By Krishna Jha
Under the grim shadows of crisis spreading all over, and the general masses being at the receiving end, brutal offensive of plunder and destruction engulfs all sections of the society except the top few. Apart from the petty, small and middle strata, there are those at the top serving their own interest and making it easier for the rightist forces to overpower the entire system. The burden of entire infrastructure and production is shouldered by the lowest strata, if they have a job and even then 16 to 18 hours of hard work leaves them more dead than alive.
The unemployed account for those going hungry and perishing at country’s 106th position among the starving 121 countries as a survey said. Formal job creation has declined to 7.5 percent that hits 20-month low, as Employees Provident Fund office has pointed out. Rural employment rate has fallen down to 7.7 percent. CMIE says that decline was mostly in rural parts, mainly among non-agricultural rural areas and it was the daily wage labourers segment that got hit as it shrunk to nearly fifteen million workers.
Step by step, efforts are made to destroy the democratic structure to make way for the right to come up. The economy in the country has entered a stage from where recovery is difficult. The decade since the global financial crisis, there have been structural changes in the banking system. The criticality has brought to light the fact of excessive lending, adopting adventurous moves without adequate capital and liquidity buffers. These steps have endangered the financial stability, its growth. The crisis has put an end to any possibility of strong growth of banking assets, instead it has brought in the downfall of capacity metrics that show unprecedented shrinkage in the sector.
Crisis has many faces. To salvage the system from risks, key sectors were nationalised including banks. Now the process has been reversed and several sectors stand privatised, leaving a few exceptions. On March 29, the government began the process of selling 106 coal mines launching the seventh round of commercial auctions. The government is also going to sell 3.5 percent stake in Hindustan Aeronautics Ltd at a floor price of Rs 2,450 a share. The proceeds would add to the disinvestment benefits. The government now holds 75 percent of shares of HAL which is Central Public sector Enterprise (CPSE) under Defence ministry. The government had last month pegged lower revised estimates of disinvestment revenue which is at Rs 50,000 crore, against the budget target of Rs 65,000 crores. Meanwhile the government has so far mopped up Rs 31,106.64 crore from disinvestment and share buyback in CPSE.
It is obvious that the feast is at the cost of the resources earned by the vast masses. In return, they get instead joblessness, intensification of oppression. There is also ever widening rift dividing them, at caste basis, at community basis. In economic sphere too, the policy of divide and rule is adopted, with caste and community as basic features. Majority is cajoled up at the cost of minorities. The welfare measures have been demolished. Education, health, shelter and occupations are facing blows at every step. The very fact that workers and peasants are getting organised is against the interest of those who rule. They gain strength only with the silent, passive surrender of the masses captivated by unresolved crisis, one among many factors that leads to the rule of the right reactionary forces.
This is one indicator that shows that we have to be more organised, against the disruptive measures of ruling forces that also exhibit their own weakness. They are afraid of the emerging unity of all sections of the masses, hence the use of force to obstruct the functioning of parliamentary democracy, where questions are raised and explanation demanded for every injustice committed. They are afraid of the growing realisation among the masses that only through the unity of all oppressed sections, struggle can be launched to finally end the injustice that keeps shackling and crushing any attempt to dispense with the prevailing darkness. They are afraid of their own shortcomings that leave them weak, and no longer in a position to maintain their domination over the masses.
When rightist forces indulge in horrors to keep the toilers in constant fear and away from standing up and refusing to be ruled, they need the earth under their feet for ever to be barren. They do not want any opposition to grow. It is only blind obedience that they need. It is only with this negativity that every time they want to overpower the humanity, and then fail. What remains is only sharp vengeance against the entire people, toilers and the working class, and also the revolutionary section of the peasantry and intelligentsia.
This is the true character of rightist forces, leading capitalism to its ultimate, which is finance capital, pervading the entire economy. It may be pointed out here that in a number of countries, under cover of social demagogy, right has managed to gain the following of the masses dislocated by the crisis, and even of certain sections of the most backward strata of the proletariat. These would never have supported the rightist forces, if they had understood its real character and its true nature. (IPA Service)
