When
India achieved her independence then – Tryst with destiny – for India was
establishing herself and getting up from the pain and arson of Partition. The makers
of our constitution make sure that individual rights always stay higher than
the state rights. This was done by adopting Fundamental Rights to each and
every citizen of Union of India irrespective of their caste, colour, gender,
religion, etc. this revolutionary step gave people which they were deprived of
during and even before the colonial times, that thing was ‘political equality’,
political equality is in far greater degree than ‘economic equality’.
Indian independence was broadly
based on the concept given by Dadabhai Naoroji “Grand Old Man of India”,
who popularised the famous ‘Drain of Wealth’ concept among the then
Indian Bourgeois. Thus, a whole new class struggle started against the British
Empire to get the economic freedom at first, then came demand of ‘dominion
status’ which ultimately culminated in the demand of ‘Purna Sawraj’.
Thus, from the ‘Drain of Wealth’ to ‘Purna Swaraj’ there was a
transition from economic equality/freedom to complete freedom which was
demanded by the Indians. But for the Britishers who ruled the Indian
Subcontinent, colony in general and Indian subcontinent in particular was matter
of economy, this stance can be shown very overtly by extract of the Niall
Ferguson book titled Empire: How Britain Made the Modern World
“In fact, we now know that this
drain – the colonial burden as measured by the trade surplus of the colony –
amounted to little more than 1% of Indian net domestic product a year between
1868 to 1930. That was a lot less than the Dutch ‘drained’ from their East
Indian empire, which amounted to between 7% to 10% of Indonesia net domestic
product in the same period”
The
‘drain’ was the reason which led the initial governments of India to adopt
socialist economic principles rather than capitalist model which was not only prevalent
but also proving to be a great growth engine. The only flaw with the socialist
economic principles that India adopted was considering Heavy Industry1
as her Prime Moving Force2 rather than agriculture. This was the
beginning of a long struggle that farmers have to do various times at various
places.
But, then what is a so unique about
the protest that farmers are doing from September 2020, is there anything
different from the perspective of the farmers?
In simple terms, when New Economic
Policy (LPG reforms) took placed India adopted some basic features which are
listed below: -
1. Abolition of Industrial licensing/ Permit
Raj
2. Public sector role diluted
3. MRTP limit goes3
4. Beginning of privatisation
5. Free entry to foreign investment
and technology
6. Industrial location policy
liberalised
7. Abolition of phased manufacturing
programmes for new projects
8. Removal of mandatory convertibility
cause
9. Reduction in import tariffs
10. Deregulation of markets
11. Reduction of taxes.
Thus,
LPG reforms gave huge push to the Indian economy and government planned to do
gradual disinvestment in the PSUs so that Public sector role get limited and
those area get open for the private sectors. This step is taken by every government
and it is known as ‘Systematic Disinvestment’4, which is announced
in each year budget. Still government control the vital assets of the country
like coal, petroleum, forest, etc. Government on its part try to open up all
the sectors of the economy except the vital sector, so that more investment
pour-in into economy. This has many benefits: -
1. India credit rating will increase
as Indian economy is oriented as per the capitalist world.
2. Indian economy size will increase
in term of GDP.
But
capitalist economy is not the most efficient type of economy when effect on vulnerable
groups are concerned and also the environment, also circular economy5
is the buzzword in the policy circle. Countries are also taking measures to achieve
that aim before 2050. Thus, it can be inferred that even after getting
independence politics and industrialist class of Union of India really never
tried in full heart, body & soul to provide ‘economic freedom’ to the most
vulnerable groups of this country. Pandemic like Corona Virus, which require
drastic steps in which industrial production ceased totally but government deficit
increased a lot, put lot of pressure on the Indian government, to manage this
huge economic undertaking GoI have to approach to WTO and WB for loans and
until GoI opens up the last remaining sector for the corporates totally, both
the international bodies will not provide cheap credit to the GoI, this is the
reason that GoI passed these rules first as ordinance and later in a very haphazard
and vigorous manner.
Experiencing all these it is very
clear that even after 70+ years of independence political class is in the
hangover of being “Raja” and thus, always prefer to do parade from ‘Raj Path’. But
the most important thing, that they all neglect is that the legitimacy of ‘Raj
Path’ is till the citizen of this country aka ‘Jan’ consider it to be ‘Raj Path’.
And the attitude of GoI in recent past is such that they need to be taught a
lesson. A lesson of democracy, a lesson of people’s struggle, a lesson of ‘Jan
Sakti’.
This is the reason that this protest
of farmers is so important. As it is telling GoI that until they make policies
which favours them, there will be protest, not only protest but protest till
death. This show of strength by the farmers should be respected and rejoiced upon
as they are teaching such vital lesson to the GoI, which had gone in hibernation
of your own whims and fancies. This is where role of a parade to show the
strength of any community comes in, and this is the very reason that tractor parade
which represent ‘Jan’ must be conducted. To show the government that Republic
is formed by the citizen of this country and constitution must be practiced in letter
and spirit rather than spending millions of rupees on parade to showcase the republic.
4
à https://www.investopedia.com/terms/d/disinvestment.asp
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