While the opposition and objective critics had much ammunition in the scams and scandals involving Quattrocchi,Vocker,Bihar,Indo-US Nuke Deal, NanavatiReport on 1984, the vote on Iranand Quotas,the allies of the government were not far behind in their own assessment of theUPA’s two years in power.
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The UPA government has completed two years in office on May 22, 2006. Theperformance of the government has to be assessed on the basis of how it hasimplemented the Common Minimum Programme and met the challenges of the time.
The UPA government came into office with a mandate to uphold the secularprinciple and to chart out a path of development which would benefit allsections of the people while ensuring all-round progress for the country.
In the first year of the UPA government, it had taken certain steps such asthe abolition of POTA and adopting the Right to Information Act whichstrengthened democratic rights. A major step taken in the second year of thegovernment has been the adoption of the Rural Employment Guarantee Act which isnow being implemented in 200 districts. It is important that the EmploymentGuarantee Act is implemented properly in all these districts and expanded tocover the entire country within the next three years.
The government has also brought the Scheduled Tribes (Recognition of ForestRights) Bill to parliament which is now being studied by a Joint SelectCommittee. This Bill, after taking into account the recommendations of theCommittee, will be an important step for protecting the rights of the tribalpeople to their traditional lands in the forests.
But these are insufficient. While the legislation on domestic violence andproperty rights for women were adopted, the Women's Reservation Bill is yet tobe taken up in parliament despite constant reminders. The government has also toexpeditiously take up the social security measures for the workers of theunorganised sector regarding which a report has been submitted by the Commissionfor Enterprises in the Unorganised Sector. The Prevention of Communal ViolenceBill should also be adopted so that effective measures can be taken to curbcommunal violence and to safeguard the rights of the victims of such violence. Acomprehensive Central legislation for agricultural workers provided for in theCMP has not even been considered.
The UPA government has initiated talks with various parties and groups inJammu & Kashmir. The dialogue with the separatist organisations must bepursued alongwith consultations with the main political parties represented inthe Jammu & Kashmir assembly so that a political solution can be found. TheLeft parties have also supported the dialogue with Pakistan and the measurestaken so far for improvement of relations.
The UPA government is satisfied with the overall economic performance byciting the GDP growth rate of eight percent in the last year. However, thisclaim does not account for the agrarian crisis which has affected the farmersand the rural poor. Farmers' suicides continue at a disturbing rate andrural unemployment is increasing. The allocations for agriculture lag behindwhat is required. The policy on agriculture is flawed with foodgrains productionnot increasing. The recent decision to import three million tonnes of wheatmanifests this wrong policy. With declining procurement, food security and thepublic distribution system are bound to be affected.
The government has shown no concern for the continuous rise in prices of fooditems and other essential commodities. There is a failure to strengthen andexpand public distribution system with the prevailing outlook being how toreduce the food subsidy. After increasing the prices of petroleum products fourtimes in the last two years, the government is considering another steep hikeciting the increase in the international oil prices. The government refuses toreview the taxation structure for petroleum products by which the government hasimposed a big burden on the people. Without reduction of the tax burden onpetroleum products, any attempt to impose added burdens on the people will haveno justification and has to be strongly resisted.
The two years record has shown the UPA government's eagerness to push throughpolicies which are in the interests of foreign finance capital and big businesswhile it has been tardy in taking up those pro-people measures in the CommonMinimum Programme which would benefit the working people. The government hasgone ahead with allowing FDI in certain vital sectors despite the Left'sopposition. The recent decision to open retail trade to FDI in single brandcategory is one such step. The government continues to be committed to allowingforeign banks to takeover Indian private banks and, to facilitate this, it wantsto do away with the 10 per cent voting cap in the Banking Regulation Act.
Privatisation is sought to be pushed forward in various ways. Privatisationof the Delhi and Mumbai airports in the name of modernization is one suchglaring example. Now this is sought to be expanded to other airports despite theearlier stance that the resources of the Airports Authority of India will haveto be used for modernization of the airports apart from Delhi and Mumbai. Theprivatisation of pension funds of government employees is sought to be pursuedthrough legislation. Licences to foreign and Indian private mining companiesthreaten the livelihood and lands of tribal people who face displacement.
The recent crash in the stock market and the volatility of the marketunderline the danger of going for full capital account convertibility aboutwhich the Prime Minister has made an announcement. The government refuses toimpose long-term capital gains tax or any other measures which can raiseadditional resources for the government to finance its social sector anddevelopmental expenditure.
The reservation quotas for the OBCs in higher educational institutions haveto be implemented. The Central government has to bring legislation to empowerstate governments to regulate admissions and fees in the private professionaleducational institutions. The expansion of school education upto the secondarylevel and public health requires a much bigger allocation of funds. Moreattention has to be paid to the expansion of educational and employmentopportunities for the Muslim minorities.
Increasingly, the UPA government is pursuing a foreign policy which detractsfrom the commitment made in the Common Minimum Programme for an independentforeign policy. The Indo-US "strategic partnership" forged during thePrime Minister's visit to Washington in July 2005 and President Bush's visit toIndia in March 2006 in the second year of the UPA government is of seriousconcern. Under the guise of a nuclear cooperation agreement, the United Statesis extracting a heavy price from India. India changed its stand on the Irannuclear issue and it has embarked on a defence cooperation which is increasinglyaligning India as a strategic partner of the USA in Asia. Not only that, theUnited States is directly exercising influence on domestic policy making.Whether it be our energy policy, the knowledge initiative in agriculturalresearch with the participation of US multinationals research (the Iran gaspipeline project has been virtually shelved), the demand for furtherliberalisation of the financial sector, the demand for privatisation of basicservices and infrastructure development, - all these are part of the neo-liberalpolicies which are being implemented in India with open US backing.
The Planning Commission has become the hub for the initiation and pushing forsuch policies, contrary to the spirit of the Common Minimum Programme.
The Left parties will focus on these areas in the coming days. It will, bothinside and outside parliament, vigorously assert that all measures which erodenational sovereignty, or, which are at the dictates of international financecapital that adversely affect the interests and the livelihood of the workingpeople, will be resolutely opposed.
At the same time, the Left will continuously raise the demand that thegovernment take immediate steps to tackle the agrarian crisis to ensure furtheremployment opportunities for the unemployed youth and rural poor and take stepsto consolidate and strengthen the public sector in all the sectors where it hasto play a key role.
The Left parties will be meeting soon to take stock of the overall politicalsituation, the role of the UPA government and chalk out an appropriate course ofaction which can strengthen the secular and democratic forces in the country andensure that the interests of the working people and the rights of the commoncitizens are protected under the UPA government's dispensation.
