Reject the Modi Emergency,
Resist the Demonetization Disaster!
(Pledge Day Call issued by the Central
Committee of CPI-ML on the occasion of the 18th anniversary of the passing of
Comrade Vinod Mishra)
|
|
The two so-called 'surgical strikes’ in the recent
past, the first allegedly on terrorists across the LoC and the second
apparently on black money held inside the country, have been the biggest
talking points of the Modi government till date. Both have proved to be
thoroughly ineffective in terms of meeting their stated objectives. Attacks on
Indian bases are continuing, Nagrota being the most glaring example after Uri
and soldiers continue to lose their lives. And the Sangh brigade uses these
attacks either to foment jingoistic frenzy or to silence every expression of
dissent and grievance of the Indian people by invoking the sacrifice of the
soldiers on the border.
The second strike came in the form of a sudden
scrapping of notes of the two biggest denominations of Rs 500 and 1000. The
move has inflicted enormous pain on the common people, and with an acute
shortage of new notes to replace the scrapped currency, the cash-dependent
sections of the population, virtually 9 out of every 10, are suffering
from a debilitating cash crunch. And
with every passing day it is becoming clear that the cash crunch is just the
gateway to a much bigger and graver economic crisis hitting production and
employment, and hence income and mass consumption across the board. The
government initially talked about momentary inconvenience for a few days, but
the pain is now threatening to become chronic and the damage permanent and
irreparable.
The original stated purpose of the note ban
exercise - neutralizing black money and counterfeit currency - now seems to be
only an excuse. The government itself has offered to launder black money at
just 5 per cent higher rate than the income disclosure scheme earlier on offer.
People like Mahesh Shah who declared a black income of Rs 13800 crore, openly
saying that the money belonged to politicians and businessmen, are being let
off and the declarations dismissed without any investigation. We also know how
ahead of the November 8 announcement, across the country the BJP converted huge
sums of money into landed property and how BJP leaders are now being spotted
with lakhs and crores of rupees in the newly introduced 2000 rupee notes. While
common people had to defer weddings and were deprived of medical care owing to
lack of cash, the likes of Janardan Reddy and Nitin Gadkari hosted royal
weddings spending a fortune.
When the entire country complained about the utter
lack of preparation of the Modi government, the Finance Minister said the
preparation could not possibly have been better and Modi said only the corrupt
hoarders of black money who could not make arrangements to save their black
money were complaining. And now when it is becoming clear that almost the
entire amount of scrapped currency is set to return to the banking system,
putting paid to speculation and rumours of large-scale decimation of hoarded
cash, Modi is incriminating Jan Dhan Accounts as repositories of black money.
While thus inflicting immense pain and insult on the poor, Modi has however
also launched a major emotional propaganda campaign to project himself as a
messiah of the poor, cashing in on the poor's inherent anger against corruption
and the growing inequality in society.
One important purpose behind the massive exercise
of scrapping big notes seems to have been to bail out the banks which have been
looted by India's big corporate houses and crooks like Vijay Mallya who was
made a Rajya Sabha MP by the BJP and allowed to flee the country by the Modi
government. Risky loans worth Rs 11 lakh crore have been extended over the
years to the corporate sector, which are now being systematically written off
in a phased manner. Note ban has sucked in all the savings of the common
people, and the improved liquidity of the banks will now be translated again
into cheap loans to the rich and the corrupt. Apart from injecting fresh
capital into the banks, demonetization is also aimed at giving a big push to
the digital India campaign and the entire gamut of pro-corporate economic
reforms establishing greater corporate control over the entire economy.
Everything small-scale, from small agriculture and trade to small industries
and various enterprises and occupations in the informal sector, will now have
to fight hard for sheer survival in the face of heightened corporate
aggression.
By all indications, India is now in the grip of a
veritable Modi Emergency. Police repression is on the increase everywhere, the
broad daylight killing of eight young undertrials who were claimed to have
escaped from the Bhopal central jail, the midnight assault on peaceful
anti-eviction protesters in Barkagaon and the escalation of the war on the
Kashmiri people demanding self-determination clearly announce the arrival of a
police state. The systematic gagging of media freedom and citizens' right to
freedom of expression, and deliberate devaluation and evasion of parliamentary
accountability by the Prime Minister and his cabinet are also tell-tale signs
of an autocratic regime. The advisories being issued on a daily basis also
remind us of the coercive days of Indira Emergency.
Of course, the current Emergency is still formally
undeclared. But that aside, we can clearly see some other major differences
with the Indira-Sanjay era of 1975 Emergency. The economic discourse then
revolved around the public sector, land reforms and socialistic welfare. Today
it is all about land acquisition, free market and corporate-led 'development'.
The foreign policy then was marked by India's close proximity to the Soviet
Union, today it is all about a strategic alliance with the United States and
Israel. With the victory of Trump in the American presidential election, we are
going to see an unmitigated reign of racism and Islamophobia, and there is now
every possibility of a rabidly Islamophobic convergence between the Trump
Presidency and the Modi government, albeit in the name of a shared battle
against terrorism. And last but not least, while Indira Gandhi's Emergency
regime had only the Youth Congress as the extra-constitutional wing, the Modi
regime has the backing of the entire Sangh brigade, with any number of RSS
affiliates openly dictating and enforcing government policies and what passes
for 'law and order' in the country. In fact, the government has become the
implementing agency for corporate interests and the RSS agenda and the two are
increasingly coalescing within a single integrated framework.
The Indian people are of course very much alive to
this danger and we can see powerful resistance developing on many fronts. The
land acquisition ordinance had to be consigned to the waste paper basket in the
face of determined protests by the peasantry. The repressive tactic of sedition
charges has been valiantly rebuffed by the student community and the democratic
intelligentsia. The institutional murder of Rohith Vemula and the Una incident
of brutal assault on four Dalit youths have given rise to a powerful new phase
of Dalit awakening in the country. And as India reels under the Modi-made
economic disaster of demonetization, protests have begun to intensify defying
the systematic propagation of lies by the Sangh brigade whether through its own
network or through the media. Revolutionary communists must work hard to bring
about a growing convergence of these diverse strands of struggle in a powerful
stream of popular resistance.
On the occasion of the 18th anniversary of the
passing of Comrade Vinod Mishra, let us pledge our fullest might and best
efforts to the task of saving India from the menace of the Modi Emergency, from
the growing threat of corporate-communal fascism. The current year is also the
50th anniversary of the great Naxalbari uprising and the centenary of the Great
November Revolution. It is our responsibility to carry forward the great
revolutionary legacy and rise to the occasion. The year 2015 saw the Modi
government suffer decisive defeats in the Assembly elections in Delhi and
Bihar. 2017 begins with elections to the state Assemblies of UP, Uttarakhand,
Punjab, Goa and Manipur. For the people who are paying the biggest price for
the Modi government's demonetization disaster, this is a great payback
opportunity and we must make sure that the suffering of the people is translated
into yet another roaring rebuff for the BJP.
ML Update
A CPI(ML)
Weekly News Magazine
Vol. 19,
No. 51, 13 – 19 DECEMBER 2016
No comments:
Post a Comment