People's Democracy

ON the first two days of September, two important meetings took place in the capital. Both these meetings were on the question of central policies and saw the participation of chief ministers and other important officials from the states.

While the meeting of the National Development Council, held on September 1, was to discuss the draft Approach Paper to the tenth five-year plan, the September 2 meeting was held at the initiative of West Bengal chief minister, Buddhadeb Bhattacharya. On agenda was the threat posed by the ongoing saffronisation of education.

The draft approach paper to the tenth plan reiterates the policy approach of the BJP-led government and is in tune with the liberalisation-privatisation course. Through this draft paper, the government has preached the same set of policies that have aggravated the country's economic crisis.

Despite the government’s claims to the contrary, the economy is passing through a very severe recession. According to the Central Statistical Organisation, as against the 6 per cent GDP growth announced by the finance minister while presenting the budget for 2001-2, the GDP grew at 5.2 per cent in 2000-01. The growth in manufacturing sector fell from 6.8 to 5.6 per cent while agricultural output grew by only 0.2 per cent as against the estimated 0.9 per cent. During the first four years of the ninth plan, the average growth rate for agriculture was 1.4 per cent compared to the target of 4.0 per cent. In case of industry, it was 4.7 per cent as against the target of 8 per cent.

The growth in foodgrain output was scandalously negative in 1997-98, 1999-2000 and 2000-01. Despite this negative growth, however, the FCI godowns have nearly 60 million tonnes of foodgrains. Not because there is plenty in the country, but merely because of faulty planning and priorities. PDS prices have been continuously hiked to roughly the level of market prices or even more in some cases, in order to discourage people from buying from the PDS outlets and thus keep them out of the purview of the scheme. The offtake from the states has been minimal. Overflowing godowns and starvation deaths are occurring side by side, even drawing the attention of the Supreme Court that is hearing a public interest litigation.

To add to the woe of our peasantry, the withdrawal of quantitative restrictions on a host of items has resulted in the ruination of millions of peasants. Instead of protecting them by higher import duties, the government has in fact reduced the duties on a number of items.

In our critique of the economic ‘reforms,’ we had repeatedly pointed out that these policies are primarily aimed at providing quick profits to the capitalist class. We had also warned that these policies would result in mortgaging our economy to foreign capital. Consequent to the aggravating economic situation, the conditions of the vast mass of the people are worsening. The reduced purchasing power of the masses is resulting in a lesser aggregate demand which is leading to recession.

Without going into the Approach Paper proper, it is obvious that the government has no plans to reverse this process. On the contrary, it is interested in accelerating the liberalisation process.

During their interventions, the chief ministers of West Bengal and Tripura made three major suggestions for inclusion in the Approach Paper. They were --- implementation of land reforms, strengthening of the public distribution system, and tackling the debt burden of the states. The West Bengal chief minister's speech is being published here separately.

The meeting of non-BJP chief ministers and education ministers, convened on September 2, had the representation of 13 states and drew the entire nation’s attention. It was convened at the initiative of the West Bengal chief minister, Buddhadeb Bhattacharya. The sole agenda for the meeting was to discuss the threat posed by the attempts to saffronise education.

We have repeatedly warned that ever since the BJP-led government came into office, it has been striving to undo the basic direction of education --- the goals of democracy, equality and secularism. The first step in this direction was the packing of institutions of higher learning and decision-making bodies like the NCERT, ICSSR, etc, with persons known for their close affinity with the Hindutva ideology.

In the second stage, the ministry of human resources development (MHRD) launched a concerted attack on the secular, scientific content of curriculum. The infamous National (!) Curriculum Framework is a blueprint to give school education a narrow, exclusivist, sectarian and obscurantist orientation. Under the guise of providing value education, what are being promoted are obscurantist values. The introduction of astrology and Vedic mathematics will only push the country back.

The widespread resentment to these measures is reflected in the refusal by several state governments and universities to introduce the UGC's new courses. The non-NDA parties are not alone in opposing these measures being pushed through by the BJP. That such an important measure was not discussed even at the NDA level is evident from the staunch protest voiced by the TDP, DMK and Trinamul Congress in the last parliament session.

The chief ministers and education ministers attending the September 2 meet expressed grave concern at the way the union government is taking decisions in the field of education without consultation with the state governments, despite education being in the concurrent list. They objected to the fact that several courses, which militate against the secular values and encourage superstition, are being introduced. In a resolution passed at the meeting, they demanded that our education policy be in consonance with the secular, scientific and democratic values enshrined in our constitution and that all decisions for formulating policies in this field be taken on the basis of a consensus among the union and states. They asked the union government to withhold all decisions, orders, circulars and documents issued or published in this regard. They also demanded that the Central Advisory Board of Education be reconstituted, an education ministers conference be convened and parliament’s approval such a policy be sought.

The struggle against saffronisation of education and against the economic policies will have to be intensified in the coming days. The August meeting of the CPI(M) Central Committee has given a call to organise atleast 2,000 public meetings all over the country from September 7 to 21, demanding that the Vajpayee government scrap its harmful policies or quit office. The party expects that over 10 lakh people from different sections will participate in the picketing of central government offices on September 25, 26 and 27. In the coming days, all efforts have to be made to mobilise more and more people to mount pressure on the government to seek a reversal of these policies.