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.