Mr. Yeshwant Sinha! Please practice before you preach...

The BJP when it is out of power resorts to tactics of ransom and preaching. They wisely forget their past. Yeshwant Sinha, the Finance Minister during the NDA regime could do nothing better on the financial front and is now advising the ruling government that he will help in controlling price rise within two months. Is he going to spray a magical trick or resort to tricks of ‘Babas’? Yeshwant Sinha, please recollect what good have you done during your tenure as Finance Minister for the common man in regards to policies, corruption and food grains. Here is a gist…In its drive for all-out globalisation and liberalisation, the NDA government even surpassed the Rao-Manmohan duo of the Congress. Under the NDA government the GDP growth rate came down from 6.2% in 1996-97 to an average of around 5% in 1999-2003. The industrial growth rate came down from 11.7% in 1996-97 to 5% in 2000-01. Under the NDA government the public investment came down from 11.7% in 1985-86 to 6.3% in 2002-03.

The industrial growth rate came down from 11.7% in 1996-97 to 5% in 2000-01. Under the NDA government the public investment came down from 11.7% in 1985-86 to 6.3% in 2002-03.The NDA government completely liberalised the import of consumer goods over the three import-export policies it presented from 1998-99 onwards, Unemployment tremendously increased during the NDA period. Growth rate of employment in the country fell drastically during the NDA government period. Employment in the organised sector fell from 28.11 million in 1999 to 27.96 million in 2000. The number of unemployed persons had gone up from about 75 lakh in 1993-94 to 90 lakh in 1999-2000. As per the information collected through Employment Market Information Programme of Directorate General of Employment & Training, the average growth rate of employment in public sector had come down to around 0.15% per annum during 1991-2000 from 2.08% per annum during 1983-89.

According to Economic Survey 2001-02, 5192 sick industrial units were registered under BIFR including 4930 private sector units and 95 Central PSUs and 167 State PSUs. Data from the National Sample Survey (NSS) of households suggest that the proportion of people below the poverty line has remained more or less unchanged around 36 per cent in the 1990s. The NDA government meekly surrendered to the demands of developed imperialist countries at the WTO and signed the treaty. The NDA government had proposed labour law changes against the interests of the working class. The NDA government appointed a Second Labour Commission without proper workers’ representatives on that and with anti-worker terms of reference to amend labour laws according to the needs of globalisation. It accepted the anti-labour recommendations of the Second Labour Commission. The Vajpayee government declared a war against the workers in its 2001-02 budget proposing amendment to Section V-B of the Industrial Disputes Act to allow industrial units with up to 1000 workers to close down without government permission and to Section 10 of the Contract Labour Act to legalise the contract labour system. The government also amended the Trade Union Act of 1926.

The Centre deployed the army against the striking power sector workers on the request of the UP government. The Centre deployed navy personnel against the striking port and dock. Workers. The NDA government proposed to restructure ESI and Pension schemes. The number of man days lost due to lockouts was almost four times than the number of man days lost due to strikes in 2001. The Union budget 2001-02 announced the decision to cut government staff strength by 10% in five years. That meant a loss of 66,000 jobs per year. The Vajpayee government started privatisation of even profit-making PSUs. Despite a powerful resistance by BALCO workers the company was handed over to Sterlite Industries for a song.

The NDA government refused to fix mandatory floor-level minimum wage at the Centre. The rate of unemployment increased from about 6 per cent in 1993-94 to 7.3 per cent in 1999-2000.
The NDA government did not pass a comprehensive legislation for agricultural labourers but clubbed agricultural labour within the Unorganised Sector Workers Bill. Under objection from the Finance Ministry, the Unorganised Labour Bill was also shelved. Labour Minister Sahib Singh Verma announced on November 7, 2003, a five-year waiver for units in special economic zones from contribution to the Employees Provident Fund and the Employees State Insurance Scheme. Verma also said the government had also decided in principle to allow fixed-term labour contracts in other areas of the economy. This led to pushing farmers to commit suicide and poor peasants, plantation and urban labourers to die of starvation. The policies of the NDA government under the garb of so-called "second generation reforms" had led to an acute rural crisis in India resulting in the twin tragedies of farmers’ suicides and starvation deaths.

The NDA government attempted to disband state procurement of food grains. The food grains in the FCI godowns were rotting but it was neither being distributed through PDS nor given to the poor through food for work schemes. PDS prices of food grains were repeatedly increased by the Vajpayee government. The prices of PDS food grains, fertilisers, kerosene and LPG had also been increased by the Vajpayee government. The governemnt has cut subsidies on fertilisers, pesticides, irrigation, power and all other inputs making agrarian production costlier.
  

BJP, to be different, it has to shun the love of power

The parliamentarians seem to be shameless and spineless creatures. Even Kindergarten children seem to have more discipline than these scoundrels. Why do they frequently stall the parliament and hold the nation to ransom? Why not debate and work out solutions in a disciplined and dignified manner instead of only playing the blame game and tricks of toppling the government? In this game nothing will materialize, as both will stick to their guns and the ultimate loser is the ‘aam admi’. The washed out winter session of parliament, stalled daily for 22 consecutive days due to opposition protests and adjournments, had translated into a loss of a staggering over Rs.171 crore to the nation. The amount if worked out with the expenditure for each day of a session calculates at an astronomical Rs.7.8 crore. Never before in the history of the Indian Parliament has a complete session been washed out without transacting any business. This is violative of all rules of business and ethics, it is rather criminal. Even question hour and private members’ business have been made a casualty. Shame on our democracy!

Regarding, BJP’s stand of stalling Parliament on the issue of price rise, it is an accepted fact that this phenomenon is a global issue. The global economy is in a crisis. And things are only going to get worse. Inflation is one of the manifestations of the global crisis, and arises from changes in the relationship between the volume of commodities and of money in the economy. A characteristic feature of international inflation is its global character. It affects all countries to one extent or another, lowering the buying power of all monetary units to varying degrees. At present, the fastest price rises are for goods of primary necessity that are constantly consumed - food and fuel. Presently, world economic crisis is at a precarious stage, manifesting itself primarily in the area of finance (destabilisation of stock markets, bank losses, growing inflation, and rising interest rates); the crisis will affect all countries that are part of the world economy, and will usher in a prolonged depression. The global economic de-stabilisation will have enormously destructive consequences. The crisis has seen a recession in the US and the beginning of an industrial downturn in other countries. Instead of BJP holding the nation to hostage, why they not give any suggestions to curb or control price rise? It is a constitutional duty of the opposition to play a helping hand in the progress of the nation instead of destabilizing the functioning of government.

On the second issue where the BJP has been training its guns on government, is their theory on intelligence failure of terror strike on Mumbai. However, it is strange for BJP to attack the government on terrorism and government failure. In fact, they should not forget that BJP during its rule had brought the terrorists right inside the Parliament. Further terrorism took its roots in the country only after L.K.Advani rath yatra and demolition of Babri Masjid. Thereafter, terrorist attacks on the country have been at regular intervals. All this goes on while recorded evidence shows that Advani led the symbolic religious caravan (rath yatra) across the country, which left behind a trail of anti-Muslims riots killing over 3000 Muslims and burning and looting their properties in many states. The BJP people have grossly misused their platform to air their biases, misinformation and lies. In government they have tried to change the secular outlook of the State. Of course, Advani and others who cons pirated the demolition are both criminals and mass murderers on a colossal scale. While Advani masterminded the Babri Masjid demolition and arranged for the subsequent mass murder of thousands of Muslims across the country he himself played a major role.

Later, the decision of the Vajpayee government to release three dreaded terrorists including Jaish-e-Mohammad (JeM) chief Masood Azhar in December, 1999 received a lot of flak from various political parties, more so because the then external affairs minister Jaswant Singh accompanied them (terrorists) to Kandahar. Azhar’s name had subsequently figured in the December 2001 terror attack on Parliament and the attack outside Jammu and Kashmir Assembly in Srinagar in the same month.  As a nation we do not have the guts to stand up to terrorism. We cannot take hits and suffer casualties. We start counting our dead even before a battle has been won or lost. We make a great show of honouring those who die on the battlefield and lionise brave hearts of history. We are, if truth be told, a nation of cowards who don’t have the courage to admit one’s weakness but are happy to blame others.  Nearly, after a decade after the incident, many people still hold the BJP-led NDA Government responsible for the ‘shameful’ denouement.

Lastly, just 24 hours after 3 blasts ripped through Mumbai, Congress and BJP had locked horns. With the BJP blaming the government policy on terror, saying vote bank politics had weakened the fight against terror, the government asked the Opposition to stop the petty politics. The BJP besides playing the blame game and accusing has nothing fruitful to offer to the nation. Terrorists strikes have been a regular affair and BJP-NDA during their rule had done nothing to stop them and now they are proudly preaching. It is not that we have not witnessed the acts of terror before. Starting from attack on Parliament, Ansal Plaza, Akshrdham temple, Raghunath Temple in Jammu; during NDA regime to blasts in Malegaon, Samjhauta express, Nanded, Jalna , Parbhani, attack on RSS headquarters in Nagpur and Chennai, killing of two Bajrang Dal workers in Nanded while making bombs, Hyderabad blasts and Jaipur one's the country has suffered enormously during the past decade.

Finally, the BJP always claimed itself to be a party with a difference but in practice it appears no different. Now, it’s high time it shuns its gimmicks and goes on the job of constitutional politics and shy aside the blame game. To be different, it has to shun the love of power. And to project itself as ‘a party with a difference’, it will have to put certain ideals ahead of power.