Jan Sakti

 

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.       

 

1 à https://www.investopedia.com/terms/h/heavy_industry.asp#:~:text=Heavy%20industry%20relates%20to%20a,%2C%20oil%2C%20ships%2C%20etc.

2 à https://neostencil.com/upsc-indian-economy-agriculture-vs-industry-as-a-prime-moving-force#:~:text=A%20prime%20moving%20force%20in,value%2Daddition%2C%20and%20productivity.

3 à https://www.mca.gov.in/Ministry/actsbills/pdf/The_Monopolies_and_Restrictive_Trade_Practices_Act_1969.pdf

4 à https://www.investopedia.com/terms/d/disinvestment.asp

5 à https://www.ellenmacarthurfoundation.org/explore/the-circular-economy-in-detail#:~:text=A%20circular%20economy%20is%20a,the%20consumption%20of%20finite%20resources.