What price Modi victory and who will pay? It is well known that nowadays money has come to play a more and more influential role in bourgeois parliamentary election politics. But just how big is the amount involved? Recently, The Statesman carried the headline: One Modi rally cost Rs 1.04 crore” (Oct. 11, 2014). It published the news after obtaining possession of the first documented account detailing the cost of one single election rally addressed by Mr Narendra Modi in Imphal on 8 February. This staggering cost of Rs 1.04 crore was not even for the largest or the most impressive of Narendra Modi’s rallies. And before the Lok Sabha elections he held as many as 437 large rallies (a number reportedly provided by BJP president Amit Sah). In all, Mr Modi was said to have participated in 5,827 public events. The above report raised the obvious question: if the rally in Imphal cost a little more than Rs 1 crore, how much did the BJP spend on Mr Modi’s 5,827 public events? How much more was spent on rallies addressed by other leaders? Again in the just concluded different Assembly elections, we find the same feature of Mr Modi, now Prime Minister, holding one rally after another. This time, a news report in The Times of India (Oct. 10, 2014) drawing attention to another feature, highlighted that in Maharashtra Assembly elections in Mumbai, for example, different parties were also organizing large-scale employment of even domestic helps and drivers for election work. And they paid them a minimum of Rs 300 upto Rs 1,000, depending on the area, (plus two meals) for election work which included attending rallies, morchas, public meetings, or distributing voter cards, etc., the pay being on an hourly, daily or work basis. That voters’ inducement in one form or another has become an integral part of bourgeois parliamentary election politics is an open secret, but the BJP union minister Nitin Gadkari had let the cat out of the bag in his pre-Assembly poll advice to the people of Maharashtra that they should accept ‘bribes’ from all electoral candidates but vote for the BJP. A newspaper jokingly remarked on how this advice had led to a price war among political candidates in Maharashtra over the buy-a-vote rate: no sooner was the rate rumoured to be Rs 900 in Gangakhed constituency than it shot up to Rs 1,500 in Bhosari and to Rs 2,000 in Aurangabad. While above-mentioned news reports may afford at best an inkling of the staggering amounts used in the elections, the question remains: how were they all funded? That business houses donate funds to different bourgeois parties for election purpose is a well-known and long established practice. But to what extent they do so and to what length they go with their competing business interests to bring to power those parties or party they perceive as best suited to serve their class interest remains largely veiled from the public glare. All the more so when it involves black money changing hands. What is absolutely clear is that during the last general elections the corporate business houses opened their purse strings to an unprecedented extent, to ensure the projection of Narendra Modi as prime ministerial candidate on such a grandiose scale, to ensure this kind of huge rallies, teeming with all that visible ‘support’ of the people. How huge were the funds, how well-orchestrated this campaign or gamble, meant to obscure or take care of the question of Mr Modi’s antecedents and acceptability not only in his own party but among people at large. So clearly, it was a truly corporate driven campaign that got Narendra Modi seated in power. But have the corporate houses spent such huge funds simply for the love of Mr Modi? They have done so because they perceived that their interests would be best served through him as Prime Minister. And they want their money, or should we say, investment, back with due profits. And Mr Modi in turn has promised more pro-business reforms which include also further privatization. Now, the Modi government claims it is pro-poor and at the same time pro-business, and sees no problem in that. But how is that possible? No sooner has the Modi government been installed in power than it hiked the railway fare — increasing general passenger fares by 14.2%, freight charges by 6.3%, while doubling monthly tickets rate, and serially hiking ticket rate under Tatkal on the plea of deficit of fund. Yet dearth of fund does not come in the way of allocating a staggering Rs 9 lakh crores for the proposed bullet train between Gujarat and Maharashtra, which only business people or the rich can afford. FDI in railways has also been invited. Can these measures by any stretch of the imagination be called pro-poor? Even the better passenger amenities promised are nowhere in sight. And that was just the beginning. Without delay he has started to further deliver on his promise of pro-business reforms, and is getting through one measure after another. Thus, the Modi government has already decontrolled drug prices. Where one anti-rabies injection had earlier cost Rs 2500 it now costs Rs 7500, while a particular cancer medication that had been available at Rs 8500 has now soared to a staggering Rs 1 lakh. It is another matter that even earlier some of the restrictions were circumvented but now such decontrol of drug prices leaves people simply at the mercy of profit hungry corporates. How pro poor is such a measure that is going to wreak such incredible havoc for the health of the people and their economic life? Then, we find that diesel price has been deregulated to benefit private and public sector oil companies leaving the door open for unrestricted rise in future. Again, that is followed by the announced price hike of natural gas by a whopping 33 %, which is really but the first installment, all of which, needless to say, will further drive up prices of essential commodities, including transport and electricity. Moreover, the Modi government has already announced drastic curtailment of NREGA, the 100 day guaranteed rural employment scheme to be confined only to the poorest 200 districts. This provides just a glimpse of some of the measures so far taken. Whatever pro-reform measures have been implemented so far or announced, including among others, disinvestment of PSUs, FDI in insurance and defence etc. labour reforms, the latter aiming at dismantling the last vestiges of workers democratic rights, such as right to collective bargaining among other, have been widely hailed by the corporate section. Is it any wonder that the corporate sector loves Mr Modi so much? With what efficiency he goes about smoothing the way and spreading the red carpet for them to freely reap super maximum profits and perpetrate their exploitation unhindered, without government interference, not even reasonable restrictions. The question arises: when already economic reforms (with concomitant privatization) has given rise to a situation where alone the privileged few, a minuscule section of people mainly in managerial jobs, receive some crumbs from the ever growing profits and unimaginable wealth of corporate business, but where the fate of the toiling masses is one of increasing misery, which has led to large-scale farmers’ suicides and increasing social conflicts – in such a situation, how happy will be the days for the poor that the fresh pro-business reforms portend? Truly ‘achhe din’, happy days are coming for the corporate business houses under the Modi government! So, they funded Modi’s anointment to power. But dark days are coming for the toiling people! They pay the price. And what a price they will have to pay! Until the truth dawns on them and they can see the way out. Proletatarian Era VOL.48 NO.6 NOVEMBER 1,2014
Posted on: Sun, 09 Nov 2014 15:28:42 +0000
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