People's Democracy

The Week In Parliament

Subhas Ray

BOTH Houses of parliament adjourned sine die on the last day of the winter session on the afternoon of December 23, after hearing the news of passing away of former prime minister and former Congress president, P V Narasimha Rao. Members observed two-minute silence in memory of the departed leader.

Earlier, the much awaited National Rural Employment Guarantee Bill, 2004 was introduced in Lok Sabha on December 21. This Bill was a much diluted version of the draft bill that was proposed by the National Advisory Council of the UPA – to such an extent that the guarantee of employment is almost ineffective. This aspect frustrated many members, some of whom even opposed the Bill at the introductory stage itself. The Bill introduced by the government seeks to place greater financial burden on the states by expecting them to shoulder 25 per cent of the material cost and provide fully for the unemployment allowance.

Lok Sabha held a discussion on Supplementary Demands for Grants (General), 2004-2005 on December 20. From CPI(M), Samik Lahiri, Varkala Radhakrishnan and P Rajendran participated in the discussion. Lahiri drew the attention of the finance minister to his statement while placing the budget that the UPA government will cater to the interests of the poor people, particularly rural poor and that there would be increase of revenue sources accompanied with substantial recovery of arrears. Lahiri pointed out that contrary to this assurance, the government has increased indirect tax collection by imposing various taxes. He also criticised the government on collection of direct tax, which was way behind the target and questioned what was being done about collection of arrears and widening the tax net. He also asked what steps have been taken to realise the huge tax arrears.

Referring to the mid-term review in which it was stated that major subsidies have been cut by Rs 4,444 crore, Lahiri wanted the government to clarify why this was done. He questioned whether removing subsidies on products widely used by common people is not violation of the CMP? He stressed that the basic problems of our country, particularly those of the rural poor must be addressed with urgency. Decrying the government for spending a paltry one per cent in public expenditure on health, and 4 per cent on education, Lahiri said that is why the nation is ranked 127 in the UN Human Development Report. He enquired whether the education cess being collected by the government is being entirely spent on education or whether it is being diverted to some other account. He wanted to know whether there was any monitoring system.

Pointing out how the market size has expanded in Bengal with the implementation of land reforms, the CPI(M) MP criticised the central government for refusing to acknow-ledge this fact and taking similar action across the country. The World Bank has itself stated that the poorest have grown poorer in the world while the rich saw their real incomes grow by 12 per cent. He concluded by demanding the government to protect the poor of the country and unearth black money.

Varkala Radhakrishnan in his speech said the severe crisis in agriculture was leading to price instability for agricultural produce and consequently poor farmers were living in a state of starvation in many regions, including in Kerala. He stressed the need to ensure the stability in the agricultural produce market. The handlooms sector was also facing a crisis with even positive measures in the textile policy not being implemented till date. He decried the growing trend of commercialisation of education and called for evolving of a sound educational policy. He also criticised the lack of a clear literacy plan despite our country having the largest number of illiterate people. He said the National Literacy Campaign existed only on paper. On the new tax system, the Value Added Tax (VAT) being introduced by the government, Radhakrishnan felt it would be better if the VAT is introduced in a varied form in each state, taking into consideration its geographical condition and other things. He felt Kerala would be a loser in this regime as currently it was getting around 40 per cent of its total income from the sales tax and this will be lost. He asked the finance minister to look into the issue of transferring some service taxes to the states to overcome such loss.

P Rajandran said though it was too early to evaluate the UPA government’s performance in this short period of six months, the overall feeling was that the budget passed does not fully satisfy the expectations of the millions of people who voted for this government. He criticised that even the goals enshrined in the CMP are not being kept in mind when the new policies are being framed. The policies of globalisation and privatisation are being enthusiastically followed at the risk and cost of 70 to 80 per cent of the population. These policies are driving farmers to starvation and suicides, resulting in closure of thousands of industries, throwing lakhs of workers onto the streets. Quoting figures from the recent report of the UNICEF, Rajendran said nearly 33 million children in India have never been to school; 147 million children have no shelter; 27 million children have no access to safe drinking water; 100 million children have no access to information; and 85 million Indian children have no access to health care. This is the real picture of our country after 58 years of Independence, he said.

Drawing attention to Kerala’s plight, Rajendran demanded development of tourism, infrastructure, industry and agriculture. He also demanded implementation of Kumarakon Package for installing a joint-venture for an investment of Rs10,000 crore in the state and upgradation of the medical college at Thiruvananthapuram to the standards of AIIMS.

FOREIGN POLICY

Rajya Sabha witnessed a debated on the foreign policy of the country under short duration discussion. Participating in the discussion, CPI(M) group leader, Nilotpal Basu noted that a comprehensive discussion on the foreign policy has not taken place in the parliament for a long time. He wanted the government to be conscious of the commitment made in the CMP that our foreign policy should be independent and it should be promoting multi-polarity, which, Basu said, was non-alignment of our times. He reminded that since independence the framework of foreign policy in our country was based on national consensus. But the first major breach in the national consensus was when the Vajpayee government went for Pokharan-II, he said. Basu stressed that in evolving the view of the government on foreign policy, there has to be national consultation and he cautioned against any unilateral decision by the foreign ministry office. In the context of attempts to democratise the United Nations, Basu said India must fight for a permanent seat in the Security Council on the basis that it is more representative of the concerns of the developing countries.

Referring to our relations with Israel, the CPI(M) MP warned that Indo-Israel ties could become a threat to our position on Palestine issue. Referring to the steep increase in our country’s trade with Israel Basu warned against depending heavily on Israel. He welcomed the progress in SAARC process and said the government should embark on multilateralism in our neighbourhood. Emphasising the need for an independent foreign policy, Basu called for juxtaposing our concerns with the concerns of the developing countries at large. “Countries like Russia, China, South Africa and Brazil will be with us because the common reality of a unipolar world is threatening their existence also”, so saying he concluded.

Sarla Maheswari of the CPI(M) in Rajya Sahha raised the demand for pensionary and other benefits for the employees of Regional Rural Banks (RRBs). Strongly opposing any move by the government to merge these banks with their sponsor banks, the CPI(M) MP suggested that if necessary NABARD must buy the shares of sponsor banks. She also warned against any thought of disinvesting these banks.

Around 14,500 branches of 196 RRBs are spread over in 516 districts of our country and they serve nearly 5 crore people with small loans. Sarla Maheshwari suggested that a human resource plan must be formulated for the promotion of the employees of these banks as some of the employees working in these banks have not got even one promotion in 10 years. They must get the pensionary benefits according to the direction of Supreme Court and their pay should be revised, she insisted.

P Madhu of CPI(M) raised the issue of severe crisis facing handloom sector in Rajya Sabha. Expressing his serious concern over the plight of lakhs of handloom weavers in Andhra Pradesh, Tamil Nadu, Karnataka and Uttar Pradesh, Madhu demanded the government to take immediate steps to rescue the weavers, most of whom were committing suicides unable to bear the misery. He said the main cause of the crisis was the blatant violation of the Handloom Reservation Act by many powerloom units in the country, which were openly producing the reserved items. The handloom sector also suffered from steep hike in the prices of yarn and the artificial scarcity of yarn in the market. The CPI(M) MP urged the government to immediately intervene and come to the rescue of the weavers and ensure strict implementation of the Reservation Act, regular supply of yarn to handloom industry, lower interest credit facility etc. He also demanded that welfare schemes should also be undertaken for the benefit of weavers.

FARMERS’ PROBLEMS

The CPI(M) leader in Lok Sabha, Basudeb Acharia, moved a motion regarding the problems being faced by the farmers under short duration discussion. Initiating the discussion Acharia pointed out that this discussion was taking place in the backdrop of a militant agitation launched by the farmers of Rajasthan, who ultimately forced the state government to heed to their demands.

Referring to the spate of suicides being committed by farmers in many states, Acharia lambasted the previous NDA government for lifting Quantitative Restrictions (QRs) much ahead of time and thus ruining the farmers. He warned the UPA government not to traverse the same path of the NDA government and said the proposal to amend the Indian Patents Act would hurt the Indian farmers the most. He demanded that the Bill must be referred to a joint select committee for thorough scrutiny.

Saying that absence of cheap credit to farmers was forcing them into the hands of usurious money-lenders, the CPI(M) MP demanded the government to come out with details of exactly how much credit was flowing to the farmer after the announcement of the new credit policy. The previous government’s decision to reduce import tariffs resulted in the grabbing of our market share by the MNCs. The closure of fertiliser units, particularly in eastern India was hurting the farmers of the region. In Orissa, West Bengal and Bihar, there is an acute crisis of fertilizers. There is acute shortage of DAP in Uttar Pradesh. Acharia said the amendment of the Electricity Act was also hurting farmers, particularly the decision to phase out cross subsidy.

Acharia concluded by forcefully demanding the government to adopt an alternative agriculture policy in consultation with various organisations of farmers, kisans and agricultural workers.

December 26, 2004.