Global Research
Fast-tracking Neo-liberalism in India. Land Takeovers, Privatization, Mass Poverty…
Apparently, the results of the national general election in India mark a turning point. We are told that the nation has spoken and has given
the new Prime Minister Narendra Modi and his BJP party a ‘landslide
victory’. Despite the euphoria, however, only 31% of votes cast were for
the BJP. That’s hardly a ringing endorsement. But it was enough to give
the BJP a ‘landslide’ in terms of parliamentary seats. No party in India has ever won over half the seats with such a low share of the vote. The previous lowest vote share for a single-party majority was in 1967, when Congress gained 40.8% of the votes polled.
With
calls from some of Modi’s advisors for a Thatcherite-style,
pro-privatisation revolution in India (1), it is worth recalling how
successive Thatcher-led governments in Britain brought immense damage to
the social and economic fabric of the country to profit her rich
backers on the back of similar ‘landslide’ victories based on similar
shares of the vote (2).
There was never a ringing endorsement in Britain
for the policies of Thatcher. The opposition was weak and split and
many bought into to her platitudes about privatisation, the feckless
poor, the virtues of the free market and rolling back the state as a
proxy for Britain’s
woes at the time. Similarly, notwithstanding a fragmentation of the vote
which has helped the BJP into power, disillusionment with the Congress
Party in India has
led many voters to buy into the rhetoric of the charismatic Modi who is
regarded by many as someone that can get things done. Like Thatcher, he
is seen as a strong leader who will act when others have fudged and
procrastinated.
The type of ‘development’ being pushed through in India is underpinned
by unconstitutional land takeovers, cronyism, corruption, violence and
the trampling of democratic rights (3,4,5). And for all the talk of the
wonders of opening up markets and economic neo-liberalism, the poverty
alleviation rate in India remains around the same as it was back in 1991
(0.8 percent), while the ratio between the top and bottom ten percents
of the population has doubled during this period (6).
In Gujarat,
which has fully embraced the neo-liberal model of ‘development’ under
the leadership of Chief Minister Modi, hundreds of thousands
of farmers, fishermen, pastoralists and agricultural workers have been
displaced from their land. Since 2001, some 16,000 farmers and workers
have committed suicide due to economic distress (7). Gujarat has
the highest prevalence of hunger and lowest human development indices
among states with comparable per capita income. The high level of
malnutrition is a consequence of extremely low wage rates,
malfunctioning nutrition schemes and lack of potable water supplies and
sanitation. Over two thirds of households defecate in the open,
resulting in high levels of jaundice, diarrhoea, malaria and various
other diseases (8). Unregulated pollution has destroyed farmers and
fishermen’s livelihoods and has subjected local populations to diseases
and death (9). Moreover, GDP ‘growth’ in Gujarat is underpinned by debt. The state’s debt increased from approximately 7,716 million US dollars in 2002 to 23,672 million US dollars in 2013 (10).
Hand in hand with privatisation, Gujarat has also witnessed massive corruption (this is not unique to Gujarat, it is a symptom of neo-liberalism: since 1991, when India
began to embrace neo-liberalism, the outflow of illicit money from the
Indian economy has accelerated, 11). Writer Rohini Hensmen provides
details about the levels of “stupendous” corruption and argues that
those who have campaigned against it have “not fared well” (12). He goes
on to state that Gujarat’s growth has been
achieved at the cost of handing over complete control over the economy
to private interests. Economist Shipra Nigram agrees:
“Key sectors – traditionally held to be the preserve of the state – such as ports, roads, rail and power have been handed over to corporate capital. This has meant, inevitably, that the government has abdicated all decision making powers, as well as functional and financial control over such projects. Nowhere else in the country has this abdication of responsibility been so total, nowhere else has the state given over the economy so entirely to the corporates and private investors.” (13)Fast-tracking plunder
With a new national BJP administration headed by Narendra Modi coming to power and the backing of India’s
ruling corporate elite, is this the type of ‘development’ we can expect
to see being fast tracked? Can we also expect to witness an accelerated
‘restructuring’ of agriculture in favour of Western agribusiness and
more farmers to be forced from their land? Can we expect ever increasing
population displacement on behalf of commercial interests and rich
resource-extraction companies?
Environmentalist
Vandana Shiva has argued that what has been happening constitutes the
biggest forced removal of people from their lands in history. According
to a 2009 report commissioned by the rural development ministry and
chaired by the then minister Raghuvansh Prasad Singh, it involves the
biggest illegal land grab since Columbus.
It is no
secret that officialdom wants to depopulate rural areas. In 2008, the
then Finance Minister P.Chidambaram envisaged 85% of the population
living in cities (14). That would entail at least 600 million being
displaced from rural India. And it is no secret who is driving this and who would benefit. US corporate agriculture
interests have been granted license to influence key aspects of
agriculture and food policy in India via not only controlling seeds and
chemical inputs, but by also funding, controlling and thus distorting
the scientific biotech research agenda in Indian universities and
institutions (15) as a result of it having secured a pivotal role in
negotiations between India and the US, not least the Knowledge
Initiative on Agriculture (16).
Can
we also expect to see the current corporate-driven, undemocratic free
trade agreement being hammered out behind closed doors between the EU
and India gain
added impetus? As it stands, that agreement would see powerful
trans-national corporations by-passing national legislation that was
implemented to safeguard the public’s rights. We
could see the Indian government being sued by multinational companies
for billions of dollars in private arbitration panels outside of Indian
courts if national laws, policies, court decisions or other actions are
perceived to interfere with their investments. This is already a reality
in many parts of the world whereby legislation is shelved due to even
the threat of legal action by corporations. Such agreements cement
corporations’ ability to raid taxpayers’ coffers via unaccountable legal
tribunals, or to dictate national policies and legislation (17). Even
the threat of legal action can compel governments to shelve legislation.
Is this now to be India’s future? One that mirrors what we have seen in the US, Britain and elsewhere – an
unmitigated corporate heist and increased state surveillance via the
all pervasive Central Monitoring System to help dampen dissent from
those at the sharp end of the full-frontal assault of fast-tracked
neo-liberalism and cronyism – because history shows that whenever a
state spies on its own people, this is usually the reason why (18).
Can
we expect ever more industrial developments built with public money and
strategic assets, such as energy sources, ports, airports and
infrastructure support for agriculture to be sold off ?
Hostage to neo-liberalism
Do people really believe India’s
future lies in tying itself to a corrupt, moribund system that has so
patently failed in the West and can now only sustain itself by
plundering other countries via war or lop-sided ‘free trade’ agreements,
which have little if anything to do with free trade?
Neo-liberalism (the paradigm for modern day ‘globalisation’) is by
its very nature designed to fail the majority and benefit the relative
few. And its outcome is and will continue to be endless conflicts for
fewer and fewer resources. Globally, expect more Syrias, more Iraqs,
more Libyas, more Congos and more threats, bullying, sanctions and
military encirclements of states like we see happening to Iran, Russia
or China, courtesy of the US.
Its
outcome is also environmental destruction and an elitist agenda by rich
eugenicists who voice concerns over there being ‘simply too many
mouths’ to feed(19). Those mouths would only take food from their
rich bellies – bellies that long ago became bloated from the fat of the
land, lucrative wars and the misery brought about by economic
exploitation under guise of free market ideology.
We must look behind the rhetoric of those who espouse the virtues of the free market or neo-liberalism. The US achieved its level of affluence by way of thuggery not free market economics. Major General Smedley Butler, the US’s
most decorated marine, said as much and listed various corporations on
whose behalf he fought for during his various military campaigns. Little
has changed since Smedley wrote about his experiences in 1935, if we
turn our attention to US-backed conflicts
in Libya, Iraq, Afghanistan and Ukraine and the banking, oil, gas and
agri-tech firms that fuel and/or are intended to benefit from them.
Corporate-backed
politicians in India have also seen little wrong in using the machinery
and violence of the state to work hand in glove with rich interests to
secure access to the nation’s resources, while attempting to justify its
brand of plunder, human rights abuses, killings and cronyism by hiding
behind platitudes about ‘opening up’ this or that sector of the economy,
‘progress’ and baseless claims about the wonders of the ‘free’ market.
Is this the
type of ‘development’ that Indian people want to see fast tracked?
Ultimately, this is what the minority who handed the BJP its landslide
victory voted for. This is the type of ‘development’ they could well
get.
.. “Since the cross-ownership of businesses is not restricted by the ‘gush-up gospel’ rules, the more you have, the more you can have ,20corporations buy politicians, judges, bureaucrats and media houses hollowing out democracy, retaining only its rituals. Huge reserves of bauxite, iron ore, oil and natural gas worth trillions of dollars were sold to corporations for a pittance, defying even the twisted logic of the free market.
..leading to the siphoning off of billions of dollars of public money. Then there’s the land grab – the forced displacement of communities, of millions of people whose lands are being appropriated by the state and handed to private enterprise.” Arundhati Roy
Notes
1)http://www.reuters.com/article/2014/04/06/us-india-election-modi-insight-idUSBREA3500S201404062)http://www.globalresearch.ca/britains-de-industralization-and-privatization-the-economic-and-social-legacy-of-margaret-thatcher-the-iron-lady/5329683
3) http://www.countercurrents.org/peebles020514.htm
4) http://www.countercurrents.org/peebles260113.htm
5) http://socialissuesindia.wordpress.com/2012/09/07/tribal-displacement-in-the-name-of-development/
12) http://www.countercurrents.org/rh190314.htm19)http://www.globalresearch.ca/genetic-engineering-eugenics-and-the-ideology-of-the-rich/5329025
About the author:
Originally from the northwest of England, Colin Todhunter has spent many years in India. He has written extensively for the Bangalore-based Deccan Herald, New Indian Express and Morning Star (Britain). His articles have also appeared in many other newspapers, journals and books. His East by Northwest site is at: http://colintodhunter.blogspot.comRelated content:
Disclaimer: The contents of this article are of sole
responsibility of the author(s). The Centre for Research on
Globalization will not be responsible for any inaccurate or incorrect
statement in this article. The Center of Research on Globalization
grants permission to cross-post original Global Research articles on
community internet sites as long as the text & title are not
modified. The source and the author's copyright must be displayed. For
publication of Global Research articles in print or other forms
including commercial internet sites, contact: publications@globalresearch.ca
www.globalresearch.ca contains copyrighted material the use of which has not always been specifically authorized by the copyright owner. We are making such material available to our readers under the provisions of "fair use" in an effort to advance a better understanding of political, economic and social issues. The material on this site is distributed without profit to those who have expressed a prior interest in receiving it for research and educational purposes. If you wish to use copyrighted material for purposes other than "fair use" you must request permission from the copyright owner.
For media inquiries: publications@globalresearch.ca
www.globalresearch.ca contains copyrighted material the use of which has not always been specifically authorized by the copyright owner. We are making such material available to our readers under the provisions of "fair use" in an effort to advance a better understanding of political, economic and social issues. The material on this site is distributed without profit to those who have expressed a prior interest in receiving it for research and educational purposes. If you wish to use copyrighted material for purposes other than "fair use" you must request permission from the copyright owner.
For media inquiries: publications@globalresearch.ca
Copyright © Colin Todhunter, Global Research, 2014
No comments:
Post a Comment