EDITORIAL
As the latest developments in Syria threaten to snowball into another major crisis in the Arab world with the prospects of Western (read US) intervention in the country increasing with every passing day even as Russia and China are still stoutly opposing any such move and vetoeing in the Security Council any UN sanction for such attacks, the events on the national plane too have acquired considerable prominence of late.
The rapid economic deterioration in the country, reflected in the rupee's steep decline as against the dollar, has caused serious concern across-the-board and the PM's statement in both Houses of Parliament today also mirrored the nation's anxiety on this score though he made it abundantly clear that such a worsening of the financial conditions did not at all warrant a reversal of the neoliberal policies, manifest in the economic reforms India has adopted since 1991. Dr Manmohan Singh also affirmed that the current scenario on this front was in no way comparable with what had happened 22 years ago that resulted in the unqualified acceptance of the Structural Adjustment Programme by the Finance Ministry under his charge at that point in time. Nevertheless even his statement could not conceal the gloomy prognostications for the coming days even as he claimed, on the lines of what he did on several similar situations in the past, that the fundamentals of the economy being strong there was no justification for any fear or apprehension in the long term.
His words obviously failed to carry conviction with the Opposition and the leading members of the principal Opposition party in the Rajya Sabha did not take his assertions lying down; instead they adopted a confrontationist posture largely as a response to the PM's own combative attitude.
Against this dismal backdrop the UPA II dispensation has, in the last few days, strained all its nerves to convey its persisting allegiance to the aam aadmi. That is precisely why it was able to mobilise support from other parties to ensure the passage of two landmark legislations—the National Food Security Bill and the Land Acquisition, Resettlement and Rehabilitation Bill. Both the Bills have invited sharp criticism from the corporate lobby whose mouthpieces have assailed these in no uncertain terms describing them as “flawed legislations”.
Missing in such assessments is the fact that with all their infirmities the legislations seek to stand by and help uplift those marginalised by the neoliberal reform process, something most essential at a time when the neoliberal paradigm of development is generating more inequality than before since “disparities between the super rich in the metropolises—occupying the highest positions in the top echelons of the corporate and business world—and the common people in the countryside still subjected to backbreaking poverty have grown exponentially”, as was pointed out in these columns a fortnight ago. Both the Bills have been given the green signal by the motive force behind the UPA II coalition: its chairperson Sonia Gandhi, the Congress President, and her son, AICC General Secretary Rahul Gandhi.
True, the Bills suffer from major lacunae and these are manifest more in the land acquisition Bill which is why the Lok Sabha was witness to the unique spectacle of the Left and Trinamul Congress jointly opposing it in that House. Yet what is unmistakable is that a beginning has been made and there would be scope for improving both in the coming days. The corporate-driven media is incensed by this development. Thus news headlines scream: “Markets give food Bill thumbs down”. And the ire is directed at the principal Opposition party as well—“instead of projecting itself as a force for reform at a time of economic crisis, the Opposition prefers to compete with the Congress on its miserabilist terms—if anything, the BJP's token objections to the food security bill and the land bill have come from somewhere to the Left of the Congress”, as The Indian Express has opined, as if taking such a position is a grievous crime!
No doubt the Congress found it prudent to pass the legislations just before the nationwide elections to the Lower House of Parliament next year, but that is inevitable in any election-oriented parliamentary democracy. Sonia Gandhi sought to answer critics questioning how resources could be mobilised for the Food Security Bill by insisting that “resources must be found”. She refrained from saying what was imperative: “Resources can be found by tightening the belts of the super rich” so that the grotesque inequalities can be decreased to some extent thereby somewhat reducing what is veritably an eyesore in this country. But the corporates are oblivious of this reality blinded as they are by the massive profits they are able to reap without restriction now in the open economy.
The last few days have also seen the Indian Mujahideen kingpin Mohammed Ahmed Siddibapa alias Yasin Bhatkal, wanted in over two dozen terror cases across the country, being nabbed in Raxaul on the India-Nepal border alongwith another wanted IM operative Asadulla Akhtar alias Haddi, allegedly part of the Azamgarh module. These have come on the heels of the arrest of a key Lashkar-e-Taiba functionary, Abdul Karim Tunda. These are a major success for the security agencies and it is expected that their interrogation would reveal the close nexus of these terrorists with Pakistan giving further evidence of Islamabad's nefarious role in exporting terror to India, thereby providing fresh material to isolate Pakistan in international fora.
At the same time the horrendous rape of a young photo-journalist while on assignment in Mumbai (considered a city safe for women) has once again shocked the nation's conscience as happened in the Capital eight months ago with renewed exposure of the inability of the authorities to ensure drastic reduction of such adominable crimes against women in the absence of speedy delivery of justice and exemplary punishment to those responsible for these henous acts.
Such happenings have definitely bestirred the country as a whole once more. The murder of a crusader against black magic in Maharashtra too has added to the sense of agony among rationalists and the public at large as it offers a measure of the distance we have yet to traverse to transform India into a truly modern society.
August 30 S.C.