-------- Original Message -------- Subject: [Marxism] Re: neoliberalism suffers setback in India Date: Wed, 17 Aug 2005 09:14:33 -0700 (PDT) From: Marla Vijaya kumar <marlavk at yahoo.com> Reply-To: Activists and scholars in Marxist tradition<marxism at lists.econ.utah.edu> To: marxism at lists.econ.utah.edu
The abandonemnt of off-loading shares in profit making government owned Indian Companies by the Congress Party's Finance minister P Chidambaram had not come about due to any realization about the responsibility of sticking to the Common Minimum Programme of the ruling United Progressive Aliance, of which the Congress Party and the Left Parties are partners, but by the relentless hammering down of their opposition to such a privatisation move by the Left and the Congress leadership's animal fear of losing power. The move to off-load 10% stake in the government owned Bharat Haevy Electricals Limited (BHEL), a profit making power equipment manufacturing company had been sternly opposed by the Left Parties as well somne other members of the UPA alliance. I am proud of the fact that I had my share of effort in organising workers' protests in BHEL. I am employed in BHEL. Finally we were able to halt the privatisation move, but this had brought about a realisation that only organised and united opposition can halt the neo-liberal tendencies of those in power. The finance minister was so adament and he had even resorted to lies when he said that he had taken the clearence from the Left Parties before anouncing his intention to off-load government's stake in BHEL.
I completely disagree with the statement by Sarita Rai that in her article "India Abandons Plan to Sell Stakes in State-Owned Companies" that "The decision to discard the privatization agenda is expected to slow economic overhaul efforts and efect the flow of foreign investment into India. The government has a budget deficit close to 5 percent of the country's gross domestic product. The government needs money to fulfill its electoral promise to upgrade rural infrastructure like roads and electricity projects, and provide jobs".
India is a huge country with a population of a billion and more. The FDI that comes into India is mainly used for non-productive investments such as luxury cars, fashion accessories and retail marketing chains. FDI inflows into core sectors is virtually insignificant and wherever such investments are made, the technology is completely out of reach of Indians. And moreover, the employment potential generated by the FDI is very meagre and helps only the upper middle class. Whatever jobs are created in the IT sectors are mainly used for low level coolie jobs in the IT field such as call centres, medical transcription etc. Corruption and tax evasion are rampant in India and it is estimated that black money in circulation easily outweighs the legal money in circulation. There is no dearth of money in India, but the only problem is that it is stacked in the wrong places and not used for building up the core and critical sectors of the economy.
Foriegn multinationals such as Honda have virtually ignored Indian Labour Laws and result was the bloody police atrocities on the striking workers of Honda Plant at Gurgaon near Delhi. The Previous BJP government and the present Congress party governments have fallen head over heels to invite FDI and they have given untramelled freedom to violate workers' rights. Unions are banned and employment is on the basis of contract work and no limitation on working hours. The situation is no different in the IT sector. India's own IT needs are so gigantic that if properly organised and wise investments are made, a majority of the IT professional can be gainfully employed to meet India's own internal developmental needs. We do not need multinationals to do that for us.
The Rightist press cries foul at any attempts to fight neo-liberalism and protect workers' rights. What India needs is not mindless FDI but proper utilisation of its resources in needed areas. Ofcourse FDI can be invited into India, but only on a selective basis where new technology inputs are required. FDI should be allowed to enter India on its own terms. Here we should not foget the fact that India economy is so huge, it can be called a continental economy and Multinationals badly need access to the huge Indian market much more than India's need to attract FDI. So multinationals can be disciplined and given controlled access to Indian market on India'a terms. Hence all such talk of scaring away FDI is highly questionable. Vijaya Kumar Marla
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