This Budget is full of symbolic schemes and schemes with nominalallocation which have been named after leaders of Sangh parivar. Thisrenaming is the new feature of this Budget.

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Corporate’s PolavaramProject Displaces Tribals& Peasants in Four States

Apar na

The powerful contractor – politicians of erstwhile Seemandhra (nowAndhra Pradesh) were parcelled out stretches of the proposed Polavaramproject as ‘packages’ by the Chief Minister of then Andhra Pradesh, YSRajshekhar Reddy (YSR) of Congress. Now they are forcefully exerting forthe project to materialize. The Congress led UPA-II Govt. finally concededTelengana with one hand. With the other, it gave the Polavaram project thestatus of a ‘national’ project, thus projecting it as the price demanded bythe people of Seemandhra for the re-creation of Telengana. It further sentan Andhra Pradesh Reorganization (Amendment) Ordinance to thePresident, seeking to transfer seven mandals of Khammam District of thenewly (to be) recreated state of Telengana to Andhra, with the sole purposeof drowning all of them under the waters of the proposed dam. Its logic wasthat in this way the opposition to the project could be silenced.

The BJP led NDA Govt., immediately post its formation, issued anOrdinance to the same effect, shrugging off the responsibility onto theprevious Govt. Of course, no one believed this. The movement forTelengana clearly specified that it meant ten districts (including whole ofKhammam with Bhadrachalam obviously) with Hyderabad as its capital.The BJP was a Party which extended support to this movement and itobviously knows that exclusion of any part from the state was not thedemand. Besides, the supporters of creation of Telengana have alwaysopposed the Polavaram dam. But BJP, with this act, satisfied NDA memberChandra Babu Naidu who was acting on behalf of corporate and thecontractor politicians of today's Andhra Pradesh. It also satisfied its ownposition on the interlinking of rivers of India. In its first session of Parliamentthus, it moved and passed the Andhra Pradesh Reorganization (Amendment)Bill 2014 with 32 amendments, in the Lok Sabha without discussion and

with the help of Congress in the Rajya Sabha. Introducing the Bill, HomeMinister Rajnath Singh said it was prepared by the previous Govt.

The people of Telengana are against the project and bitterly oppose theBill. The people of Seemandhra did not oppose Telengana formation – the‘protests’ projected did not intensify but stopped overnight when Telenganawas formed. But the people of Seemandhra do oppose the Coastal Corridorproject tooth and nail and it is for this that Polavaram is needed. In bothhouses of Parliament, the Trinamool Congress, the Biju Janata Dal andthe TRS argued and opposed the Bill. Now the Bill awaits the assent of thePresident of India.

A ‘National’ project of Corporate

The proposed Polavaram project is now a ‘national project, and it willbe funded by the Govt. of India at a projected cost of twenty thousandcrore rupees. (This is what has been gained for a project for which fundingcould not be found earlierr by YSR). But the word ‘national’ can also beseen in other ways. It is also national because it involves four states ofthe country. Telengana is vociferously protesting against it, and so is theOdisha Govt. Odisha and Chhattisgarh have petitions pending in theSupreme Court against the project, whatever the BJP led ChhattisgarhGovt. chooses to do now. On the 12th of July Telengana observed completebandh against the transfer of seven mandals to Andhra and against theproject. So also in Odisha, on 14th July, a hartal was observed in fourdistricts – Malkangiri, Koraput, Rayagadha, and Navrangpur, called by theruling BJD against the proposed dam. While the contractor politicians ofAndhra are trying to manufacture an impression of satisfaction ofSeemandhra people, while there is a media hype surrounding the supposed‘benefits’ from the Project to the people of that state, the people of Andhrahave bitterly opposed all steps towards making the ‘coastal corridor’ areality. However the Naidu Govt. and to some extent the Telengana Govt.also, seek to portray opposition to the project as one of conflict betweenthe interests of the two states. The only supporters of the Project are thecontractor politicians of Andhra and the corporate.

This project is also a ‘national’ one because it puts before the people ofthe country the need to formulate their opinion on the desirability of megadams and projects. What actually is their relation to development of the



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people or is ‘development’ synonymous with corporate contractor interests?

Most importantly, this project is ‘national’ because it needs from us ananswer about how this country should treat its tribal population, especiallyin the context of how it treated them in the name of ‘temples of ModernIndia’. Whose were the gods of these temples? Is it our intention to keepup these policies which have populated our cities with domestics fromtribals of Jharkhand, with trafficking of their women and girls?

The contours of the Polavaram project and the issues it has raked uphelp to clearly formulate the questions around it, which people of the countryneed answer.

Amendment Against Constitutional Provisions

The Andhra Pradesh Reorganization (Amendment) Bill 2014 passed byParliament in its current session is aimed only at facilitating the Polavaramproject. It seeks to transfer all the villages of the Mandals of Kukunoor,Velairpadu, Burgumpadu, Chintoor, Kunnavaram, Vararamachandrapuramand Bhadrachalam (except the revenue village of Bhadrachalam with thetemple town) to Andhra Pradesh. This is in violation of Articles 3 and 4 ofthe Constitution that define the process to be adopted in case of transferof territories from one state to the other. The amendment also violatesArticle 244 that provides mandatory process for administration and controlof scheduled areas in accordance with the Fifth Schedule. This requiresconsultation and approval of the Tribal Advisory Council in the state as allseven mandals are in scheduled areas.

The Polavaram Project – Transfer of Godavari water to KrishnaBasin

The Polavaram project envisages a massive earth and rock filled damwith 44 vents across the Godavari river at the Polavaram village in WestGodavari district of Andhra Pradesh. The river here emerges from the lastof the Eastern Ghats into plains with alluvial sandy soil. The river widthhere is 1500 meters. The highest point of the dam will be at 150 feet fromthe tip to the lowest point in the river bed. There will be two canals leadingout of the dam. 80,000 million cubic meters of water will be transferred toKrishna Basin by the right canal. The water will pour into Budameru in

Vijaywada which opens into the Krishna River upstream of Prakasambarrage.

The stated aims are to irrigate 54 mandals in four districts of AndhraPradesh (Krishna, Vishakhapatnam, East and West Godavari) to increaseagricultural production by irrigating 7.21 lakh acres. It will generate 960 MVof electricity. It will supply water for drinking to Visakhapatnam and othersmall towns en route. It will facilitate recreation and pisciculture. The rightcanal will be 174 Km long and the 181.53 Km left canal will go toVisakhapatnam District and connect with the Yaleur main canal. The wateris to feed the proposed Vizag Kakinada Industrial corridor, five SEZs (oneis Kakinada SEZ), two industrial parks in Kakinada and Peddapuram, anApparel Park, a Pharma City, a naval establishment and also an atomicresearch station. The water will also feed the Visakha industrial water supplyproject which will give water for 365 days to industries. The benefits of thewater pouring into the Krishna for its riparian states is another subject ofpropaganda of Andhra Govt., with even postulation of drinking water supplyto Chennai. The APIIC preparing for the industrial corridor claims to havealready given 30,000 acres land to industrialists and further claims a landbank of 82,000 acres. This entails massive land acquisition and these aremost likely all figures on paper as Coastal Corridor Industrial Project isbeing vehemently opposed by peasantry of Andhra Pradesh. However, nodoubt it is very attractive for corporate.

The Polavaram Dam reservoir will drown 276 revenue (one revenuevillage has several tribal villages) villages of erstwhile Andhra Pradesh, allin scheduled areas. There include 600 tribal villages in East Godavari districtand Bhadrachalam area, 200 villages in West Godavari district. Of these,of the 524 villages from Khammam mandals , 363 went to E. GodavariDist. and 161 went to W. Godavari Dist. Thus a total of 2.7 lakh people willbe displaced from Andhra and Telengana taken together. Over 50% ofthose who will be displaced are tribals. The rest are other communitiesdependent on the forest and the scheduled castes. Around two lakh peoplewill be displaced from the seven mandals of Khammam alone. Thetributaries of the Godavari, the Sabari and the Sileru, run along the OdishaChhattisgarh border through scheduled areas. Eight villages or more of theKonta taluk of Dantewada District of Chhattisgarh and four villages in Motablock in Malkangiri District of Odisha will also be submerged.



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Embankments are not the Solution; Clearances IrregularInterestingly the Forest Clearance of the Dam in July 2010 is conditional

on making embankments so that there should be no submergence inChhattisgarh and Odisha. The Govt. of erstwhile Andhra Pradesh hadsuggested constructing a 30.2 km long protective wall in Odisha and a29.12 km long embankment in Chhattisgarh. The earlier EnvironmentalClearance taken in 2005 neither mentioned the embankments nor thepossibility of the submergence of land of other states. This discrepancycame to light in 2009 when the project got clearance from the Central WaterCommission (CWC), hence the provision inserted in the Forest Clearance.

The Odisha Govt. opposed the embankments saying large reservoirshave been made on the Sabari and the lower Sileru. Water will flow fromthese into the Godavari river impacting the safety of the embankments. In2011, the Central Govt. asked the erstwhile AP Govt. to decrease theheight of the dam. However the reply was that then diversion of water tothe Krishna delta would not be possible. In Odisha and Chhattisgarh, todate there has been no public hearing to determine the views of the tribals,no environmental clearance and no CWC clearance for the submergence.Even if embankments are to be made forest land for it will have to beacquired, but there has been no movement on these aspects. The heightsof the embankments were supposed to range from 10 – 30 metres. Therehas been no assessment to gauge the maximum flood levels that couldimpact these embankments. Odisha also maintains that a large part ofMalkangiri district will get inundated due to the project and that the floodassessment project was flawed. In Parliament in July 2014, BJD MPBhartruhari Mehtab stated that his party was not against the Polavaramproject but the arbitrariness with which the height of the dam has beenincreased. However he did give one new information – that not just a handfulbut 307 villages of Odisha and Chhattisgarh would be drowned due toPolavaram project.

Regarding embankments, experience in Bihar has amply shown thatthe water spills over to spread into the areas surrounding the embankmentsand inundates them, resulting in flooding. This leads to permanent waterlogging in these areas and therefore transfers the mayhem. It is no solution– the problems it will generate will aggravate the initial situation.

Among the other assets due for submergence are archeological sites

as well as ancient forests in the mandals of Khammam which are the lastof their kind here. The area is also part of the Singareni coal belt and largestretches of coal and other mineral deposits will be submerged. ThePapikondalu Wildlife Sanctury will go under water. In the projectedsubmergence area, cotton in grown in 10,000 acres, paddy in another 10,000acres and tobacco in 6000 acres. Thus, valuable agricultural land ofTelengana in Khammam will be submerged. Overall the estimate is thatsome 4000 acres of forest land will be destroyed.

In addition, the project lacks mandatory approvals including clearancefor revised costs by Expenditure Committee, Central Electrical Authorityclearance for power component and other several such technicalrequirements.

‘Cultural Genocide’ of Tribals; Environmental Disaster in theEastern Ghats

Of the around three lakh population which stands to be displaced fromall the areas which will be submerged (2 lakh are from the seven mandalsof Khammam alone) over 50% are tribals i.e. over one and a half lakhtribals stand to be displaced. Thus the Polavaram project is in violation ofthe National Tribal Policy which states that ‘Any project which displacesmore than 50,000 tribal people should not be taken up’.

India is a signatory to International Covenants regarding protection oftribal communities and safety of their environment. Tribal life is intricatelylinked to habitat. To pick up a community and transpose it into anotherarea destroys the tribal community and life. Thus habitat preservation ismandatory and the Polavaram Project will destroy the habitat of a massivenumber of tribals.

The Konda Reddy tribals are a primitive tribal community found solelyin these forests. The Koya tribals (or Kandhs) inhabit these forest and alsothose of Chhattisgarh and Odisha. These are the two tribal communitiesprimary in these areas. The natural habitat of the Konda Reddy tribe isgoing to be completely wiped out. The Koya tribes have already seendisruption and migration towards the Khammam mandals from Chhattisgarhdue to the Central Govt.’s ongoing war against people in Chhattisgarh.

The tribal areas or scheduled areas of the country come under Schedule



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5 of the Constitution. It is the responsibility of the President of India tooversee the rights of the inhabitants of these areas. The AP (Reorganization)Bill violates Article 244 of the Constitution which provides mandatory processfor administration and control of the Scheduled Areas in accordance withthe Fifth Schedule. The 5th Schedule also provides that no changes can bemade in these areas without the consultation and approval of the TribalAdvisory Council of the state.

The Forest Rights of the tribals imperiled by the projected dam haveanyway not been determined. For this, in the case of mining in Niyamgirihills of Odisha, the Supreme Court ordered conduction of Gram Sabhas(palli sabhas) under the direct supervision of the District Judge. The APGovt. (erstwhile) had falsely asserted in the course of getting EnvironmentalClearance in 2005 that gram sabha meetings have been held in the area.They have, of course, also not been held in the submergence areas inOdisha and Chhattisgarh either. When the Forest Rights have not beendetermined anyway, how would the issues of ‘rehabilitation’ and land forland be decided at all – it is another matter that the word ‘rehabilitation’ ispointless here as it cannot recreate habitat. Chandrababu Naidu, ChiefMinister of Andhra, has grandly asserted that since the seven mandals ofTelengana are now transferred, Telangana need not be concerned asrehabilitation is his Govt.’s work. He is wrong, way off the mark; not onlythe Khammam belt, but also for the tribals of scheduled areas of pre-transferEast and West Godavari Districts, whose habitats will be drowned, thePresident of India is directly concerned; the Project is to be a ‘national’one, so that the people of India have a direct responsibility to be concerned.

Both with the Project as well as with the amendment just passed in theParliament, a contiguous tribal belt will be dismembered. Variouscommittees including Bhauria Committee have recommended thatadministrative integrity of the tribal areas should achieved. What to talk ofintegrity, this entire population will be displaced and resettled in a newhabitat absolutely unlikely to resemble their forest homes.

In February 2009, the Environment Ministry’s Expert AppraisalCommittee for River Valley and Hydroelectric projects directed the AndhraGovt. to conduct public hearings in both states , Odisha and Chhattisgarh,for the embankments. This was not done.

The Polavaram project is in violation of the Right to Fair Compensation

and Transparency in Land Acquisition Rehabilitation and Resettlement Act2013, which provides ‘land for land’ in command area for the affected peopleunder irrigation projects and protection to ensure that ‘All benefits includingthe reservation benefits available to STs and SCs in the affected areasshall continue in the resettlement area’. It is also mandatory to obtainingprior consent of concerned Gram Sabhas or the Panchayats in the ScheduledAreas under the Panchayat Extension to Scheduled Areas Act (PESA)1996.

All these are the legal issues linked to the tribal population of the area.The other issues are equally serious and deserve equally seriousconsideration. This tribal population of Andhra, Telengana and alsoChhattisgarh and Odisha will, at best, be uprooted, ‘rehabilitated’ by beinggiven some place for housing, may be some land and some compensation‘money’ whose value anyway they are usually at a loss to comprehend.Their lifestyle in the forest, their integration with the habitat, the integrationof the women with the forest and the food sources and herbs it provides,their cultural life, cannot be recreated. This is the experience of India overso many years, and the victims of those years are still scattered throughoutIndia. The tribal women bear the heaviest end of the stick. At the time ofthe Kalinganagar struggle in Odisha, those who saw the surrounding areawere witness to the ‘rehabilitation’ of tribals by other corporate who hadbuilt industries in the surrounding areas. Small sheds roofed by tin, with afew chicken roaming in the area, with the tribal women working as unskilledlabour in nearby constructions, roaming erect, carrying loads of bricks ontheir heads in the blazing sun. The cultural, linguistic and ethnic identitiesof the tribal population –a massive number- are at stake and their claim tothe land and their forests must be upheld. There is no adulation for the‘cave days’ involved here. The sort of ‘integration’ done in India leads tothe worst patriarchal distortions of old tribal norms apart from rootlessness,impoverishment and other aspects mentioned earlier.

For what is it to be staked? For a massive project which will displaceeven more people than the gargantuan Narmada project (which displacedover 60,000 tribals), drown pristine forests and productive agricultural landin Telengana. Many small projects made across the Godavari can equallybe used for power generation, for irrigation, without the massivedisplacement and destruction. But 20,000 crore rupees are much coveted;the fact that the dam is being championed by the very contractor politicians



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indicates the pressures involved. Chandra Babu Naidu, the current CM ofAndhra Pradesh, in his earlier role as CM of the undivided state, was the‘blue eyed boy’ of imperialism and is known for his service to corporate forwhom he had put up the whole state for loot. The fact is that the entirequestion of the validity of massive projects is questionable and scientificuse of knowledge allows use of natural resources without decimating naturalhabitats and assets.

For what else will it be staked? These facts are worse.

Irrigation Camouflage- Irrigating Irrigated Land

According to the claims relating to the Polavaram project, 7.21 lakhacres of land will be brought under irrigation in the four districts of Krishna,East and West Godavari and Vishakapatnam. Another interpretation isthat ‘irrigation will be stabilized’ in these areas. 129,000 ha are supposedto be irrigated by the right canal and 162,000 ha by the left canal ( 2.5acres is one hectare). However the erstwhile AP Govt. had already builttwo lift irrigation projects parallel to the canal-Tatipuda and Pushkharam,to irrigate around 161.874 ha of the total area supposed to be irrigated bythe Polavaram project. The Chagalnadu lift irrigation scheme, the Torrigeddaand the Yeleru schemes already irrigate more than 51,800 ha. Thus themajor part of the projected area is already irrigated by alternative schemes.Around 80,000 ha or so land remains. These can be irrigated at drasticallylower costs and by drastically smaller projects. Currently, the cost of‘irrigation’ of each hectare of land, it is estimated, will be around ten lakhrupees, excluding the maintenance cost. According to E.A. S. Sarma, thecost of supposedly irrigating every five acres of land here will bedisplacement of one tribal family.

Even the Govt. of India’s official data shows 71% of the right canalcommand areas as already under irrigation since 1999. The InternationalWater Management institute based in Sri Lanka that studied the KrishnaGodavari river link found that 95% of the area to be irrigated by the rightcanal was already irrigated; the rest 5% of the area was not under cultivation.

Rather, it is the Telengana area which needs irrigation. Having officially50% of the joint state’s cultivated land, Telengana got only 32% of thestate’s irrigation potential. This year, of the total peasant suicides inTelengana, reported 30 were in Warangal district, the the reason was crop

failure dur to failure of monsoon. Actually from the around 650 tmc surpluswaters of the Godavari upto now, water needs to be allocated to Telenganausing equitable water distribution. Small dams across the Godavari inTelengana area which will provide irrigation without displacement on amassive scale are the need of the hour.

Water is for Industry- The Powerful Capitalists of Andhra.

Irrigation is only a camouflage. The waters of the Godavari are actuallybeing harnessed to provide an abundance of water to the ‘coastal corridor’project being envisaged along the eastern coast including industrial corridorfrom Vishakhapatnam to Kakinada for the corporate and MNCs expectedhere. This corridor is to be served by the second port of Vishakhapatnam.

The people of Andhra have bitterly opposed the massive land acquisitionsthat are preliminary to the project. The fragile ecosystem in the EasternGhats, one of the finest in the world, is at stake. The fisher folk ofVishakhapatnam fought tooth and nail against the second port constructedthere endangering their livelihoods. The peasantry of Srikakulam foughtand gave their lives to prevent thermal power stations from devouring theirlands. The people of Nellore, Guntur and Prakasam districts have opposedland acquisitions for corporate.

The fact that is vital to understanding Polavaram is that the corporateof Andhra Pradesh is the fastest growing group of big capitalists in thecountry. One study says ‘The latest generation entrants into the politicalarena emerged in the political landscape of Andhra Pradesh in the late1990s and these are predominantly industrialists and businessmen whohave sought to promote their business interests by entering the politicalarena and leveraging political power for their own profit.’ ('Hegemony overPolitics and Power', Vijay Burgula and others) It further states, ‘Capitalformation by the Seemandhra leadership over the last three to four decadeshas been built on state resources and specifically from Telengana resourceswith the help of the politician – bureaucrat- legal nexus. Since 2000especially, infrastructure work in the form of government contracts havebeen overwhelmingly awarded to Seemandhra contractors with politicalconnections. The importance of government civil construction works in theaccumulation of capital by the Seemandhra capitalists is borne out by thefact that 27 out of the top 30 infrastructure companies in India are from AP



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and not one of these is from Telengana.’

Who needs the Polavaram project? It is needed for water supply for theindustrial corridor primarily, with its projected SEZs, its chemical and apparelparks and the continual water supply for 365 days to the Vishaka Industrialhub. It is the capitalists, the corporate, who actually stand to benefit andthe people of Andhra Pradesh who will be among the losers. But the rulingpoliticians and the Naidu Govt. are trying to manufacture opinion in Andhrain favour of the project .They desperately project its ‘national’ stature as avictory for Andhra not for themselves and they hide its role for the coastalcorridor and mask it as needed for irrigation in Andhra.

Flood Threat Misrepresented

The environmental clearance of the Project is based on anEnvironmental Impact Assessment (EIA). However several issues havecome to light since this was carried out. In 2006 the Central WaterCommission (CWC) changed its flood situation estimate. The PolavaramProject went by the Probable Maximum Flood (PMF) level of 1,02,000 cubicmetre per second (cumecs) for designing the spillway. The National Instituteof Hydrology of the Ministry of Water Resources of the GOI found that ifthe dam bursts the peak flood will be of 1,98,200 cumecs. “Based on recentrainfall trends and flood history, a peak flood of 254,000 cumecs is a reality.This will wash away the dam”. This is the opinion of T. Hanumantha Rao,former chief engineer of AP Govt.

Further, in 1986 and 2010 Bhadrachalam town was innundated and thevalley flooded by floods in Godavari. If the Polavaram reservoir is full andflood waters come from the Indravati and Pranhita rivers and the dam givesway, the Godavari delta towns and the Aurthur Cotton Barrage will bethreatened by flood waters.

Corruption Rampant, Clearances Pending

In addition the project is plagued by corruption costs. The costs haveescalated many times over. The tenders for the dam head works havebeen cancelled time and again by the A.P. High Court due to allegations ofcorruption. The project also lacks certain mandatory approvals andclearances, but of course these can be all stream rolled over by a sold outCentral Govt.

Interlinking of Rivers

The Polavaram dam is part of the national water linking project underMinistry of Water Resources and was designed for water redistribution. Inthis case, Godavari is considered to have a water surplus basin and theKrishna a deficient one. In 2008 the estimate was that 644 tm cft of unusedwater flowed down the Godavari to the Bay of Bengal. Thus this is a projectcorresponding to the outlook of both the BJP and the NDA Govt. Itdevastates the people, the environment and ecology and affects the riparianinterests of the states.

Are Concerns Purely ‘Academic’?The proponents of Polavaram project, and they are powerful, are quite

clear about how they classify the criticism of his project. They say that theunused water of the Godavari floods the East Godavari District every year.They say it is not only downstream states that need to bother about upstreamstates; the upstream states also have a responsibility to the downstreamones. They scorn the ‘purely academic concerns’ who worry about, “fewthousand hectares of farm lands and forests”. A specific complaint is againstOdisha and Chhattisgarh having agreed to a hydroelectric project at Kontaearlier. The contention is that the land submergence due to that projectwould have been much more than under Polavaram Project but the stateswere agreeable.

The issue can be resolved scientifically. More use of the Godavariwater upstream will solve the problem of flooding downstream is theargument. The fact is that successive Govts. of erstwhile AP paid littleheed to the development of irrigation facilities of Telangana region.Telengana must plan and fully use its share of the waters of Godavari farmore effectively for the use of the people. This was one of the argumentsof the need for Telengana formation.

Conclusion

About half a century or so ago, the power of man in harnessing theenvironment, breaking up mountains, exploiting mineral resources as thoughthere was no limit, building massive projects, were all aspects of assertingapplication of science to use nature for human development. But there isgradual realization that development is class specific and the tribals and



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indigenous people, the poor, the scheduled castes have been sacrificed atits alter. There is growing appreciation of the finite nature of naturalresources, of the need to apply science to preserve the environment. Thereis development in using science for common good without entailingdevastation and displacement. There is urgent need for peoples’ movementsto defend the tribal people, ecology and natural resources against thoseclasses whose vision does not extend beyond furthering their own plunder.The Polavaram Project should definitely be scrapped and its status as anational project should be revoked obviously. The coastal corridor projectmust be withdrawn. Small dams across the Godavari should be urgentlyconstructed to harness water both to irrigate Telengana and if necessaryto augment the irrigation in Andhra.

The hurry with which NDA Govt. rushed the transfer Bill, showed uttercontempt for people particularly tribals. It also showed that corporatecontinue to call the shots in Delhi.

WTO Talks : BJP Govt.’s posturingis due to coming state electionsMuch is being made of Govt. of India’s stand at Geneva WTO meeting

of linking trade facilitation agreement with agreement of food grain stocksheld by the Govt. This resulted in failure of adhering to the deadline ofJuly 31, 2014 for concluding trade facilitation agreement which was agreedto at the Bali Ministerial Meeting in December 2013.

The UPA Govt. had in fact surrendered before the pressure of westernimperialist countries in agreeing to Bali accords which envisaged tradefacilitation agreement by July 31 this year and four year peace period forGovt. stocks for food grains. The main dispute is over the level of subsidiesthat can be given to agriculture which have to be within 10 percent of thefood grain prices calculated at the average of prices obtaining in 1986 to1988. This was one of the provision of Agreement on Agriculture (AOA) ofWTO. While western countries could get much higher subsidies for theirfarmers through blue and green boxes, the product linked subsidies wereto be regulated which are the norm in third world countries. This unequalagreement was condemned by the peasant organizations and revolutionary

organizations at the time of conclusion of WTO negotiations on the basisof Dunkel Draft. The warnings given then have not only come true but havecome to haunt the rulers of India and other third world countries who hadhappily cheered the WTO agreement. They and the corporate media hadsung peans in the praise of WTO but none of the supposed benefits shownby them have been translated into reality. This agreement was in favour ofdeveloped capitalist countries and remains so.

Before Bali Ministerial Meeting, the then Commerce Minister, AnandSharma, had promised that he would not compromise on food security buthis Govt. caved into pressure. Moreover, Indian Govt. broke ranks with 33third world countries to dilute the food security provision. UPA Govt ‘sstand was condemned by different political parties and all the peasants’organizations. There was no doubt that UPA Govt. had betrayed the interestsof the people of the country and its peasantry to please the imperialistpowers.

Since Bali meeting the Govt. has changed at the Centre. BJP led NDAGovt. has taken the stand of not signing the trade facilitation agreement byJuly 31, 2014 and in this Indian Govt. has been supported by a number ofthird world govts. including Cuba, Venezuela and Bolivia. So far so good.But what is unsettling is that Indian Govt. is not taking a principled positionon the issue and is preparing the ground for an Anand Sharma act later. Ofparticular importance is the fact that the Indian Govt. has promised to getback to negotiations in September 2014.

Hindustan Times (24th July 2014) quoted a Govt. functionary that, “Thegovernment will seek a postponement of the deal of the TFA, which seeksto speed up procedures and make trade easier and cheaper across nations,to December 31, 2014.” But the date of concluding discussion on foodsecurity is four years away, then what is the relevance of demandingpostponement to December 31, 2014? What will happen between July 2014and December 2014 for which the Govt. is keen to postpone this act?

In the mean time, Prime Minister Narendra Modi has thundered that hisGovt. will not compromise on the interests of the farmers. He contrastedthe position of his govt. with that of his predecessor to assert that UPAGovt. had compromised the interests of Indian peasants. But on the otherhand, his plenipotentiary Finance Minister is preparing the ground for volteface. He stated that his Govt. will be agreeable to signing the TFA in case



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“substantial progress” is made on the question of food security i.e.agricultural subsidies. He obviously did not point out what would be sucha progress in the view of his Govt. This was obviously meant to sendsignal to the imperialist countries that the present NDA Govt. is not opposedto TFA favourable to their interests and would do so in due course of timejust like its predecessor UPA Govt. This probably was in response tocriticism by western powers of the stand of Indian Govt. which has signaledto them to wait for some time.

What is NDA Govt. waiting for? Why this posturing at this time? Betweennow and December 2014 lie important state elections in Maharashtra,Jharkhand, Haryana, J&K and possibly Delhi. This would be a crucial testwhether corporate financed and corporate media manufactured Modi Wavehas lasted even a few months or faded away like other consumer productsadvertized and sold by them. A good show in these state elections wouldnot only help in engineering defections in other states and forming govts.or precipitating elections there, but would also bolster BJP's strength inthe Rajya Sabha where it is in hopeless minority. Govts. of present rulingclasses only do something positive when they are compelled to, left tothemselves they only launch attacks against the people. No wonder thecorporate campaigned for a stable or majority govt.

Pronouncements of Govt. functionaries give rise to doubts about theGovt.'s sincerity on the issue. It is likely that this posturing is only forcoming elections when the Govt. will try to sell whatever agreement it canget from imperialist countries to be in national interest. Imperialist countriesdo not mind giving such excuses so long as their interests are advanced.Do not underestimate the power of doublespeak of RSS trainees who canterm FDI in defense production as bolstering national production of defenseequipment. They will try to show their surrender before the imperialist powersas one more demonstration of growing power and prestige under BJP rule.Nor should one underestimate their capacities for going back on their earlierstand or from their poll promises.

Peasant organizations should build an effective and widespread struggleon the issue and oppose provisions of AoA. They should not allowthemselves to be complacent nor rely on the Govt. to secure their rights.They should build and intensify their struggle to meet any exingency of thesituation and safeguard their interests.

Lift the Siege of Gaza

Palestinians' Sacrifices Advancetheir National Struggle

The massive attack on Gaza by Zionist Israeli forces has been continuingfor over a month. Israel started bombing Gaza from July 7, 2014 and invadedthe strip from July 18th. In ferocity and cruelty, Israeli forces bettered theirown records. They bombed hospitals, schools, mosques, the sole powerstation, even a university, killing over 2000 people, most of them civilians,a large portion of them women and children. According to UN estimates,over 73 percent of those killed were civilians. Compared to this only threecivilians have been killed among 67 Israelis killed in battle. Lethal weaponshave been used against unarmed civilians with reports of depleted uraniumbeing used by Israel which is going to affect generations to come as hadhappened in Iraq. 40% of the infrastructure of Gaza has been destroyedwith rows and rows of houses reduced to rubble.

Gaza, a small strip of 360 sq. km. bordering the Mediterranean sea, inwhich over 1.8 million Palestinians live, has been an open jail for many,many years with the jailors having no responsibility towards their prisoners.The occupying power, Israel, has been raining death and unleashingdestruction of houses and infrastructure periodically. Gaza, supposed tobe under Palestinian rule, is permitted to have neither airport nor sea port.Its border crossings are manned by Israeli soldiers in East and North whileit has Rafa crossing with Egypt in the South. Even medicines and otheressential articles are not permitted to go through the crossings. And yet,Palestinians display courage and heroism in abundance, drawing on thereserve which communities facing national survival muster, building andrebuilding their lives, but not surrendering before the powers exercisingcontrol over conditions of their living.

The avowed provocation for the current massive onslaught has beenabduction and killing of three Jewish youth in West Bank. Israeli authoritiesknew about the deaths of these youth and the identity of the killers but theydeliberately hid this news from the public and even from the parents ofthese youth to whip up hysteria in Israel for this murderous attack on Gaza.Hamas, the ruling group in Gaza, denied its involvement in abduction or



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murder, and Israel Govt. knew it well before launching this attack. However,this incident was only a pretext like earlier ones when Israel Govt. launchedsuch attacks on Palestinians. The whole objective of Israel’s attack hadlittle to do with this incident but with the other development which hadchanged the landscape of the Palestinian national forces and their struggle.

Recently, Palestinian factions, Fatah and Hamas, ruling in Gaza andWest Bank respectively, have forged unity. This should have ended Westernand Israeli charade that Palestinians are divided and hence there is noPalestinian representative to talk to for peace in Palestine. But westernpowers and Israel openly and bitterly, opposed this Palestinian unity termingit unity with “terrorists”. Israel’s Prime Minister Netanyahu posed thequestion before Fatah leader and Palestinian Authority President Mohd.Abbas to choose between “peace with us or peace with Hamas.” But thefact is that this unity came about only after winding up of Kerry Mission ofObama Admn. for peace in Palestine. This mission was only to start thedialogue between Israel and Palestinian leadership in which it failed. Whilewinding up the mission, Secretary Kerry did not mention that it was due tointransigence of Israel that he had to abandon his ‘mission’. Israeli rulersactually do not want any peace talks nor any peace, what they want is justa camouflage of talks while they pursue their design of gobbling up of moreand more Palestinian lands. What they want is a Palestinian partner whowould help in this game. Abbas was a partner but only to a limited extent.Lack of any progress, and it was intended to be so, robbed him of credibilityamong Palestinians. When he started pressing for substantial talks, Israelirulers started saying that there is no partner to talk to thereby undermininghis position further. Israel did everything to ridicule him and in the processlent strength to Hamas who were any way saying that there was nothing tobe achieved by such talks.

Israeli attack is aimed at striking at this unity of Palestinians. They wantto seriously damage Hamas. But they also want, through this mayhem ofdeath and destruction, to turn Palestinians away from Hamas, trying todrive home the message that they would be able to survive only if theyabandon Hamas. It is a terroristic aggression where civilian casualties arenot only a ‘collateral’ damage but the very objective of aggression. Israelwants Palestinians to give up any hope and any struggle for their nationalrights. Israel wants Palestinians to continue to live in Gaza like enclavesat the mercy of Israeli rulers. Any sign of resistance, howsoever feeble,

they portray as terrorism and lack of resistance as acquiescence in theirdesign. They are not a partner for peace if they struggle, and there is noneed of peace if they do not. This is the logic of all colonial aggressors.

The present Israeli invasion has taken place in the background of risingstruggles of Arab people against pro-imperialist autocratic regimes of Arabcountries. This outburst from December 2010 unnerved the pro-imperialistregimes in the Middle East, the Arab monarchies, who sought to direct thisanger into Shia-Sunni conflict and also use it to overthrow regimes not tothe liking of their western imperialist masters. They poured in arms,ammunition, funds and mercenary fighters to achieve this objective. Onthe other hand, the struggle of the people of Iraq and Afghanistan againstUS led invasions of their countries and the explosion of global financialeconomic crisis, severely undermined the position of US imperialism andchanged the unipolar world into a multipolar world. In this background ofdecline of presiding imperialist power and incline in the people’s movements,Muslim Brotherhood (MB) came to power in Egypt and Tunisia which wasnot to the liking of Saudi Arabia and other Gulf monarchies, barring Qatar.The US camp in the Middle-East got divided on the question of attitude toMB. Saudi rulers and other Gulf monarchies supported and bankrolled themilitary coup in Egypt. US imperialists, while trying to keep their camptogether, fell in line with Saudi led group in supporting military coup inEgypt. Hamas, itself an offshoot of Muslim Brotherhood, was caught in theunfolding scenario even as Palestinian issue took a backseat for sometime. Hamas shifted its headquarters from Damascus as Hamas and Syrianruling group fell on the opposite sides of sectarian divide deepened byallies of western imperialist powers.

Due to intensification of contradictions among imperialist powers and alsoamong the Middle East allies of US imperialism and other western imperialistpowers, three types of forces struggled to shape the contours of MiddleEast in the backdrop of rising struggle of Arab people. Iran, Syrian Govt.,Hizbollah of Lebanon and many forces in the Middle East countriessupported by Russian imperialism constituted one group. The other largegroup of supporters of western imperialist powers too suffered internaldivisions. Saudi monarchy along with other Gulf monarchies, monarchiesof Jordan and Morocco, Army rulers of Egypt constituted anti-MB sectionwhile Turkey, Qatar and MB constituted another section. Their growingconflicts brought great disorder in the Middle East. It is in this situation of



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sharp divisions in Arab world, that Kerry mission was wound up and Israelirulers saw no reason to humour even the pliable Abbas. But Fatah Hamasunity created a new situation. Israel struck, mindful of support it was goingto receive from Saudi rulers, Egyptian military rulers and Jordan.

But the best of scripts tend to go awry. The heinous Zionist attacks andvaliant Palestinian resistance did not go unnoticed. In this regard, themonopoly of corporate controlled Zionist supporter western media did nothave the last word. Social media played a singular role in disseminatingthe uncomfortable images of women and children being massacred, schoolsand hospitals being bombed, in brief the plight of Gazans was brought to alarge section of the people even in western countries stirring public opinionagainst Zionist crimes against humanity. Large public demonstrations wereheld in western countries against Israeli aggression which the westerncorporate media denoted as revival of anti-semitism in western Europe.Govts. stood apart from the public opinion. Even in USA, increasing numberof people disapproved of the Israeli attacks even as US Govt. supportedIsraeli Govt. Social media played a singular role in not permitting corporatemedia in determining what to tell the people. Israel and its western supporterscomplained of a PR war against Israel, without contradicting anything whichhas turned the public opinion against their genocidal war. They lamentedthe fact of facts of war reaching the people of the western countries whichhave resulted in largest demonstrations against Israeli aggression andbrutalities against Palestinians.

US imperialist rulers, while expressing concern over civilian casualties,actually aided and abetted murderous campaign of Israel. While their concernwas sham, only for public consumption, their military support to Israel wasreal and substantial. Not only have they helped Israel build an Iron Dometo ward off Palestinian rockets from causing any damage, during the presentwar itself they provided huge quantities of arms and ammunition to Israelwhich was used by Israel against Palestinians. Not only that, they providedintelligence inputs to help Israel target Hamas organization, both its militaryand civilian wings. US imperialism continues to be the main supporter ofthe Zionist rulers of Israel. Other west European powers have also beensupporting Israel’s war.

Israeli brutalities have faced world wide condemnation. International HumanRights Council voted to investigate Israel for its crimes against humanity.USA was the only country voting against this resolution while west European

countries abstained. It reflected people’s anger against Zionist crimesagainst Palestinians.

Israeli attack is an open-ended aggression. They launched this attack topursue those who had abducted and killed three Jewish youth and todemolish alleged terror network of Hamas. Then they changed the objectiveto eliminate Hamas' capacity to fire rockets into Israel which have been acontinuous occurrence for several years and whose effect they haveeffectively neutralized through Iron Dome shield put into place with UShelp. Again they changed their war objective to eliminating tunnels whoseexistence was well known to them for years and which have again been acommon feature in such warfare. All this while they have demolished civilianinfrastructure targeting Hamas activists in particular, not bothering todifferentiate between its military wing and civilians. Their changing theobjectives of their war has been to fulfil their design to crush the Palestinians.

Having unleashed a murderous campaign against Palestinians in Gaza,Israeli rulers are caught in a dilemma. They have destroyed what they setout to destroy. But continuing presence of Israeli Army in Gaza makesthem prone to attacks in which they must suffer casualties. But they cannotcease to attack without some semblance of having silenced Hamas andother resistance groups. Hence the increasing clamour for cease fire onbehalf of Israel, US Admn. and their allies in the Middle East. Egyptianmilitary rulers have played a particularly pro-Israel role in this conflict. Theyhad virtually closed Rafa crossing and did not permit even essential articlesincluding medicines to reach Gaza. Even during the conflict they proposeda ceasefire accommodating all the demands of Israeli rulers but not any ofthose of the Palestinian resistance. Obviously Hamas and other resistancegroups refused to accept the ceasefire proposed by Egyptian Govt. Laterunconditional humanitarian ceasefire proposed by United Nations for 72hours was observed.

The desperation of Israeli rulers and their western backers for ceasefiredue to rising public anger in western countries as well as Israeli rulershaving no further immediate agenda, is manifesting itself in a number ofways. Israeli media, which supported this murderous brutal war, is countingamong its achievements a broad front including Saudi Arabia, Egypt,Jordan, Morroco and other gulf monarchies supporting it. They are alsoexhorting Mohd. Abbas to play a leading role in reaching a ceasefire whilethey had earlier spared no effort in running him down and ridiculing him.



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Now their new found love for Abbas only underscores their uneasiness atcontinuing war in Gaza. Jailors have become prisoners of their own creation!

The most unheralded and unforeseen (by Israeli rulers and their US backers)outcome of the present war has been bringing the issue of lifting the siegeof Gaza on the agenda. Hamas and Palestinian resistance organizationshave refused to discuss the ceasefire without discussing lifting of siege ofGaza. This issue is the most important immediate issue in the war goingon in Gaza. Economic blockade of Gaza by Israel is against all norms ofinternational law but Zionist Israeli rulers hardly bother about the law. Withoutlifting of siege of Gaza, ceasefire would only be a brief interregnum betweenperiods of war. People of Gaza, over a million of them refugees registeredwith UN, deserve to have freedom to build their lives free of economicblockade. And for this siege of Gaza should be lifted completely andpermanently.

However, even this would prove to be only a longer interregnum unlessthe national aspirations of Palestinians are addressed, their lands restoredto them and their freedom to live in their land is recognized. Demand forFree Palestine recognizing the rights of Arab Palestinians to their homelandshould be the basis of a democratic solution to the problem. Even UN hasrecognized the right of Palestinians to return to their homes, from whichthey were forcibly and violently displaced in 1948 (Naqba), but the Israelirulers and their western imperialist backers have refused to recognize thisright. They talk of UN only when it suits imperialist interests but trample onits resolutions when they do not. Long term peace in Palestine depends onthe recognition of Palestinians’ rights.

War in Gaza is part of continuing offensive of Zionist Israeli rulers andthe Palestinian resistance. Establishment of Jewish homeland in Palestine,later Jewish state there, was endorsed by Western colonial powers todominate this region after industrial refining of oil started. It is no wonderthat meaningful steps in this direction were taken by victorious imperialistpowers of First World War after dismantling Ottaman empire. While therest of the Arab land was parcelled among the supporters of British andFrench imperialist powers, Palestine was marked for settling Jews to carveout a national homeland. (Balfour Declaration) This was much before theholocaust enacted by Nazis. This was part of the design of westernimperialist powers to dominate this region. The other limb of this design,the Arab monarchies particularly Saud family rule in peninsular Arabia, has

been the mainstay of imperialist influence in this oil rich region. Thesemonarchies and other pro-imperialist dictators like military rulers of Egypthave been subverting, blunting and opposing the Palestinians’ nationalstruggle. In the present war also, they have come out favouring Israelirulers and opposing Palestinian resistance. They act as breakwaters tosteady the ship of imperialist influence in the region. It is aptly remarkedthat the road to Jerusalem goes through Cairo and Riyadh.

The underlying cause of disturbancesin Palestine is Zionism. Describedas a form of racism by United Nations, Zionism want to appropriate thewhole of Palestine for Jews which entails forcibly and violently displacingPalestinian Arabs from their homes. Israeli Zionist rulers are trying toaccomplish this through a series of attacks and gobbling up of Palestinianlands. To advance towards peace in Palestine, Zionism must be thoroughlydefeated. Without accomplishing this, no meaningful peace talks can beheld, less any meaningful steps taken towards establishing peace inPalestine.

Presently, there are increasing conflicts among imperialist powers anddifferent forces active in the Middle East even as Palestinians fight againstodds to keep their national flag fluttering. Middle East is undergoing changeand this change is traversing a zig-zag course dependent as it is on thepeople’s struggles as well as the interplay between these forces. Severalnew factors and actors are coming into play even as great disorder underheaven descends on the Middle East, throwing monarchies into panic andimperialists into trying all machinations to keep intact their influence.

The present conflict despite and because of heavy sacrifices made byPalestinians will result in further advancing the national struggle ofPalestinians.



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Punjab: Militant Struggle of Dalitsfor their share of Panchayat land

Since the past few months, in the district of Sangrur (Punjab) there hasbeen a struggle going on for cultivable land. Struggle started for 'nazul'land in village Sekha.42 bighas of land earmarked for dalits was forcefullyoccupied by landlords since past 30 years. People gathered under the flagof PMU and marched in the village against the landlords. They thenrecaptured the land from the landlords.

On this issue, 17 villages organised a meeting in town Dhanoula andformed Zameen Prapti Sangharsh Committee (ZPSC). A decision was takenin this meeting to organize a People's Conference. 1700 people from 67villages participated in the conference held at Badrukhan. Some decisionswere taken here. Firstly, it was decided that struggles will be built torecapture land marked for dalit peasants from the occupation of landlords.Secondly, it was demanded that the Land Ceiling be lowered from the current17 acres and the new ceiling be enforced. It was decided that ZPSC willstruggle for redistribution of the ceiling surplus land thus released to landlessand poor farmers. Thirdly, ZPSC will also struggle to ensure that dalitpeasants get the land earmarked for them from the total panchayat land.Fourthly, ZPSC demanded that plots be allocated to people who have noshelter and no land for their domestic waste. Finally, ZPSC will also struggleagainst the ration depot owners for better distribution of rations.

According to the Panchayat Act of Punjab, one third of Panchayat landhas to be leased for farming only to dalits and only they can plough thatland. However, in most villages, the landlords themselves are farming theland after bidding for it in the name of dalits. This mechanism has becomepart and parcel of agricultural practice in Punjab over the past decades.Because of this, dalits who should have been allotted this land and whoworked on farms, have been rendered unemployed. As industries are notsufficiently developed in Punjab, they do not offer many employmentopportunities. Thus dalits, who are thirty percent of Punjab’s population,face increasing unemployment. In addition, though the Govt. of Punjabsought to wean them away from struggles through ration schemes but theseschemes are failing due to lack of funds and due to corruption. Hencedalits are facing severe economic difficulties.

Since past some time, as mentioned above, a struggle is going on indistrict Sangrur under the ZPSC for the panchayat land reserved for dalits(nazul land) to be leased out to them. This time, when the bidding for landstarted, dalits asked for these lands in four villages- Baopur, Balad Kalan,Aalo Arakh and Namol. Because of the people’s struggle in Aalo Arakhvillage, the landlords had to give dalits 26 bighas of land, but in the otherthree villages the landlords flatly refused to do so. In Baopur village, thedalits were boycotted, they were stopped from going to toilet and fromcutting grass for their livestock. Dalits were beaten when they went to

toilet on the farms. The Sangharsh Committee fought against this andprotested twice in front of the DC office. At last the Administration had toensure that the dalits were given their share of the land which was 26acres. However, landlords who boycotted the dalits have still not beenpunished; rather a case under section 307 IPC has been registered againstSangharsh Committee leaders.

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fodder for cattle, the son of the Sarpanch used to stalk them and mentallyand sexually harass them. These girls study in various colleges. Theyused to gather in the temple and here they were organized to stand againstthe Sarpanch and his son. They decided to bid for the dalit share in panchaytiland. During the bidding ,when they were stopped from bidding they rejectedthe first bidding. During the second bidding, when the dalit girls went againstthe higher caste bidders like the Sarpanch and other landlords, the landlordssent out their men (hooligans) to attack the ZPSC leaders, girls and theother villagers. Due to this ZPSC took action to regularize a dharna in frontof DSP office. Under the pressure of this dharna, police registered a FIRbut did not include any offence under SC/ST Act.

In Balad Kalan village, there is a total of 370 acres of Panchayat land,so 123 acres should be given to the dalits. Under the leadership ofSangharsh Committee, dalits stopped the bidding for this land six times. Inthe course of this, they held road blocks, they surrounded BDO’s officeand they protested in front of the SDM office. However, the entireAdministration supported the landlords and higher caste bidders while theZPSC mobilized the small peasants of the higher castes to come forwardand support the dalits. The entire police force of district Sangrur was sentto the BDO office at Bhawanigarh, the place of the seventh bidding. Whenthe people marched forward to the spot to stop the landlords and highercastes from bidding, they were severely lathi charged. This happened threetimes with the people gathering again each time, in the course of whichfour people including women were severely beaten. Forty people werearrested under section 307 IPC. In protest against this, effigies were burntin different parts of Punjab by ZPSC, PMU and KKU. On 10 th July a protesttook place at the DC office. Again on 21st July, 6000 people took part in aprotest in which DC office was gheraoed. The protesters were addressedby leaders of the struggle including President of Pendu Mazdoor Union,Com. Tarsem Peter, KKU leader Datar Singh, NBS leader Raminder Singh,PSU leader Rajinder Singh and ZPSC leader Gurmukh Singh. This struggleis still continuing.

BJP-RSS Design ofCommunal Polarization

Must be ResistedElevation of Amit Shah as BJP President is not only to reward him for

the big bounty of seats in UP for BJP but is indicative of the direction theruling RSS-BJP dispensation wishes to take. It is an ominous sign for thetimes to come, with BJP having a majority of its own in Lok Sabha andalso delineates the challenges progressive and democratic forces are goingto face. The challenge is all the more serious given the deepcommunalization in the unelected wings of Indian state viz. bureaucracy,security and intelligence agencies and even judiciary. Any reliance on anyof these wings to slow the RSS-BJP offensive is naïve and ignoring thedanger. The fight against this has to be essentially political, to be fought inall spheres of political, economic and cultural life of the country.

Manderins in Jhandewalan and Nagpur know very well that people’sdisenchantment with Congress rule and support of the corporate havepropelled them to power. They also know that they can neither deliver onpeople’s expectations nor chart a new course in clean and responsivegovernance. They are the party of the extreme right wing of the rulingclasses and articulate and serve the interests of the ruling classes. Theyrepresent and serve the forces which stand to benefit from the status quo.But the decimation of Congress shows that status quo is untenable. Hencethe larger sections of ruling classes rallied around Modi led BJP to pre-empt the struggle of the people for change and to substitute a virtual changefor real change. They do not want to change the policy orientation of UPAregime and well understand the people’s disenchantment with that policyframework which burdened the common people and benefitted a smallminority. Rather they want to advance implementation of these very policies.

The anti-people character of this policy framework which caught up withthe UPA, would also result in disenchantment with NDA. Escalating rise inprices, particularly of food items, rampant corruption, growing unemploymentand shrinking job opportunities, worsening conditions of peasant masses,and on top of it, corporate’s drive to maximize their profits through loot of



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mineral resources, cheapening of labour further though those employedare only living at subsistence level and the tightening stranglehold of foreigncapital in all walks of economic life are bound to further accentuate people’sanger and fuel people’s protests. Land reforms and succor to small andmiddle peasants are already no go areas while Govt. is out to further squeezethem by cutting down on 'subsidies'. NDA is committed to further intensifyimplementation of these policies and for that purpose alone corporatebrought them to power. This could not but disillusion the people anddisillusionment is setting in quite early. Modi’s jugglery of words cannothide for long his servility to dominant interests.

It is here that BJP’s USP, Hindutva, comes into the picture. Throughdeepening communal divisions they prevent and disrupt the unity of thepeople, so essential to wage a determined fight against anti-people policiesand rule of the ruling classes. While all ruling class parties pander to religiousand caste divisions in the country, BJP-RSS elevate it to the level of aprinciple. While all ruling class parties ignore the issues of minorities leadingto their continuously deteriorating conditions, BJP-RSS justify it in thename of this country belonging to Hindus and minorities are relegated tosecond class citizens. To drive their point home, they systematicallypropagate communal hatred, engineer communal discord and fomentcommunal disturbances including violence against minorities. Ruling classestake this as a useful weapon to dissipate people’s anger and prevent peoplerising against their rule.

RSS-BJP have mastered the art of targeting minorities, particularlyMuslims. They have worked on many aspects of this in their Hindutvalaboratory in Gujarat. They have been continuously working on their strategyand tools. Currently the twin focus is targeting Muslim youth as guilty ofterrorist attacks and for deepening communal division among massesthrough Bahu Beti Izzat campaign. They have coined terms like Love Jehadto hide their real motives behind such moves. The latter was well workedout in Gujarat. In a illuminating report from RSS-BJP’s Hindutva Laboratoryin Gujarat, “Minorities in the eye of Communal Attack” prepared by NishantNatya Manch and Progressive Organization of Women in 1999 and publishedby CPI(ML)-New Democracy, these manoeuvres were clearly spelt out muchbefore the communal carnage of 2002, which was then in the making. Thereport highlighted this Bahu Beti Izzat campaign in Gujarat targeting Muslimand Christian minorities there. It was to be replicated in Muzaffarnagar in2013 in preparation of 2014 elections. Modi led BJP has effectively silenced

Muslims and Christians in Gujarat, forcing them to “disappear” from thepublic discourse. All this talk of Muslims of Gujarat being favourablydisposed to Modi and BJP is humbug. It only shows that they have noviable alternative. Congress, the other major party of ruling classes inGujarat, has been lukewarm towards their issues and has singularly refrainedfrom taking them up. Congress has been building up majority communalismin the hope of getting their votes and also those of minorities by showingthe fear of such forces. This has been the strategy of so-called secularparties of the ruling classes. But such carefully orchestrated campaignsrun the risk of going overboard, its practitioners running the risk of fallingbetween two stools and being upstaged by more extremist practitioners ofthe craft. This fate has already befallen the Congress.

The second important aspect has been targeting of Muslim youth in thename of combating terror. Ruling class parties have systematically targetededucated Muslim youth for terror attacks, rounding them up in large numbersand incarcerating them for decades. Even if they are eventually acquittedby the Courts, almost their entire lives are spent in jails. This insidiouscampaign, equating Muslim youth with bomb blasts targeting innocentcivilians continues, continues despite Hindu extremists being the accusedof many such attacks. RSS-BJP leaders openly extol such accused personsand yet gloat over their “anti-terrorism” thanks to indulgence of Congressand other ruling class parties under whose rule Muslim youth have beencontinuously rounded up and incarcerated. Indian ruling class parties inthis regard have followed the pattern of western imperialist powers whohave conducted a systematic campaign equating Islamic fundamentalismwith terrorism.

These two aspects- bahu beti izzat campaigns and targeting educatedMuslim youth for terrorist attacks, are complementary parts of the strategyto further marginalize Muslims and make them disappear from nationaldiscourse.

RSS-BJP have sharpened their tools. They have targeted the mostpopulous province of Uttar Pradesh as their new laboratory. They havebeen emboldened by the rich harvest of seats in the recent Lok Sabhaelections. They have chosen western UP as the main arena for theircommunal mobilization and polarization. Muzaffarnagar has added to theirrepository of experience. Several reports, including the one by intellectualsfrom Delhi (Dr. Mohan Rao, Dr. Ish Mishra, Dr. Vikas Bajpai and Ms. Pragya



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Singh) published by CPI(ML)-New Democracy, have brought out in detailthe insidious communal campaign run by RSS-BJP in the name of bahubeti izzat. The aforementioned report also highlighted the role of bureaucracyand of the SP’s state govt. in this regard. It also showed how RSS-BJP,drawing on the social divisions in western UP and utilizing the insecuritiesamong the landed peasantry, succeeded in pitting Jats against Muslims.Thousands of Muslims, the main source of agricultural labour in this region,displaced from their villages are still living in camps, uncared for and evenunrecognized. The attackers are roaming free and police officers are busyexonerating them through reviews of their cases. A number of cases ofrapes of Muslim women are not being attended to and no action taken.BJP denies them and SP minimizes them to save the image of their stategovt.

Muslims constitute nearly one third of the population in western UP andin many places even more than that. Obviously there will be daily conflictsinvolving Muslims and other communities on a myriad of issues as are theconflicts between different other communities, particularly land owningcastes and dalits. Such contradictions among the people are of dailyoccurrence in western UP as elsewhere. RSS-BJP have chosen this areabecause of large number of Muslims whose conflicts with other social groupscan be woven into a communal matrix. This also displays a heinous anddangerous campaign of RSS-BJP to make divisions among oppressed, topit oppressed castes against Muslims, both to isolate Muslims further andto make electoral inroads among the oppressed castes. Targets are carefullychosen. Obviously all these can only succeed due to communalization ofpolice and bureaucracy and a Media helping in communal polarization ofsociety. From a few examples we can know how ordinary conflicts havebeen used for this purpose.

In Akbarpur Chanderi, a Muslim majority village near Kanth in Mordabaddistrict, the victorious BJP MP deliberately created a dispute. Here dalitshave a Shiva temple where they traditionally used a loudspeaker for a fewdays annually around a festival they celebrate. The BJP MP from Moradabaddonated a sum of money for the dalits to buy a loudspeaker. Not only that,he instructed them to play it round the year. They were asked to leavetapes playing when they went out for work. During ramzan days, Muslimsobjected and the administration removed the loudspeaker. The MPdescended on the village again to get it restored. RSS-BJP mobilized theirtop leaders on the issue. They tried to communally polarize the area, tried

to make inroads among dalits and even threatened the police andadministration officials to beware of their future as BJP was going to cometo power soon in UP. The threats to the officials issued by senior BJPleaders have ominous portents. It is not surprising that the officers’ bodyhas remained mum on this threat. Playing music before mosques,particularly during ramzan and at azan times, has traditionally been a potentweapon of sowing communal discord in the country. In UP in particular, itwas widely used by Hindu Mahasabha, in 1920s which saw widespreadcommunal disturbances in UP. This issue was so prominent that manyobservers, including the ruling British, dubbed it as Cow Music issue. Ateam of AIKMS of Moradabad district consisting of Dr. Jaipal Singh andMr. Sanjay, met a large number of people including dalits and they allcorroborated these facts.

In the above incident we find a deliberate plan to sow discord betweendalits and Muslims, both oppressed communities in UP. The same patternwas observed in Sasaram in Bihar where a youth was taken into custodyfor sending a religiously offensive SMS to a number of people. The youthbelonged to a backward caste. RSS-BJP rumour mill sprung into action.They propagated that the above youth was being brutally beaten by a Muslimpolice officer even when the police station incharge and other policemenwere non-Muslims. This insidious campaign was launched to mobilize alarge number of people to target the police station. In the ensuing gherao,two people were killed in police firing. A team of Janadhikar Manch, Rohtas,consisting of Dr. B.B. Singh, Convenor, and Shri R.P.Singh, Advocate anda member of the Manch, highlighted a number of facts including the baselesscharges against the Muslim junior police officer and also the fact that theRSS-BJP machinery openly worked to mobilize the people and precipitatetrouble. Here again, a backward community was pitted against Muslims inan area where communal trouble has hitherto been unknown. Relativesuccess of RSS-BJP in mobilizing backwards and dalits has to be seen inthe backdrop of the ruling class parties claiming to represent these sectionsignoring the basic issues affecting masses of these communities and onlyusing them for their enjoyment of power.

In Saharanpur (UP), RSS-BJP ran an anti-Muslim campaign utilizing adispute between Muslims and Sikhs over a piece of land where Sikhsconstructed an extension of a Gurudwara. The land in question was soldby a Muslim landowner decades back and it was bought by a Sikh bodytraversing some hands in between. The land had a private mosque on this



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small piece of land. Litigation was decided in favour of Sikhs and the latestround also resulted in withdrawal of the petition after the death of thepetitioner. Three persons died in the conflict and hundreds of shops wereburnt causing big damage to property. This incident highlighted the needfor vigilance by different communities including minority communities, tobe vigilant of criminal elements from within their own community who wereused by ruling class parties to deepen communal divisions. RSS-BJP sawin this a good opportunity to pit one minority against another. They playedan active role in fometing trouble there and launched a virulent and violentcampaign against Muslims. They launched a number of attacks in differentparts of the country.

RSS-BJP’s bid to utilize every issue for its anti-Muslim propagandaand for stirring up anti-Muslim violence was demonstrated by the eagernesswith which they jumped on the issue of an upper caste girl in a village inMeerut who was employed to teach in a Madarsa. How the RSS-BJPconcocted the story of gang rape and conversion is now out in the open.There was no truth in the story but RSS-BJP have no regard for the facts.They are past masters in distortions and deliberate falsehoods.

There are a number of communal incidents orchestrated by RSS-BJPin different parts of the country, particularly in UP. According to a reportthere have been more than six hundred such disturbances in UP sinceNDA Govt. coming to power at the Centre, two thirds of them in the twelveconstituencies going to by-polls on August 21, 2014. The spate of communaldisturbances are alarming and disclose a deeper conspiracy for carvingout communal divisions in the country where different caste groups arebeing mobilized against Muslims. The so-called secular parties have donenothing to address the real issues of minorities, particularly Muslims, whoseconditions have deteriorated continuously over the decades since 1947.While their record in this regard is abysmal, by their conduct they havetried to give an impression that they care for Muslims which is beingcynically termed by RSS-BJP as their appeasement policy.

While RSS-BJP have gone about systematically, to bring about communalpolarization, their Govt. at the Centre has moved systematically to infusemore of their adherents into the different wings of the state. The CentralGovt. refused to accept the recommendation of Supreme Court collegiumof the name of Gopal Subramaniam as Supreme Court judge. This was dueto his role as amicus curie in the fake encounter cases in Gujarat. All the

senior legal functionaries appointed by this Central Govt. have beenrepresenting Gujarat Govt. in 2002 violence against Muslims related cases.Not only this, the judge of the CBI court trying a fake encounter casewherein Amit Shah is one of the accused, has been transferred. Thisapproach seems to have had an effect on the judges. Maya Kodnani andBajrangi, both convicted in the Naroda Patya mass killings case, havebeen granted bail. RSS-BJP Govt. is moving systematically to place itsnominees in all branches of the state. These aspects of activities of RSS-BJP Govt. are interconnected as well as complementary.

For the first time, BJP has a majority of its own in Lok Sabha andhence monopoly over executive power. They also have the luxury to plantheir moves patiently. While BJP leaders talk of shunning communalviolence, they launch and support campaigns targeting minorities. A techieis murdered in Pune, meat sellers are beaten in Gurgaon and they areroutinely subjected to harassment while Modi talks of a communal violencefree ten years.

RSS-BJP have also launched an insidious campaign to teach distortedhistory to school students so that their distorted imaginary views are takenas facts by the current generation being taught in schools. The appointmentof a non-entity in historical studies as President of ICHR has drawn flakfrom established and respected names in historical research. Similarly,books of one Dinanath Batra, close to RSS, are being taught in schools inGujarat. Disturbances are routinely created by outfits sponsored and runby RSS against all views contrary to their communal version of history andsociety. These outfits attack every expression of democratic dissent whileRSS-BJP provide cover for them. With RSS-BJP in power now, these groupswill be unleashed with greater ferocity and regularity.

RSS-BJP talk of equality for all communities and rail againstappeasement of minorities, particularly Muslims. Their talk of equality isbasically directed against attending to extreme poverty and destitutionamong Muslim masses. Their talk of equality is to deepen and perpetuatealready existing inequality. They create a smokescreen of appeasement ofMuslims to cover up their anti-minority designs.

But more importantly, as BJP Govt. starts to intensify the implementationof anti-people policies, people’s resistance to these steps would definitelygrow. Their attempts to displace tribals and other peasants in a large number



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and hand over the mineral resources and their lands to corporate will beresisted by the tribals and other peasants. It is not accidental that Modialways mentions communist revolutionaries as his biggest adversaries.His erstwhile mentor and later competitior, L.K. Advani, in his stint asUnion Home Minister, had termed Naxalites as the enemies of the India ofhis dreams. RSS-BJP Govt. will definitely intensify attacks on communistrevolutionaries. It is sheer hypocrisy that these perpetrators of violenceagainst Muslims should lecture to others about the virtues of shunningviolence even as they sharpen tools of repression and increase armedintervention against people’s movements.

They wish to intensify their attacks on workers by amending labourlaws and making them more anti-labour, giving free hand to capitalists toremove the workers at will and to evade their responsibility for their dues-all this to increase profits of corporate. This too will be resisted by workers.Their empty talk of generating employment will be exposed soon whileprice-rise will continue to increase burden on the people, while corruptionwill continue to harass the people and act as a tool to rob the resourcesand public exchequer. All these vices, some continuing and someaggravating, will definitely bring more and more people into struggle. Therewill come the test of RSS-BJP and their communal politics to prevent,subvert and disrupt the people’s struggles. There will come the test of theirutility to ruling classes whether they can deliver where Manmohan Singh-Sonia Gandhi dispensation failed. Congress is accusing BJP of stealingtheir ideas and policies thereby betraying a policy consensus among theruling class parties.

A determined struggle against communalism should be an integral partof the struggling forces’ drive against anti-people policies of BJP led NDAGovt. as unfolded through their Budget and other policy pronouncements.This struggle should encompass all aspects of the offensive in economic,political, social and cultural spheres. All forces that can be united on thisissue should be mobilized. Efforts for joint struggles on different aspectsof their offensive should be made. Particular attention should be paid tounite all forces that can be united to combat communal attacks and defendlives and properties of minorities. We should try to play our due role inmeeting this offensive both on our own initiative as well as through jointstruggles. And we should exert utmost to increase our capacity in playingsuch a role.

PROPOSED LABOUR LAWAMENDMENTS IN THESERVICE OF CAPITAL

B Pr adeep.A World Bank document dated September 15, 2004 and titled “Country

Strategy for India” had the following to state in regard to what has todaybecome the central theme for amendments to the existing labour laws,that is, labour flexibility. “Labour Inflexibility: Restrictions on the hiring andfiring of workers by medium and large firms are one of the greatestchallenges of doing business in India. Employment in registered firms (thosewith more than 100 employees) is highly protected. Any registered firmwishing to retrench labour can only do so with the permission of the stategovernment which is rarely granted. These provisions make labourrationalization very difficult…. They are obviously especially burdensomefor exporters…” It goes on, “ Further the use of contract labour is restrictedto temporary activities by the Contract Labour Act”. This has been theconsistent position of the World Bank in its economic reforms programmesright since the eighties and nineties. The new economic policies, dictatedas they were by the IMF-WB, that came into play in 1991 in the countrycontained the direction to bring about labour flexibility. In 2001, the Reportof the Task Force of the Planning Commission on Employment Opportunitiesand the report of the 2nd National Labour Commission echoed this theme.The dominant discourse in the country since the nineties in particular hasbeen the arguments to usher in labour market flexibility. In order to attainthis flexibility, it is said, so-called restrictive laws need to be changed.They say these laws impede growth and investments in the country. Theproposed amendments to some of the labour laws that the NDA governmentis planning to bring in cannot be seen in isolation from this discourse.Many bills towards this end were pending for long under the UPA governmentand now the present dispensation at the Centre is preparing to bring inthese changes in the labour laws making Rajasthan the inaugural point.

It is not that the existing labour laws in the country are sacrosanct and



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should not be subjected to changes but when the changes infringe uponthe rights of the workers at large and when these distinctly go to strengthenthe hands of capital, then they should be questioned and opposed. Becausewhatever little exists in these laws as rights or guarantees for workers arethose that were realized as a result of long struggles of the workers in thecountry.

Secondly, even these are not implemented and again it is the workerswho put pressure for getting them enforced. That is why we see in thecountry even today workers and unions raising the demand forimplementation of labour laws. The propaganda that labour flexibility doesnot exist in the country is entirely false and these laws have not been ableto stop retrenchments, closures and lay-offs. How many workers sloggingin the unorganized sectors of the economy enjoy the benefits of minimumwage? There are thousands of units in the country that do not give theworkers wage slips, maintain records and registers. The increasing tendencyto employ on contract basis or the growth in appointing temporary labour inthe last two decades has led to insecurity despite the laws.

On the 31st July, the Rajasthan Assembly had passed changes to theFactories Act, Industrial Disputes Act, The Contract Labour Act andApprentices Act. The Chief minister Vasundhara Raje promised that shewould convene a meeting of the Trade Unions before the introduction ofthe bills in the Assembly, but that never took place and the bills wereplaced in the Assembly and passed. The Central government has alsoproposed amendments to the Factories Act in addition to the changes inthe Minimum Wages Act and labour laws that envisage maintenance ofrecords. Let us briefly examine some of the proposed changes that have abearing on the lives of the workers at large.

The proposed changes in the Factories Act essentially take out a largechunk of the workforce from the purview of the Act by reducing the numberof workers to be covered by the Act by increasing the requirement ofcoverage under the Act from the existing 10 to 20 workersiin units usingpower and from 20 to 40 in units without power. This means that thoseslogging in the small units in the unorganized sector like the quarries, brick-kilns will be out of the purview of the Act. This would also lead to increasedoutsourcing by medium and big companies thus pushing many more intothe ambit of the unorganized. The existing Factories Act does not permitwomen workers to work in night shifts though in many establishments like

in the IT sector, women do work in the night shifts. This ban is sought tobe lifted with an amendment allowing women to work in night shifts whichraises serious concerns in regard to safety and health of women. The UnionGovernment has proposed another amendment to the Act to raise theovertime limit of the present 50 hrs/quarter year to 100 hrs/quarter yr. Thismeans in the life of a worker more hours or more labour power is expendedbearing on his/her health but accruing more profits to the employer.

In regard to the law that enjoins upon the management to maintain recordsand registers, the Union government proposed amendments would removeall such controls over employers. As it is an overwhelming majority of theworkforce in the country do not have records of their wages and labour thathave to be maintained by employers. Now with the freeing of employersfrom maintaining records more workers are pushed into the ocean of themillions who are “faceless". Very often we hear of the term “inspector Raj”which has become a pretext now to remove certain minimum responsibilitieson the part of employer. Regular inspections of factories and establishmentsby labour officers to oversee the implementation of labour laws have neverbeen the rule in the country and with the proposed amendments employerswould enjoy more freedom putting the workers to more disadvantages.

The NDA govt. intends to bring certain changes in the Minimum WagesAct in terms of introducing a national floor level for minimum wage thatwas proposed by the earlier UPA government. But fixing a minimum levelof wage should be reasonable and realistic taking into consideration allaspects of life that determines a minimum wage. The present floor levelwage is fixed at Rs.115 which is far too low to even sustain a worker andhis/her family. In many states unions have advanced the demand of aminimum wage that ranges between 15 to 25 thousand. In the course ofcontinuous erosion in the real wages of the workers and the depression ofwages by the employers, fixation of a floor level minimum wage must bedetermined taking into consideration all these factors.

The most important of the proposed amendments in the labour laws arethe changes proposed in the Industrial Dispute Act, that the Rajasthangovernment is envisaging. The applicability of Chapter VB of the Act isnow sought to be restricted to factories and establishments that have over300 workers instead of the presnt 100. In the present Act for retrenchingworkers, imposing lay-offs and closures, the employer employing morethan 100 must seek the permission of the government. With the increase



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in the number to 300, the employers are now at liberty to hire and fire moreworkers as a large number of establishments will go out of the purview ofChapter VB of the Act. As it is, violations of this clause abound and nowwith the proposed amendment, more and more number of workers would beforced out of employment.This was what capital wanted in terms of realisinglabour flexibility and the Rajasthan Government and the Union Governmenttoo would now give the desired “freedom” to hire and fire labour at will.

Second important change that is intended to be brought is the increasein the present 15% for according the status of a representative union to30%. As it is, there are several cases where the right to Union is curtailedby employers and the enforcement agency does not go to protect this rightvery often leading to workers' unrest manifesting in various forms. Theproposed change would further strengthen the hands of the employers tostifle normal trade union rights of the workers. If there are more than oneunion in any establishment and the question of “recognition” comes up themajority union should be accorded recognition. To make 30% as a conditionfor according the status of a representative union is to circumvent theright to collective bargaining.

The Contract Labour (R and A) Act is sought to be changed to theadvantage of the principal employer. At present, establishments employingtwenty or more workers are covered by the Act and now the governmentintends to reduce the coverage of this Act only to those units that employmore than 50 workers. This means more number of workers would be thrownout of the purview of the Act thus depriving them of whatever little benefitsthey would get under the Act. One of the means adopted by the employersto realize labour flexibility is the employment of contract labour. Since1991, with new economic policies, contractualisation and casualisation oflabour have enormously increased. Today, in many manufacturing unitsand in the service sector too contract workers outnumber regular workers.As it is these contract workers in most cases are denied the benefits of theAct and the present amendments would throw out a large chunk of thisworkforce from the frame of these formal entitlements. The amendments,on the other hand, provide protection to the principal employer from anyviolations of the Act by the contractor. This apart, over the years theemployers in many sectors, in order to escape from this Act, are employingworkers on what is now called as fixed term contract (FTC), which istemporary employment for a decided period.

There are proposals to amend the Apprentices Act,1961 that in essencestrengthen the hands of the employers and free him/her from regulations.Section 8 of the Act is sought to be amended in a way that gives moreflexibility to the employer in engaging apprentices. Recruitment policy willbe decided by the employer and the amendments to sections 2 and 37would free the managements from government regulations. Giving flexibilityto the employer and freeing him/her from government regulations wouldlead to a situation where the issue of absorption of an apprentice wouldentirely be left to the employer. On top of all this it would be the stategovernment that will bear half or quarter of the costs of the apprentices asthe case may be.

All in all the proposed amendments to the existing labour laws aredistinctly in favour of capital and against labour and they need to be opposed.The agenda for changes in the labour laws is the agenda set by capital, thecorporates and the BJP-led NDA which came to power with the strongsupport of the corporate sector cannot but express its gratitude to them bytrying to implement the set agenda.

Shah Commission on illegal mining of Iron Ore in Jharkhand

Deep Nexus of Govts. AndMiners to Loot the Land

The Shah Commission was set up by the UPA-II Central Govt. in 2010to look into illegal mining of iron ore and manganese in seven statesfollowing demands of movements. The frenzied illegal mining of that periodcan be chiefly related to the soaring of demand from China for even alesser quality iron ore following a construction boom in that country andalso their development of techniques to enrich the lower quality ores tosatisfy their requirements. The Shah Commission, in its term, submitted

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an interim overall report, reports on Goa, Karnataka, and Odisha and thefirst part of its report on Jharkhand. It had not even been able to begin workon Chhattisgarh. The part report on Jharkhand, in four volumes, wassubmitted to the Central Govt. on 26th November 2013 and thereafter theGovt. denied extension of term to the Shah Commission.

On 25th January 2014, in answer to the Supreme Court, the CentralGovt. refused to extend the term of the Shah Commission, saying it was‘unwarranted’ and that its terms of reference had been ‘substantially met’.It also refused to share the Jharkhand report with the Supreme Court sayingit would infringe the rights of Parliament. Reports have to be consideredby the Union Cabinet and placed before Parliament along with an ‘ActionTaken Report’ (ATR) within six months of receiving the Report. In this casethe Govt. maintained it had asked the state Govt. and the companiesconcerned to place their comments on the Report by the 26th of Decemberso that it could be considered by the Cabinet.

There could be several reasons for non granting of extension to theShah Commission. First, it had already forced banning of mining of iron orein at least two states, even though the Supreme Court later restarted themining. Second and more importantly, the demand from China which hadfuelled the frenzied rise in illegal mining had tapered off and also the people’smovements they had given rise to and people were awaiting theCommission’s reports. It is the possible explanation for the Odisha Govt.simply denying that any illegal mining took place in Odisha in the face ofthe documentation of the Commission. Thirdly, the reports were bringingout the deep connivance of the entire state machinery and the govts. in theloot of the land.

Regarding Jharkhand, the Report shows a situation somewhat differentfrom that of other states. Here illegal mining is not quite associated withthe China boom alone. Of the total of 42 mining leases in the State formining of iron ore and manganese, 40 are operating on ‘deemed extensions’,some for decades. Companies have earlier operated their leases for twodecades. One year before the lease expires they are to place applicationsfor renewal. Twenty four companies are functioning on ‘deemed extensions’for the past 20 years, three companies for between 15 to 20 years, sevencompanies for between 10 to 15 years, five companies for 5 to 10 yearsand one company for less than 5 years. The Shah Commission has blamedthe Jharkhand Govt. for the delay in lease renewals and stated that the

loss from deemed extensions runs into ‘ hundreds of crores‘ of rupees i.e.no stamp duty has been paid which is paid at the time of renewal. Suchcompanies include SAIL( Steel Authority of India)’s mines, Tata Steel,Singhbhum Minerals, Rameshwar Jute Mills, General Produce Ltd, OdishaManganese and Minerals Pvt. Ltd. 18 out of these total of 40 leases alsooperated without environmental clearances. Some had conditionalclearances but the conditions were not executed. These conditions pertainedto non pollution of the two perennial rivers Karo and Kaina, to not harm thefauna like elephants, sloth bear, Indian wolf etc. The violaters includeKarampada Iron Ore Mines owned by Shah Brothers, Singhbhum Minerals,Rungta Mines, Usha Martin Mines, Tata Steel and others. In these, theNirmul and Pradeep mines as well as several mines of SAIL are situatedwithin the elephant reserve area.

The Commission states that the delays of the state Govt. also bredcorruption –‘The unreasonable delay has resulted in widespread corruptionthat too while minerals were exported at high prices during the China boom’.It summarizes that 22,000 crore rupees worth illegal mining took place inJharkhand and earnings from illegal export of iron ore was worth 2747 crorerupees. There was illegal production in 26 iron ore and manganese (deemed)leases. Involved are SAIL, Tata Steel, Rungta Mines, Usha Martin,Rameshwar Jute Mills, Singhbhum Minerals Co. Out of the 42 leases therewere land encroachments in 25 mining leases amounting to 267.96 ha. ofwhich 143.6 ha. was used to illegally extract ore. Overall, the Commissionstated that 14,403 crore rupees' fines should be taken from the iron oremines and 138 crore rupees from the manganese mines for environmentalviolations. It said the value would be higher had factors such as consent tooperate, production without mining plan, forest clearance been taken intoaccount.

The Shah Commission has pointed out that the Indian Bureau of Mineshas approved schemes to increase production irrationally. It also pointedout that the Jharkhand Govt. had allowed a number of crushers to operatealong the border with Odisha in West Singhbhum district. There were 80such of which 60 had licences. The Odisha Govt.’s complaint has beenthat it was difficult to stop illegal mining with this facility available once theore crossed the border.

The Commission has also made a comment on the pending applicationsfor iron ore and manganese mining. It has listed the proposed leases with



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stage one approvals granted – Jindal Steel Power Ltd, Electro Steel , JSWand those pending as proposed leases – from Bhushan Steel, Sesa Goa,Rungta Mines, Arcelor Mittal, and Tata Steel. The Commission says thatthe stage 1 approvals should be reconsidered and the approvals underSection 51 of the MMDR Act 1957 should be withdrawn. Regarding theSaranda forest it says that of the total forest area of 85,770 ha. 24% isleased which is too high a figure and the fresh proposals will lead tofragmentation of the forest. It suggests that all leases be legally terminatedand then land be granted in public auction to an extent that there is nofurther fragmentation of the forest. Overall it takes the position that thepresent production capacity in the country is 180 MTPA which is morethan enough for the requirements of the steel plants in the country even ifthere is a growth rate of 10% for the next ten years. The implication is thatno further mines are needed.

In fact the Commission uses the term ‘On the way to finish’ regardingthe Saranda forests.23605 sq. km of Jharkhand is forest area- they cover29.6% area of the state. 82% are protected forests and the rest are reserveforests. The Saranda forest is considered the zenith of sal forests in India.It gives birth to many streams which feed into the Karo and Koina rivers.Saranda falls into West Singhbhum's core reserve area for elephants intowhich so many mines are infiltrating. In fact this infiltration of mines intoelephant reserves has led to the displaced animals moving towards humanhabitations. They destroy crops and become targets of people's ire as inBankura where a movement arose for this reason against encroachment inelephants' Reserves.

In the third and fourth volume within the last chapter of this first part ofthe Report, the Commission touches on two interesting cases andreproduces entire letters of erstwhile ministers of Environment JairamRamesh and Jayanthi Natarajan. They reveal much about where the rotbegins. Shah Commission has written only a simple sentence that all thosein the above chapter should be acted against. In one case, JayanthiNatarajan approved diversion of 55.79 ha. of forest land on 4.2.2012. Thiswas land as detailed in a proposal sent by the Jharkhand Govt. The Ministerstated in her letter that, ‘the usual stringent conditions will be laid down’.Letters were interchanged between Ramesh and the PM, Natarajan andthe PM in which she pointed out that Ramesh’s objections were placedbefore the Cabinet Committee on investments and not approved. Two simplefacts are stated in the Report. One, regarding the mine approved by Ms.

Natarajan, that once a proposal has been rejected ( in this case, twice) bythe Forest Advisory Committee (FAC) it cannot be approved . This is theposition of the Supreme Court. Second , the facts as stated in Natarajan’sletter are exposed on a few points viz, the project (Electro Steel Casting)was located within the Elephant Reserve and no mines exist in the Kalilabadblock of Saranda, not even an old Usha Martin mine as alleged by Natarajan.About the last, the Commission remarks to the effect that if that mine wasinappropriate some change should be made and it need not be followed asan example.(Electro Steel Casting is one of the mines in the Stage 1clearance which the Commission has suggested should be scrapped.) Theearlier letter of Jairam Ramesh, when he was Environment Minister, to theFAC is also reproduced in which he overrules their objection and allowsthe Chiria mines(belonging to SAIL) and also mentions in the letter that theonly other time he over rode the FAC was in the case of POSCO.

The Commission has noted the poor state of Compensatory Afforestation(CA) and said part of the reason is that the areas allocated are eitherunsuitable or Maoist dominated and of course there is no intent. It recordsthat in the CCF (Central) meeting the Chief Conservator of Forests hadreported that in Latehar division the talk with a Maoist Commander clarifiedthat the Govt. does not recognize the rights of actual cultivators (not thelegal owners) over the land in the various transactions. Thus most timesthe area under cultivation by villagers, including Ho tribals, is transferredfor CA purposes.

Overall, this Report, like the other reports of the Shah Commission,has unearthed the deep politician corporate nexus in the mining sector.The ATR is full of ‘is being looked into’ and ‘being investigated’. The onlyaction taken is the Enforcement Directorate lodging two cases against Mr.P.K. Jain, an iron ore exporter. Who will take action on the issues raisedby these reports? The BJP led Govt. has been brought to power by thecorporate to remove the hurdles that people’s struggles have created forunbridled mining, also by forcing changes in the laws pertaining to landacquisitions. Arun Jaitley, in his maiden Budget speech, swore the intentof his govt. to remove hurdles in mining. Only the people of India can stopthe rape of the land.



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Gujarat Model of AgriculturalDevelopment : Myth & Reality

Ashish MitalGujarat model of development, particularly growth in the agricultural

sector attributed to Modi’s tenure as CM, has been widely acclaimed in themedia. India’s ruling classes, mainly the MNC led corporate sector, themedia houses run by them had suddenly discovered this model in 2011and had gone gung ho over it. Since then they have chosen their bestrepresentative for the Prime Minister’s post and ensured his victory. Nowthey along with everyone who wants Indian markets to open up, the WorldBank President and US Secretary of State John Kerry, have beendemanding immediate implementation of this model.

This model, as projected, has been made to appear like an oasis ofgreenery, in a widespread desert outside Gujarat. Several facts howevershow that Gujarat has actually not risen above the other states in parametersof social development, in fact, has slid somewhat under Modi. However itis not the subject of this article to detail those parameters.

During the course of the Lok Sabha poll campaign, ruling classessuccessfully hid under their magical veil promising growth and expected‘good days’ of BJP rule, the real cause of crises in the economy. Thiscause, the rule of unpatriotic, comprador capitalists and big landlords andtheir Liberalization policies, has wrecked havoc on the people, even themiddle classes. It has led to rapid ‘growth’ of inflation, unemployment,corruption, indebtedness, forced eviction from land and city bastis, severedeprivation of civic amenities, degradation of environment and more andsevere natural disasters, serious water scarcity, and a much moreinsensitive administration coupled with a sharp attack on the democraticrights. The performance of Gujarat during these last years needs to beobjectively evaluated against the massive propaganda blitz of it havingdone well and also against other states.

In the background some broad facts need to be kept in mind. One isthat after Modi came to power in Oct 2001, anti Muslim violence of February-March 2002 saw more than 2000 Muslims being butchered in an organizedand coordinated attack by BJP led Hindu communal forces in connivance

with state forces. According to 2011 Census 89% of the state’s populationis Hindu and 9% is Muslim. Secondly, along with this, came the thrust ofliberalization and deregulation of Gujarat’s economy and attempt to turn itinto a manufacturing hub. And thirdly, that contrary to all claims of a GujaratModel of Development, the performance of main crops since 2003-04 to2012-13 shows that the production of food grains has grown only by about10% in 9 years from 6.737 mt to 7.325 mt, oilseed production has in factcome down to nearly half from 5.85 mt to 2.893 mt and cotton has grownaround 12% every year from 4.28 m bales to 8.68 m bales/yr.

Despite this, the Vibrant Gujarat Summit in Gandhinagar in January2013 claimed an economic growth of 10.4 % in the last five years, 16%contribution to the industrial production of the country, industrial growthrate of 13%, agricultural growth rate of 11-12%, 22 per cent of India‘s export,having established one international and six domestic airports, 23 powerplants, wide road, rail and gas pipeline network, 55 SEZs and building abusiness friendly regulatory environment that attracts private investors fromother parts of India as well as overseas.

This Modi Model needs to be scanned for truth under a magnifyingglass.

Agricultural ‘Growth’ under Modi – Discrepancies in Claims:

Though some persons claim that rapid industrial development, includingport development had made Gujarat India’s fastest-growing state, Gujarat’ssuccess, according to an IFPRI study, “Secret of Gujarat’s Agrarian Miracleafter 2000", (Tushaar Shah, Ashok Gulati, Hemant P, Ganga Shreedhar, RC Jain) states that its success lay in its agricultural performance whichwas the highest amongst different states. This study published in EPW in2009 stated that between 2000-01 and 2007-08 agricultural value addedgrew at 9.6% per year (despite a major drought in 2002) which is more thandouble of India’s agricultural growth rate, much faster than Punjab’s farmgrowth during green revolution heyday and indeed the fastest rate recordedanywhere in the world. It claims that annual growth rates of nearly <FF G<EIK>KIJL significantly accelerated after 2000 compared to before and henceGujarat agriculture is being projected as a “model” for other states to follow.According to it the growth rate for wheat and pulses in Gujarat “nearlydoubled” and in cotton it “jumped over 3.5 times” (see for 1990s and 2000s).It insists that “the coefficient of variation for all crops and crop groups has



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been lower in the period after 2000 than before”.

It is relevant that agriculture contributes only around 15 per cent ofGujarat’s GDP and provides employment to almost 51.58 per cent of itspopulation (similar to other states). Its contribution to the GDP of ‘VibrantGujarat’ could only have been to the extent of 15% while its contribution tothe problem of unemployment could have been immense.

In later articles, basing on data from the Central Statistical Organisation,Gulathi has contended that agriculture growth in Gujarat from 2001-02 to2011-12 is around 9.8 per cent at constant prices, although Alagh statesthat it has been around 5.5-5.6 per cent during the same period. The stategovernment has itself claimed increase in growth rate from 3.3 per cent inthe 1990s to 11.1 per cent during the decade between 2002 and 2012.

Gulati paints the following picture. “While the overall performance ofagriculture improved very marginally from 2.9% per annum growth in the1990s to 3.3% in the 2000s, certain states demonstrated a much biggerturn around. Going by the agri-GDP growth registered at state-level duringthe 2000s, Gujarat tops the list with 9.8% per annum growth, up from ameagre 2% during 1990s.” He gives the corresponding figures for otherstates. Kerala has been zero for the 2000s (down from 1.3% during 1990s),UP, Tamil Nadu, West Bengal have grown less than 3%, while the successstories have been in Rajasthan (9.6%), Chhattisgarh (8.9%), MadhyaPradesh (7.4%) and Jharkhand (6.9%). He also attributes several factorsto this success from technological success of Bt cotton, to check damsrecharging groundwater, to Narmada waters, to Jyotigram giving regularand reliable power supply in rural areas, Krishi Mahotsav which transformedthe agri-extension landscape, ever-flourishing dairy sector and wellconnected, good quality roads in rural areas.

On the other hand agriculture growth rate in Gujarat during the 11thplan, (2007-08 to 2011-12) records just 4.9% growth and the state wasranked eighth amongst all states in India. The growth performance in otherstates during 11th plan was Madhya Pradesh (7.6%), Chhatisgarh (7.6%),Rajasthan (7.4%), Jharkhand (6.0%) and Karnataka (5.6%) and Gujarat(4.9 per cent), Punjab (1.6%), Maharashtra (2.0%), Tamil Nadu (2.2%),West Bengal (2.8%), Uttar Pradesh (3.3%) and Haryana (3.3%). This periodalso saw a decline in production in one year as a result of late onset ofmonsoon and deficient rainfall in several states. The production of coarsecereals was severely affected in Gujarat.

What can be concluded from these widely varying figures thathave been put out?

1. +F<DGL IA .KIOMC) The first obvious conclusion is that there is nouniformity in the claims of high growth rate during the period of Modi’s ruleand this is highlighted by the results of different studies/authors. The variousstudies themselves begin their period of analysis from varying figures of2%(Gulathi) and 3.3% (state govt) and then they claim growth rates of9.8% (Gulathi), 11.1% (Gujarat Govt) and 5.6% (Alagh) and for the latterperiod the Planning Commission gives figure of 4.9%. Obviously thesestudies have taken different base years and some have purposefully takenpoor agricultural base years to begin with in order to reach artificially highand erroneous results.

2. *>MN<F .KIOMC) The second issue is what has the agricultural growthrate actually been during Modi’s rule? If we take the figures from the years2003-04 onwards, the figures for acreage and production for different cropswould exclude a major long period of drought up to 2001-02 and would alsomore correctly reflect the contribution of Modi administration as he cameto power in Oct 2001 and his contribution would take about a year or two tomake its impact on agriculture.

Food Grain production in Gujarat

Year Area (‘000 Hectares) Production (‘000 tonnes)

2003-04 4209 6737

2004-05 3984 5588

2005-06 3845 6345

2006-07 4791 6497

2007-08 4481 8206

2008-09 3983 6345

2009-10 3596 5605

2010-11 4905 10071

2011-12 4735 9257

2012-13 3681 7325



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Oilseeds production in GujaratYear Area (‘000 Hectares) Production (‘000 tonnes)2003-04 3071 58502004-05 2994 29302005-06 2962 46572006-07 2848 25872007-08 2852 46992008-09 2874 39322009-10 2686 30102010-11 3110 51422011-12 3130 50352012-13 2540 2893

Cotton production in GujaratYear Area (‘000 Hectares) Production (‘000 bales)

2003-04 1695 4280

2004-05 1920 5903

2005-06 2011 6872

2006-07 2390 8787

2007-08 2422 8276

2008-09 2354 7014

2009-10 2464 7401

2010-11 2623 9825

2011-12 3003 10375

2012-13 2515 8680

The variation in these figures is so huge that calculation of growth interms of percentages per year will lead to incorrect results, unless averagesover 5 or 10 year periods are compared. From these figures of 2003-04 to2012-13 we can see that food grain production has grown only at 0.969%per annum over 9 years. Only if we selectively take the favourable figure ofup to 2010-11, the annual growth rate in food grain production comes to7.07% pa. On the other hand the figures for 2012-13 show an absolute fallin food grain production of more than 10% from 8.21mt to 7.325 mt.

Similarly, net production of oilseeds has come down by almost 40% inthese 9 years and has varied every year. Figures for cotton show that itgrew to more than double from '03-'04 by '06-'07 and thereafter it hasstagnated. Obviously the conclusion that wheat production nearly doubledand cotton grew 3.5 times is totally misplaced for Modi’s period of rule andany ‘model’ thereof to be followed. The figures highlight a complete lack ofuniformity in growth in acreage and production during this Modi period. The‘coefficient of variation’ is rather high.

If we compare the figures for 2012-13 to the previous year it is obviousthat there is a very drastic fall across the board, which some authors claimhas resulted from another year of low rainfall. The data for growth in urbanstructures on farm land in Gujarat, displacement of farmers and rise inconstruction labour etc. as a cause for this also needs to be looked atclosely. The figures for area and production of food grains and other cropsfor these two years is as follows:

Crop Area (million Hectares) Production (million tonnes)

2011-12 2012-13 2011-12 2012-13

Rice 0.836 0.703 1.79 1.503

Wheat 1.351 1.05 4.072 3.135

Jowar 0.124 0.088 0.14 0.116

Bajra 0.866 0.619 1.612 1.071

Pulses 0.96 0.68 0.78 0.61

Total food grains 4.74 3.68 8.87 7.32

Cotton 2.96 2.5 12 m bales 8.73 m

9 Oil Seeds 3.13 2.54 5.04 2.89

Across the board, the acreage has fallen very significantly. The acreageof only one crop, i.e. tobacco has increased in these two years, from148,000 hectares to 158,000 hectares. The danger from this reduction inacreage must also be viewed in light of BJP’s national plank of developingIndia with 100 new cities, high tech cities, industrial hubs, SEZs, industialcorridors, etc.

Some observations here by various authors on forced displacement offarmers and conversion of agricultural land will help understand the‘development’ course that is leading to the above figures. Anamika Gupta



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writes that farmers are losing their agricultural land to private industriesand Gujarat Industrial Development Corporation, a state agency meant tofacilitate the entry of private industries in Gujarat. “The Adani group wasgiven over 5 crore square metres of land along the coast at a meagre rateranging from Re.1 to Rs.32 a square metre.. ... for industrial use and portdevelopment, instead, it sold/leased out a significant portion of it to othercorporate groups, flouting norms. Special Economic Zone in Mundra, spreadover 10,000 hectares, displaced 56 fishing villages and 126 settlements....Tata Motors with 440 ha of land in Sanand, near Ahmedabad to set up theTata Nano manufacturing unit. ... the Ford group and Peugeot have alreadyestablished a unit. Maruti Suzuki is the latest entrant in the game owing tocontinuing workers’ unrest at its plant in Manesar, Haryana."

Another report highlights social activist, 97 year old Chunibhai Vaidyaof Ahmedabad being involved with 22 land-related movements in the statewhich is stream rolling over agricultural land, water bodies and pastureland.He says “Gaon ki jameen gao ki, sarkar ki nahin”. Recently there was aprotest march by 5,000 farmers from Mehsana to Gandhinagar against theforced acquisition of their fertile land for a special investment region (SIR),forcing the government to rescind its order. In 2008, farmers from 15 villagesaround Mahuva in Bhavnagar district protested against the governmentmove to allot to the Nirma group a piece of land without bothering about awater body there which had revived agriculture in the region. The ‘Mahuvastruggle’ lasted for three years and ended with a victory in March 2011when the Ministry of Environment and Forests revoked environmentclearance given to the cement factory.

9<KD<MDIH DH ;D@F?) Another important factor would be to study the growthor variation in yield of major crops in Gujarat during this period. Between2003-04 to 2012-13 the variation in yield (kg per hectare) for Kharif foodgrains in successive years was 1405, 1146, 1238, 1037, 1380, 1311, 1204,1374, 1403 and 1625 kgs. For rabi crops it was 2319, 2201, 2298, 2123,2660, 2177, 2308, 2581, 2542 and 2542 kgs. For pulses it was 748, 675,704, 593, 843, 777, 705, 812, 815 and 900 kgs while for oilseeds it was1958, 910, 1543, 779, 1610, 1351, 1049, 1699, 1607 and 1072 kgs.

The only correct conclusion from these figures, thus, is a high variationin acreage, in yield and in production and a complete lack of stability,rather there is high volatility in growth according to these three majortraditional parameters of agricultural development in Gujarat.

One study, ‘Gujarat’s Agricultural Growth Story: Exploding Some Myths’(M. Dinesh Kumar, A. Narayanamoorthy, OP Singh, MVK Sivamohan,Manoj Sharma and Nitin Bassi) states that ‘growth’ observed after 2002 is“nothing but a good recovery from a major dip in production occurred duringthe drought years of 1999 and 2000”. They forcefully dismiss thesuggestions that HYV cotton has caught on like ‘wild fire’ and that improvedirrigation has led to massive increase in acreage of wheat and cotton,explaining that “production has become highly erratic, with sharp declinesin production during drought years”. HYV cotton, they say has increasedyield “from a mere 130kg/ha in 1949-50 to 624kg/ha in 2006-07” but it is“highly susceptible to monsoons unlike in the past. The reason is …. heavilydependent on the availability of water not only from the rains but in theaquifers and surface reservoirs."

3. +IGJ<KDLDIH ODMC IMC@K 7M<M@L) The third aspect to be studied iswhether, as per the claimants of high agricultural growth during Modi period,Gujarat demonstrates any higher growth rate as compared to other states.As per the figures quoted and parameters taken in studies of Gulati et al,Planning Commission and others, such a claim does not stand. Gujarat isnot the only state with high agri GDP figures, some others are at par andsome have performed better. So there is NO Gujarat “Model” of Agriculturalgrowth.

4. :C<M C<L .KIOH) The fourth and most important factor to be concludedis the fact of what has grown in this so called Model. Previously agriculturalgrowth was mainly determined as a growth in crop production, acreage andyield. Now a new parameter is being highlighted and that is AgriculturalGDP at constant prices.

GDP is the market valuation of the crops grown and can vary, that isrise or fall even if the actual production has remained same or even fallen,dependent on the market valuation of that crop changing relatively, evenafter accounting for inflation. With high demand of certain items and changein cropping pattern in favour of such crops, the GDP growth will be high.This is precisely what seems to have happened in Gujarat and in a numberof other states which are being shown to have registered a high growth rateof agri GDP. A shift in cropping pattern to commercial crops, rise in demandas such and its increase due to agro-processing, shift to high market valueproducts, high export demand, etc. has raised the relative market value ofsome farm produce. The overall agricultural GDP has thus risen. This ‘Modi



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magic’ has manifested with increased penetration of companies inagriculture. It is probably the single most important factor.

It should be clear that this does not in any way reflect a 5 % or 9% or11% growth in crop production or an increase in farmers' security or thecountry’s food security. In fact a shift towards better marketable crops, inIndia where vast majority of farmers have poor investment capacity, is ashift towards greater company inputs, greater indebtedness of farmers,deterioration in their conditions and a bigger food crisis for the poor.

Data on farmer’s indebtedness available is of 2003 which shows 59%farmers of Gujarat to be indebted while All India figure was 48.6%. Gujaratis one of the states on the list of farmers' suicides. According to newsreports, 489 farmers committed suicide in Gujarat from 2003 to 2007, and112 suicides took place from 2008 to 2012, with around 40 such incidentsoccurring between August and December 2012 itself. Since most of thesedeaths are recorded as accidental death, the actual figure could be muchhigher. It is clear that it is not the farmers who are benefitting, but thosewho have usurped the farmers’ land and rights to farming.

The variation in the agricultural GDP growth rates with the productiongrowth rates of all major crops which are supposed to have contributed toit is as:

Year Agri GDP Percentage Growth in production

Food grain. Oilseeds Cotton Milk

2005-06 27.05 13.55 58.94 16.42

2006-07 -1.08 2.4 -44.45 27.87 8.2

2007-08 10.53 26.3 81.69 -5.82 5.0

2008-09 -8.71 -22.68 -16.32 -15.25

2009-10 -1.11 -11.66 -23.45 5.52 of 2 yrs 11.79

2010-11 25.50 79.68 70.83 32.75 5.39

2011-12 5.75 -8.08 -2.08 5.6 5.32

2012-13 -8.31. -20.87 -42.54 -16.34 5.07

The agricultural GDP growth for this above period of 8 years is an averageof 6.2 while food grain production during this period grew on average only

by 3.88% per year (production was particularly bad in 2004-05), oilseedproduction came down by 0.15% per year, cotton production grew by 5.8%per year and milk production grew by 6.9% (7 years data). These apart,horticulture crops too are listed as a major contributor. The GDP growth asa trend is higher than crop production and the reason is the role of marketforces.

Some observations on agricultural GDP growth

The Gujarat govt.’s official website’s note as on July 2014 is of theyear 2009. It claims to have successfully implemented the ‘Second GreenRevolution’, improved irrigation and increased crop intensity from 1-2 cropsto 3-4 crops. It states that the three main sources of growth in agriculturein Gujarat are i) Cotton production, ii) Rapid growth of high value segmentlike Dairy and Livestock, Fruits (banana, mango), and Vegetables (potato,onions) which together have grown @ 12.8% p.a. since 2000-01 and iii)Wheat growth from 0.6 mt in '00-'01 to 3.8 mt in '07-'08 @ of 28% pa. It alsolists growth in social forestry. Horticulture acreage in Gujarat has increasedfrom 5.89 lakh hectares in 1998-99 to 12.46 lakh hectares in 2007-08, whileproduction has gone up from 59.49 lakh tones to 144.74 lakh tones duringthis period.

The study of Dinesh and his co workers observed that “... data for 11years from 1988-89 (corresponding to the good rainfall year of 1988) to1998-99 are taken. This was compared against the growth figures for theperiod from 1998-99 (corresponding to the normal year of 1998) to 2005-06.Our analysis shows that agricultural growth during the 11-year period, whichincluded the initial years of economic liberalization, was dramatic, and theannual compounded growth rate clocked a figure of 20.8 per cent. .....Also, the growth during the subsequent period (i.e., 1998-99 to 2005-06)was a meagre 7.4 per cent.”

According to this study the areas contributing to Gujarat’s agriculturalgrowth in terms of value of crops from 1980-'81 to 2005-'06 are Milk andDairying (21.9%), Cotton (15%), Horticulture crops (13.8%), Groundnut(12%), Sugarcane (5.9%), Wheat (4.7%), Paddy (2.83%) and so on. Basicfood grains contribute very little to this GDP.

The study prepared by Assocham Economic Research Bureau (AERB)says that in terms of milk production, Gujarat is ranked fifth with abouteight per cent share across India in total annual milk production of over



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120 million tonnes (mt). It has a growth rate of about 24 per cent in milkproduction, which is above the all-India growth rate of about 19 per cent.

Drought Management under Modi rule, Irrigation, Sardar SarovarDam, Jyotigram Yojna:

One important factor which needs comment is the question of droughtmanagement in Gujarat, a state which has been reputed to be particularlyaffected by it.

The Economic Times article of July 2009 is a good example of the kindof propaganda blitz unleashed for Modi’s Gujarat. It highlights the adversitycaused by high water consuming MNC developed costly seeds (GreenRevolution) having led to reduced water table. It states that “70% Gujaratis drought prone and arid. SSP project’s canal network in 2009 was stillhopelessly incomplete and it irrigated only 0.1 million hectares. 82% ofirrigation in the state is from tube wells. By the mid-1990s, groundwaterextraction exceeded natural recharge in 31 talukas, and in another 12 talukasit was 90% of the safe extraction yield.”

It further states that as per IFPRI study “10,700 check dams were builtup to 2000, and helped drought-proof 32,000 hectares. But under Modi,Gujarat built ten times as many check dams (as per web site ‘in June 2007there were 2,97,527 checkdams, boribunds and khet taluvadis or farmponds’) which have played a big role in the agricultural growth of Saurashtraand Kutch”. Fair enough, but is there enough data from Saurashtra andKutch of the water table having risen and of these areas having shownconsistency in food production growth and in being able to fight out droughtconditions. If such data does exist, it has not been presented. It has onlybeen asserted by Gulati that agricultural growth in Saurashtra is driven bya rise in production of banana, vegetables and to an extent wheat which istoo generalized a claim.

Another write up quotes the EPW paper stating “The places where largenumber of checkdams were set up .... Saurashtra-Kutch and North Gujarat,the output per hectare increased by 43.6 per cent and 35.5 per cent,respectively ... against an output increase of around 30 per cent in Southand Central Gujarat, where Narmada waters are available for cultivation.”This is obviously too meagre an increase to be of significance, becausearid conditions reduce productivity by more than half. In fact some scholarsview incomplete development of SSP canal infrastructure as a reason for

its incomplete impact on agricultural stabilization and excessive dependenceon rains. They claim that high growth took place only when there was enoughrainfall and when farmers pumped out water straight from the canals.

In 2013 Modi claimed that in the coming years, the same lack of waterthat was seen as the reason behind Gujarat‘s problems will now be thereason behind the state‘s progress. But Anamika Gupta’s paper statesthat his Sujalam Sufalam Yojna (SSY announced 2003, target completion2005) to provide irrigation and water supply to drought-prone north Gujarat,the Sardar Sarovar Dam Project for Drinking Water Grid and River Interlinkingproject have been mired in corruption. SSY is still not completed and NorthGujarat farmers still suffer.

In the Sardar Sarovar Dam Project, the cover up is massive. The damis estimated to generate 1 billion kwh of hydropower every year, for irrigationof 1.8 million ha in Gujarat to benefit 1 million farmers. (Official website).But crops have continued to fail each year in drought-prone areas. SSMcompletion has been postponed to December 2014. Out of 75,000 km ofcanal network projected, only 35% i.e. 26,000 km has been completed, ofwhich only 10,000 km was completed under the Modi government, since2001.

A report by Tata Institute of Social Sciences says the Dam mainlyserves the needs of the energy-guzzling industries with greater percentageof water being diverted now to power plants, city municipal corporationsand industries, without recovery of water charges.

The groundwater level in the state has been declining by an average ofabout three metres per year. In February 2013, the government passed abill restricting farmers from extracting ground water from below 45 metreswithout a license. This law, the Irrigation and Drainage Bill 2013 replacedthe earlier Gujarat Irrigation Act 1879. It mandates canal officers to monitorirrigation and distribution, to maintain water gauges and arrest violatorswho can be fined up to Rs 10,000 and sent to jail for 6 months In September2012, Coca Cola opened its biggest production plant in Gujarat‘s Khedadistrict.

The EPW article claims that Gujarat promoted drip irrigation, “badlyneeded to conserve water in semi-arid districts” and highlights 1 lakh acrescoverage and the govt’s financial support to drip irrigation. It simply parrotsgeneral and MNC propaganda on drip irrigation and presents no data on the



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specific results obtained. Drip Irrigation is used after studying landtopography, soil, water, crop and agro-climatic conditions and is most usefulfor crops and trees such as coconuts, containerized landscape trees, grapes,bananas, ber, eggplant, citrus, strawberries, sugarcane, cotton, maize, andtomatoes. It is used to conserve water and fertilizers. It does not apply to‘conserve water in semi-arid districts’ as is being propagated. If not usedproperly it causes waste of water, time and harvest.

Big claims have also been made: “Modi’s Jyotigram scheme for powerhas provided regular, high-quality electricity to villages. This has facilitateda switch to high-value crops like mango, banana and wheat, continuouspower for non-agricultural uses has spurred diversification into non-farmactivities, vital for rural growth. The irrigated area has expanded at the rateof 4.4% per year. The fastest growth in crops has been in wheat, followedby cotton and fruits and vegetables.”

None of these claims are substantiated by facts. Crop growth claim isclearly incorrect. Irrigated area claim too is incorrect. There is hardly anysign of non-farm activity growth. Neither is there any specific claim ofwhich non farm sector has seen growth, nor has there been any spurt ingrowth of cottage industry. In fact, there are reports to the contrary that60,000 small scale units have closed down in the last 10 years. Regularpower supply will be a support to high value crops is general knowledge,but so will it support all crops. And the claim of 4.4% expansion in irrigatedarea per year is totally bogus. As per available figures of 2006-07 and2010-11 the total irrigation coverage has increased during this period from39.5% to 45.5%. For rice it has increased from 57.5% to 61.5%, for wheatfrom 89.1% to 98.0%, for cotton from 44.7% to 58.7%, for pulses from10.8% to 13.3% and for oilseeds from 24.8% to 27.5%. This is no wherenear a 4.4% annual increase in irrigation coverage.

These claims of improved water availability, irrigation and regularelectricity are just like a fairy tale that has been fitted into a presumedclaim of growth in crop production. The official website too make suchclaims of increase in drip irrigation, interlinking of 21 rivers, more than 3lakh water harvesting structures in past 5 years which have raised thewater table and ensured 4 times growth in agricultural income. Four timesincrease in growth in agricultural income is also a very unlikely associateof farm suicides. Increasing debts are a more likely associate.

Conceptually the building of check dams, village tanks, and bori-bunds

is very useful for Indian agriculture and small farmer needs as compared tobig irrigation projects because 90% rainfall comes in 2 – 3 months. But thefact of their proper implementation in Gujarat and objectives achieved aswell as other factors of soil conditions needs objective consideration. Theproof of the pudding is always in the eating. Crop production results are notin any way flattering. How then can any claim of improved services infarming be acceptable on this basis?

Interestingly, Alagh claims improvement is due to the Sardar Sarovarirrigation canal network while Gulati says good results have come fromareas like Saurashtra, which was not serviced by SSP while a third articlesays that in 2005, the height of Sardar Sarovar dam was increased, butonly industries benefitted from it.

Anamika Gupta writes that Gujarat claims to be the only energy-surplusstate and it sells 600 MW surplus energy to neighbours. Modi rule claimsto have reduced transmission and distribution losses, done debtrestructuring, arrested power thefts, renegotiated power purchaseagreements with private players, provided separate power feeder lines foragriculture and domestic needs, etc. It has huge Solar generation capacityand is second after Tamil Nadu, in wind energy sector. Their JyotigramYojana provides three-phase power supply to most villages.

But 86 per cent of the load shedding is in rural areas even thoughelectricity is indispensable for drawing groundwater for irrigation. And thecost of electricity in Gujarat is much higher than the rest of India, becauseenergy is largely privatized, because the private players demand repeatedhike in power tariffs and because of the heavy reliance on imported coalwhich is costly. These private investors, Tata Power, Reliance Power andAdani Group have also been given large plots of fertile agricultural lands.forcibly taken from farmers, at ridiculously low prices.

Another observer Sanjeev Kumar, says that during 1990s, the incrementin consumption of electricity was highest in domestic sector, agricultureand in field of public water works while during 2000s the increase washighest in commercial and industrial sector while the consumption inagriculture decreased by around 16%.

8C@ 6@<F .KIOMC) These various articles mention what has really grown inGujarat’s agriculture. Certainly it is not the basic infrastructure which willbenefit farmers. What has improved is vast networking of pukka roads invillages. Network of private seed companies selling hitech seeds of bajra,



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castor and “above all more than 20 Bt cotton varieties produced by 30seed companies” have grown. It is claimed that Gujarat has only 26% ofIndia’s cotton area, but 35.5% of its production and that “rising world prices”and a huge jump in the MSP for cotton has helped. Contract farming hasgrown and improved marketing. Gujarat’s famous dairy co-operative, Amulhas grown along with entry of Vimal Dairy and Vadilal Industries. Corporatehave entered agro-exports and agro-processing, organised food retail andrural infrastructure development. Agrocel has taken up organic farming ofcotton and sesame seeds. Atreyas Agro and Godrej Agrovel plan contractcultivation of jatropha and palm oil respectively. Food retail chains likeFood Bazaar, Reliance Fresh and Spencer have sprung up in Gujarat’scities, sourcing produce from farmers directly. Gujarat govt has workedwith companies and NGOs to reach out to farmers to adopt all these.

This then is the real change which has caused growth of commercialinfrastructure, corporate penetration in sale of inputs, contracting,purchasing, agro processing, packaging, transporting and retailing. Withthis has come growth in horticulture, some commercial crops which attimes include some food grains also and dairy and livestocks.

A word on important harmful impact of MNC monocultures, which surelyhas added to farmers' woes, but are being hidden by the govt. Thesemonocultures harm crop diversity, reduce soil fertility, increase vulnerabilityto climate and other vagaries and increase dependence on that one crop.Crop failures become annual features in the face of erratic and inadequaterainfall. Incidentally in April 2012, Gujarat government stopped procuringthe hybrid maize seeds from Monsanto due to some ill-effects which werenot disclosed.

Q6DL@R DH -GJFIPG@HM <H? :<B@L NH?@K 3I?D) Archana Prasad in herpaper “Poverty and Dispossession in Gujarat Model of Development”concludes that “The main driver of poverty within the state is the growinglandlessness in rural areas”. Giving data exposing the exponential increasein landlessness during 2009-10, she attributes this to “the policies ofcorporate agriculture and contract farming as the cornerstone of the Gujaratmodel”. It is clear, she states, that the “increase is driven mainly by therise in the agricultural labour force, which appears to be a direct result ofthe increase in export market driven corporate farming. Further, the rise infemale labour outstrips that of male labour, thus pointing to a growth in lowpaid labour. This is also true of the rise in the urban female labour force”.

Real wages in Gujarat are amongst the lowest in the country. Accordingto 68th round (2011-12) of NSSO report, daily wage for urban casual labourin Gujarat is Rs. 144.52, compared to Rs. 170.10 national average. A rurallabour gets Rs 113 per day compared to the all-India average of Rs. 139and the female workers are the worst off getting only Rs. 89 per day. Thegrowth rate of wage in Gujarat during 1990s was 3.70% which became1.48% during 2000s while national figure increased from 1.54% to 3.78%.

Quoting NSSO data, Ruchika Rani and Kalaiyarasan A. show that thegrowth rate of employment in Gujarat during 1993-94 to 2004-05 was 2.6percent per annum and this came down to nearly zero from 2004-05 to2009-10

The Report on Gujarat’s model of development, written for Jagriti NatyaManch says, "Gujarat shows that in addition to poor gains in employmentthere is increase in use of contract workers from 19 to 34 per cent between2001 and 2008. It also shows an overall reduced position of workers withthe lowest share of wages in Gross Value added in the decade of 2000s incomparison to Haryana, Maharashtra and Tamil Nadu."

The share of Industry in GDP increased in Gujarat during 2004-05 to2009-10 but its contribution to employment generation decreased.

Anamika Gupta observed that Modi claimed that Gujarat is the biggestcreator of jobs in the country. However, the Census 2011 points in theopposite direction, besides revealing the startling case of missing farmers.The number of farmers has plummeted by 3.55 lakh in 10 years (2001-‘11)in Gujarat, that boasts of a double-digit growth in the agriculture sector.The number of agricultural labourers have increased by a staggering 17lakh during the same period.

8C@ /NG<H 8K<B@?P IA .NE<K<M 3I?@F) Gujarat presents a despicablepicture of tragic human development indices which we do not intend todetail here. Victims of the pogrom of 2002 and the displaced of SSP live inmiserable conditions. Facts on malnutrition in children and poor povertymanagement tell a tragic story. Monthly per capita consumption level dataof Gujarat highlights not only less consumption than earlier, but also agreater deterioration in rural areas now when compared to the urban areasof Gujarat.

New Democracy, August 2014

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Transcript of New Democracy, August 2014