People's Democracy

One Year of UDF Government --- II

THE UDF’s is a government that runs away from impartial inquiries, and many ministers are afraid of coming to the docks. M V Raghavan and K Sudhakaran stand accused in the E P Jayarajan murder case. Education minister N Sooppy is accused of interfering with the entrance exams while finance minister Sankara Narayanan is accused of taking bribes in the chicken deal. Irrigation minister T M Jacob is accused of involvement in the Karappara-Kuriyarkutty case while K M Mani and K Sudhakaran had hands in the notorious Mathikettan Mala Sholay forest issue.

As and when a corruption case surfaces, the cabinet conducts a farce of an inquiry and exonerates its members. Officers working under ministers inquire into the cases in which the latter are involved. The additional chief secretary, for instance, inquired into the Mathikettan Mala land grab case. The government went to the extent of dissolving the State Women’s Commission in order to save its ministers, Karthikeyan and Sivadasan, who were accused of sexually assaulting a woman. Achuthan, an MLA, is also accused of sexually harassing a woman. These complaints were there before the commission. It is in this background that the commission headed by a retired High Court judge was dissolved and a new commission with three active UDF workers was nominated.

Over the last one year, more than 70 peasants committed suicide in Kerala. The media reported these as a result of financial difficulties. The media did not have the guts to say that these difficulties emanated from a debt-trap in which the peasants are entangled. A typical and sad example is that of a coffee grower who took a loan when a kilogram of coffee was sold at Rs 90 but the price fell down to Rs 20 by the time he harvested his crop, forcing him to commit suicide. The same is the case with other crops.

Both the central and state governments are equally responsible for the price crash, as they are making deliberate attempts to appease certain vested interests. Normally, a state government meets such circumstances by taking necessary relief measures. But the UDF government discontinued even the measures taken by the LDF government. Copra and coconut procurement has been stopped altogether. Interest-free agricultural loans have become a thing of the past. The free electricity granted for irrigation and other works to the peasants having less than five acres of land has been stopped. The budgetary provisions made in the last LDF budget were cut short; even the reduced provisions are not reaching the peasants. The government has withdrawn from the procurement of agricultural produce. All this has gravely contributed to the impoverishment of the peasantry.

The UDF government exhibited its class character by trying to incite the peasants against employees and teachers. When the employees and teachers went on a struggle; the government campaigned that it was against the peasants and workers. It even went to the extent of announcing a new project for the peasants, adding that the money for the project would come from the Rs 500 crore saved from the employees and teachers.

In fact, the new package is nothing but a cut and paste of certain elements from the existing projects. The project is being implemented in such a way as to deny the peasants their legitimate rights. For example, the sum of Rs 40 crore earmarked for rubber growers reached the pockets of rubber exporters, and the Rs 11 crore earmarked for coconut growers reached the owners of large-scale copra dryers. The sum marked for arecanut cultivators went to the pockets of others. Coffee merchants were granted unusual concessions, which the LDF and the court had refused to grant. The 5 per cent tax concession for rubber growers was appropriated mostly by the tyre factories.

Adhering to the central government’s dictates about globalisation, the UDF government is gradually dragging the traditional industries of the state to a ‘peaceful’ demise. Its policies are leading thousands of workers in this sector to starvation and hardships. Handloom, coir, khadi and cashew are the main traditional industries of Kerala.

This is the first ever government of Kerala not to grant a single pie in the budget for the handloom sector. On protest, it first said it would grant a sum of Rs 10 crore but reduced it later to 4.55 crore. One will recall that the LDF government had granted Rs 56 crore for the handloom sector. The handloom products have brisk rebate sales especially during the festivals like Onam, Bakrid and Christmas. In all, rebate sale of 101 days was the usual practice. This was reduced to 78 days, and now the rebate stands abolished. As a result, a number of handloom societies shut down. The cooperative sector accounts for 76 per cent of the industry. Its workers and producers are facing the threats of poverty and starvation.

Coir industry is also facing a severe crisis. Workers’ wages and DAs were arbitrarily reduced. Rebate to cooperative societies was withdrawn. Products worth more than 30 crore remain unsold. Following a strike, the UDF government halfheartedly distributed the rebate arrears, but said that no more rebate would be granted to this sector.

There are two agencies working in the sector --- the Coirfed and Coir Corporation. The Corporation is entrusted to buy coir from the primary production centres, including societies. The stated reason is that the government has no control whatsoever over the Coirfed. The workers’ representatives were dismissed from the Price Control Committee. Thus the merchants are given all options to decide the coir price to their full satisfaction. Also, the LDF government had increased the employees’ wages by Rs 21 a day. The UDF has reduced it by Rs 10 a day. The minimum price norm to export quality products stands nullified. Thus the sector is doomed to destruction. Abjectly surrendering to ADB-IMF’s the dictates the government is not expected to do anything to save it.

The same is the fate of beedi industry where workers were retrenched in bulk. Their wages are reduced at every possible moment.

The khadi is a thing of national sentiment, and Congress leaders are clad in khadi clothes to exhibit their fidelity to the "national aspirations." But the khadi sector is facing stagnation in the state. The yarn remains unsold. The customary government orders for yarn were denied this year. As a result, the bandages and hospital clothes produced in anticipation of the government orders remained unsold. The end of the rebate has also affected the sector. The government owes a sum of Rs 7 crore to the Khadi Board. Of the 400-odd khadi units, about 200 are closed. There were about 25,000 employees in the sector. At present there are only 15,000.

The cashew industry is in a serious condition. After the UDF came to power, cashew workers did not get a single day’s work, while the LDF regime provided them up to 220 days of work per annum. Now neither the Cashew Development Corporation nor the Capex are able to provide them work as 40 factories under the corporation and 10 under Capex remain closed. The government’s policy of privatisation created this grave situation. It is bent upon selling the public sector units to private owners. The workers were denied wages. The LDF government regularly gave them bonus during Onam, which is now denied them. They have been robbed of all privileges and rights, and even their bare minimum livelihood. The LDF innovations to improve the traditional cashew industry and thereby save its workers have all been killed. The UDF government has become the cashew industrialists’ mouthpiece and arrogantly argues that the workers’ wages and rights must be reduced.

Adivasis of Kerala are being continuously cheated by the UDF under A K Antony who wears the attire of a saint and sheds crocodile tears on the Adivasis’ plight. He masterminded an Adivasi strike under an insignificant Adivasi activist and promised to provide each Adivasi family five acres of land. The strike was given much publicity. But then it transpired that all this was to help the forest mafia to grab as much land as possible in the name of Adivasis. This is what actually happened at Mathikettan Mala and Pooyamkutty.

The said strike and the settlement were actually an attempt to defeat the programme begun during the LDF rule to provide the Adivasis sufficient land and to solve the longstanding Adivasi question. The LDF had decided to grant one acre land to each Adivasi family. The families that had lost land were to be granted land equal to what they had lost. The families having less than one acre of land would be compensated with additional grant of land. This comprehensive programme could have solved the Adivasi question, and also deprived the forest mafia of an opportunity to grab virgin lands in the dense forest regions.

But by masterminding the strike under a protégé, Antony killed the whole LDF programme in a bid to help the forest brigands. Not an inch of land has so far been distributed in effect. Of course there were certain glamorous functions, but the land for which ownership certificates (pattayam) were given actually belonged to the forest department; this land cannot be legally given to anyone on any ground. It was in this background that brigands belonging to the ruling UDF began to grab land in the forest areas and, moreover, the Kerala Forest Bill 2002 was effectively shelved.

It is true that there were some financial difficulties during the last days of the LDF government. But they had their own reasons. One was the reduction by the Finance Commission of its grant on flimsy grounds. The commission reduced it by a huge 3,665 crore without any justification. While the LDF protested against it, the UDF (then in opposition) did not raise even a faint voice against the BJP-led central government and the commission.

Also, there was a financial crisis during the last UDF rule (1991-96) when the treasuries were frequently closed. The LDF regime strove to overcome that crisis but it did not get sufficient time to do so; elections came by that time. Yet, the difficulty was not as severe as the UDF projects and the UDF’s finance minister presented a normal budget when it came to power. The budget, that estimated an income of Rs 10,000 crore and an expenditure of 13,000 crore, was in fact a slightly revised edition of the budget passed by the LDF government. If there were a severe crisis as was given out, they would have totally scrapped it.

But partisan politics and the ADB’s dictates prevailed over the state’s interests. The budget provisions were not utilised. The plan allocation was considerably reduced, but even the reduced allocation was not fully utilised. They in fact utilised only 30 per cent of the reduced allocation. The government is bent upon showing a financial crisis, so as to escape the wrath of the people following the acceptance of the ADB conditionalities.

Though the UDF mouthpieces howl that the LDF too discussed with the ADB, they deliberately black out the fact that the LDF did not give in to any conditionalities. They want to "convince" the people that the ADB conditionalities will have to be accepted if the state is to be "saved" from its "present financial crisis."

But what these conditionalities are? That the government must withdraw from all developmental and welfare activities. That the service sector must be privatised. That the public sector must be sold out to private entrepreneurs. That subsidies of all types must be stopped.

These and other conditionalities are sure to affect the people’s life, torpedo the world-famous Kerala model of development, and lead Kerala to utter ruin. They mean abject surrender to the pro-imperialist ADB and IMF.

The People’s Plan was an innovation introduced during the LDF rule. It was to ensure the people’s active role in implementing the five-year plans. The people were themselves to identify their problems and evolve solutions. The locally required projects were to be implemented locally. There could be no middleman in implementation anywhere.

The strides made by the People’s Plan were hailed the world over and observers came from many Indian states and many foreign countries to learn lessons from the plan. But the UDF regime began a wartime move to torpedo the much-acclaimed programme. The local bodies were denied necessary funds and also obstructed in spending the meagre funds they were given. The despised bureaucracy again raised its dirty head. The expert committees were dismissed without any substitute arrangements. The half-completed schemes remained in limbo, and the money spent on them went waste. Although one-third of the plan fund is earmarked to the local bodies, no effective step was taken to disburse the funds to them in time. All steps including the redistribution of staff were annulled.

Having committed all these follies, the UDF claims now that the tenth plan will be of the magnitude of Rs 24,000 crore. This means that a sum of Rs 4,800 crore has to be spent every year. A government that destroyed a plan of Rs 3,600 crore and spent only 1,000 crore in its place, now claims to implement a plan of Rs 4,800 crore annually!

In its order in the Unnikrishnan case, the Supreme Court had categorically instructed that no capitation fee and management quota be allowed when permission is granted to start private professional colleges. But the UDF is out to violate the verdict by granting permission to open private professional colleges where capitation fees and management quotas will be the rule. The government has declared that the newly permitted private medical and engineering colleges would all have the status of minority colleges. This has only one meaning. If anybody wants to have a professional degree, he/she must be in a position to pay the capitation fee and other donations besides possessing the necessary merit.

The Antony cabinet is restructuring the education system in a way that will have perilous consequences. Education is being commercialised at a fast pace. According to the new UDF policy, now any Tom, Dick or Harry may open an educational establishment, "impart" education up to the seventh standard and issue transfer certificates, of course for a hefty fee. Schools and other institutions will thus become inaccessible to the common man, in a negation of the constitutional directive of free and compulsory elementary education. This year 48 schools are going to be closed down in government and aided sectors. The decision was to shut down more than 2,600 schools, but the widespread protest compelled the UDF to postpone it. It is now certain that thousands of schools will be closed down in the next five years on the ground that they are unprofitable. The IMF-ADB’s argument about the PSUs is being given in case of schools that are for the UDF only a business. And more than 30,000 teachers will lose their jobs once it happens. There is a Malayalam saying "His school is closed" to denote a man’s pauperisation; now every common citizen’s school is going to be closed in Kerala, denying the society the fruits of the historic Education Bill of 1958 and making the Malayalees educationally crippled.

A unified university act is proposed in order to destroy the autonomy of the universities. It is funny that a government out to privatise all sectors is trying to destroy the universities’ autonomy, with a view to filling the universities with UDF activists and politicise them. This will lead to a big in fees in higher education. A number of teachers are going to be retrenched shortly.

The UDF has gone back on its word over most of the issues. When in Opposition, it was against granting consultancy to the Japanese PCI consultants in the drinking water scheme. Now it is to go on with the same scheme. The Pariyaram Medical College is a government establishment and the last LDF government spent more than Rs 170 crore on its development. Now it has virtually become M V Raghavan’s private property. Toddy cooperatives have been disbanded and toddy shops auctioned out to the abkari mafia. The UDF’s is thus not a people’s government but a government of the wealthy and a pro-imperialist government.

(Concluded)