Bakhabar, April, 2013 - Bihar Anjuman

Impending Threat by Corporate Sector, MiddleClass and Communalism to Our Political SystemV.K. Tripathi, IIT DelhiEver since UPA II assumed power, corporate sector and middle classesare on the offensive against the government. The media owned by theformer is aggressively pursuing this design, and the ideologicalorganization of these classes, the RSS (with all its wings) is waging aviscous countrywide communal campaign. It is not only the Congressand its allies that are under threat, the entire political system is indanger.Corruption, Blackmoney and LokpalMovementsThe industrialists, businessmen and corporate sector already havelegal rights to misappropriate the labor surplus of the farmers andworkers and to squeeze the national resources to amass sky highprofit. Over and above this, they have the tools of hoarding, blackmarketing and bribery to reinforce it further. Two years ago, in order tobend the government to its knees, they raised the bogey of corruption,black money and Jan Lokpal bill. Media over night lifted Anna Hazare,and later Ramdev and Kejriwal, to the sky. However, no finger wasraised on these classes, the real source of these evils. The assertiveelements of institutes like IIT (who had carried Ramshila poojan ontheir premises in 1989 and in whose veins runs deep rooted hatred forGandhi), the shopkeepers, builders, officers and other sectarianelements turned behind them. In the 2000 billion rupees 2G spectrumscam, D.Raja and others were already under prosecution on thecharge of taking bribe of Rs. 2 billion, i.e., 0.1% of the value of scam.This issue wasr a i s e d w i t hgreat vigor andthe face of thee n t i r eg o v e r n m e n twas blackenedbut no fingerwas raised ont h o s e w h oc o r n e r e d99.9% profit.In July2012, violence took place between the Bodos and Muslims inBodoland (comprising Kokrajhar, Chirang, Baxa and Udalguri districtsof Assam). One hundred people were killed and 4 lakhs renderedrefugees. Eighty percent of those killed and displaced were Muslims. Itwas a grave tragedy as Bodos are poor and Muslims are even poorer.Both are Indian citizens, our own people. However, Lal Krishna Advani,with a view to propagate hatred, said that this was not the conflictbetween Hindus and Muslims but between Indians and Bangladeshis.Soon Togadia reached there and spread the venom, “Do not let theseBangladeshis (the displaced victims) return back.” VHP, RSS, BJP andother organizations indulged in massive country wide propagandathat there were crores of Bangladeshis in the country. Assam in its 3.2crore population has 31% (1 crore) Muslims of which doubtful cases,according to the recent white paper issued by the state government,are less than 1% of Muslim population. West Bengal has around 2.5crore Muslims. All these people, and the Bangla speaking Muslimlaborers from these states who have gone to different parts of thecountry due to sheer poverty (and survive by selling their labor forBakhabar25M a s s i v eCommunal Drivecheap) are Bangladeshis in their eyes. This is a blatant attack on thecitizenship and dignity of the countrymen, on the roots of the nation.But TV channels ignored to unearth this massive drive. In fact sectionsof print media became a party to this drive. The impact of this drive andsimilar other moves on the middle classes has been so deep that theystarted projecting Narendra Modi as the prospective prime minister.Modi has two distinctions: one, he taught tough lessons to Muslims, byletting the genocide go on uninterrupted for three days, and two, hehas reduced the status of MLAs and Ministers to zero. Corporatesector directly gets its work done by him and the entire secretariat isready to serve them.The Mighty Thrust of CapitalThe thrust of capital (market forces) on the political system is mostsevere. In 1991, the crisis of payment, the thrust of domestic andinternational capital and the breaking up of the Soviet Union led to theera of globalization and liberalization. Some progressiveorganizations opposed it but their base was limited. Computerrevolution and outsourcing of work broadened the size of the middleclasses. Internet and mobile phone led to information andcommunication revolution. The tsunami of market driven economyturned polity in its favor. The Congress might have begun the neweconomic policy but in a way all political parties towed the same line.Economic activities spread, industrial production grew, Metro,flyovers, multilane highways, and the numbers of cars, motorbikesgrew phenomenally. The spread of computer in railways, banks, tehsiland all areas of production, marketing and administration and theoutsourcing of work from developed countries led to rapid rise in thenumber of engineering colleges. In early nineties the intake in B.Techwas below 1.5 lakh, in 2011 it reached close to 8 lakh (mostly in the formof private engineering colleges). The seats in management collegesalso grew manifold.With this glamour of development also grew the inequalityrapidly. The government withdrew from education and health andthese became very expensive. The worst fall out was on land andhousing sector which came under the control of builders, corporatesector and industrialists. 40 to 50% people in big cities are seekingshelter in slums or slum like localities. In the countryside, low holdingfarmers are losing their lands to neo rich from developed areas andcorporate sector. The contractor system in services has greatlyincreased the gap between the salaries of contractual and regularemployees. Workers in private sector companies and in theunorganized sector have no job security and no pension plans. 75% ofthe people are outside the main stream of education anddevelopment. The pressure of market forces on the political system isso intense that in the name of development it is busy being primarily afacilitator of these classes.The political organizations that have emerged through thestruggles on the issues of the masses – Congress, Communists,Socialist, Bahujan Samaj, and regional parties are still in touch with themasses. Their heritage has some influence on their policies. They mayhave traders, industrialists and criminal minded people with them buthave a larger number of those who understand the problems of thepeople and stand with them against the oppression by the police andadministration. However, the roots of all these parties are shaking.Revitalizing the Political SystemThe main task of polity and democratic institutions is to contain the illeffects of market driven economy, to save villages from degeneration,to save the farmers from exploitation by the traders, to check themisappropriation of lands by builders and corporate sector, to providetechnical education up to the level of self reliance for everyone, to