People's Democracy

Subhas Ray

ON Monday, December 12, both the houses faced a peculiar situation when six members of the BJP, three of the BSP and one each of the Congress and RJD were caught on camera, accepting cash for asking specific questions in parliament. This a television news channel highlighted all the day. Lok Sabha speaker Somnath Chatterjee said the whole house felt deeply concerned about it, and appealed to rise to the occasion and see that such an event did not ever recur in future. He assured that nobody found guilty would be spared. The episode had undoubtedly lowered the dignity of the house, CPI(M) leader Basudeb Acharia said.

On the day, Lok Sabha set up an inquiry committee to go into the charges and submit a report on December 21. Rajya Sabha referred the case of its lone member to the Ethics Committee.

On the same day, Rajya Sabha passed the Criminal Law (Amendment) Bill 2003 after accepting a very important amendment proposed by the CPI(M)’s Brinda Karat. One notes that the government had earlier included in the bill a retrograde recommendation of the Malimath committee to dilute section 498 A of the Indian Penal Code (IPC), relating to cruelty against a woman by her husband and his family members by making the offence ‘compoundable.’ This recommendation was also accepted by the earlier NDA government and by the standing committee headed by Sushma Swaraj (BJP). Accepting Brinda Karat’s amendment as an official amendment, which was a significant gain for women’s struggle, home minister Shivraj Patil withdrew the clause.

On December 14, Brinda Karat, CPI(M), initiated in Rajya Sabha a short duration discussion on the public distribution system (PDS). Here she thoroughly exposed government’s policies, the Planning Commission’s faulty assessment and definition of poverty line and the assessment of BPL and APL categories. She said by thus destroying the PDS, the government has been succumbing to the pressure of the WTO, World Bank and other international institutions. What these institutions wanted was a curtailment of subsidies for the poor and the FCI’s role. It was her maiden speech in the house and was much appreciated by all including the chairman of the house.

In Lok Sabha, the CPI(M)’s Minati Sen pushed a Calling Attention motion on the increase in trafficking in women in the country. She referred to a recent UN report that said, "India is a major centre of human trafficking. 20,000 women are forced into flesh trade every year." Various newspapers have reported that 61 per cent of the victims are below 18 years and 45 per cent below 16. Those involved in human trafficking make over Rs 1.5 crore a year, and thus it has become a big organised crime after drugs and arms. Girls are brought to Delhi, Mumbai and Bangalore from Nepal, Rajasthan, Andhra Pradesh, Tamilnadu, Assam, north east and West Bengal. A report of the National Human Right Commission says 39.6 per cent of the victims held family members responsible for their predicament. It is horrifying.

The main causes of this trafficking are, Sen said, the economic and gender disparities that limit women’s access to the development process. Taking advantage of the people’s poverty conditions, touts of so-called placement agencies are going on luring young girls and women with the promise of a luxurious life with hefty incomes. Then a good chunk of the victims are sold to brothel owners while the rest are forced to work as domestic help. Most of these poor girls are forced to work for 16 to 18 hours a day, eat the leftovers of their masters and sleep in an open space. They are kept under lock and key, and physically and sexually assaulted. Strangely, however, the government has no control over these placement agencies. Nobody knows where these poor girls are working and what are their service conditions. Trafficking also leads to spread of the dreaded HIV/AIDS and other health hazards, making it imperative for the government to take urgent steps.

This week the parliament passed the supplementary demands for grants (general) for 2005-06. From the CPI(M) side, Bangsagopal Chowdhury and P Karunakaran participated in the discussion in Lok Sabha.

In his intervention, Chowdhury said the budget for 2005-06 initiated measures to achieve certain social and economic objectives as set out in the National Common Minimum Programme (NCMP), including the poverty alleviation, unemployment and sustained economic growth of 7-8 per cent per annum. But the situation is not at all encouraging. We have unemployment problem in the agriculture sector. Distribution of income has left a large section of the population with inadequate purchasing capacity. To develop Indian economy, it is necessary to address these issues seriously. Only 7 per cent of our total workforce is in the organised sector. The rest 93 per cent are in the unorganised sectors where no labour laws and no minimum wages exist. India’s development means employment for the youth, income generation, an adequate investment in agriculture, implementation of land reform and opening up of newer and newer industries. Failure to meet these problems will intensify the problems of separatism, terrorism and naxalism, he warned.

Giving examples, Chowdhury said our small-scale industries, which contribute more than any other sector to employment generation, are victims of government policies. The guidelines of the RBI are not being followed by commercial banks. Therefore, in the interest of the unemployed youth, the finance ministry must issue a directive to commercial banks for easy loan with minimum interest.

The main problem lies in the countryside where facilities for primary health care, schools, drinking water and sanitation are virtually non-existent. It means the government has to take special care of our villages so that problems like illiteracy, health and education are mitigated, he said.

In the end, Chowdhury raised the problem of subsidence in the entire Asansol-Raniganj coal belt. He said for the last three decades CPI(M) members have been raising this problem in parliament but nothing much has been done to combat it. The entire belt is under the threat of collapse. If anything unfortunate happens, it will be a human tragedy in a very big scale, he warned.

P Karunakaran, CPI(M), said the government’s anti-farmer import policy has forced many farmers to commit suicide. There have been about 1300 suicide cases in Kerala alone, where a large proportion of farmers are engaged in the production of cash crops like pepper, cardamom, rubber, tea and arecanut. Here, the people’s day to day life is connected with traditional industries like coir, cashew, handloom and beedi, and with fisheries. But the state is not included in the PURA scheme; the National Rural Programme is not there; the PRY fund is very limited for Kerala. Banks are not giving loans to students, many of whom have committed suicide as a result. This is the real situation the finance minister should think about. He concluded with the demand that the government come up with a comprehensive legislation to give voting right to the NRIs who contribute much to the nation.

During the discussion on the supplementary budget for railways, the CPI(M)’s C S Sujatha, Santasri Chatterjee, T K Hamza and P Mohan intervened in Lok Sabha and K Chandran Pillai did so in Rajya Sabha. They highlighted the various problems people are facing in Kerala, West Bengal, Tamilnadu and north eastern states due to absence of enough trains, electrification, double lines, broad-gauge lines, upgradation and development of railway stations, and advanced communications system. They also raised the issues of linking the capitals of north eastern states through a rail network, plight of loco running staff and their long working hours, and non-recruitment in 70,000 vacancies in the safety related areas. They urged the railway minister to save the lives of 1.5 lakh potters and reduce the exorbitant parking fees for taxis and auto-rickshaws.

On December 13, Lok Sabha discussed the problems facing agriculture, with members expressing serious concern over the decreasing agricultural production during the last two and half years. They also raised issues like 70 per cent of agricultural produce going to middlemen or agents and the heavy loans crushing farmers, forcing farmers to commit suicide. They said farmers get loans at 12 to 18 per cent rate of interest while you get a car loan at 6 per cent. A farmer has to mortgage his property to take a loan. Floods and droughts have become added problems for the Indian farmers. The latter are deprived of remunerative prices for their produce, and of electricity and water. As a result, they are migrating from villages to cities. There are so many other occupations related to agriculture like fisheries, dairy, animal husbandry and horticulture etc. Had the government paid attention to these sectors, certainly the miseries of agriculturists would have considerably lessened and it would have contributed to the economic betterment of the farmers.

During the discussion, the CPI(M)’s Mehboob Zahedi said the budgetary allocation for the agriculture sector was 16.4 per cent in 1970-80 but only 9 per cent in 2004. The farmers contribute about 27 per cent to GDP, and about 65 per cent of our people depend on agriculture for livelihood. Yet, the situation of agriculture has so much deteriorated that thousands of farmers have committed suicide in the country. The WTO has aggravated the situation further, to the detriment of our farmers and our economy. Citing the example of Kerala in regard to the decreasing export and falling prices of cash crops, Zahidi demanded that the government must not sign the proposed WTO agreement on agriculture as it was against our national interest.

On Friday, the last day of the week, both the houses had to be abruptly adjourned and the entire parliament complex evacuated following an e-mail bomb threat to blow up the building. The threat, which came from some cyber café in Tirunelveli, later turned out to be a hoax. Both the houses sat again at 3 p m.