The
BJP
g overnm ent
continued these policies – withdrawal of state procurem ent
agencies, privatization of agricultural market yards, gradual
div ersion of b ank loans f rom
peasants to agribusiness, withdrawing the support to peasants
etc. The Modi government slashed
the allocations to social spending
(health &m edical services,
education, food security etc) by Rs.
1.75 lakh crore, while it continued
the tax concessions to the big
bourgeoisie and foreign capitalists
given by the UPA government to
the tune of Rs. 5lakh crore per
year. It is clear that the BJP
government is driving the people
into more poverty and unemployment.
The impact of growing poverty
and unemployment is more on the
down trodden people, among them
adivasis are the worst affected.
They are being thrown out of their
habitat, and their livelihood-forest,
land, water are being forcefully
taken away. It is the adivasis who
are paying first for the costs with
their lives & livelihoods for every
so-called developmental projects.
Young wom en and men are
persecuted and even killed for
marrying someone outside the
caste. Women suffer various forms
of discrimination and oppression.
They are super-exploited at work
places and in the fields by denying
equal pay for equal work. In the
name of empowerment of women,
they are being subjected to slave
like labour in the sweat shops of
SEZs and their blood being sucked
by the micro finance companies.
The modern technology made
available as a part of expansion of
market for making profits, instead
of lightening the burden of women
is perpetuating the patriarchal
culture as is evident in the killing
of girl child in the womb.
Atrocities and attacks on dalits
are on the rise as a result of
December- 2016
growing rural tensions. As the
agricultural crisis worsens, its
impact is playing havoc with the
lives of dalits who constitute the
majority of the rural poor. Despite
tall talk of empowerment of dalits,
the employment opportunities are
constantly dwindling forcing them
to migrate to the cities condemning
them to wretched life.
The most precious human
productive asset of our country is
being ruined by the existing social
system. It is denying the basic
education to our children, and
subjecting the labour to intense
exploitation while another section
is kept idle partially or fully.
Education, from primary to higher
level, which imparts training to
sustain and develop production is
being tailored to suit the plunder
by the monopolies instead of
meeting the needs of our people
and country.
Sophisticated medical services
are offered to the people from rich
countries, often subsidized by the
government in the name of medical
tourism, while millions of our people,
particularly pregnant women and
inf ants, die of easily curable
diseases every year because of
lack of basic health services. The
medical and health services are
being
privatised
and
by
introduction of health insurance
schemes in the name of catering
the needs of the poor, public funds
are being diverted to corporate
hospitals and health insurance is
being promoted. The foreign
insurance giants are vying with
each other to gobble up the
medical insurance sector which
was made into a lucrative trade.
The ruling elite in its obsession to
earn foreign exchange, has
allowed the foreign pharmaceutical
companies to use the poor as
guinea pigs to test their drugs
without caring for the disabilities
resulting from those clinical trials.
Instead of safeguarding the health
of the people, the government is
extending its full support in this
unethical practice to ensure super
profits to the MNCs.
The
uneven
economic
development and consequently the
uneven political development is
giving rise to many problems.
There is no genuine development
of nationalities and regions. The
national
and
democratic
asp irations of the p eople are
getting expressed in various forms
and in various degrees. They are
ranging f rom demands for
development of region, language
and culture, to separate statehood
to self determination. The
struggles for national self determination in Kashmir and North
eastern states are persisting; the
Indian ruling classes are using
brutal military force to suppress
them with occasional drama of talks
to bring them into so-called main
stream. Many regions in the
country are demanding for
separate states within the Indian
union which are being utilised by
the ruling class parties to whip up
reg ional hatreds rather than
agreeing to their demand or
developing the region. The
demand for abrogating Armed
Forces Special Powers Act that
came to the fore in the people’s
movement speaks volumes of the
reign of terror let loose upon the
people by the government with the
plea of protecting the integrity of
the country.
In fact the call for protecting the
integrity is actually a call for
protecting the state oppression on
diff erent nationalities and the
attempt to deny equality of the
nationalities. Sometime it is
covered up by granting separate
statehood
to
dissenting
nationalities, but the oppression
goes on. Moreover the call for
protecting national integrity is often
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