By Krishna Jha
The importance of the clarion call for mass rally on September 1, to build a new India (Naya Bharat), on the debris of old one has been realized by people and they have understood that putting in united efforts is the only way to resolve the knot. There is massive rise in prices, and essentials are almost beyond purchasing capacity of the masses. Unemployment keeps haunting. As the affordability keeps going down, quality education, healthcare, legal guarantee for MSP are all either weakened or removed from their reach. Democracy is in peril and those living in lower depths face starvation and elimination, while corporates are busy trying to squeeze surplus.
Almost all steps taken for the welfare of the working masses in the past have been withdrawn. One among them is definition of Industry. In 1978, for example, the Supreme Court had redefined the term “Industry” under which came social welfare schemes and governmental hold on community services, also schools, hospitals and such other areas. All these areas are now no more within the Industrial activity as the motive and the functions involved cannot be treated as “industrial activity” explained the Supreme Court. The Industrial Relations Code, 2020 also restricted their rights in favor of the management.
The 48- year old verdict had enabled workers employed in a wide range of jobs to have a legal course, exempting core sovereign activities such as the judiciary, law and order, defence and some others from the purview of industry, as defined under section 2(j) of Industrial Disputes Act, 1947, in order to protect the state’s functional autonomy. The 1978 judgment had further introduced a triple test which laid down conditions that any activity which was systematic or organized, operated on the basis of employer-employee cooperation and dealt in the production of goods and services to satisfy human wants came within the ambit of industry. The judgment had even brought hospitals, educational institutions and municipalities within the folds of Industry.
This nearly five decade old expansive interpretation of “Industry” was declared void on August 20 this year, when a nine-judge bench of the Supreme Court held that “Industry” under section 2(p) of the Industrial Relations Code, 2020, would not be burdened by the interpretation in the 1978 judgment of section 2 (j) of the 1947 Act. Also the implementation of the four Labour Codes has already caused severe erosion of worker protections, job security, and collective bargaining rights. The latest judgment of the Supreme Court has made the working masses even more vulnerable.
What makes the judgment even more ominous is the fact that it has been delivered at a time when the general masses are suffering from unprecedented unemployment, declining wages, collapsing education and high-profile competitive examination paper leaks. These are at the root of the widespread youth anger the nation is witnessing today.
The collapse of education system is caused primarily by the rightist forces’ attempts to capture and distort it. It is today common knowledge that all the educational and research institutions from primary schools to universities are run by people chosen by the RSS. The appointments are selective and only members of the RSS and its associated organizations are taken in. From school teachers to Vice Chancellors, from directors of academic and research institutions to bosses of autonomous bodies, there has been a brazen takeover made by the rightist forces. These appointments lead to reorientation of studies and research, under direct patronage of the forces of right and vitiate the whole educational system.
The RSS has also sought to revise the syllabi according to its own creed. That has been undertaken by bodies like the NCERT, CBSE or various state boards. Distorting the facts, attempts have been made to ruin their objectivity which is a significant factor in protection of scientific outlook. Anything in the curriculum that is inconvenient to the Hindutva is sought to be deleted and distorted brazenly. Questions of caste and gender, conflicts and contradictions within society, and the facts of different kinds of divisions in society are being censored. Writers and thinkers whom the RSS regard as left wing or non-Rightist are being removed.
The systemic failure is not restricted to education and employment sector alone. It is visible in almost every aspect of our life. For example, the healthcare system is India is plagued by corporate greed, inflated bills and patient exploitation. Today an expanding private sector dominates our healthcare landscape while the government infrastructure is in shambles. In the last decade or so, the private sector in health has undergone rapid corporatization.
The unchecked commercialization of the health sector has made the general masses vulnerable to massive exploitation. Reports of exorbitant charges, opaque and commercially driven unscientific treatment practices, and denying basic patient rights have become alarmingly frequent. The darker side of the system which is driven by profit rather than care is evident more than ever now.
No better is the condition of our farmers. While food items are becoming dearer, farmers are becoming poorer. Even at present, for example, the main crops for Rabi season like wheat, gram (Chana) and barley, are selling much below their respective minimum support prices (MSPs) in agricultural market yards.
Retail prices are increasing and farmers are being fleeced. Who is gaining from this hike? Depriving the producing class, it is the corporate houses in the retail trade and big traders that are gaining. These exploiting sections are getting the support of the ruling party to increase their profits, while the farmers are facing irregularity even in the provision of MSP.
New India does not only mean fixing the economic systems. India’s social and political atmosphere, too, is afflicted by serious problems. After the attainment of Independence in 1947, the democratic and secular constitution drafted by Dr. BR Ambedkar provided for various measures of positive discrimination in favour of Dalits and tribals. It abolished untouchability. It declared that all are equal before law and gave “one person one vote” irrespective of caste and other social distinctions. Reservation in government employment, educational institutions and positions in legislatures were provided. Prevention of Atrocities Act was brought to curb caste atrocities. Various welfare schemes were implemented.
Now under the BJP dispensation, in the last twelve years, whatever small improvements were gained through implementation of affirmative provisions provided in the constitution and through struggles conducted in the past, are being undermined. Social justice is under attack through rising economic inequality, rollbacks of systemic protections for Dalits and tribals and persistent violence against social and religious weaker sections.
Secularism, a vital pillar of our Constitution, is under unprecedented attack. A massive discourse has been steered by the Rightist forces to treat Muslims and other minorities as second class citizens. They have been subjected to violence and discrimination, while the government seems busy in creating an atmosphere of impunity for the perpetrators. Hindutva, which stands against our Constitution, is today the unofficial ideology of the government.
While secularism is under attack, the long-cherished goal of providing 33 per cent reservation to women in national and state legislatures has remained unrealized. Instead of going for a straight away reservation for women, the government has tied the issue to a constituency delimitation process. It is hardly a secret that the BJP government’s move is aimed at altering the regional seat distribution in Parliament by using the pretext of the women’s reservation.
All this must change. Systems must be put in place. A New India must be built. (IPA Service)
Courtesy: New Age
