misused to dev elop national
chauvinism.
The existing social system is
not only destroying the human
productive forces, but also ruining
the nature. The degradation of
forests and consequent soil
erosion is leading to devastating
floods. Soil fertility is reduced to an
alarming level and ground water is
depleting and newer areas are
being threatened by deser tification. The unbridled drive for
profits is leading to air and water
pollution causing harm to the
health of the people.
Carrot and Stick
The deterioration of living and
working conditions has led to
unrest and resentment among the
people. This period witnessed
resistance from the rural people to
the land grabbing by the state. This
resistance to SEZs, power plants,
nuclear reactors, ports, aerodromes etc., was mainly due to the
destruction of their livelihood and
lives by the so-called developmental projects.
The UPA government used
brutal repression on the people
who were resisting the land
grab bing b y force. Yet the
resistance of the p eople had
spread to wider areas; from UP to
Maharashtra, to AP, to Tamil Nadu;
and from West Bengal, Odisha to
Jharkhand to MP, to Gujarat.
Simultaneously, the congress
party also employed other means
to deceive and divert the people
from the path of struggle. One of
them was the policy of “rights
approach” to the problems. The
UPA headed by the Congress party
proclaimed that it will recognize the
people’s right to basic needs and
services through legal measures.
It enacted right to Information, right
to Education, right to Employment,
right to food laws along with the law
for restoration of traditional rights
of adivasis.
12
The non-implementation of
these ‘rights’ laws was only a part
of the deceptive game. From the
day of their enactment, the UPA
government devised methods to
dilute them. This was strikingly
evident in the case of adivasis and
food security Acts. While the central
gov ernment issued executive
orders nullifying the benefits that
should hav e reached to the
adivasis, most of the state
governments ignored their
responsibility to implement the law
by not framing the required rules
and regulations. Even the
government agencies observed
that the MNREGA had provided
employment to less than half of
those registered with the scheme
and the payment made for the work
was often far less than the
prescribed.
The BJP government too
announced the so-called social
security schemes, that is, Prime
Minister Jan DhanYojana, Prime
Minister Jeevan Jyoti Beema
Yojana,
Prime
Minister
SurakshaBeemaYojana and Atul
Pension Yojana. These are only
meant to divert the attention of the
people from the frontal attack on
the social sector made by the BJP
government
With the selective release of
data concerning the Economic and
social Census 2011, the Modi
government further reduced the
poverty figures with the aim of
reducing the number of beneficiaries under various schemes. In
the name of rationalization, the UPA
government had merged many
schemes and now the NDA government put the onus of imp lementation of many of these
schemes on the state governments. Another method devised
was direct cash transfer to the
beneficiaries’ bank accounts, which
gives leverage to the government
to reduce the subsidy and/or funds
allotment at its will and this is being
assiduously followed by the Modi
government.
Unable to solve not even a
single problem of the people, the
ruling classes are unleashing brutal
rep ression upon the peop le.
Moving in the footsteps of UPA
government , the NDA Govt.
continue the brutal repression on
the 6 people agitating against the
Nuclear power plants at Jaitpur,
Kudankulam etc. It also resorted to
firing on the farmers who are
resisting the construction of
thermal power plants in the
agricultural lands.
Divide and Rule
The ruling classes had been
using nefarious ‘divide and rule’
policy as a method to divide and
oppress the people. They are
using regional, caste and religious
differences to rake up hatred so as
to divide the people and liquidate
their unity. The ruling class cliques
used regional sentiments among
the Telugu-speaking people for
over a decade to divert them from
the real issues and the struggle for
them. They raked up caste feelings
among the dalit castes so as to
make them as the followers of
either one of the ruling groups.
The most nefarious acts the ruling
classes resorted to is the raking up
communal hatreds among different
religious people. While the BJP
emp loyed naked and open
methods of raking up communal
chauvinism, the Congress used
concealed and soft methods.
Emb oldened with the Gujarat
carnage, the BJP and RSS have
spread rumors and lies to rake up
sentiments and hatreds against
Muslim community to ascend to the
seat of power as was evident during
the Muzaffarpur riots. With coming
to the power, BJP and RSS made
the communalist propaganda as a
part of political discourse. Yet, the
toiling masses of India, who have
Class Struggle