People's Democracy

The Week in Parliament

CPI(M) Parliamentary Office

THERE was uproar in both the houses of parliament on the issue of reported lobbying by Walmart. Sitaram Yechury, CPI(M) leader in parliament pointed this as not legal and asked for an inquiry into this whole matter and asked for a separate detailed discussion in the house on this matter.

Subsequently, later on the same issue P Rajeeve pointed the matter of engagement of lobbying agency of Walmart by Indian Embassy at the time of Nuclear Deal. David Headley is a double agent of America and ISI, while Patton Boggs is a double agent for lobbying for the Indian government in the United States of America and for Walmart in our country. The Indian Express daily has reported these things. The claims on their website clearly indicates that the Indian government agreed with Patton Boggs and they would favour them in capturing the Indian retail market for Walmart and in return, to pressurise the American Senate for taking care of the interests of the government of India, for getting approval for the nuclear deal and passing the Hyde Act. This is a very shameful thing, he said.

In Lok Sabha on the same issue, Basudeb Acharia said Walmart has paid 25 million US dollars amounting to Rs 125 crore for lobbying. This might not be illegal in America but in India it is considered as commission or bribe which is illegal. On this issue there should be a detailed time-bound judicial enquiry and within one month, the government has to give a report, he said.

Basudeb Acharia called the attention of the house on the issue of Dilution of Jute Packaging Materials (Compulsory Use) Act and pointed out that jute is the most important industry in West Bengal and its economy mostly depends on this. In the year 1987 with a big movement by the workers and the farmers, the government was compelled to enact Jute Packaging Act to provide protection to the farmers as well as workers. There are more than three lakh workers and 40 lakh farmers engaged in jute industry in West Bengal as well as Bihar and Andhra Pradesh. After the partition of Bengal, the jute growing area went to Pakistan and jute mills remained in West Bengal. It was the appeal by the first prime minister, Shri Pandit Nehru to the farmers which made the farmers to become self sufficient in the production of jute. Now the JMPA Act is being gradually diluted by the government due to the pressure of synthetic lobby, which went to Supreme Court and the Supreme Court observed that the “JMPA protected the rights of workers and their livelihood and that the violation of this could violate the fundamental rights of the farmers engaged in jute cultivation.” The Act also created Standing Advisory Committee (SAC), but the government has not consulted with SAC and unilaterally decided to reduce the compulsory use of jute material packages. As a result, a large number of jute workers will be rendered surplus, jobless in jute mills in the country. It will affect the livelihood of lakhs of workers and farmers engaged in jute sector. The minimum support price was increased from Rs 1600 per quintal to Rs 2,200. The government  stated that when farmers are getting more than the MSP, then there is no need for Jute Corporation of India (JCI) to come to market. In India, there is no shortage of raw jute and the government is advising the jute mills to utilise their jute for other purposes. Basudeb asked whether the Jute Corporation of India will purchase raw jute at the minimum support price and open their counters throughout the jute producing districts of West Bengal, Odisha, Andhra Pradesh, Assam, North-East and other jute producing districts of the country. He also appealed to the government to withdraw the decision.

Speaking on the Supplementary Demands for Grants, Dr Ramchandra Dome in Lok Sabha said the government has made people suffer from the unprecedented rise in prices of essential commodities including foodstuffs. Unemployment is left unchecked. There is massive deprivation of the vulnerable people of our society. Factory output fell by 0.4 per cent in September this year. Exports fell by 1.63 per cent in October this year contracting for the sixth successive month. Job cuts and retrenchment are on the rise. The agrarian distress still continues with farmers’ suicides simply not abating. The UPA-2 government tries to tackle the economic slowdown by financial liberalisation and increased FDI. But the fundamental flaw of this diagnosis is that no amount of increased availability of funds will lead to growth, unless people have the necessary purchasing power to buy what is produced. With the global economic crisis, the international finance capital is in search of newer revenues for its profits and survival. Permitting such international financial capital to further enter Indian economy, would make Indian people extremely vulnerable to international financial fluctuations which will have disastrous consequences. Instead of focussing on expanding domestic demands through increased public investments, to build our much needed infrastructure, to generate substantial new employment, reforms will only lead to further contraction of domestic demand, leading to further heaping of miseries on common people. Against this backdrop, the government should review its entire economic policy. The North Eastern region has smaller states. Tripura especially, and other states also are in great economic distress. He urged upon the finance minister to look into this matter and said the entire North Eastern region should be given priority in development.

UNIFORM

EDUCATION SYSTEM

Putting the views on the uniform education system in the country, Sk Saidul Haque said that this does not mean centralisation of education. India is a country with diverse cultures, diverse social backgrounds and diverse social structures. So, what we can do is make some common guidelines which can be equal to all. In 1986, when the National Education Policy came, a uniform structure of school education and curriculum was thought of. As a result of that, we know that the 10+2 structure has been adopted by all the states. As regards the question of uniformity, it was stated in the 1986 policy that uniformity means universal access, universal enrolment, universal retention and universal achievement of quality education. So, DPEP programme, SSA programme were formulated and now, we have RMSA. In spite of so many programmes, we have a dropout rate in the primary level to the extent of more than 20 per cent and in upper primary, including elementary education,  it is almost more than 45 per cent. In 2005, UNESCO brought out a report which talked about the present scenario. It said that India lacks infrastructure, there is teacher-absenteeism, high teacher-pupil ratio, and inadequate teaching materials and facilities, etc. When we talk about universal retention and universal enrolment, the first thing is about funding. The Kothari Commission in 1966 told that six per cent of the GDP and 10 per cent of the budget should be spent on education. How much are we spending on this, as in 2012? Another important thing is that we are ourselves making education as two parallel systems – education for the rich and for the poor. In RTE, there is no scope for pre-primary education. In the case of poor and backward class children, there is no scope for pre-primary education. The Kothari Commission had pointed out this – if there is a parallel system, we will send our children to the elite schools and they will send their children to the poor schools and there will be dropouts. That is why, we do not want privatisation and commercialisation of education. Our country is facing the scourge of illiteracy and to remove this we need to encourage the admission of these poor children to the schools.

LEGISLATIVE

BILL

By supporting the bill with some amendment on, The Constitution (One Hundred Seventeenth Amendment) Bill, 2012 ,P Rangarajan in Rajya Sabha said that we have had so many reforms, but, still, in the 21st century, we are discussing about dalits. This is the tragedy of this nation. Still, 99 per cent of the dalits don't have land. They are ill-treated. It is the responsibility of the government to ensure that a caste war is not created among dalits, backwards and forwards. He suggested, if there is an upper caste person to be promoted and a dalit to be promoted, to create supernumerary posts and allow the dalits to be promoted in a place where they could be put. In class IV jobs, there is over representation of dalits. But in class I posts, there is under representation or nil representation. Reservation for SCs/STs is a measure of affirmative action. It is meant to act as spring board for SCs/ STs to better their status in life and to achieve constitutional equality. The various laws protecting their rights failed to prevent atrocities against dalits and adivasis. The Supreme Court judgment requires that to justify reservation in promotions, the State must establish three things. The first is backwardness, second is inadequate representation and the third is test of efficiency in administration. Backwardness of SCs and STs is an obvious social reality and no proof is necessary. The amendment now proposed is therefore necessary and crucial. Inadequacy of representation in higher levels of administration is a well known fact. Representation of dalits in higher posts is nil or marginal. Therefore, the test of inadequate representation is satisfied. As regards the test of efficiency, this test presupposes that promoting SCs/STs would result in the erosion of the efficiency. This is fallacious. For the past seventy years, the senior bureaucrats did not implement any Act in favour of dalits. The proposed amendment removes this ambiguity that so far gave room to the courts to impose their concepts of efficiency and, striking down the attempts of the political executive to achieve the constitutional objective and political, social and economic emancipation of SCs and STs who have been deprived of equality for centuries. This Quota Bill was passed by a huge majority in Rajya Sabha after voting.

Speaking on the Prevention of Money-Laundering (Amendment) Bill, 2012 K N Balagopal in Rajya Sabha said that it is not 100 per cent sure that even after the introduction of this Bill and after passing of this Bill whether the government would be successful to prevent money laundering in this country.  A new clause has been introduced. It is a corresponding provision by which the Bill tries to equate or connect the corresponding foreign law with Indian law. If a money laundering case is tried in India, and, at the same time, some other country is trying the same case and that particular court in that country acquitted the accused, then, under this provision, will he be acquitted here? If there is such provision in the Bill, it is dangerous. So, clarification on this is needed. Then, in the name of chit funds and private financial institutions, there are mushrooming of companies and thousands of crores are involved in this. 45 per cent of the FDI coming into the country is through Mauritius which the government has also accepted. To avoid double taxation, we are allowing FDI through Mauritius route. Even after passing the Bill and even after notifying all the provisions of the Bill, the people, who are getting the benefit, are very secretly swallowing every benefit.

While supporting the North-Eastern Areas (Re-organisation) Amendment Bill, 2012 Jharna Das Baidya pointed that the government of Tripura has been pursuing the matter for quite some time with government of India for splitting the joint Manipur-Tripura cadre into two separate cadres for Manipur and Tripura. This joint cadre was set up in 1972 for IAS/IPS officers following reorganisation of the North-Eastern states. This joint cadre has not been serving much purpose and it would be better to split it. A number of officers on the Manipur-Tripura cadre opt for resignation or voluntary retirement which is affecting the administration of these states. In view of the acute shortage of IAS officers in the cadre, it is suggested that while processing any request for cadre change of officers borne on the Tripura cadre, the first right should be given to the state government.

OTHER

ISSUES

Prasanta Chatterjee in Rajya Sabha pointed to the non payment of salary to workers and employees of Burn Standard Company Limited and said that such anti-labour notice of the management will vitiate the entire process of revival. The government must ensure the payment of salary to workers and provide working capital and raw material to the company.

Another issue raised by P Rajeeve was regarding the serious problems of coconut farmers in the country due to fall in the price of coconut and coconut oil. The production cost has increased drastically due to increase in expenses on fertilizers, electricity and other expenses. The increase in import of palm oil is acting as one of the main factors for fall in prices of coconut oil and nuts. The import duty charged for palm oil is very low and in addition to this, government has given Rs 15 per kg subsidy for palm oil. In order to give relief to the lakhs of coconut farmers the government should increase the import duty on palm oil and withdraw the subsidy given to it and also declare a special package for the revival of coconut farming in our country.

On the issue of Indian hostages held by Somalian pirates K N Balagopal in Rajya Sabha pointed that the family members of the hostages met the defence minister and prime minister and they were arrested and beaten up in front of the office of the external affairs minister and they also held up a dharna here.

T N Seema raised the matter related to the development of railway facilities in Kerala where two accidents happened due to derailment. The coaches in the train are very old and in a damaged condition and also not clean and full of rats and insects. Seema urged to stop the step-motherly treatment towards the state and accord top priority and funds for completion of the projects on schedule and also to withdraw from the move to split the neighbouring station areas from Trivandrum division.

Jharna Das mentioned about the killing of dalit boy in Ambedkar Welfare Hostel by Ranvir Sena in Bihar. She expressed her condemnation and demanded strict action against the culprits.