Economic Resolution
of SPI passed in 4th National Convention held in Lucknow on 14-15
November 2016
Policies of
liberalization, privatization and globalization, dictated by the World Bank,
IMF, WTO and other such world economic institutions, are playing havoc world over, particularly to the lives of poor
and weaker sections of society. Despite repeated failures and short-comings of these
very policies, the ruling establishment of India and the world is pursuing them
shamelessly with even greater intensity. These policies have resulted into the
greatest poor-rich divide ever! The divide is also increasing among the
developed, developing and under-developed nations. On one hand the luxuries
enjoyed by the rich do not know limits on the other hand the poor are forced to
suffer from epidemics, natural disasters and to live undignified life without basic
civic facilities. The neo-liberal policies have resulted in immense inequality
and corruption during last three decades.
But the governments,
talking only GDP, are not ready to listen anything against these economic
policies. GDP is a poor economic indicator and reveals little about the
condition of lives of poor. A developed nation of Europe has shown increase in
GDP by including the earnings from prostitution in its country. And here in
India, the present government is changing the basis of price rise, GDP and
other indicators to somehow show growth. The government has shown the
difference between production and expenses to be more than 1 lakh 30 thousand
crores, which if removed, will reduce the growth rate by 2%.
Cheap imports, especially from
countries like China, are killing the skills of the local craftsmen as the work
done by them is costlier. Even big industries like garments, engineering and machinery
are being pushed towards closure by cheap imports. The MNCs in automobile,
mobile, electronics/computers sectors are reaping huge profits. The policy of
minimum imports in petroleum sector has been done away with. These policies
have resulted into suicides of lakhs of farmers, displacement of crores of
people, massive unemployment and destruction of the environment.
The agrarian sector and tribal
population face the direct brunt of these economic policies and capitalist
development model based upon them. This year, despite of a good monsoon and a
good farm produce, the farmers have not got good returns. This is reflected by
the increase in suicides of farmers. The backbone of the agrarian sector has
been broken by the two and half decades of implementation of neo-liberal
policies. The farming is continually oriented towards foreign needs and cash
crops. Local basic needs like pulses are increasingly made dependent on
imports. Pulses are the only source of protein in plate of poor and that too
has become unaffordable now. The entire agrarian sector, which includes seeds,
pesticides, fertilizers, is becoming more and more dependent on MNCs. The
government is adamantly pushing for introduction of GM crops, which can cause
irreversible, disastrous impacts on health and environment. In the name of
breed improvement indigenous animal husbandry, fish farming, poultry and all
such sectors are being opened up for MNCs. Local varieties of crops, fruits and
animals are disappearing. There is a lesson that needs to be learnt from the
spread of epidemic diseases like bird flu, mad cow disease etc. But who cares?
Since its beginning, the Modi
government has launched a campaign of land grabbing, which is being resisted by
farmer unions and unity of opposition parties. But behind this thrust there are
huge corporations and MNCs, which are eying the land of farmers and tribals.
Socialist Party, since its inception, has been demanding that all available
land should be equitably and appropriately used and for the same purpose a land
use commission, which comprises of representation of farmers and tribals,
should be setup.
It is not just land but all other
natural resources are also at stake. There is a fast move to hand over water of
rivers to MNCs and big industries. Red carpets are being laid for big
industrial houses, foreign capital and foreign trade. But there is no increase in
either manufacturing or in foreign trade. The government is filling its coffers
finding respite in low crude oil prices and throwing away huge amounts of money
to big business houses. The stock market and commodity markets are death fields
for common investors and farmers. For the last three years there is no change
in this situation. Whether it be neem- coated fertilizers or copying of Israel
drip farming, all have turned out to be total failures for farmers.
Neo-liberal economic policies have
caused havoc for tribal people. So called development programs have resulted in
displacement of crores of tribals. Their land, minerals below land, rivers,
forest produce, and even sand & stones are sold to make enormous money by
corporates, politicians and bureaucrats. Dalits don't own means of production
and this loot of land, forest and other natural resources has eliminated their
chances of getting a share of these resources. Availability of land for
residential purposes has also become an issue in villages. The retail sector,
which has been the backbone of agrarian and the rest of our economy, is now
under grave threat from the FDI from giant MNCs, like Wall Mart, Tesco, Carrefour,
Metro etc.
The availability and condition of
employment has been worsening. Government says that FDI is our only option for
fast economic growth. So government is offering big sops to MNCs. But the MNCs
have sophisticated manufacturing which use automation to reduce expenditure on
salaries, and in turn lead to a jobless growth. Crores of degree holder youth
are jobless. This was when Modi, in his election speeches, had promised 1 crore
jobs every year, but those jobs are simply not there. The Socialist Party
believes in self-reliant and independent economy that operates on cooperative
basis with a target of total employment in the field of agriculture, animal
husbandry and other small scale industries with Indian capital. Agricultural
land should not be acquired. Irrigation facilities and easy loans with
guarantee of profitable prices should be provided to farmers.
Recently Rs. 500 and 1000 notes have
been invalidated. Tall claims are being made by the Prime Minister that this
demonetization will end corruption, black money, tax evasion, boom in property
prices, terrorism from across the border and so on. These tall claims are
sufficient to show the hollowness of demonetization. This decision is made
essentially to cover the failure to bring back black money from outside India.
The claim of depositing Rs. 15 lakh to each Indians’ bank account by Modi was
based on estimation of this black money parked outside India. This sudden
declaration of demonetization has caused immense inconvenience to the ordinary people.
They are standing in long queues for exchange at the loss of wages. The Socialist
Party believes that black money is an unavoidable result of the
capitalist-neoliberal policies. We can see the same across the world. The claim
made by government, which is implementing neo-liberal policies on a much faster
pace than the previous UPA government, is principally untenable.
The Socialist Party rejects the
neo-liberal economic policies and demands that development policies, which are
decentralized, complementary to the local ecosystem, diverse and based on
sustainable development, should be implemented.
Only such pro-people and pro-environment policies can guarantee full
employment and balanced usage of natural resources. Country's wealth is its
people and resources. We see reflection of de-centralized, diverse and
sustainable development's clear vision in the thoughts of Mahatma Gandhi, Ram
Manohar Lohia, Jai Prakash Narayan and Kishan Patnayak.
Thus Stands the Socialist
Party
Upholding
Brotherhood and Equality
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