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Re: India

Post by blindpig » Sat Nov 20, 2021 2:48 pm

After a Year of Struggle by Farmers, Indian Government Forced to Withdraw Farm Laws
Posted by INTERNATIONALIST 360° on NOVEMBER 19, 2021
Peoples Dispatch

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Movements across India celebrated the struggle by the farmers during which they faced great repression and vilification. Around 750 people are believed to have died during the agitation which saw thousands camp on the borders of Delhi

After fighting for almost a year, farmers in India finally won a victory against the three farms laws enacted by the right-wing Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) government last year. Prime minister Narendra Modi announced on Friday, November 19, that the three laws would be repealed and all legal processes related to the matter will be completed during the upcoming session of parliament.

The news of the announcement led to celebrations all across the country. People hailed the victory of the farmers’ movement and took to the streets and social media to express their joy, while recalling the sacrifices made by the farmers in their year-long agitation. Several called it a victory against the arrogance of power.

The Samyukt Kisan Morcha (SKM), which is spearheading the farmers’ movement, issued a brief statement welcoming the prime minister’s announcement. However, it also reiterated that some of its crucial demands are yet to be met and the fate of the ongoing agitation will only be decided after a detailed review later.

SKM also reminds the Prime Minister that the agitation of farmers is not just for the repeal of the three black laws, but also for a statutory guarantee of remunerative prices for all agricultural produce and for all farmers. This important demand of farmers is still pending.

— Kisan Ekta Morcha (@Kisanektamorcha) November 19, 2021

The full statement of the SKM can be found here.
https://twitter.com/Kisanektamorcha/sta ... 16/photo/1

Welcoming the announcement, Sitaram Yechury, general secretary of the Communist Party of India (Marxist), saluted the farmers and their brave struggle against the three farm laws. He called the over 750 farmers who had died during the agitation “our martyrs.”

Yechury also demanded that the prime minister apologize to the farmers for causing “hardships and troubles by his dictatorial step of farm law to benefit his crony business partners,” and fulfill the other demands of the farmers.

The All India Agricultural Workers Union (AIAWU) also hailed the announcement of the withdrawal of the three laws calling it a victory for the peasants and the patriotic people of India.

Rahul Gandhi, leader of the Congress, the main opposition party, congratulated the farmers in a tweet for defeating the government’s arrogance with their struggle for truth.
देश के अन्नदाता ने सत्याग्रह से अहंकार का सर झुका दिया।
अन्याय के खिलाफ़ ये जीत मुबारक हो!

जय हिंद, जय हिंद का किसान!#FarmersProtest https://t.co/enrWm6f3Sq

— Rahul Gandhi (@RahulGandhi) November 19, 2021
Welcoming the announcement, the Communist Party of India (Marxist-Leninist) Liberation tweeted that farmers will not leave the protest sites until all the formalities of the withdrawal are complete and other demands of the farmers are fulfilled.

“It is a big victory. The movement will continue till anti-farmer three laws are officially repealed in the upcoming parliament session, MSP guarantee law is passed & fabricated cases filed against leaders & members of various farmers’ orgs are withdrawn.”https://t.co/ulp9caLjN5

— CPIML Liberation (@cpimlliberation) November 19, 2021


Reacting to the farmers’ victory, author and columnist Vijay Prashad wrote on Facebook, “first time in seven years the Man with the Saffron Beard had to admit defeat. Modi repealed the farm laws, not because he saw the light of their hideousness but because the farmers & the working-class would not budge.

Partial victory

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Reacting to the prime minister’s statement, Hannan Mollah, secretary of the All India Kisan Sabha (AIKS), called it a partial victory as some of the crucial demands of the farmers have not been met yet.

After failing for months to persuade the government to withdraw the three farm laws, the SKM, a platform of more than 500 farmers’ unions from across India including the left-oriented AIKS, began its indefinite sit-in at all major border crossings to national capital Delhi on November 26 last year. The SKM argued that the three farm laws enacted promoted corporate interests at the cost of the farmers, and would eventually lead to the destruction of the farm sector in the country by endangering the livelihoods of millions and enabling the corporate takeover of agriculture.

The SKM had also demanded the enactment of a law on minimum support prices (MSP) and the withdrawal of the electricity amendment bill. MSP is a set of basic prices declared by the government in India based on which it procures certain farm products. Though it is expected that the market price of farm produce will not fall below the MSP, it is hardly the case and most of the time, farmers are forced to sell their produce at prices less than the MSP or less than the basic cost of production.

The electricity amendment bill provides for private players in electricity distribution, which farmers think will lead to a rise in the price of electricity and the overall cost of production due to the withdrawal of government subsidies.

Following the protests at the Delhi border, India’s Supreme Court had suspended the laws for a year and formed a three-member committee to examine them. The farmers rejected the Supreme Court’s intervention and called the committee biased in favor of the government and the laws. Following this rejection by the farmers, some members of the court-appointed committee withdrew from it. However, proving the farmer’s apprehensions correct, on Friday, one of the members of the committee, Anil Ghanwat, called the prime minister’s announcement “the most regressive step” and accused him of choosing “politics over farmers’ betterment,” Press Trust of India reported.

The SKM took out numerous protest actions through their year-long movement, including the march of tractors on the occasion of Republic Day in January. The farmers also faced numerous oppressive measures from the state, the arrest of several leaders on false charges, and a vilification campaign targeting the agitating farmers as terrorists and accusing them of destabilizing the country.

The BJP has maintained that the three farm laws were in the interest of the farmers and will benefit agriculture in India. In October, the son of one of the ministers in the BJP government was accused of ramming his car into five farmers protesting the farm laws in Uttar Pradesh’s Lakhimpur Kheri district. The SKM has asked for the sacking of the minister, Ajay Kumar Mishra, from the union government and punishment for all the culprits of the heinous crime.

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Re: India

Post by blindpig » Mon Nov 29, 2021 2:23 pm

This Victory Gives Confidence for Future Struggles: The Forty-Seventh Newsletter (2021)

NOVEMBER 25, 2021

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A farmer at the protest encampment at Delhi’s Singhu Border carries the flag of the All India Kisan Sabha, 21 November 2021. Subin Dennis / Tricontinental: Institute for Social Research


Dear friends,

Greetings from the desk of the Tricontinental: Institute for Social Research.

On 19 November 2021, a week before the first anniversary of the farmers’ revolt, India’s Prime Minister Narendra Modi surrendered. He accepted that the three laws on agricultural markets that had been pushed through the parliament in 2020 would be repealed. The farmers of India had won. The All India Kisan Sabha (AIKS), one of the organisers of the protest movement, celebrated the triumph and declared that ‘this victory gives more confidence for future struggles’.

Many pressing struggles remain, including the fight for a law to guarantee a minimum support price that is one and a half times the cost of production for all crops of all farmers. The failure to address this, the AIKS notes, ‘aggravated the agrarian crisis and led to the suicide of over [400,000] farmers in the last 25 years’. A quarter of these deaths have taken place under Modi’s leadership over the past seven years.

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A tractor contingent on GT Karnal Road breaks through barricades and enters Delhi, beginning a confrontation between protestors and the police, 26 January 2021. Vikas Thakur / Tricontinental: Institute for Social Research

At Tricontinental: Institute for Social Research, we have produced four substantial dossiers that reflect on the agrarian crisis in India: an explanation of the farmers’ revolt (The Farmers’ Revolt in India, June 2021); an analysis of the central role of women in both agricultural work and struggles (Indian Women on an Arduous Road to Equality, October 2021); a portrait of the impact of neoliberalism on rural communities (The Neoliberal Attack on Rural India: Two Reports by P. Sainath, October 2019); and a study of the attempt to uberise agricultural workers and farmers (Big Tech and the Current Challenges Facing the Class Struggle, November 2021). Our senior fellow, P. Sainath, has been a key voice in amplifying the agrarian crisis and farmers’ struggles. The section below is an extract from his most recent editorial at the People’s Archive of Rural India:

What the media can never openly admit is that the largest peaceful democratic protest the world has seen in years – certainly the greatest organised at the height of the pandemic – has won a mighty victory.

A victory that carries forward a legacy. Farmers of all kinds, men and women – including from Adivasi [tribal] and Dalit [oppressed caste] communities – played a crucial role in [India’s] struggle for freedom. And in the 75th year of [Indian] Independence, the farmers at Delhi’s gates reiterated the spirit of that great struggle.

Prime Minister Modi has announced he is backing off and repealing the farm laws in the upcoming winter session of Parliament starting on the 29th of [November]. He says he is doing so after failing to persuade ‘a section of farmers despite best efforts’. Just a section, mind you, that he could not convince to accept that the three discredited farm laws were really good for them. Not a word on, or for, the over 600 farmers who have died in the course of this historic struggle. His failure, he makes it clear, is only in his skills of persuasion, in not getting that ‘section of farmers’ to see the light. … What was the manner and method of persuasion? By denying them entry to the capital city to explain their grievances? By blocking them with trenches and barbed wire? By hitting them with water cannons? … By having crony media vilify the farmers every day? By running them over with vehicles – allegedly owned by a union minister or his son? That’s this government’s idea of persuasion? If those were its ‘best efforts’ we’d hate to see its worst ones.

The Prime Minister made at least seven visits overseas this year alone (like the latest one for COP26). But never once found the time to just drive down a few kilometres from his residence to visit tens of thousands of farmers at Delhi’s gates, whose agony touched so many people everywhere in the country. Would that not have been a genuine effort at persuasion?

… This is not at all the end of the agrarian crisis. It is the beginning of a new phase of the battle on the larger issues of that crisis. Farmer protests have been on for a long time now. And particularly strongly since 2018, when the Adivasi farmers of Maharashtra electrified the nation with their astonishing 182-km march on foot from Nashik to Mumbai. Then too, it began with their being dismissed as ‘urban Maoists’, as not real farmers, and the rest of the blah. Their march routed their vilifiers.

… The hundreds of thousands of people in that state who have participated in that struggle know whose victory it is. The hearts of the people of Punjab are with those in the protest camps who have endured one of Delhi’s worst winters in decades, a scorching summer, rains thereafter, and miserable treatment from Mr. Modi and his captive media.

And perhaps the most important thing the protestors have achieved is this: to inspire resistance in other spheres as well, to a government that simply throws its detractors into prison or otherwise hounds and harasses them. That freely arrests citizens, including journalists, under the [Unlawful Activities (Prevention) Act], and cracks down on independent media for ‘economic offences’. This day isn’t just a win for the farmers. It’s a win for the battle for civil liberties and human rights. A win for Indian democracy.

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A farmer participates in the protests in his truck at the Singhu border in Delhi, 5 December 2020. Vikas Thakur / Tricontinental: Institute for Social Research

It is a win not only for Indian democracy but for peasants around the world.

During the past five decades, these peasants have experienced a combination of impoverishment, dispossession, and demoralisation on a global level. Two processes have accelerated their crisis: first, a trade and development model pushed by the advanced capitalist states through the International Monetary Fund (IMF), the World Bank, and the World Trade Organisation (WTO); second, the climate catastrophe. The IMF’s Structural Adjustment Programme and the WTO’s liberalised trade regime have eroded price supports and food subsidies in the Global South and have prevented governments from intervening to assist farmers and to build robust national food markets. Countries of the Global North, meanwhile, have continued to subsidise farming and dump their cheapened food in the markets of the Global South. This policy structure – alongside devastating climate events – has been fatal for agriculturalists in the Global South.

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A farmer from Punjab protests during a tractor march on Republic Day on GT Karnal Bypass Road in Delhi, 26 January 2021. Vikas Thakur / Tricontinental: Institute for Social Research


During the credit crisis of 2007–08, the World Bank intervened to promote the entry of the private sector (largely big agriculture) into the ‘value chains’ from farms to stores. ‘The private sector drives the organisation of value chains that bring the market to smallholders and commercial farms’, wrote the World Bank in a key report from 2008. In June of that year, the UN Food and Agriculture Organisation’s High-Level Conference on World Food Security opened the door for the World Bank to shape agricultural policy to benefit big agriculture. The next year, the World Bank’s World Development Report argued for integrating agriculture in the ‘poor countries with world markets’, which meant delivering the peasants into an uberised relationship with big agriculture. Interestingly, the World Bank’s own International Agricultural Assessment of Agricultural Knowledge, Science, and Technology disagreed in 2008, arguing that industrial agriculture degraded nature and impoverished peasants.

In September 2021, the UN held a Food Systems Summit in New York, which was designed not by farmers’ unions but by the World Economic Forum (WEF), a private body that represents big business rather than the big hearts of the agriculturalists. Acknowledging the crisis imposed by capitalism, the WEF now says that it has learned from civil action and would like to promote ‘stakeholder capitalism’. This new kind of capitalism, which looks like the old capitalism, is about promoting corporations as ‘trustees of society’; it entrusts corporations with our well-being rather than the workers who produce the value in our society.

The farmers’ revolt in India fought against Modi’s three laws, which will now be repealed. But it continues to struggle against the transfer of policy making from democratic, multilateral, and national projects to corporations in the name of ‘public-private partnerships’ and ‘trustees of society’. The repeal of Modi’s laws is one victory. It has lifted the confidence of the people. But there are other battles ahead.

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A farmer who joined in the initial protest reads work by the revolutionary Punjabi poet, Pash, in his trolly at the Singhu border in Delhi, 10 December 2021. Vikas Thakur / Tricontinental: Institute for Social Research

At the protest sites, farmers set up entire villages, including community kitchens and libraries. Reading and musical performance were regular activities. Revolutionary Punjabi poetry from figures such as Pash (1950–1988) and Sant Ram Udasi (1939–1986) lifted their spirits. Navsharan Singh and Vikas Rawal offered us these stanzas from Sant Ram Udasi to close out this newsletter:

You must shine your light
in the courtyards of workers
who wither when there is a drought,
and drown when there is a flood,
ones who face devastation in every disaster,
and who find liberation only in death.

You must show what goes on
in the courtyards of the workers
for whom the bread is scarce,
who live in darkness,
who are robbed of
their self-respect,
and who lose, with their crops,
all their desires.

Why do you burn to shine your light only on yourself?
Why do you stay away from the workers?
These deprivations and oppression will not last forever.
O sun, you must shine your light on
the courtyards of the workers.




Warmly,

Vijay

https://thetricontinental.org/newslette ... n-farmers/

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From farm and forest: Long March to Mumbai (Article: Parth M. N. / Peoples Archive of Rural India 2018)
The peasantry’s victory over imperialism
Posted Nov 29, 2021 by Prabhat Patnaik

Originally published: Peoples Democracy (November 28, 2021 ) |
Empire, Imperialism, Movements, ProtestIndiaNewswireModi government, the Battle of Plassey, the kisan movement
Particular battles often have a significance that goes beyond the immediate context, of which even the combatants may not be fully aware at the time. One such was the Battle of Plassey, which was not even a battle since one side’s general had already been bribed by the other not to lead his troops against it; and yet what happened in the woods of Plassey that day ushered in a whole new epoch in world history.

The battle between the kisan movement and the Modi government falls into the same genre. At the most obvious level it has been seen as a climbdown by the Modi government in the face of the incredible resoluteness shown by the agitating peasants. At another level it has also been seen as a setback for neo-liberalism, since corporate ascendancy over the agricultural sector, by making peasant agriculture subservient to the corporates, is a crucial part of the neo-liberal agenda, which the farm laws were seeking to promote.

Both these perceptions are absolutely correct. But beyond them there is a third level, at which the kisan victory is of great significance, that has not received much attention. This relates to the fact that the kisan victory is a setback for imperialism in a very fundamental sense. One should scarcely be surprised therefore by the fact that the western media have been so critical of the Modi government for its climbdown.

Just as imperialism wants to corner all the food and raw material sources across the globe, just as it wants to control all the sources of fossil fuels in the world, it also wants to control the entire pattern of land-use all over the world, especially in the third world, most of which falls within the tropical and subtropical zone and hence is capable of growing crops that the temperate region, within which metropolitan capitalism is located, cannot grow.

Colonialism gave the metropolis an ideal instrument for controlling land use across the world for its own benefit. This instrument was used in a country like India in a brazen manner. Since revenue demands of the colonial government had to be met by the peasants by certain fixed dates (failing which they forfeited whatever land rights they had), they took advances from merchants to meet these demands, and in turn grew crops that the merchants wanted, for sale to them at pre-contracted prices; these merchants in turn dictated the production of those crops for which there was much demand in the metropolis (as revealed by market signals). Or, alternatively as in the case of opium the agents of the East India Company directly obliged the peasants to take advances tied to growing that crop.

Land-use was thus controlled by the metropolis, with crops like indigo, opium and cotton being grown on tracts where they had never been grown before and replacing food grains production; they were obtained gratis by the metropolis since the peasants were paid for them from the same revenue that they themselves had handed over to the colonial ruler. And among colonising countries, such goods, extracted from their respective colonies, were traded after meeting what was required by each, including for settling deficits through triangular trade (such as, opium forcibly grown in India, being exported to China that was forcibly made to consume it, to settle Britain’s trade deficit with that country). The peasants were ruthlessly exploited: the plight of the indigo growers was so poignantly and vividly captured in the nineteenth century Bengali play Neel Darpan by Dinabandhu Mitra that Ishwar Chandra Vidyasagar, the great social reformer, who was in the audience when the play was being staged, had thrown his sandals in anger at the actor playing the role of the planter-merchant!

This mechanism, of rigidly timing revenue demands on the peasants, getting traders to give them advances and thereby influencing cropping pattern, and then buying the crops with the same revenue that the peasants had paid, is no longer available to the metropolis; and the protection offered to peasant agriculture by the post-independence dirigiste regime, which has taken the form of providing price support for foodgrains, has made the peasants ignore the dictates of the metropolis on the output-mix.

The metropolis at present does not need foodgrains, but it cannot get the peasants to move away from foodgrain production into producing the crops it needs, because the government procures foodgrains at assured, pre-announced prices. Reducing the domestic demand for foodgrains through compressing incomes of the working people via fiscal austerity, which is what the neo-liberal agenda entails, also does not help imperialism in this situation, because it only leads to a piling up of foodgrain stocks with the government without reducing foodgrain output and changing the pattern of land-use. What imperialism needs therefore is a total abolition of this system of price-support, and, additionally, an alternative mechanism to influence the crop-growing decisions of the peasantry.

The three farm laws enacted by the Modi government, which promotes imperialist interests behind its “hyper-nationalist” rhetoric, were meant precisely to achieve this. They were to usher in corporatisation of agriculture that would have ipso facto established metropolitan control over land-use: the corporates would have got peasants to grow those crops for which they got the right market signals, which means making land-use in the third world adjust to metropolitan demands. Imperialism used every means to achieve this end, including getting its camp followers in the academia and the media to tom-tom how good it is for the peasants not to be supported through government price-support. But it failed.

The stout resistance put up by the peasants against the three laws ultimately made the Modi government capitulate. But a mere withdrawal of the laws does not automatically ensure a restoration of the status quo ante; and the importance of maintaining the minimum support price regime which the peasants want now to be a legal enactment arises precisely for this reason. Even if, after the repeal of the three laws, foodgrain marketing can occur only in specified locations as before, namely the mandis where government agents can oversee the entire process, there is nothing to ensure that the peasants can get a minimum price to cover their costs and give them a certain profit, unless the MSP regime continues.

In other words, while allowing foodgrain marketing in locations other than mandis (so that government supervision can no longer be exercised), implies that the MSP cannot be enforced even if an MSP continues to be formally announced, the converse is not true: making government supervision mandatory (which the repeal of the laws would ensure) does not ipso facto bring back an MSP regime. An MSP regime has to be specifically kept in place. The peasants are demanding a legal enactment for this, so that the government cannot wind up such a regime whenever it likes.

This becomes particularly urgent because of the all-too-familiar chicanery of the BJP government. Even when it formally repeals the three farm laws, it can still continue its attempt to achieve the same ends by other means.

But as long as such nefarious activities can be kept at bay, the peasants have won a crucial battle: the battle of keeping the substantial tropical and subtropical land mass of the country away from the control of imperialism. And two features of this victory deserve special attention.

The first is linked to the fact that neo-liberalism greatly restricts the scope for mass action by splitting people into atomised elements, and preventing, through the control it exercises over the media and the academia, the build- up of any significant social support for such action. It is notable that, in this entire era, the masses have generally opposed neo-liberal measures not through direct action, such as prolonged strikes or gheraos, but through indirect political means, by building up alternative political movements for capturing political power, as in Latin America. And governments opposed to neo-liberalism, when they have come to power, have faced immense hurdles, from foreign exchange crises to sanctions imposed by imperialism. Many such governments have even buckled down because of these hurdles.

It is in this context that the kisan movement in India marks a departure: while it used the political threat, of working against the BJP in the coming elections, it resorted to direct action, which is an extreme rarity under neo-liberalism.

The second is the length of the direct action by the peasants. They camped on the borders of Delhi for one whole year. Future researchers will no doubt unravel how exactly they were able to achieve this stupendous feat. But it is a feat that needs to be celebrated.

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Re: India

Post by blindpig » Fri Dec 10, 2021 2:59 pm

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Biden’s Summit for Democracy: International NGOs express concern that Summit will ignore India’s descent to fascism
Posted Dec 10, 2021 by Countercurrents

Originally published: Countercurrents (December 8, 2021 ) |

A consortium of 34 international multi-faith human rights NGOs have written a letter to President Joe Biden and Vice President Kamala Harris expressing their deep concern that the president’s Summit for Democracy Dec. 9-10 will ignore the widespread violations of human rights, persecution, physical attacks and murder of members of minority religions in India as the government devolves from democracy to fascism.

The letter, at more than 1,500 words, provides details and indisputable facts for 14 instances in which democracy is under attack or being abused by the government of Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi and members of his BJP/RSS party.

The letter also expresses regret that more members of the international civil society were not included in planning for the summit, and those who were involved were warned that specific instances of member nations’ internal affairs, abuses, discrimination and persecution will be off limits.

“While your organizing principles are commendable, the process has been weak and exclusionary,” the letter states.

… We are committed to working with your administration to strengthen the Democracy Summit process. We therefore seek urgent consultation with your administration, not only to ensure that the Democracy Summit gets off to a meaningful start, but also that the process going forward gains in strength at every stage.

HERE IS ITS FULL TEXT

Dear President Biden and Vice President Harris,

We, the undersigned organizations, are writing to express deep concern about the minimal public consultation with civil society in the run up to the Democracy Summit. We write also to outline some critical considerations that will help the Summit process attain your goals of returning the U.S. to a “position of trusted leadership among world democracies,” particularly with countries with whom the U.S. shares “interests and values.”

Unfortunately, the present Indian government cannot be considered one that shares the democratic values of your administration. While our two countries could never have claimed to be perfect democracies, it is important that the Summit start from acknowledging one key fact: the past seven years of BJP/RSS rule in India have seen a sharp and dramatic backsliding when it comes to democratic norms.

Take the case of the Farm Laws: after passing sweeping laws as an ordinance without any consultation with farmers or the opposition, the government brutally repressed and demonized the farmers’ movement against the laws. Even the repeal of the three laws occurred in a manner suited to strongmen: instead of communicating with farmers, or following parliamentary process, Mr. Modi unilaterally announced the repeal. Not a word was said by Mr.

Modi about the 700+ deaths that his government’s intransigence and authoritarian approach in the matter had produced.

We appreciate the three organizing principles around which the summit is organized, but urge you to attend to our critical concerns regarding India under each of these pillars:

1. Defending against Authoritarianism: Freedom House has downgraded India’s democracy to “partly free.” International commentators from every major media publication have consistently raised the issue of India’s authoritarian turn over the last seven years. Three specific issues must be raised with Mr. Modi:

Anti-Minority Laws: The Modi government began its second term with the passage of the Citizenship Amendment Act. Together with its corollary processes of the National Register of Citizens and the National Population Register, the CAA/NRC/NPR create a framework for the active disenfranchisement of India’s largest minority—Muslims—stripping away their voting and citizenship rights. Not challenging these would be the equivalent of abetting conditions for a future genocide. All this is playing out in the context of a series of other laws targeting religious minorities, including anti-conversion and anti-inter religious marriage laws, which also target Christians. In addition, Christian institutions are under attack, with International Christian Concern counting India among the seven worst persecutors of Christians in the world.
Kashmir: The sudden revocation of Article 370 of the Indian Constitution, and the overwhelming use of the military in Kashmir, with there being one soldier for every seven Kashmiris at one stage, is already being acknowledged internationally as the single most visible and unambiguous sign of BJP/RSS authoritarianism and its willingness to run roughshod over constitutional protections and guarantees.
Dissent, Political Prisoners, and Draconian Laws: The last 7 years has seen a continuous and rising tide of arrest and imprisonment of dissenters under draconian anti-terror laws such as UAPA and the NSA in India. The Bhima Koregaon 16 case, the arrests of students, activists, and journalists in the wake of the Northeast Delhi violence, and most recently the arrests of journalists reporting on religious violence in Tripura, are just the most known instances. Those jailed without trial include some of India’s most prominent public intellectuals, poets, writers, journalists, lawyers, and leaders of the women’s movement. At least one prominent arrestee, Jesuit priest Father Stan Swamy, passed away while still in custody due to the effects of being incarcerated during a global pandemic in his 80s. If dissent is the most important aspect of an active democracy, then PM Modi has a unique record in its repression. This includes significant evidence that in the landmark BK-16 case, evidence was falsely planted on defendants’ computers through malware, opening up a new vector of attack on critics of the government.
2. Addressing and Fighting Corruption: While the Modi government first came to office on an anti-corruption plank, it has since proven to be one of the most opaque and nontransparent governments India has known. Three issues of international scale and core to American interests and values must be raised with PM Modi at the summit:

Electoral Bonds: The Modi government introduced electoral bonds in 2015, sneaking them in as part of the budget process. This set into place the most opaque electoral finance system in the democratic world. It allows for national and international corporations to pay into party funds with no oversight and no transparency. From summary figures available, it is clear that large numbers of international shell companies are involved in financing Indian political parties, and that the BJP is by far the single largest recipient of such funds. While U.S. funders of electoral bonds in India must be revealed, this assault on the financial underpinnings of India’s democracy must stop.
Rafale and Crony Capitalism: India’s position as a valued member of the Quad is premised on transparent and incorruptible trade, particularly in the arms sector. The Rafale deal with France is a subject of an ongoing French investigation. What has already been revealed about the deal, including data submitted to the Comptroller and Auditor General in India, points to a specific corporation being favored, and millions of dollars of graft money being at play. Democracy cannot survive in an atmosphere of crony capitalism.
PMCARES Fund: The PMCARES fund is at the center of the financial scandal that emerged even as India faced two devastating waves of the pandemic. Under Indian law and as per the government’s own promotional material while raising money for PMCARES, this fund meets the definition of a government fund. And yet, today, the government of India claims the fund is not a government fund, and refuses to release any details about it, even though several government agencies, including the Indian consulate in Washington, DC, and in 26 other countries, advertised PMCARES and helped raise funds for it!
3. Advancing Respect for Human Rights: This government is marked by explicit attacks on human rights coming from its top leadership. PM Modi has demonized non-governmental organizations by claiming they are working to “finish him”; Amit Shah has dismissed human rights as Western concepts that don’t apply to India; National Security Advisor Ajit Doval has branded civil society as the “new frontier of war”; and Bipin Rawat, the chief of defense staff, has valorized lynching. Such naked attacks on human rights from the very top echelons of the administration needs to be a central concern of the summit.

Digital surveillance and planting of evidence: Two recent revelations on surveillance and evidence planting, potentially by the Indian state, suggest a severe rise in the misuse of spying technologies to attack critics of the government. Pegasus was used to snoop on journalists, top opposition leaders, and even independent election commissioners; the malware Netwire went one step further and planted evidence on the computers of dissenters. While several democratic governments have opened investigations in the wake of these revelations, the Indian government has refused to do so thus far. Given your recent sanctions against the NSO Group, the U.S. must call on Mr.Modi to immediately stop the use of malware to target civil society, investigate these harms, and punish offenders.
Worsening caste oppression and erosion of legislative protections: Caste remains the most pervasive form of violation of basic human rights in India, and the last several years have seen an alarming increase in caste atrocities. Particularly in the northern state of Uttar Pradesh, the BJP-led state government and police have themselves been complicit in covering up sexual violence against Dalits. Groups connected to the RSS have led to violence against Dalits on university campuses and in the state of Gujarat. Moreover, the Modi government failed to protect provisions in the SC/ST (Prevention of Atrocities) Act, which acts as a crucial deterrent, until protests and the opposition forced it to do so. The BK-16 case is another example of the BJP/RSS’s punitive retaliation against Dalit assertion and their exercising of civil and cultural rights by commemorating Dalit valor in the historic Bhima-Koregaon battle.
Labor Codes: In September 2020, the Narendra Modi government passed new laws governing Labor when the opposition was absent from Parliament. These laws make it harder for labor unions to be recognized; harder for workers to go on strike; and made it easier for some companies to lay off workers with impunity. The assault on labor rights is a critical part of the Modi government’s overall assault on human rights.
The Swedish V-Dem Institute has described India as an “electoral autocracy,” and we agree: this is the single most antidemocratic government India has ever seen. Therefore, we are committed to working with your administration to strengthen the Democracy Summit process.

While your organizing principles are commendable, the process has been weak and exclusionary. We therefore seek urgent consultation with your administration, not only to ensure that the Democracy Summit gets off to a meaningful start, but also that the process going forward gains in strength at every stage.

Sincerely,

1. Alliance of South Asians Taking Action, USA

2. Alternatives International, Canada

3. Ambedkar International Center, USA

4. Ambedkar King Study Circle, USA

5. Anti-Caste Discrimination Alliance, UK

6. Association of Indian Muslims of America, USA

7. Aotearoa Alliance Of Progressive Indians (Aotearoa New Zealand.)

8. Center for Pluralism, USA

9. CERAS (Centre sur l’asie du sud), Montreal, Canada

10. Chicago Coalition for Human Rights in India (CCHRI), USA

11. Coalition Against Fascism in India (CAFI), USA

12. Coalition of Seattle Indian Americans, USA

13. Dalit Solidarity Forum, USA

14. Federation of Indian American Christian Organizations (FIACONA), North America

15. Foundation: The London Story, EU

16. Friends of India—Texas, USA

17. Hindus for Human Rights, USA

18. India Civil Watch International, North America

19. India Justice Project, Germany

20. Indian American Muslim Council (IAMC), USA

21. India Solidarity Germany, Germany

22. International Christian Concern, USA

23. International Commission for Dalit Rights, USA

24. International Solidarity for Academic Freedom in India, International

25. International Society for Peace and Justice, USA

26. Punjabi Literary and Cultural Association (PLCA) Winnipeg, Canada

27. Scottish Indians for Justice, Scotland

28. South Asian Dalit Adivasi Network, Canada

29. South Asian Left Activist Movement (SALAM), USA

30. South Asia Solidarity Group, UK

31. Students Against Hindutva Ideology, USA

32. The Humanism Project, Australia

33. Turbine Bagh, UK

34. Voices Against Fascism in India, USA

35. Islamic Society of North America (ISNA), USA

https://mronline.org/2021/12/10/bidens- ... o-fascism/

***********************************************************************

Historic victory of Indian farmers
12/08/2021
Capital retreats

Predatory capitalist reforms do not always go as smoothly as their organizers would like. Especially when people who are not afraid to stand up for their rights stand in their way. An example of this is the struggle of Indian farmers against the introduction of anti-popular agrarian reforms.

Image

The laws, which were introduced in India in September 2020, allowed farmers to establish the sale of products anywhere in the country, including to private firms, and not only at state points of sale. The government believed that such a measure would help raise the income of Indian farmers, but in fact the laws gave dealers the ability to set prices. As a result, the minimum purchase price for agricultural products became a fiction, and farmers were given "at the mercy of corporations."

India is a country with a difficult climate. In some areas, crops are constantly suffering from drought; in others, they are washed away by floods. Hence the multimillion-dollar debts of farms to banks and frequent suicides in the peasant environment. The situation is not easy. Unsurprisingly, the reforms, appealing in appearance, but in fact beneficial only to large corporations, provoked a real explosion of indignation.

The protests began in the fall of 2020. The police dispersed the rioters' actions with tear gas and water cannons - there were casualties. For a whole year, farmers have fought for the right to live at least the same way as before. And now the farmers in India can be congratulated on a historic victory won in a long and bitter struggle, which was supported by all sectors of society. Their intransigence forced the Government to withdraw the adopted laws. It remains to ensure that their cancellation is confirmed by the Parliament during the upcoming winter session.

It is unclear why the government has delayed for so long. The confrontation took more than 700 lives and led to a brutal incident in Lakhimpur Kheri , Uttar Pradesh .

But it also demonstrated once again that an organized struggle for their rights can force capital to retreat.

Image

The workers and peasants of India would like to learn from what happened and step up the fight against any infringement of their rights, be it the unfair Labor Code, the Electricity Act or the Citizenship Amendment Act (CAA). The Government must not be allowed to ignore the demands of the people.

We are sincerely grateful to everyone who took part in this struggle: Indian farmers, taxi drivers, youth. With your solidarity, you have achieved considerable success in our times.

https://www.rotfront.su/istoricheskaya- ... kih-ferme/

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Re: India

Post by blindpig » Tue Jan 25, 2022 2:31 pm

Impose 1% surcharge on richest 10% Indians to reduce inequality: Oxfam India

Inequality has always plagued India but it has been exacerbated by the Narendra Modi government in the last eight years. The promotion of corporate giants at the cost of public welfare is the driving force behind the increasing inequality

January 23, 2022 by Tikender Panwar

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The gap between the top 10% asset holders and the bottom 10% is 500 times in rural India but is shockingly 50,000 times in urban areas, Oxfam, the British founded confederation of 21 independent charitable organisations, reported in 2017. Oxfam India’s latest report titled ‘Inequality Kills: India Supplement 2022’ reveals far worsening inequality in the country.
Inequality has always plagued India but it has been exacerbated by the Narendra Modi government in the last eight years. The promotion of corporate giants at the cost of public welfare is the driving force behind the increasing inequality.

The Oxfam report exposes the government’s much-hyped hollow claims of ‘Sabka Saath, Sabka Vikas’ [Together with everyone, welfare for everyone] and meeting the universal standards of sustainable development goals.

While the income of 84% of households declined in a year marked by loss of life and livelihoods, the number of billionaires grew from 102 to 142, the report says adding, “the collective wealth of India’s 100 richest people hit a record of Rs 57.3 lakh crore in 2021.”

The share of the bottom 50% of the population in national wealth was a mere 6% whereas, the top 10% held more than 45% of the national wealth.

According to Oxfam, the richest 98 Indians (owner of corporate entities) own the same wealth as the bottom 552 million people, which is roughly 40% of the population.

Whereas India added 40 billionaires in 2020-21, the number of poor doubled during the same period with more than 46 million Indians estimated to have fallen into extreme poverty—this number is nearly half of the global poor, according to the United Nations.

The level of inequality is so stark that the wealth of India’s 10 richest is enough to fund the schooling and higher education of every child for, at least, 25 years. India is home to 25% of all world’s undernourished children.

Oxfam summarizes some of the important reasons for this gross inequality. The poor expenditure on health and education, the taxation system, social sector spending and over-centralization of the governance system are some of the important reasons for the vast inequality.

Amitabh Behar, CEO, Oxfam India said: “The ‘Inequality Kills’ briefing shows how deeply unequal our economic system is and how it fuels not only inequality but poverty as well. We urge the government of India to commit to an economic system which creates a more equal and sustainable nation… India’s fight against inequality and poverty must be supported by the billionaires who made record profits in the country during the pandemic.”

Whereas the report focuses on the taxation system, which substantially increased in the indirect tax form—shoring up wealth from peoples’ savings—it also mentions that this is not the ultimate area that requires redressal. For inclusive, sustainable and equitable growth, the government has to usher in large-scale transformation which seems extremely difficult in this situation.

The democratization of the surplus generated in a social system is the only way to meet the huge gap of inequality in a social system. Unfortunately, in the last few years, instead of democratization of the surplus generated, there has been a massive appropriation of it. And the Union government, a principal tool necessary for this democratization, has become a tool for the facilitation of appropriation by its capitalist cronies.

For example, several countries allocate a higher portion of their budget to healthcare compared to India. Brazil allocates 9.51%, South Africa 8.25%, China 5.35%, Russia 5.32% whereas India’s budgetary allocation is only 3.54%.

“This consistently poor spending on health has also created gross inequalities in the healthcare system that have been described in past. Unsurprisingly, the poor state of public-funded healthcare in the country has pushed the majority of the population to resort to the private sector to obtain healthcare,” the report states. The drive for an insurance-driven health system helps in accruing profits for private insurers and does not help in democratizing the gains.

Likewise, education can contribute phenomenally to either reducing or increasing the gap of inequality in a social system. Sadly, India has promoted the privatization of education in the last few years.

The report points out that the proportion of children attending a government school has declined to 45% compared to 85% in the USA, 95% in the UK 93% in Japan. The government schools are either not being run properly or being shut at a very fast pace, Oxfam states.

Despite providing the glaring facts and their reasons, the report misses some of the important facts, especially in the urban areas, that lead to inequality.

The major miss is the transformation of utilities and urban commons for abject privatization. This goes to the basic understanding of the way cities are built to attract capital investment in sectors like housing, infrastructure, health and even education, which has also led to the widening of inequality. For example, the government has been pushing for secondary and tertiary health infrastructure rather than primary in recent years. Therefore, when a city is planned, there is more space for super-speciality hospitals than for primary healthcare centers. Gurgaon near the capital Delhi is a classic example of such development.

Nearly, 40% of the urban population was dependent on private healthcare in 1986-87, 68% per cent in 2014 and now more than 70%, according to the report. Unfortunately, the Modi government views the health sector as an area of investment with good returns for the private sector. The ‘health industry’ is expected to grow to $372 billion.

“Reliance on private medical care risks the exclusion of socially marginalized groups from accessing healthcare thereby exacerbating existing health inequalities. A healthcare sector driven by market considerations influences consumer choice and creates demand according to profitability for the providers thus excluding those with poorer purchasing power such as those who constitute India’s marginalized groups,” according to the report.

The commodifying of certain public goods, like the supply of good-quality water, to maximize profit also increases inequality. From the World Water Forum in The Hague in March 2000, where the participants proclaimed themselves as saviors in the global water crisis but instead pronounced ideas for water privatization and its utilities in the urban spectrum.

Most of the infrastructure projects designed with high capital input bear a condition for reducing non-revenue water (NRW). There is nothing wrong in reducing NRW if it reduces the losses of water in a water utility in a city run either by the government or a parastatal body. The problem is that people are made to pay for reducing NRW and huge amounts of surplus are generated in the process. Another problem is the business of purifying water by companies despite the fact that the utilities are supposed to provide potable water to residents.

A market-oriented housing policy increases inequality as well. The transformation of old model towns under new master plans in the last four decades speaks volumes of this private aggrandizement.

Compared to the Master Plan for Delhi-2041, the previous plans had a provision for social housing. The new plan doesn’t mention social housing at all.

A political and social movement is the only way to implement the suggestions offered by Oxfam to remove inequality. Democratizing the surplus in the form of a larger investment by the state in education, health, etc. is necessary.

The report points out that a 4% wealth tax on 98 richest families can take care of the ministry of health and family welfare for more than two years and the Mid-Day Meal Scheme for 17 years. Similarly, just 1% wealth tax on 98 richest billionaire families can finance Ayushman Bharat (a national health insurance scheme) for more than seven years.

The increasing inequality will lead to massive social tension which will be healthy for the country. The key issue, as pointed out by the report, is not just the management of taxes but the transformation of the social and political system.

The writer is the former deputy mayor of Shimla, Himachal Pradesh. The views are personal.

https://peoplesdispatch.org/2022/01/23/ ... fam-india/

Inequality is both the purpose and result of the capitalist mode of production and a wealth tax to try and reduce economic inequality will not go anywhere as long as the capitalists are in charge. It has been a hallmark of ruling classes throughout history that they absolve themselves of all but a pathetic tax burden, shifting that weight to be borne by others. Roman patricians, feudal lords and capitalists have all done this. In our times the existence of socialism gives added impulse for the rulers' to be even more adamant in their refusal to accept even a meager wealth tax, they see a 'slippery slope'. And indeed, a wealth tax has been a significant tool for revolutionary governments to relieve the common people of inordinate burden and besides drawing the fangs of counter-revolutionaries.

So while it would be nice and beneficial I don't see it happening in any society dominated by capital. It will take a dictatorship of the proletariat to make that happen.
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Re: India

Post by blindpig » Mon Jan 31, 2022 3:25 pm

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Pegasus ultimate spyware from Israel is back in news cycle | MR OnlinePegasus, ‘ultimate spyware’ from Israel, is back in news cycle

U.S. reminds India it’s showtime
Posted Jan 31, 2022 by M. K. Bhadrakumar

Originally published: Indian Punchline (January 30, 2022 ) |

Pegasus, CAATSA, Nagaland–prime facie, they’ve nothing in common. At least, reading the Indian press, one gets that impression. But it is always important to connect the dots to understand where the trail is leading to.

The Biden-Harris Administration is sensing that Modi Govt, a perceived ally, is not to be seen as its war machine revs up in anticipation of a horrific war. Typically, if a country is not with the U.S., then, it must be against it. But India falls in a category by itself.

The Modi government is going to come under immense pressure in the coming weeks and months from Washington to move into the Western camp on the burning issues of Ukraine and NATO’s further expansion, which would “change the world,” as President Biden framed the paradigm in stark historical terms last week.

To recap, since 2014, the Modi government has gone far beyond any previous Congress-led regimes in taking India to the American stable. It has been a dangerous poker game, in which the ruling elite, weaned on Chanakya, was sure it would ultimately outwit Washington.

It is always a seductive thought that you could cherrypick. But, in a superpower’s orchard? And, more so, from Joe Biden’s kitchen garden? It was sheer naïveté. The contradiction becomes acute, as the present ruling elite also staunchly proclaim their nationalist credo.

Biden has already announced that by April, once he’s finished with Eurasia, he is heading for Asia-Pacific for the next summit of the QUAD, which Japan is hosting! The QUAD is transforming as a vehicle to push the “dual containment” strategy against both China and Russia.

The White House claimed on January 21 that Japanese Prime Minister Kishida pledged to Biden to “continue close coordination with the United States, other Allies and partners, and the international community on taking strong action in response to any attack” by Russia on Ukraine. Japan is not even an Eurasian power, yet it knows what to do as the U.S.’ vassal state.

Against such a complex backdrop, the U.S. state department spokesman Ted price posted a reminder when asked at the press briefing Thursday by one Michel, “Given the unprecedented tension you have with Russia, what impact does India’s decision to buy S-400 from Russia–the supply already began–has on your bilateral ties with India?”

Of course, such questions are never accidental. Price replied:

Well, in many ways this doesn’t change the concerns that we have with the S-400 system. I think it shines a spotlight on the destabilising role that Russia is playing not only in the region, but potentially beyond as well. When it comes to CAATSA sanctions, you’ve heard me say before we haven’t made a determination with regard to this transaction, but it’s something we continue to discuss with the Government of India, given the risk of sanctions for this particular transaction under CAATSA. Whether it is India, whether it is any other country, we continue to urge all countries to avoid major new transactions for Russian weapon systems… I don’t have a timeline to offer, but these are issues that we continue to discuss with our partners in India. Michel.

Coincidence or not, on the same day as Price spoke, the New York Times’ stunning story on Pegasus appeared. Admittedly, it is not an exclusive story about on India but Prime Minister Modi was singled out as a case study.

Indeed, it pins on PM Modi personally the decision-making on the sale of a package of sophisticated weapons and intelligence gear worth roughly $2 billion–with Pegasus and a missile system as the centrepieces.

Evidently, there has been some media leak with high level political clearance in Washington. The Pegasus story is still playing out in the Supreme Court, so let us leave it at that.

Perhaps, even more damning, from a long-term perspective, would be the Times’ feature on Nagaland titled In India’s Militarized Regions, Calls for Ending Impunity, which, strangely enough, appeared on Saturday.

The Times holds a piercing searchlight held on a dark corner of our country–Indian Army’s alleged atrocities on the Christian population of Nagaland. Of course, within India itself, there is a significant body of responsible opinion–including one former Home Secretary–who would share the estimations in the Times story.

However, the point is something else: On successive days, the Times, a hugely influential opinion maker in the world community, has portrayed Modi’s India as a country without rule of law with a state apparatus that is insensitive, brutal, oppressive.Pegasus, CAATSA, Nagaland–prime facie, they’ve nothing in common. At least, reading the Indian press, one gets that impression. But it is always important to connect the dots to understand where the trail is leading to.

Taken together with Ned Price’s remarks, Modi Govt has been put on notice. Will it buckle under such pressure? These are times when the moral fibre of the leadership makes all the difference.

The core issue is that an elected government’s primary duty is to safeguard the national interests. In this case, any bandwagoning with the U.S.-led apple cart lurching toward Russia or China is almost certain to meet with a disastrous ending.

Nothing brings this out more vividly than the decision by Polish President Andrzej Duda, Egyptian President Abdel Fattah Sisi, Saudi Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman, and UAE Crown Prince Sheikh Mohamed bin Zayed Al Nahyan to attend the opening ceremony of the Beijing Olympics on Feb 4. (Interestingly, they too figure in Times’ Pegasus story!)

All four of them are supposedly Washington’s allies. Yet, they have chosen to mark their distance ostentatiously from the Biden Administration’s ill-fated strategy in Eurasia and Asia-Pacific, which in their reckoning is doomed to unravel with disastrous consequences.

Cracks have appeared within the Western alliance. Major EU allies remain sceptical about the war hysteria against Russia. Only (post-Brexit) Britain, which is raring to go “global”, shows enthusiasm. Simply put, the European allies will now be doubly sceptical about Biden’s incoherent approach toward China.

The Chinese ambassador to Washington Qin Gang has publicly warned,

If the Taiwanese authorities, emboldened by the United States, keep going down the road for independence, it most likely will involve China and the United States, the two big countries, in the military conflict.

India’s interest lies in navigating its own pathway toward China and Russia, two consequential relationships in its foreign policy. Arguably, the reimposition of the U.S.’ global hegemony will not be in India’s long term interests, which would lie firmly in the emergence of a multipolar world order based on the UN Charter where it is well-placed to fulfil its responsibilities as an independent player with its strategic autonomy intact.

https://mronline.org/2022/01/31/u-s-rem ... -showtime/

MR was slack editing this article which had some repeating text in it but I fixed it.
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Re: India

Post by blindpig » Wed Feb 09, 2022 3:30 pm

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Modi Government Taking Revenge from Farmers for Victorious Struggle Through Budget, says SKM
February 8, 2022
By Ravi Kaushal – Feb 2, 2022

The morcha also emphasised that Union Finance Minister Nirmala Sitharaman did not mention about doubling of farmers’ income even once as it failed to achieve the results in several years.

Coming down heavily on the Union Budget 2022–23, Sanyukta Kisan Morcha on Tuesday said that the Modi Government was punishing the country’s farmers for leading the historic struggle against three central farm laws by slashing the allocation of agriculture and allied activities. The morcha emphasised that Union Finance Minister Nirmala Sitharaman did not mention about doubling of farmers’ income once as it failed to achieve the results.

It said, “After the unprecedented agitation of farmers over the past one and a half years, farmers of the country expected that a sensitive government would come up with specific effective measures in this budget to address their situation of not getting remunerative prices, facing crop losses due to natural calamities, and sinking deeper into debt. Instead, the government reduced the share of Agriculture and Allied Activities in the total budget from 4.3% last year to 3.8% this year, showing that it wants to punish the farmers for their successful movement.”

Darshan Pal, President of Krantikari Kisan Union and a member of the core committee of SKM, said that farmers were also waiting to hear the story about doubling their incomes, now that they were in 2022. After the Prime Minister declared in February 2016 that farmers’ incomes would be doubled within six years, every budget speech and speech on agriculture by the ruling party highlighted this promise. Now we have reached 2022, and there was not even a mention by the Finance Minister.

He said, “As per the government’s Doubling of Farmers’ Income report, the benchmark farm household income for 2015-16 was Rs 8,059, and this was promised to be doubled in real terms, taking inflation into account. This puts the Target income in 2022 at Rs 21,146. But, NSSO 77th Round shows that in 2018-19, the average farm household income was only Rs 10,218. Projecting at the growth rate of GVA in agriculture for next three years, the income in 2022 is still below Rs 12,000 per month, which is very far from the target of doubling the income.”

Pal said that the Centre is still to act on the promises made through the Union Agriculture Ministry at the end of agitation at the borders of the national capital. Among the promises, the centre had assured farmers about forming a committee with clear terms of reference on minimum support price, asking states to withdraw criminal cases registered during the agitation, compensating the kin of deceased farmers in movement, and addressing the concerns about Electricity Amendment Act.

Deciphering the provisions about the minimum support price in the budget, Pal said while the farmers are demanding MSP guarantee for all crops, the Budget speech mentioned only procurement for paddy and wheat from 1.63 crore farmers which form about 10% of all farmers in the country. Even in the case of paddy and wheat, the budget speech shows that the procurement fell in 2021-22 compared to 2020-21. While the Finance Minister proudly declared that the procurement of wheat and paddy in 2021-22 “will cover 1,208 lakh metric tonnes of wheat and paddy from 163 lakh farmers, and 2.37 lakh crore direct payment of MSP value to their accounts,” these figures are a serious reduction compared to 2020-21 when 1286 lakh metric tonnes were procured from 197 lakh farmers, and Rs 2.48 lakh crores were paid to the farmers. The number of benefited farmers in 2021-22 has fallen by 17%, and the quantity procured has decreased by 7% from 2020-21.”

Joginder Singh Ugrahan, President, Bharatiya Kisan Union Ekta Ugrahan emphasised that the centre was failing to commit legal guarantee for the minimum support price and slashed the allocation of schemes related to MSP through the finance ministry. In a written statement, he said that that PM-AASHA scheme (Pradhan Mantri Annadata Aay Sanrakshan Abhiyan) was brought with much fanfare in 2018 to implement the promise made by Finance Minister Arun Jaitley in the 2018 Budget speech that the government will ensure every farmer will get the declared MSP. “The allocation to this flagship scheme tells the story of the government’s commitment to MSP – it fell from Rs 1500 crore to Rs 500 crore to Rs 400 crore and this year to just Rs 1 crore.”

The veteran leader who leads one of the biggest farm unions of Punjab mentions that allocation for the Price Support Scheme-Market Intervention Scheme is Rs 1,500 crores this year, while the actual expenditure last year was Rs 3,596 crores. These amounts are paltry compared to anywhere between ₹50,000 to 75,000 crores which is the estimated shortfall between MSP and the actual price obtained by the farmers in the markets nationwide.”

Talking to NewsClick over the phone, Ashok Dhawale, National President, All India Kisan Sabha said that the centre failed to understand the human cost of crisis in the agricultural sector where more than 4 lakh farmers committed suicide due to ill driven policies. The current budget is rubbing the salt on their wounds by slashing the allocation of schemes that helped farmers, agriculture workers and women.

He said, “Allocations for MGNREGS have been reduced relative to the expenditures of the previous years, though the scheme has been very important for sustaining the rural economy and the rural poor during the past several years, including the Covid pandemic crisis. The actual expenditure in 2020-21 was Rs 1,11,169 crores, the revised estimate in 2021-22 was Rs 98,000 crores while the budget allocation for 2022-23 has been reduced to Rs 73,000 crores, whereas it should have been further strengthened.”

He added that in most of the important schemes for farmers, the performance has been disappointing, and there is no sign of improvement. Many states have withdrawn from the flagship Pradhan Mantri Fasal Bima Yojana (PMFBY), including the PM’s own state of Gujarat and many major states such as West Bengal, Telangana, Andhra Pradesh and Tamil Nadu. The PM-KISAN scheme was declared to begin with 12 crore farmers and expand coverage to 15 crore farmers.

He added that the irrigation schemes also seem to have been cut short even when it needs greater allocation. He said,” The PM-Krishi Sinchai Yojana had an allocation of Rs 4,000 crores in 2021-22 but had an expenditure of only Rs 2,000 crores. Now it has been subsumed under an expanded umbrella of RKVY. The RKVY scheme itself had an allocation of Rs 3,712 crore last year out of which only Rs 2,000 crores were spent.”

https://orinocotribune.com/modi-governm ... -says-skm/
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Re: India

Post by blindpig » Mon Feb 28, 2022 2:33 pm

FEBRUARY 27, 2022 BY M. K. BHADRAKUMAR

India shouldn’t miss world war pointer

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Prime Minister Narendra Modi (L) and Russian President Vladimir Putin had a phone conversation on February 24, 2022

The transition of India’s foreign-policy mindset during the post-cold war period from an international outlook to a national one, and then its colossal drop to a ‘mofussil’ thinking, is a tragic phenomenon. One outcome of it has been the tendency to reduce foreign policy to a single theme — India’s relations with the United States — which began after the Narasimha Rao government.

Narasimha Rao was India’s last prime minister with an erudite mind on international affairs who of course benefited from the pedagogy of Jawaharlal Nehru, who had every reason to have a world outlook while navigating the Congress through a complex period between two world wars when the country was locked in a struggle for freedom with a superpower — Imperial Britain — with an empire over which the sun never set.

That’s how Nehru got intimately associated with the Bolshevik Revolution intellectually, emotionally, personally to distil out of it great morals and signposts for an independent India.

All that is history. Since Rao, there has been a steady decline as the Indian ruling elite got entrapped in the ‘unipolar predicament,’ thanks to indoctrination by the lobbyists of America, and the fatalistic narrative took hold that we are destined to live in a New American Century.

Even after 1999 and the tragic vivisection of Yugoslavia, including the NATO’s barbaric 78-day bombing of the capital city Belgrade without a mandate from the UN, it did not occur to our ruling elite that a blood-dimmed tide had been loosed in the world order and a ‘rough beast, its hour come round at last / Slouches towards Bethlehem to be born’ — to borrow the chilling lines from the poem Second Coming by Irish poet WB Yeats.

That beast, with the shape of a lion’s body and ‘a gaze blank and pitiless as the sun’ has since moved from devouring the carcass of Yugoslavia into Afghanistan, Iraq, Georgia, Libya, Syria, Somalia, et al, and arrived in Ukraine in 2014.

It eyes the vast luscious Eurasian landmass eastward where there are many multiethnic, plural societies like Yugoslavia, big and small, with internal contradictions that make them vulnerable to dismemberment.

Yet, the Indian elite is in stony sleep — not only the ruling elite but also the opposition parties — Congress and the communist parties, in particular, who are credited with having some educated, well-informed minds at the leadership level. They think what is unfolding in Eurasia is a Russia-Ukraine issue!

Thus, Prime Minister Narendra Modi makes a phone call to Vladimir Putin on Thursday. Logically, he should have followed up with a phone call to Joe Biden, instead of leaving Ukraine issue to External Affairs Minister S. Jaishankar to sort out with his friend Antony Blinken.

Indeed, Blinken and a string of western diplomats promptly got in touch with Jaishankar, emboldened by the wrong signal that Modi’s call conveyed. Even Ukraine’s foreign minister called Jaishankar!

And then came the fateful emergency meeting of the UN Security Council on Friday, where India all but implied that it saw developments as a ‘Russia-Ukraine’ matrix — plainly put, an issue of national sovereignty and territorial integrity, war and peace.

Inspired by this trend, Modi got a phone call from Ukraine’s president Volodymyr Zelensky. It doesn’t need much ingenuity to figure out that Zelensky (who reportedly fled Kiev with his family), acted on the belief that India’s stance is up for bargaining.

Now, it is an open secret that the ex-comedian with no political experience whom fate catapulted to power in Ukraine in 2019 (thanks to an oligarch who saw potential to manipulate him), is actually a mere cats-paw of western intelligence.

Thus, Washington has decided to work on Delhi, sensing that an opportunity is at hand to confuse the Indian leadership with the American narrative — Russia has violated Ukraine’s sovereignty, must end its military operations and withdraw, blah blah.

Russia is not at war with Ukraine, but is locked in an existential struggle to avoid the fate of Yugoslavia. Period. The spectre that is haunting Putin is NATO membership for Ukraine, which the Americans have been orchestrating.

Following the CIA-sponsored coup in Ukraine in 2014, an anti-Russian power calculus emerged in Ukraine. The US’ point man for Ukraine in the Obama Administration was none other than Biden himself. He made countless trips to Kiev during 2014-2016 to fine tune that transition.

There is a scandal still brewing in US politics that Biden used his influence to secure some highly lucrative business in Ukraine for his son. At any rate, there is also personal element here for Biden — one may say, he is a ‘stakeholder’ of sorts.

Ukraine suffers from rampant corruption. Simply put, someone should have properly advised the PM that he should not enter a turf that angels fear to tread.

The core issue today is not ‘Russian invasion’. Putin has spelt out unambiguously that Russia does not intend to occupy Ukraine and that its objective is two-fold: ‘demilitarisation’ and ‘denazification’ of Ukraine.

The first one means dismantling the military infrastructure that NATO has installed on Ukrainian soil right on Russia’s doorstep. Ukraine’s defence apparatus, including its command centres, are already hooked to the NATO system.

Putin has repeatedly warned that if the US instals missiles in Ukraine, Moscow would be within 5 minutes’ striking distance. It is ‘like a knife at our throat,’ he said on Thursday.

As for ‘denazification,’ the US and European intelligence agencies are using hardcore nationalist forces in Ukraine with Neo-Nazi leanings whose parentage goes back to the Second World War when their forefathers acted as collaborators of Hitler during the Nazi invasion of the Soviet Union.

They have a score to settle with all Russians, as after the defeat of Nazi Germany, Josef Stalin had severely punished them for sedition. Unsurprisingly, these forces have been integrated as the vanguard of NATO’s offensive toward Russia. The German spy chief personally visited Kiev to give final touch for the upcoming confrontation and had to be evacuated in a special operation from Berlin!

Under no circumstances will Russia give up until the twin objectives are realised — dismantling the offensive weapon systems installed by NATO in Ukraine and, secondly, scattering the Neo-Nazi forces that act as the US’ cats-paw.

Zelensky himself is a mere frontman. He is deeply unpopular, has no political base, and is rumoured to be a drug addict and unstable personality. He doesn’t make a worthy interlocutor for Modi to discuss war and peace.

Frankly, India has no role to play. This is a showdown between the US and NATO on one hand and Russia on the other. That said, the outcome of this titanic struggle in Central Europe will remould the world order and affect India profoundly.

Russia’s defeat can only lead to its dismemberment like Yugoslavia, and ensuing US hegemony. Therefore, Russia will throw everything into this struggle. It won’t even hesitate to use its thermonuclear capability to defend itself, if need arises.

The US is setting a ‘bear trap’ for Russia using the neo-Nazi forces. It calculates that if the Russian forces get bogged down, the door opens for a NATO intervention — 175000 NATO troops are positioned already on Russia’s borders with massive firepower and air and naval formations surrounding Russia from all sides.

A NATO intervention will be tantamount to US-Russia war — that is, a world war with nuclear weapons. On Thursday, Putin explicitly warned Biden to back off. But Biden has since indicated that the NATO will continue to pump weapons into Ukraine.

He disclosed yesterday that $250 million worth arms and ammunitions, night googles, etc. (for waging partisan war by the neo-Nazi forces) are on their way to Ukraine. Biden has thrown down the gauntlet to Putin.

From this point, things can take most dangerous turns unless Biden allows the dialogue between Moscow and Kiev to proceed, as per an offer from Putin. Biden seems, however, inclined to undermine dialogue, while preaching it.

Zelensky who first accepted Putin’s offer for a meeting has since retracted at America’s behest and the Russian offensive is resuming.

India’s foreign policy establishment is not lacking capacity to anticipate developments instead of sleepwalking into them. What seems absent here is a political leadership with commitment to view developments solely through the prism of India.

There is critical need to protect our country from fallouts and preserve core interests, especially relations with Russia, given India’s huge stakes in a multipolar world order. Alas, our PR’s impromptu UN remarks Friday came as big disappointment. India croaked like a frog in the well.

Read up the profound Chinese statement at the UN Security Council to draw inspiration. China’s stakes in the outcome are no less than India’s.

https://www.indianpunchline.com/india-s ... r-pointer/
"There is great chaos under heaven; the situation is excellent."

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Re: India

Post by blindpig » Tue Mar 08, 2022 3:00 pm

Communists in India: the struggle both in the city and in the countryside
08.03.2022
Protecting the interests of workers
From the editor.It's no secret that India is one of the most densely populated countries on earth. The rapid growth of cities is due to the ongoing industrialization here - many European and American corporations have moved their production here. It is very profitable for business to do business here, because it is helped in this by the nationalist government of India, which is pursuing a neoliberal course. This means large-scale privatization, minimal social security for workers and non-compliance with elementary working conditions. The peasant strata of the population also suffer from this policy - corporations and landowners take away the land from the villagers, leaving people without shelter and livelihoods. All this cannot but evoke a response from the working classes, which is why the positions of the communist parties fighting for justice are strong in India.
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Flag of the Communist Party of India (Marxist).

In West Bengal , for more than 30 years , which is unique among Indian states, the government has been formed by the Left Front under the leadership of the Communist Party of India (Marxist) ¸ which was itself the pro-Beijing wing of the Communist Party of India, during the Indian-Chinese armed conflict in 1964, speaking under the slogan "Mao is our chairman." After the death of Mao Tse Tung and the arrest of the Gang of Four, the Marxists shunned foreign support and their politics became very much autonomous.

In addition to the CPI (m), the Left Front at the national level includes the Communist Party of India (CPI) , the All-India Forward Block , whose symbol is a red banner with a hammer and sickle, on top of which a golden tiger jumps, and the Revolutionary Socialist Party .

By winning the elections in West Bengal in 1977 , the CPI(M) expanded its electorate, previously concentrated in the cities, into the countryside. The main reason for the success of the CPI(m) in West Bengal was agrarian reform - the redistribution of land among the poor peasants. The peasants, who received ownership of the highest value in this society - land from the hands of the communists, began to demonstrate their loyalty to the party, to associate themselves with it. As a result, the party has managed to remain in power in this state until the present day.

In the states where the CPI(m) was in power, it carried out important social reforms, including the settlement of the land question in favor of the peasants, industrialization, and campaigns to eradicate illiteracy.
The KPI and KPI(m) encouraged the peasants to seize land. The Communists organized "poor peasants' marches" to land plots that exceeded the norm established in the state, and then exemplarily distributed these lands among the landless. Government Interior Minister Jyoti Basu, who is also a member of the KPI(m) Politburo, has issued strict orders to the police not to intervene in labor conflicts and land grabs initiated by the ruling coalition parties. Everywhere in the villages, landlord property and crops began to be confiscated, "people's tribunals" were set up everywhere to deal with class enemies, and partisan detachments were created. As a result of all the transformations and fierce struggle, the Bengali peasants received land.
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Demonstration in the city of Ranchi, organized by the CPI (m).

Members of the CPI(m) accused the leadership of the CPI, oriented towards the CPSU, of revisionism and declared it a mistake to set India on a non-capitalist path of development and form a "national democracy" government. The CPI(m) proclaimed its goal the formation of a left-wing democratic front and the building of a "people's democracy" state. The CPI(m) was initially heavily influenced by the Chinese Communist Party.

In 1969, the Maoists left the ranks of the CPI(m) and created the Communist Party of India (Marxist-Leninist). A sharp controversy between the KPI (m) and the KPI continued until the end of the 1970s. Subsequently, the rapprochement of the two parties began, which was facilitated by their joint work in parliament, in coalition state governments, as well as coordinated actions to protect the rights of the least well-off segments of the population. In 1996-1998, the KPI (m), together with the KPI, took part in the United Front, which formed the government offices of India.

The CPI(m) enjoys massive support in several Indian states. Since 1977 , she has been constantly heading the government of the Left Front in West Bengal, since 2003 - in Tripura, since 2006 she has been head of the government of the Left Democratic Front in Kerala. In the 2004 national parliamentary elections , the KPI (m) received 5.7% of the vote and won 43 deputy mandates. The Party's printed organs are People's Democracy (since 1968), Lok Lehar (Hindi), and others. In Kerala, the positions of the Marxist Communist Party are strongest. In total, this party has about 800,000 members. The Communist Party of India has about 6,000,000 followers in total.

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Procession in Cooch Behar against the sale of chemical fertilizers on the black market.

The CPI(m) controls a number of grassroots organizations including the Federation of Democratic Youth of India, Federation of Students of India, Center of Indian Trade Unions, All India Agricultural Workers' Union, All India Kisan Sabha Peasant Front, All India Democratic Women's Association and Bank Workers' Federation of India, as well as a number of adivasi movements ( ethnic groups and tribes considered aboriginal in India).
The activity of the KPI (m) is manifested primarily in the support and protection of the rights of the poorest segments of the population - the peasant poor, ordinary farmers, as well as in the movement against discrimination based on caste, which, unfortunately, even 70 years after its official abolition, is still now takes place in India.
For example, in January 2022, thousands of citizens demonstrated at the headquarters of the Bundu quarter in Ranchi, Jharkhand state, against corruption in state structures, against the issuance of certificates of castes and tribes, and other violations. Prakash Viplav, State Secretary of the Communist Party of India (Marxist), Suknath Lora District Secretary, Suresh Munda and others addressed the gathering.

Also in January, a rally was organized in Cooch Behar, West Bengal, demanding the prevention of the black market of chemical fertilizers, the purchase of state-subsidized rice, and so on. Comrade Sujan Chakraborty, an Indian biomedical scientist and politician, leader of the Communist Party of India (Marxist) from Jadavpur, attended the event.

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Residents of the settlement of Sengodi Nagar who managed to return the land with the help of the CPI (m)

An Irula settlement in Cuddalore district, Tamil Nadu, was renamed by the local tribes from Waikalmedu (meaning canal bank) to Sengodi Nagar (red flag town). Their 20-year struggle for their own land to build a house ended in victory only after the intervention of the CPI (m). On the allotted land, huts were built for 11 families (subsequently, proper buildings will be erected), the surrounding area was put in order and decorated with traditional drawings - kolam (rangoli). Everything around was beautifully decorated with colored papers and balloons and had a festive look. Sweets were distributed to everyone, an oil lamp was lit, and the scent of incense sandalwood spread around. A brightly colored plate was marked with a new name, which was hoisted along with the red flags of the KPI (m) fluttering in the air. Ranjita, Durga, Deivanai and the women of other tribes were engaged in these preparations. With great enthusiasm and pride, the board was approved in its powers by a member of the Central Committee of the KPI (m), comrade Vasuki.

https://www.rotfront.su/kommunisty-v-in ... -gorode-i/

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Re: India

Post by blindpig » Fri Mar 25, 2022 2:07 pm

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India, U.S. have different priorities
Posted Mar 24, 2022 by M. K. Bhadrakumar

Originally published: Indian Punchline (March 23, 2022 ) |

An extraordinary week has passed for the Modi government’s dalliance with the Quad. Call it a defining moment, a turning point or even an inflection point—it has elements of all three.

The last week saw a 2-day visit to Delhi by Japanese prime minister Fumio Kishida, virtual summit between Prime Minister Narendra Modi and Australian PM Morrison, and foreign ministry level consultations with the visiting U.S. Undersecretary for Political Affairs Victoria Nuland. The leitmotif was the situation around Ukraine.

Biden has since taken a jab that India has a “somewhat shaky” stance on Ukraine. Who would have imagined that the geopolitics of Ukraine was going to shake up Quad?

Certainly, India had a premonition. The Indian foreign-policy establishment has had no misconceptions about what began unfolding in Ukraine in the last week of February. It had spotted as far back as November/December at least, like Elijah in the Bible, a small cloud like the palm of a hand coming up from the sea.

Unlike the Indian media, academia or think tanks at large, the Indian leadership could sense that an epochal global struggle for ascendancy by the U.S. and its western allies versus Russia and China was breaking out in Ukraine. Modi sensed that there would be collateral damage to India unless it saddled up to get down from the mountain, as the sky began grew black with wind-driven clouds, before the huge cloudburst of rain arrived.

There is a background to it. Any preceptive observer would have noticed that Modi has been in a reflective mood as regards foreign affairs for the past several months. His participation in the Summit for Democracy last December discernibly had a fin-de-siècle air about it–the closing of one era and onset of another. One could attribute it to the sobering effect of the pandemic.

The point is, India struggled with the pandemic all by itself. No matter the hype about it, India realised that it has no real partnership with the U.S. or EU, that it was a mere transactional relationship–and that in the final analysis, India lived in its region.

Indeed, India handled the pandemic far better than most countries. International experts acknowledge it today, and those who threw stones at that time grudgingly accept it, too.

However, with the economy ravaged beyond recognition, the government is picking up the pieces and staggering forward. There is still so much of uncertainty in the air about yet another “wave” of the pandemic stealthily advancing to drown all ceremonies of repair and reconstruction of life.

Succinctly put, the big-power struggle in faraway Europe, precipitated by the Biden administration for geopolitical purposes to isolate and weaken Russia, erupted at a most critical juncture when India has been increasingly sceptical about American policies and statesmanship. The picture that the U.S. is presenting itself is far from convincing either: a battleground of tribalism and culture wars, an ageing superpower in decline with dwindling influence globally.

In the Indian economy’s tryst with destiny, the U.S. is of no help. On the other hand, the waning multilateralism and the new constraints imposed on growth by the U.S.’ growing propensity to weaponise the dollar, threaten to blight the shoots of post-pandemic growth in the Indian economy.

On Monday, Biden celebrated a Business Roundtable with the CEOs of the largest corporations in the American economy. He boasted:

6.7 million jobs last year–the most ever created in one year; more than 7 million now. 678,000 created just last month, in one month. Unemployment down to 3.8 percent. Our economy grew at 5.7 percent last year, and the strongest in nearly 40 years… We reduced the deficit by $360 billion last year… And we’re on track to reduce it by over $1 trillion this year.

Biden is understandably thrilled beyond words. Yet, when he deliberately orchestrated a confrontation with Russia at this juncture, it didn’t occur to him what crippling impact and downstream consequences his draconian “sanctions from hell” against a major G20 economy would have on the developing economies.

A UNCTAD report on March 16, titled The Impact on Trade and Development of the War in Ukraine, concludes,

The results confirm a rapidly worsening outlook for the world economy, underpinned by rising food, fuel and fertiliser prices, heightened financial volatility, sustainable development divestment, complex global supply chain reconfigurations and mounting trade costs.

This rapidly evolving situation is alarming for developing countries, and especially for African and least developed countries, some of which are particularly exposed to the war in Ukraine and its effect on trade costs, commodity prices and financial markets. The risk of civil unrest, food shortages and inflation-induced recessions cannot be discounted…


Does Biden even know that at least 25 African countries depend on Russia for meeting more than one-third of their wheat imports? Or, that Benin actually meets 100% on Russia for its wheat imports? And that Russia supplies wheat at concessional price for these poor countries?

Now, how do these meek and wretched countries of the planet import from Russia when Biden and EU chief Ursula Gertrud von der Leyen join hands to block the banking channels for trading with Russia? Can Delaware find a solution?

The cruelty and cynical complacency with which the Biden Administration and the EU conduct their foreign polices is absolutely stunning. And, mind you, all this is happening in the name of “democratic values” and “international law”!

India cannot agree with the U.S. and EU’s reckless attempt to weaponise global economic links. The fact of the matter is that the U.S. and EU may not even win this war in Ukraine. Russia has almost completed 90 percent of its special operations. Unless Biden allows Kiev to agree to a peace settlement, the division of Ukraine along the Dnieper river is in the cards.

The U.S. is destabilising the European security order while the western sanctions are destabilising the global economic order. The U.S. and EU must bear responsibility for this collateral damage. The West is in panic that the world is living in the Asian century already.

“One reason for the optimism across the heart of Asia is the immense natural resources of the (Asian) region,” writes the famous Oxford historian Peter Frankopan in his recent book The New Silk Roads: The Present and Future of the World. For, the Middle East, Russia and Central Asia account for almost 70% of global proven oil reserves, and nearly 65% of proven natural gas reserves.

Prof. Frankopan writes:

Or there is the agricultural wealth of the region that lies between the Mediterranean and the Pacific… which account for more than half of all global wheat production… (and) account for nearly 85% of global rice production.

Then there are elements like Silicon, which plays an important role in microelectronics and in the production of semiconductors, where Russia and China alone account for three-quarters of global production; or there are rare earths like yttrium, dysprosium and terbium that are essential for everything from super magnets to batteries, from actuators to laptops–of which China alone accounted for more than 80% of global production… Resources have always played a central role in shaping the world… This makes the control of the Silk Roads more important than ever.


The West still seems to want to “return to ‘normal’”, Frankopan writes, “and expects the newcomers to resume their old positions in the world order.” Clearly, India, an erstwhile British colony, understands the real agenda behind Washington and Brussels’ geopolitical struggle with Russia. Principally, India is looking in all directions–Russia and China included–for partnerships.

If the Chinese news website Guancha is correct, which it mostly is,

China-India diplomatic relations will significantly ease and enter a recovery period. China and India will realise the exchange of visits of diplomatic officials in a relatively short time. Chinese officials will go to India first, and Indian Foreign Minister Jaishankar will come to China.

This is good news. Modi’s unique stature in Indian politics enables him to take difficult decisions. The renewed mandate he secured from the heartland puts him in a position to break fresh ground in foreign policy.

https://mronline.org/2022/03/24/india-u ... riorities/

Well, Modi is still a racists shithead. The world is complicated...

*******************************

‘This will be one of the biggest strikes in India since the country’s independence’

AR Sindhu, National Secretary of CITU (Centre of Indian Trade Unions), joins us to talk about the upcoming National Strike in India on March 28 and 29.

March 25, 2022 by Peoples Dispatch



AR Sindhu, National Secretary of CITU (Centre of Indian Trade Unions), joins us to talk about the upcoming National Strike in India on March 28 and 29. She talks about the workers demands, the strengthening worker-peasant unity in the country, and the actions that are being planned for these two days.

https://peoplesdispatch.org/2022/03/25/ ... ependence/
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Re: India

Post by blindpig » Mon Mar 28, 2022 2:24 pm

Why is India going on a General Strike on March 28-29?
Workers and farmers are demanding relief from economic distress – and also a complete change in the economic policy of the Modi government.

March 27, 2022 by Subodh Varma

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On November 26, 2020, India witnessed the biggest organized strike in human history. Over 250 million workers and farmers, along with their allies among students, feminists and civil society groups participated in the nationwide strike. Photo: Archive

India’s industrial workers, employees, farmers and agricultural laborers will observe a two-day general strike on March 28-29, 2022 under the slogan ‘Save People, Nation’. This means that not only will the country’s vast manufacturing sector workforce stop work, but all banks, other financial institutions, government and public sector offices, transport, construction, ports and docks, government scheme workers, educational institutions, etc will remain closed. Rural areas are likely to see mass protests by farmers and agricultural workers. By all estimates, it is going to be a historic protest action involving up to 250 million working people. This protest will be supported by students and youth, including big sections of unemployed youth, artists, intellectuals, scientists and other middle-class sections.

This year will see the observance of the 75th anniversary of India’s independence from colonial rule. Prime Minister Narendra Modi and his BJP-led government has characterized it as the beginning of an ‘Amrit Kaal’, that is, an era of immortality and prosperity. But, for the laboring people of the country, it is a time of deep economic distress with high joblessness, sinking incomes, sky-high prices of essential commodities, and an insecure future – all ushered in by the policies of the government itself. The people’s struggles have been successful in restraining the government from even more unjust policies – as witnessed in the farmers’ movement forcing the government to scrap the three agriculture-related laws. This, however, was just one step in the larger struggle for saving the people from extreme immiseration and exploitation.

Demands
There is a 12-point demand charter for which workers and peasants have been fighting for several years. The last two years have seen a further deterioration of the living standards of working people due to the pandemic and the ill-conceived measures taken by the Modi government to tackle it. So, the demand charter has included new issues, like the provision of immediate financial support to struggling families.

Here are the main demands:

1. Scrap the four Labor Codes and the Essential Defense Services Act (EDSA)

The Codes which replaced 29 existing labor laws have not yet been fully implemented due to resistance from worker’s unions. These Codes allow contract work, dilute wage fixation, increase working hours, allow hire and fire, and weaken monitoring agencies. The EDSA prohibits defense production units workers from protesting against corporatization and ultimate privatization.

2. Accept the 6-point charter of demands of Samyukta Kisan Morcha

After Modi announced that the three farm laws would be repealed, the farmers’ organizations announced that they would continue to fight for other pending demands, which include: MSP at comprehensive cost + 50%; withdrawal of Electricity Amendments Bill; stop punishing farmers for stubble burning; withdrawal of all false cases against agitating farmers; sacking and arrest of Ajay Mishra Teni, minister in Modi government and alleged mastermind of Lakhimpur farmers’ murder; and, compensation and rehabilitation for families of 700+ farmers who lost their lives during the agitation.

3. Abandon all privatization and scrap the National Monetization Pipeline (NMP)

Privatization of various public sector undertakings, accompanied by the long term ‘leasing out’ of various physical assets like railways, power transmission systems, telecom infrastructure, etc. and even of land owned by public sector enterprises means these invaluable assets of the people will go to private entities cheaply. The government will lose revenues while corporates will squeeze profits out of these enterprises. Jobs will be lost, and reservations will end.

4. Provide income support of Rs.7,500 per month to all non-income tax-paying families

In the past two years, incomes have declined in as many as 66% of households, 45% of households were indebted, and a shocking 79% of households had some form of insecurity, according to Hunger Watch second-round survey. Under such conditions, merely giving some free food grains is highly inadequate. Hence this long-standing demand for financial support.

5. Increase allocation for MGNREGA and extend employment guarantee program to urban areas.

This year, the Budget allocation for the rural jobs guarantee scheme (MGNREGA) has again been reduced by about Rs.380 billion (4.9 billion USD) compared to last year’s revised estimate of Rs.11.1 trillion (145 billion USD). This crucial scheme provides a lifeline of some income to 110 million people. Yet the government keeps trying to curtail it. Given the high unemployment rate in urban areas, it is essential to have a similar scheme for towns and cities too.

6. Provide universal social security for all informal sector workers

Just about 10% of India’s 400 million strong workforce is covered by some form of social security. In the context of ramshackle healthcare services, employment insecurity and an aging population, social security coverage in the form of pensions, medical coverage and unemployment allowances, etc, are much needed.

7. Provide statutory minimum wages and social security cover for Anganwadi, ASHA, mid-day meal and other scheme workers.

There are over 6 million ‘scheme workers’ primarily women, who are doing crucial jobs like providing frontline healthcare services, child care services, etc. in different government schemes. They are all categorized as ‘voluntary workers’ and given a pittance though they have been working at the forefront during the pandemic too. They need to be regularized and treated as workers with all statutory rights.

8. Provide full protection, and insurance cover, for frontline workers serving the people in the midst of the pandemic

There are hundreds of thousand of healthcare personnel, paramedical and auxiliary staff, sanitation workers and other personnel who have been working in dangerous exposed conditions during the pandemic and continue to do so. They have been promised insurance and medical coverage, but this has not happened.

9. Increase public investment in agriculture, education, health and other crucial public services by raising resources from higher taxation of the rich in order to revive and revamp the economy.

Rather than raising resources from the rich, the Modi government has given massive concessions in the form of tax cuts, rebates, loan write-offs etc to the super-rich corporate sections of India. According to the latest figures from the World Inequality Report, the poorest 50% of Indian people earn Rs 53,610 per year while the top 10% earns Rs 11,66,520 – that is, over 20 times more. In India, the top 10% corners 57% of total national income, while the income of the poorest 50% has gone down to 13%. There is a crying need for taxing the rich so that the bulk of India’s people can survive.

10. Substantially reduce Central excise duty on petroleum products and take concrete steps to arrest price rise.

Since coming to power at the Center in 2014, the Modi government has levied a mind-boggling sum of Rs.1,872,000 crore as Excise Duty from petroleum products. This means that this amount has ultimately been extracted from the people because petrol and diesel costs are passed on to people through higher transport costs of freight. Besides this cooking gas prices have increased beyond all imagination, with a domestic cylinder costing over Rs.1000 currently. Refusal to rein in black-marketeers and hoarders, dependence on imports of essentials like cooking oil and other bankrupt policies have robbed common people’s pockets. This needs to be stopped by a slew of measures which must include universalization of public distribution system, restoration of subsidies, cutting of excise duties etc.

11. Regularize all contract workers and scheme workers, and ensure equal pay for equal work for all.

Even in public sector units, the share of contract and casual workers has steadily increased to 50% or more. This means that the government is not filling up regular posts and instead of appointing contract workers at half or even less wages. This is a dirty way of exploiting workers and escaping current laws on minimum wages and other benefits like bonuses, etc. This needs to be reversed, and job security with better wages ensured.

12. Cancel the New Pension Scheme (NPS) and restore the old scheme; increase minimum pension under the Employees’ Pension Scheme.

The NPS has destroyed whatever security was available to those who were eligible for pension after retirement. It is part of the government’s attempt to wash its hands off the security of retirees and also to use the pension funds to fuel share market-based speculation.

Modi must listen to people’s voices
PM Modi and his party are perhaps under the illusion that they can continue to rule by use of religion in elections, dividing the people and diverting their attention from pressing economic problems. While they may succeed in some places but these are ephemeral victories because more and more people are getting crushed under the economic crisis of joblessness, high prices, low incomes and insecurity of jobs. It is only because alternatives are not yet visible and viable that the BJP is still ruling and ruining the country.

The strike on March 28-29 is a challenge thrown by all working people and their families to the Modi Sarkar – either roll back your hostile policies and stop pandering to the rich, or you will be thrown out by the people. This is a fight to save the people’s future and to save the country from enslavement.

https://peoplesdispatch.org/2022/03/27/ ... rch-28-29/
"There is great chaos under heaven; the situation is excellent."

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