Economic Resolution of SPI passed in 4th National Convention held in Lucknow on 14-15 November 2016
Policies of liberalization, privatization and globalization, dictated by the World Bank, IMF, WTO and other such world economic institutions, are playing havoc world over, particularly to the lives of poor and weaker sections of society. Despite repeated failures and short-comings of these very policies, the ruling establishment of India and the world is pursuing them shamelessly with even greater intensity. These policies have resulted into the greatest poor-rich divide ever! The divide is also increasing among the developed, developing and under-developed nations. On one hand the luxuries enjoyed by the rich do not know limits on the other hand the poor are forced to suffer from epidemics, natural disasters and to live undignified life without basic civic facilities. The neo-liberal policies have resulted in immense inequality and corruption during last three decades.
But the governments, talking only GDP, are not ready to listen anything against these economic policies. GDP is a poor economic indicator and reveals little about the condition of lives of poor. A developed nation of Europe has shown increase in GDP by including the earnings from prostitution in its country. And here in India, the present government is changing the basis of price rise, GDP and other indicators to somehow show growth. The government has shown the difference between production and expenses to be more than 1 lakh 30 thousand crores, which if removed, will reduce the growth rate by 2%.
Cheap imports, especially from countries like China, are killing the skills of the local craftsmen as the work done by them is costlier. Even big industries like garments, engineering and machinery are being pushed towards closure by cheap imports. The MNCs in automobile, mobile, electronics/computers sectors are reaping huge profits. The policy of minimum imports in petroleum sector has been done away with. These policies have resulted into suicides of lakhs of farmers, displacement of crores of people, massive unemployment and destruction of the environment.
The agrarian sector and tribal population face the direct brunt of these economic policies and capitalist development model based upon them. This year, despite of a good monsoon and a good farm produce, the farmers have not got good returns. This is reflected by the increase in suicides of farmers. The backbone of the agrarian sector has been broken by the two and half decades of implementation of neo-liberal policies. The farming is continually oriented towards foreign needs and cash crops. Local basic needs like pulses are increasingly made dependent on imports. Pulses are the only source of protein in plate of poor and that too has become unaffordable now. The entire agrarian sector, which includes seeds, pesticides, fertilizers, is becoming more and more dependent on MNCs. The government is adamantly pushing for introduction of GM crops, which can cause irreversible, disastrous impacts on health and environment. In the name of breed improvement indigenous animal husbandry, fish farming, poultry and all such sectors are being opened up for MNCs. Local varieties of crops, fruits and animals are disappearing. There is a lesson that needs to be learnt from the spread of epidemic diseases like bird flu, mad cow disease etc. But who cares?
Since its beginning, the Modi government has launched a campaign of land grabbing, which is being resisted by farmer unions and unity of opposition parties. But behind this thrust there are huge corporations and MNCs, which are eying the land of farmers and tribals. Socialist Party, since its inception, has been demanding that all available land should be equitably and appropriately used and for the same purpose a land use commission, which comprises of representation of farmers and tribals, should be setup.
It is not just land but all other natural resources are also at stake. There is a fast move to hand over water of rivers to MNCs and big industries. Red carpets are being laid for big industrial houses, foreign capital and foreign trade. But there is no increase in either manufacturing or in foreign trade. The government is filling its coffers finding respite in low crude oil prices and throwing away huge amounts of money to big business houses. The stock market and commodity markets are death fields for common investors and farmers. For the last three years there is no change in this situation. Whether it be neem- coated fertilizers or copying of Israel drip farming, all have turned out to be total failures for farmers.
Neo-liberal economic policies have caused havoc for tribal people. So called development programs have resulted in displacement of crores of tribals. Their land, minerals below land, rivers, forest produce, and even sand & stones are sold to make enormous money by corporates, politicians and bureaucrats. Dalits don’t own means of production and this loot of land, forest and other natural resources has eliminated their chances of getting a share of these resources. Availability of land for residential purposes has also become an issue in villages. The retail sector, which has been the backbone of agrarian and the rest of our economy, is now under grave threat from the FDI from giant MNCs, like Wall Mart, Tesco, Carrefour, Metro etc.
The availability and condition of employment has been worsening. Government says that FDI is our only option for fast economic growth. So government is offering big sops to MNCs. But the MNCs have sophisticated manufacturing which use automation to reduce expenditure on salaries, and in turn lead to a jobless growth. Crores of degree holder youth are jobless. This was when Modi, in his election speeches, had promised 1 crore jobs every year, but those jobs are simply not there. The Socialist Party believes in self-reliant and independent economy that operates on cooperative basis with a target of total employment in the field of agriculture, animal husbandry and other small scale industries with Indian capital. Agricultural land should not be acquired. Irrigation facilities and easy loans with guarantee of profitable prices should be provided to farmers.
Recently Rs. 500 and 1000 notes have been invalidated. Tall claims are being made by the Prime Minister that this demonetization will end corruption, black money, tax evasion, boom in property prices, terrorism from across the border and so on. These tall claims are sufficient to show the hollowness of demonetization. This decision is made essentially to cover the failure to bring back black money from outside India. The claim of depositing Rs. 15 lakh to each Indians’ bank account by Modi was based on estimation of this black money parked outside India. This sudden declaration of demonetization has caused immense inconvenience to the ordinary people. They are standing in long queues for exchange at the loss of wages. The Socialist Party believes that black money is an unavoidable result of the capitalist-neoliberal policies. We can see the same across the world. The claim made by government, which is implementing neo-liberal policies on a much faster pace than the previous UPA government, is principally untenable.
The Socialist Party rejects the neo-liberal economic policies and demands that development policies, which are decentralized, complementary to the local ecosystem, diverse and based on sustainable development, should be implemented. Only such pro-people and pro-environment policies can guarantee full employment and balanced usage of natural resources. Country’s wealth is its people and resources. We see reflection of de-centralized, diverse and sustainable development’s clear vision in the thoughts of Mahatma Gandhi, Ram Manohar Lohia, Jai Prakash Narayan and Kishan Patnayak.
Thus Stands the Socialist Party
Upholding Brotherhood and Equality
