Importance of Learning English as Second Language

Early days 

According to the census of 1971 the literacy rate of West Bengal was 38.86 percent (Office of the Registrar General, India). Children living in the rural areas and belonging to the marginalized section of the society did not go to schools. Education was primarily restricted to the urban and semi urban areas and was the privilege of the moneyed section. The have-nots had no access to education. The education policy being followed before 1977 had no commitment towards mass education. When the Left Front government came to power in 1977 one of the biggest challenges it faced was to restore some semblance of normalcy in the world of education and to improve upon the rate of literacy.

Importance of teaching in mother tongue

To achieve this Herculean task the government decided, after thorough research and extensive study, to do away with teaching of English in the primary levels. It was decided that students would be taught English from class VI onwards. This particular decision of the government has met with criticism and ridicule down the years. In this article we would like to highlight the reasons why the government took this particular decision.

In an education system riddled with inequities, language can be an obstacle that comes in the way of learning. Educationists, the world over, agree that it is best to teach in the child’s mother tongue. Besides the three states of Mizoram, Manipur and Jammu and Kashmir which use English, all the other states of our country use the regional language as the medium of instruction.

Countries like Japan, China, France and Germany have been able to progress without the help of English. But, it is the legacy of colonialism, which has stood in the way of Bengalis respecting themselves.

Udaya Narayana Singh, director of Central Institute of Indian Languages, Mysore, says that internationally, experiments by experts have pointed to the fact that one learns best through one's mother tongue. Singh cautions, that when English is the medium of instruction, many children could get "thrown out of the system" if they have not been exposed to the language in domains such as homes or playgrounds. He points to a study conducted in Nepal by Nepalese Scholar K P Malla on the high dropout rates in higher secondary schools. According to the study, English as a medium of instruction was in itself such a frightening prospect for many of the students that they chose to drop out of schools. Closer home in Hyderabad, pass percentages in areas dominated by the Muslim community (such as Old City) point to the fact that many of the children — who are more conversant in Urdu — drop out because the medium of instruction is Telugu.

The National Policy on Education, 1968, clearly states: the energetic development of Indian Languages and literature is a sine qua non for educational and cultural development. Unless this is done, the creative energies of the people will not be released, standards of education will not improve, knowledge will not spread to the people and the gulf between the intelligentsia and masses will remain if not widen further. Urgent steps should now be taken to adapt them as media of education at the university stage. Seconding this educationist A. K Jalaluddin notes that if children learn in English, they are often not exposed to the literature in their mother tongue. "A major part of the linguistic experience comes from literature," he emphasizes.

In 1864 the US Congress prohibited native American children from receiving instructions in their own language. Seventy years later, the verdict of Congress was defeated and receiving instructions in one’s own mother tongue was accepted as a basic human right. In fact, the United Nations General Assembly Convention of 1989 clearly stated that a child’s education should be directed towards developing his / her cultural identity. Article 30 also furthered the cause by stating that children had the right to use their ethnic language. The imposition of foreign languages for written communication within the systems of education and administration creates unnecessary barriers to the participation of a large part, often a majority, of the population (Bamgbose, 2000, Ouane 2003). United Nations Educational Scientific and Cultural Organisation (UNESCO) have encouraged mother tongue instruction since 1953.

There is a large body of research to show that the development of personal and social literacy is greatly impeded by the fact that literacy is promoted in an official language that is seldom spoken and even less frequently written, thereby excluding a large proportion of the population from participation in literacy based social activities (Fagerberg – Diallo 2001, Lopez 2001, Prah 2001). Literacy training in a language in which learners have no competence condemns a majority of children to failure ( Heugh 2005, Alidou and Brock-Utne 2005, Brock_Utne and Alidou 2005 ). Being taught in a language other than one’s mother tongue results in resistance by learners. Signs of resistance can be high illiteracy rates due to low attendance rates, high drop out rates, high repetition rates and low performance in exams. Success in learning enhances self-esteem and motivation to attend school. Stress and anxiety are detrimental to learning.

According to Noam Chomsky (1951) all children do have equal degree of competence in their mother tongue and they are perfect in using it. A child acquires his or her first language without any formal instruction, even without knowing himself/herself that he or she is learning a language. Even the parents and the members in his/her surroundings do not care that the child is learning a language. He learns the language comfortably and swiftly and becomes a full-fledged member of his or her speaking community.

We can safely say that in our country English is the language of the elite. So, forcing all the minorities to learn in such medium is no more than curtailing their fundamental rights. If a nation believes in social inclusion mother tongue instruction can be the best means for incorporating minority groups because ‘a language can become or be made a focus of loyalty for a minority community that thinks itself suppressed, persecuted, or subjected to administration’ (Britannica, 2005).

According to UNESCO report (2007) mother tongue instruction is also important for promoting gender equality and social inclusion. The researches show that girls stay in school longer and more girls enroll in school when they can learn in a language that is familiar to them. Similarly, researches in Africa and Latin America have found that girls, who learn in familiar languages stay in school longer, are more likely to be identified as good students, and do better in achievement tests than girls who do not get home language instruction. Girls prefer to be taught in their mother tongue in their early years because they have less contact with the people who speak other language. This is especially applicable for girls of minorities and indigenous communities. So using their language as the medium of instruction might increase their enrollment rate.

Ying Lao and Stephen Krashen (1999) who carried out a research in China reported that, ‘in spite of the initial opposition from parents, students, teachers and administrators mother-tongue teaching has provided a positive, non-threatening learning environment for students. Students in Chinese-medium programs appear to be more active, appear to learn more subject matter, enjoy school more, and are improving in English’.

“If children of aadibasi/janajati had the opportunity to learn, read and write in their own language, it would help reduce the dropout of aadibasi/janajati children from the schools” (Limbu 2003). One of the biggest obstacles to Education for All remains in place: the use of foreign language for teaching and learning (UNESCO 2007).

As stated above forcing children to learn a new language before they can learn anything else creates an educational handicap that should be avoided. Use of the home language in school increases parents’ participation and influence. The parents are happy when their children use their mother tongue in learning new knowledge because their identity largely lies in the language used by their ancestors. Moreover, the parents are likely to help their children if they acquire education in their mother tongue.

The most significant merit of mother tongue instruction is that once a child can read and write one language, the skills are transferred to other languages (UNESCO 2007).

Myths busted

The fear of English is one major reason for the large number of dropouts from primary classes, particularly in the villages. Several national education commissions headed by Zakir Hussain, Radhakrishnan and D M Kothari, have recommended the study of English only after primary level.

Studies have shown that adolescents are in many ways better at learning a new language than children, except in the area of pronunciation. This is probably because they are already literate in their first language and can use some of their knowledge about language and language learning.

One researcher (T. Scovel, 1999 The Younger The Better Myth and Bilingual Education) talks of the dangers of double semi-lingualism for early learners of a second language; i.e. the child does not develop full proficiency in either of the two languages. Current research says that the best age to start learning a second language is early adolescence, so about 11-13.

Experimental research in which children have been compared to adults in second language learning has consistently demonstrated the inferiority of young children. Even when the method of teaching appears to favor learning in children, they perform more poorly than do adolescents and adults (e.g., Asher & Price, 1967).

A study of 17,000 British children learning French in a school context indicated that, after five years of exposure, children who had begun French instruction at age eleven were more successful language learners than children who had begun at eight years of age (Stern, Burstall, & Harley, 1975). The investigators in this study, the largest single study of children learning a second language in a formal classroom setting, concluded that older children are better second language learners than are younger ones.

Similar results have been found by other studies by European investigators--studies of Swedish children learning English (Gorosch & Axelsson, 1964), of Swiss children learning French (Buehler, 1972), and of Danish children learning English (Florander & Jansen, 1968).

French immersion programs in Canada, where English-speaking children in late immersion programs (in which the second language is introduced in grades seven or eight) have been found to perform just as well (or better) on tests of French language proficiency as children who began their immersion experience at kindergarten or grade one (Genesee, 1981, 1987).

National Policy on second language instruction after independence

• Committee on Secondary Education in India, 1948 (the so-called Tara Chand Committee), recommends that, “The teaching of the Federal language should be started at the end of the Junior Basic stage”.
• The first syllabus for the Primary schools published by the Directorate of Education, West Bengal in 1950, contains no agendum of teaching a second language till class V.
• The first school Education Committee ( President Rai Harendranath Chaudhuri ) of 1948 decided that “ English should not be taught in the primary classes [ I- V] ”.
• The Himangshu Bimal Mazumdar Commission, set up during the Congress government in 1974, had suggested abolition of English from the primary level. The committee submitted its report in 1979 and its recommendations were implemented by the Left Front government from 1982.

These arguments should be enough to silence the detractors who have been screaming themselves hoarse that the abolition of English from the primary level has harmed two generations of students in West Bengal. On the contrary, the introduction of mother tongue as the medium of instruction has been an enabling factor to increase the rate of literacy from 38.86 percent in 1971 to 68.64 percent in 2001. Education has reached the masses and is no longer the sole prerogative of the privileged section of the society. This has led to the empowerment of women and other vulnerable section of the society. Mother tongue instruction has proved to be the vehicle for social integration and a means for reducing social stratification. So-called standard language is the language of elites. Mother tongue instruction is better for creating social equality. It helps in preserving cultural diversity and helps to promote gender equality by empowering women of underprivileged groups. High literacy rate has ensured low infant mortality and drop in child marriages. A substantial percentage of women have become economically self sufficient ensuring an improvement in the quality of life both in the urban and rural areas. And all this has been possible because education was imparted in a language that made it interesting to all sections of the society.

Reasons for re-introducing English at the primary level

Fishman says, “Languages are rarely acquired for their own sake. They are acquired as keys to other things that are desired. ” A similar statement has also been made by Traunmuller who says; “…… a second language will be learned if and only if the presumptive learner estimates the advantages of knowing that language to be higher than the costs.”

The One-Man Committee on English in Primary Education (1998), headed by Prof. Pabitra Sarkar, observes that land reforms, distribution of vested lands to the landless cultivators, fixation and revision of the minimum daily wages for the labourers, decentralisation of administration through the panchayats, expansion and improvement of surface communications and transport, opportunities of education made more plentiful have all contributed to the burgeoning of the middle-class. These neo-middle class as also the aspirants expected their children to rise up the social ladder, and English is perceived as a tool for this ascent. This led to a demand for teaching English from the lower classes.

The other reasons which led to the re-introduction of English from the primary level are the introduction of Information Technology and rapid computerization which led to the demand in the number of English knowing employees. Moreover, Computer, as a subject was introduced from lower classes which made introducing English from the primary level very important.

Bangla and Bangaliana

Bengali is steadily losing ground to English. A generation of Bengalis from Kolkata, sent to English-medium schools, has grown up without much knowledge of Bengali. It will be interesting to survey how many young Bengalis going to English-medium schools know the Bengali alphabet well! Many read Satyajit Ray’s Feluda series in English translation. The vast repository of Bengali literature is out of bounds for many of this generation. Even in social dos, Bengali and Bengaliana seem to lose out to English. What is captivating is the fact that no one has till date ever made a demand to make Bengali compulsory in the English-medium schools from class I. No political party has ever called a bandh on this issue. Is it because parents are indulgent if their child is not very fluent in Bengali? Being fluent in English is more fashionable than being fluent in Bengali. So no hue and cry is made to force the government to compel these English-medium schools to teach Bengali.

Along with increasing influence of globalisation the number of language in the world is decreasing dramatically. Graddol (2007) states, that the number of languages in the 15th century was more than 14,000. This number has now fallen to only 6000. What is worrying is that “90 percent of these are in some danger of falling into disuse” (Educational Encyclopedia 2000). Now the question is would we allow Bengali to be a part of that 90 percent? Should we preserve linguistic diversity or let the homogenization of language in the name of globalisation? It is time to ponder.

Rural Development in West Bengal – Panchayati Raj

The most outstanding contribution of the Left Front government has been the introduction of the Panchayati Raj Institutions (PRI) in West Bengal. Panchayati Raj Institutions – the grass-roots units of self-government – have been proclaimed as the vehicles of socio-economic transformation in rural India. The pro-poor orientation and ideological commitment of the ruling Left Front government are said to have precipitated rural development more successfully in West Bengal than elsewhere in India. Panchayats have changed the face of the state of West Bengal. There has been all round development of the rural population. The villages have got an institution of their own which transformed their standard of living to a higher level under the present Left Front regime. The three tier Panchayat Raj Institutions are directed to alleviation of poverty and rural development.

West Bengal is one of the forerunners in installing a 3-tier Panchayati Raj Institutions for rural local governance in India. The present generation Panchayats in the state started its journey in 1978 under the aegis of a new act, The West Bengal Panchayat Act, 1973, 15 years ahead of the 73rd and 74th Amendment of the Constitution of India, passed in 1993. Ever since their inception, the state has demonstrated strong commitment to rural decentralization by ensuring regular elections to Panchayats and entrusting them with increasing responsibility of implementing various rural development programmes. The state also ensured adequate representation of the socially backward classes – Scheduled Castes, Scheduled Tribes and women for their involvement in the process of socio-economic development.

Direct elections to all the three tiers were made mandatory through universal adult franchise. It was mandated that elections would be held at regular intervals without any discretionary power of any authority to postpone such elections indefinitely.

The Panchayat election in 1978 was a trendsetter, as it broke new grounds in two areas. First, for the first time in the country the political parties were allowed to contest elections to Panchayats openly with their party symbols. Secondly, direct elections were held to all the three tiers. In another way also the Panchayats set up in 1978 were different from those of the rest of the country. Those who came to the leadership of these bodies through elections did not belong to the traditional upper stratum of the rural society. The new leadership came largely from the class of middle peasantry and professional groups like school teachers.

Initially the PRIs played significant roles in education and mass education extension, health support, both curative and preventive including environmental sanitation, supply of drinking water, agriculture, irrigation, animal resources development, village plantation, cottage industry and social welfare. With passage of time the role of Panchayat has been further expanded and its functional area has been increasingly extended to include additional activities. All poverty alleviation programmes sponsored by the Ministry of Rural Development, Government of India, have been assigned to the Panchayat Institutions. In any programme or scheme for extending any benefit to the weaker section including Scheduled Castes and Scheduled Tribes, the Panchayats, even when it is not implementing the scheme, has been assigned the role of selection of sites and of beneficiaries relating to such schemes. The Panchayats play a very significant role in supporting the State initiative in improving nutrition of children and mothers and are taking initiative of their own for raising nutrition level of the poorer people. 

In the State level, Panchayats & Rural Development Department of the Government of West Bengal is the Nodal Agency for Implementation; Supervision & Monitoring of the major poverty alleviation programmes in the rural areas of the State and at the District-level, Zilla Parishad is the implementing agency for the same. 

Under three-tier system of democratic decentralization, Zilla Parishad is the apex body at the district level followed by Panchayat Samitis at Block level as second-tier and Gram Panchayats, the third-tier.

District Wise Block and Gram Panchayats

Sl. No.	District No. of Blocks / Panchayat	Samitis No. of Gram	Panchayats
1	Bankura	22	190
2	Birbhum	19	167
3	Burdwan	31	277
4	Coochbehar	12	128
5	Dakshin Dinajpur	8	65
6	Darjeeling	8	112
7	Hoogly	18	210
8	Howrah	14	157
9	Jalpaiguri	13	146
10	Malda	15	146
11	Murshidabad	26	254
12	Nadia	17	187
13	24 Parganas (N)	22	200
14	Paschim Midnapore	29	290
15	Purba Midnapore	25	223
16	Purulia	20	170
17	Siliguri	4	22
18	24 Parganas (S)	29	312
19	Uttar Pradesh	9	98
Total		341	3354

A malicious campaign is being carried out by vested interests saying that the incumbent Left Front government has not done anything substantial for the rural poor. These fascist forces are trying to mislead the people into believing that the Left Front government does not believe in democracy and has been trying to strangle democracy in the state. Nothing can be further from the truth. One of the first things that the Left Front did, after assuming power in 1978, was to institute Panchayati Raj Institutions. We need to remember that the opposition has amongst its fold a very prominent leader who, during his tenure as the Minister in Charge of Municipal Affairs between 1972 and 1977, had summarily dismissed the then Communist Party led Kolkata Municipal Corporation. So the people of West Bengal must very prudently elect their next government. They need to decide whether they would want to enjoy their democratic rights as they have been doing for the last 34 years or they want to plunge the state to the dark days of early and mid 1970s. Would we want some draconian law or the whim of an individual do away with all the good work that has been done since 1978 through the Panchayati Raj Institutions ? We need to pause and ponder and then decide in favour of democracy and decentralisation of power. We need to allow the government to carry on with the excellent work that was begun 33 years ago. We do not want an autocratic regime which will run the State from within the four walls of the Writers’ Building.

মার্কিন খেলা ফাঁস দূতাবাসের বার্তায়, বেছে বেছে মার্কিনপন্থীদের মন্ত্রী করেছেন মনমোহন

ভারতের মন্ত্রিসভায় রদবদল হচ্ছে, খুশি হচ্ছে মার্কিন প্রশাসন। কোন কোন মন্ত্রী ‘মার্কিনপন্থী’, কে কে মন্ত্রী হওয়ায় আমেরিকার লাভ হবে, স্পষ্ট জানানো হচ্ছে নয়াদিল্লির মার্কিন দূতাবাস থেকে।

এমন যে হচ্ছে, তার ইঙ্গিত ছিলোই। এখন ‘উইকিলিকস’ দিল্লির মার্কিন দূতাবাস থেকে ওয়াশিংটনকে পাঠানো বার্তা ফাঁস করে তার প্রমাণ দিনের আলোয় এনে দিয়েছে। এই বার্তা বা কেবলস এখন ভারতের সংবাদমাধ্যমের হাতে এসে পৌঁছেছে। মঙ্গলবার তার কিছু অংশ প্রকাশিত হয়েছে। সেখানেই দেখা যাচ্ছে, ২০০৬-র জানুয়ারি মাসে ইউ পি এ মন্ত্রিসভায় যে রদবদল হয়েছিল, তা মার্কিন যুক্তরাষ্ট্রের স্বার্থ রক্ষা করেছে। পেট্রোলিয়াম দপ্তরের মন্ত্রী মণিশঙ্কর আয়ারকে সরিয়ে দেওয়া হয় ইরানের সঙ্গে পাইপলাইন চুক্তি নিয়ে এগোনোর ফলে। তার বদলে ওই দপ্তরে আনা হয় মুরলী দেওরাকে, যাঁকে মার্কিন রাষ্ট্রদূত বলছেন ‘মার্কিনপন্থী’। ভারত-আমেরিকা সংসদীয় ফোরামের সাতজনকে মন্ত্রী করা হয়, এমন সাতজন যাঁরা ‘প্রকাশ্যেই মার্কিন রণনীতির পক্ষে সওয়াল করে থাকেন’। ওই রদবদল সম্পর্কে মার্কিন রাষ্ট্রদূত ডেভিড মালফোর্ড তাঁর ঊর্ধ্বতনদের জানাচ্ছেন, ‘ভারত-মার্কিন সম্পর্ককে দ্রুত এগিয়ে নিয়ে যাওয়া নিশ্চিত করার প্রত্যয় নিয়েই’ এই পরিবর্তন করা হয়েছে।

ইউ পি এ সরকার তৈরি হয় ২০০৪-এ। বামপন্থীদের চাপের মুখে থাকা ওই সরকার এমন কিছু পদক্ষেপ নিতে বাধ্য হয় যা নয়া উদারনীতির রথকে শ্লথ করে দেয়। একই সঙ্গে মার্কিন যুক্তরাষ্ট্রের সঙ্গে ঘনিষ্ঠ রাজনৈতিক-সামরিক সম্পর্ক তৈরির যে প্রক্রিয়া এন ডি এ সরকার শুরু করেছিল, তা-ও শ্লথ হবার আশঙ্কা দেখা দিয়েছিল। ২০০৬-র ২৮শে জানুয়ারি কেন্দ্রীয় মন্ত্রিসভার রদবদল বামপন্থীরা-সহ অনেকের মনেই প্রশ্ন তুলেছিল। সচেতনভাবেই মার্কিন-মুখী, তথাকথিত সংস্কারমুখী অভিমুখ জোরদার করার লক্ষ্য নিয়েই ওই রদবদল করা হয়েছে বলে অভিযোগও উঠেছিল। বিশেষ করে ইরানের বিরুদ্ধে ভারতকে দাঁড় করানোর চেষ্টা চলছে, সেই কারণেই চাপের মুখে ইরানের সঙ্গে পাইপলাইনের কোনো চুক্তি যেন না হয় তার চেষ্টা চলছে এই অভিযোগও উঠেছিল। সেই পাইপলাইনের জোরালো সমর্থক মণিশঙ্কর আইয়ারকে পেট্রোলিয়াম মন্ত্রক থেকে সরিয়ে দেওয়া হয়। এখন দেখা যাচ্ছে, অভিযোগ সঠিক। মার্কিন প্রভাব কতটা ক্রিয়াশীল ছিলো, তার প্রমাণ দিল্লির রাষ্ট্রদূতের পাঠানো কেবলসের ছত্রে ছত্রে।

কী বার্তা পাঠিয়েছিলেন ডেভিড মালফোর্ড? ২০০৬-র ৩০শে জানুয়ারি পাঠানো কেবলসের (৫১০৮৮: গোপন) কিছু উদ্ধৃতি:

-ইউ পি এ’র ২৮শে জানুয়ারি মন্ত্রিসভার রদবদল ভারত-মার্কিন সম্পর্ককে দ্রুত এগিয়ে নিয়ে যাওয়া নিশ্চিত করার প্রত্যয় নিয়েই।

-বিতর্কিত ও ইরানের পাইপলাইনের সওয়ালকারী মণিশঙ্কর আইয়ারের বদলে মার্কিনপন্থী মুরলী দেওরাকে নিয়ে আসা হয়েছে। আইয়ার মার্কিন-বিরোধিতা করতেন। তাঁর সঙ্গে দীর্ঘদিন ধরে দূতাবাসের সম্পর্ক আছে। দেওরা ভারত-মার্কিন সম্পর্ক জোরদার করার অগ্রণী সমর্থক। দেওরা গান্ধী পরিবারের অনুগামী, মুম্বাইয়ের ধনী শিল্পপতি এবং রিলায়েন্সের সঙ্গে তাঁর দীর্ঘদিনের সম্পর্ক। রিলায়েন্সের তেলের ব্যবসায় তাঁর উল্লেখযোগ্য শেয়ার আছে।

-গ্যাস অথরিটিতে আমাদের সূত্র জানাচ্ছে আইয়ার ইরান-পাকিস্তান-ভারত পাইপলাইনের হয়ে কথা বলে প্রধানমন্ত্রীর দপ্তরকেও বিপদে ফেলে দিয়েছিলেন।

-আমাদের স্ট্র্যাটেজিক সম্পর্কের হয়ে দীর্ঘদিন ধরে কথা বলছেন এবং ভারত-আমেরিকা সংসদীয় ফোরামের সাত জনকে মন্ত্রী করা হয়েছে।

-আমাদের প্রাথমিক মূল্যায়ন হলো শক্তি সংক্রান্ত মন্ত্রকে নতুন তিন মন্ত্রী নিয়োগ মার্কিন সরকারের স্বার্থের পক্ষে ভালো। মার্কিন-মুখী পরিবর্তন হলো।

- এই রদবদল মার্কিন সরকারের পক্ষে অনেক সুসংবাদ বহন করে এনেছে। সাইফুদ্দিন সোজ, আনন্দ শর্মা, অশ্বিনী কুমার, কপিল সিবাল, মুরলী দেওরার জোরদার মার্কিনপন্থী রেকর্ড রয়েছে। মার্কিন রাষ্ট্রপতির ভারত সফরের আগে এই বার্তা দেওয়া হলো।

-মন্ত্রিসভার রদবদলের মার্কিনপন্থী ঝোঁক অস্বীকার করা যাবে না। বামপন্থীরা এতে ক্রুদ্ধ হয়েছেন। তাঁরা মনে করছেন এটি খোলাখুলি যুদ্ধের আমন্ত্রণ। বামপন্থীরা মনে করছেন কংগ্রেস মার্কিন যুক্তরাষ্ট্রের কাছে মাথা নিচু করছেন। এর ফলে তাঁরা আরো ক্ষুব্ধ হয়ে আরো অসহযোগিতা করবে। বামপন্থীদের সঙ্গে কংগ্রেসের দ্বন্দ্ব বাড়ছে এবং আরো সংঘাতের সম্ভাবনা বাড়ছে।

মার্কিন রাষ্ট্রদূতের এই ধারণাটি পরে সত্যি প্রমাণিত হয়েছে। পরমাণু চুক্তিকে কেন্দ্র করে বামপন্থীদের বিরোধিতা তুঙ্গে ওঠে। বামপন্থীরা বারংবার অভিযোগ করছিলেন, মার্কিন চাপে এমনকি দেশের বিদেশনীতি নির্ধারিত হচ্ছে। এখন দেখা যাচ্ছে, মালফোর্ড ২০০৬-র শুরুতেই বার্তা পাঠাচ্ছেন মনমোহন সরকারের কাজে ‘আমাদের বিদেশ মন্ত্রক’ (মার্কিন বিদেশ মন্ত্রক) খুশি। বামপন্থীদের অভিযোগ এখন প্রমাণিত।

স্বাভাবিকভাবেই এই দলিল ফাঁস হওয়ায় অস্বস্তিতে মনমোহন সরকার। কংগ্রেসের পক্ষ থেকে এই সংবাদের বিশ্বাসযোগ্যতা নিয়ে প্রশ্ন তোলা ছাড়া কিছুই করার ছিলো না। যদিও বিশ্বজুড়েই উইকিলিকসের ফাঁস করা তথ্য নিয়ে রাজনৈতিক শোরগোল চলছে।

মার্কিন রাষ্ট্রদূত ডেভিড মালফোর্ডের পাঠানো কেবল।

Source: Ganashakti, 15th March 2011

Honesty As Defined By TMC-Congress

The inhabitants of Gunrajpur village in Swarupnagar block in North 24 Parganas cannot stop wondering at the marvelous work being done by their Trinamul Congress – Congress alliance run panchayat. It was with very high hopes that they had elected this alliance. They had dreams of a better life, an improved standard of living. The panchayat has indeed done something which is really out of the ordinary. Even though not an ounce of soil has been dug Rs. 7 lakh has been spent on digging not one, not two but four ponds ! Isn’t this spectacular ! 

This piece of invaluable information was uploaded on the official website of the Department of Panchayats and Rural Development, West Bengal, based on the information provided by the Govindpur panchayat.

Mariful Biswas, Jamaludin Mufat, Riwajul Sardar and Atiwar Rahman who have been shown as the owners of the four ponds are inhabitants of Gunrajpur village. These four villagers have themselves informed that not even an ounce of soil has been dug.

The website goes on to provide more such marvelous information. The panchayat has achieved one outstanding feat after another. They have claimed to have covered every single widow in the village under the widow pension scheme. Every homeless has been provided shelter under the Indira Awas Yojona.

The real fact of the matter is that the claims made by the TMC – Congress run Govindpur panchayat is not being backed by the villagers of Gunrajpur. Even though no digging has happened it has been claimed that four ponds have been dug and the money has been usurped. And the money shown as spent is no small amount – it is Rs. 7 lakh.

Money allotted under the Indira Awas Yojona was also usurped by the members of the panchayat. These members did not stop at this. They stooped even lower. Muslim women whose husbands were still alive were shown as widows and the money allotted under the widow pension scheme was wrongfully appropriated.

When the villagers decided to lodge a complaint with the Block Development Officer (BDO) against this misappropriation of government fund meant for the welfare of the marginalised, they were intimidated by the workers and supporters of TMC and Congress. The hapless villagers have lodged a complaint with the Swarupnagar Police Station against the Congress and TMC leaders.

Is this the change that the people of West Bengal want? Can this alliance, which is promising to bring about “proportion” in the state, be trusted with the administration of the state? An alliance as corrupt as this will wreck havoc if they are brought to power. The state exchequer will be plundered by these people for whom politics is not for the welfare of the people at large, but it is for their own narrow interest. Instead of bringing relief to the life of the down-trodden they will line their own pockets. We the people of West Bengal must, therefore, decide what is good for us. It is time we decided how and by whom we want to be governed. We must decide whether we will allow a bunch of power-hungry and corrupt politicians to rule over us.

Nepotism - The Trinamool Congress Way

The Mahatma Gandhi National Rural Employment Guarantee Act (MNREGA) is an Indian job guarantee scheme, enacted by legislation on August 25, 2005. The scheme provides a legal guarantee for one hundred days of employment in every financial year to adult members of any rural household willing to do public work-related unskilled manual work at the statutory minimum wage of Rs. 100 per day. It is considered by many to be one of the major reasons for the re-election of the UPA in the general election of 2009. The scheme has become so successful that many state governments have projected to the people this scheme as their own. So much so that the scheme, which was originally called National Rural Employment Guarantee Act, had to be renamed to Mahatma Gandhi National Rural Employment Guarantee Act.

The Trinamool Congress Party and its leader, Ms. Mamata Banerjee, have an uncanny aptitude in emulating what other political parties have done, especially if the latter has reaped electoral gains from it. Therefore, it is little wonder that the party, after gaining the reins of the Kolkata Municipal Corporation, would introduce a scheme very similar to the Mahatma Gandhi National Rural Employment Guarantee Act. The motive behind this is definitely not reaching out to the urban poor but to encash on its vote-catching abilities before the crucial Assembly elections.

So the TMC-run Kolkata Municipal Corporation board did not have the patience to wait for the completion of the BPL list. Imitating the central scheme, the civic body introduced the 100-day work scheme for BPL families in December 2010. KMC did not take the trouble of specifying clearly that only those from BPL families can register. Neither did it issue instructions that only unemployed youth could register.

This instance of bad administration and lack of planning has allowed the likes of Rohit Mondol, a TMC supporter, to take wrongful advantage of the scheme. Rohit, a 27 year old from Bansdroni, is a driver by profession with a monthly earning of Rs. 4000. This young man was taken by a TMC leader to the local councilor who got him enrolled under the “right to work” scheme. So, apart from his salary, Rohit earns Rs. 100 per day for the work he does under the scheme. That works out to an income of Rs. 10,000 a year over and above the annual salary of Rs. 48,000 plus a Rs. 4,000 bonus (equal to a month’s pay) he earns as a driver.

Neither is Rohit’s family in poverty nor does it figure in the BPL list. But then the scheme was not formulated to benefit the marginalised, it was introduced to benefit those who support TMC. A very clear case of NEPOTISM. The money, Rs. 25 crore, has been granted by the state government to implement the scheme in all 141 wards.

Mamata Banerjee alleges at every single meeting of hers that the CPI(M) indulges in nepotism. She has, on a number of occasions promised that if she is voted to power she would work for “everyone” without making any distinction between supporters of different political parties. But once again she has proved that whatever she says has to be taken with a pinch of salt. Because she does not believe in practicing what she preaches. She has two set of principles – one that she espouses in her public meetings and one that she privately follows and instructs her sycophants to follow. Incidents like these expose the REAL Mamata Banerjee who is forever advocating the causes of maa mati manush. She is out to use the gullible people of Bengal in pursuing her personal dream.

Ms. Banerjee is keen to portray herself as an able administrator and a person with a vision. The way the KMC has been functioning ever since the change of guard does not speak well about her administrative skills or her vision. (It is well known by all that every single decision taken by KMC has her approval or rather taken by her and then passed on to the Mayor, Sovon Chatterjee.) She speaks about “Administrative Reforms” that she will bring about if made the Chief Minister. Now the question is why doesn’t she bring those reforms in KMC? What has happened to that vision that she talks about when addressing the elites of Bengal? Or, is it plain and simple nepotism, the politics of rewarding those who have shed their sweat for the party?

She is neither an able administrator nor is she above petty party politics. She is only an able rabble rouser. In a very sly way Mamata Banerjee is using the money received from the state government to further her own cause. A lie is being spread in a planned way to fool the people of Bengal.

Aam Admi Taken for a Ride in Union Budget 2011-12

The words “aam admi” has been used by the Congress–led UPA to death. Everything that they do they do it for the aam admi. At least that is what they claim. And why not, it has helped them win elections, not once but twice.

Interestingly, the Finance Minister, Pranab Mukherjee, while delivering the budget speech in Parliament, mentioned aam admi only once. May be it was his way of signaling to the aam admi that this budget would not champion their causes, rather it would look after the interests of the corporate world and its denizens. It was a warning sign that UPA II was abandoning its aam admi agenda.

At a time when food inflation hovered around 15 percent, the annual inflation of primary articles stood at 15.77 percent and the fuel price index was 12.14 percent the Finance Minister presented the Union Budget of 2011-12 which is, at best, unimaginative and totally ignored the problems faced by the people and the economy. The common man is at his wit’s end to make ends meet. In this backdrop the Finance Minister announced an enormous slash of Rs. 20,000 crore in fuel, fertilizer and food subsidy, the three ingredients whose price rise hits the aam admi the hardest. The fact that this government is not serious about addressing the issue of food security is amply proved by the reduction of food subsidy by Rs. 27 crore. These announcements unveil the anti – poor face of the UPA II.

Through his budget speech the Finance Minister has given a message of the Government’s policy of patronizing the corporates, traders and speculators. Under the guise of augmenting food storage capacity cold chains and storage facilities have been provided infrastructure status knowing fully well that these post harvest storage facilities would be illegally used by the hoarders to artificially hike the food grain prices.

Even though the Finance Minister has admitted that more than 40 million tonnes of food grains are stored with the government ( which is much above the buffer stock norm ), the latter has no plans to propose any step to distribute the surplus grains at reduced prices through the Public Distribution System. The nation had watched aghast on national television millions of tonnes of food grains rotting out in the open. Even then the government declined to distribute those rotting grains amongst the overwhelming number of poor who survive on less than Rs. 20 per day (according to the Arjun Sengupta report). The argument put forward then was that free distribution of food grains would bring down prices which would discourage farmers from growing food crops.

The budgetary provisions, for agriculture, have remained much below the requirement and actually marked a decline both as proportion to overall budgetary expenditure and as percentage of GDP. Despite a target of 4 percent growth in agriculture the agricultural growth rate has hung around 2 percent on average. In such a disturbing scenario it is shocking that the budget provision for the Agriculture Department has been cut from last year. This may be because the poor, illiterate farmers living in the remotest parts of India do not follow the Union Budget and are, therefore, oblivious to the malevolent policies of the central government.

The budgetary decision to reduce direct tax to the tune of Rs. 11,500 crore while increasing the burden of indirect tax by Rs. 11,300 crore is another dubious decision of the government. This single decision exposes UPA II’s bias against the aam admi. Though surcharge on corporate taxes has been reduced the custom and excise duties on crude oil and petroleum products have remain unchanged. Crude oil price has shot up alarmingly in the international market. With excise and custom duties remaining unchanged the government allows itself the opportunity to raise the petroleum product price at regular intervals.

It appears that the only agenda of the government is to reduce subsidies, through direct and indirect means, on essentials like food, kerosene, diesel, LPG, fertilizers etc. all items that touch the lives of the aam admi.

The budget has failed miserably to declare any single concrete step for recovering black money as well as huge tax arrears, both within and outside the country. Not much has been said about containing tax evasion and other forms of tax leakages. When the country is reeling under one multi-crore scam after another, involving ministers and other senior officials of the government, the Finance Minister did not say much other than to pay lip service about probity in public life.

Social inclusion and equity remained small ticket add-ons in the Budget where the poor have been left out. The MGNREGA scheme, which was till last year tom-tommed as testimony of UPA’s concern for the aam admi because of its multi-thousand crore allocation fund, has lost its sheen. It found only a passing mention in the Finance Minister’s speech. Outlay to MGNREGA scheme has been frozen at Rs. 40,000 crore, despite the fact that wage hike would entail higher expenditure. It seems that the flagship scheme has run its course of yielding political dividend. So concern for aam admi can take a walk!

The budget for the rural self employment scheme, SGSY, has come down by Rs. 28 crores. The demands of the urban poor have been ignored and the much awaited urban employment guarantee scheme has not been announced.

During UPA I there was a lot of talk about opening up the banking and insurance sectors to foreign capital. But at that time the Congress-led UPA had to depend on the Left parties for their survival. And the Left ensured that the government could not go ahead with its malicious plans. As a result when the whole world was staggering under massive recession India remained insulated. The pangs of recession were not felt by us.

The announcement of impending legislations directed at liberalizing the sensitive financial sectors like insurance, banking and pension funds is meant to appease foreign finance capital. Individual foreign investors can now invest directly in Indian mutual funds which would facilitate the flow of speculative finance into the economy. The common man who toils all his life and puts aside his life’s savings in the banks or brings out insurance to tide over his old age will be hit the hardest when another recession hits the financial sector.

Union Budget 2011-12 reflects continuity of the same neo-liberal, corporate captive, anti-people policies spreading miseries for the millions to benefit the creamy layer who comprise of about 5 percent of our society. This budget will also benefit the foreign investors. But, sadly, it has very little for the teeming millions of the country who toil tirelessly to arrange one square meal a day. With no elections coming up in the next couple of years aam admi has been obliterated to cater to the interests of the handful.

Mamata Banerjee Leads Indian Railways to Bankruptcy

The pet rhetoric of the Trinamul Congress leader, Mamata Banerjee, and of her lieutenants has been bad governance or lack of governance of the Left Front government. She is joined by her intellectual friends in denouncing the incumbent government. She has been promising good governance to the people of West Bengal if she is elected as the Chief Minister. She has promised to bring about “administrative reforms”. Now the question is should we believe her when she says that she will provide us with a better and more efficient administration? Her sycophants say that she should be given a chance to prove her mettle. Can we, the people of Bengal, take that risk?

Not after seeing what she has done to the railways in the nineteen months that she has been at the helm of affairs at the Rail Bhavan. All the leading national newspapers and magazines are saying in unison that the railways are in the doldrums, “bankrupt” to be precise. The railway, under her, has gone completely off-track and is headed towards a sudden decline.

Indian Railways Operating Ratio (OR), which is an indicator of efficiency, has already crossed 95 percent, higher than the budget estimate of 92 percent. It is likely to be highest in recent times. This means that the Railways would be spending more than Rs. 95 to earn every Rs. 100. The best OR in recent times was in 2007-08 when it spent as little as Rs. 75.9 to earn Rs.100. The Railways reserves are at its lowest in recent years at Rs. 5,000 crore. But this does not stop the irrepressible minister from announcing one project after another involving a few thousand crores.

During the year 2007-08 the cumulative cash surpluses of the Railways before dividend had amounted to Rs. 68,778 crore. The cash surplus has been projected at a meager Rs. 1,328 crore in the Rail Budget for 2010-11. Mamata Banerjee has very deftly managed to reduce the impressive cash surplus to this paltry amount. The situation is so dire that the Railways had tried to get a five year waiver of dividend starting 2009-10. And let us not forget that when Ms. Banerjee was the Railway Minister during the NDA regime she had demanded a similar waiver. So much for her efficiency as an able administrator!

In the year 2010-11 the Railways had sought a Gross Budgetary Support (GBS) of Rs. 15,875 crore. This time they have asked to double the GBS to Rs. 39,600 crore. As per the latest official data the expenditures have gone up by Rs. 1.330 crore while the earnings are down by Rs. 1,142 crore taking the net deficit to Rs. 2,500 crore.

The Minister, has very stubbornly, refused to raise the passenger fares because she does not want to burden the common man. How is the common man affected if the fares of the elite classes of long distance trains are raised is beyond the understanding of the ordinary citizens. If the GBS demanded by her is granted by the Finance Minister, Pranab Mukherjee, he would realize it by taxing the aam aadmi. While she does not want to burden her maa mati manus by increasing fares to improve the financial condition of the railways, she cares two hoots if they have to pay additional tax to support her populist budget before the Assembly elections. So desperate is she to grab THE CHAIR.

In the last Union Budget, Banerjee virtually starved the two critical reserves of the Railways - the Development Fund and the Depreciation Reserve Fund – used to purchase and upgrade assets and improve passenger amenities. This definitely is a sign of a bleeding organization. Yet, Ms. Banerjee has gone ahead and announced a revamp of the Kolkata Metro network at a cost of Rs. 11,000 crore.

Mamata Banerjee cannot but blame herself for driving the organization in the red. She has stubbornly refused to raise passenger fares for suburban sections and lower classes on long-distance trains even as the losses from passenger operations were projected to zoom to Rs. 19,120 crore in 2009-10. However, this has not discouraged her from announcing a spate of new trains, thus adding to the losses. Even though she had promised 1,000 km of new lines every year, she has not been able to deliver even 10 percent of that. This should warn us all not to believe any of the promises made by her to the people of Bengal. She is out to take every one for a ride just to realize her dream of sitting on the Chief Minister’s chair. She is a confused person who is driven by just one aim. Therefore, her priorities are all misplaced. She talks a lot about vision but lacks it the most. She has a slapdash approach towards running her ministry. She can only think of her short-term gains and is unmindful of its ramifications on the country.

Source: The Hindu

Ms. Banerjee is well-known for doing her own thing. She rarely, if not never, takes any advice even if it is from the Prime Minister, or the Finance Minister or the Deputy Chairman of the Planning Commission. In the run-up to the last budget the Finance Minister, Mr. Pranab Mukherjee, had raised objections to several projects since she had not got the mandatory clearance from the Planning Commission. But that did not stop her from going ahead and laying the foundation stones for those projects. Everything to garner votes in order to become the Chief Minister.

We, the thinking people of West Bengal, will have to see through the game plans of the TMC leader who also happens to be a Cabinet Minister. She has played havoc with the railways in just nineteen months. Should we allow her to do the same with our state? It is time we pondered on this.

Source: Indian Express, India Today, Business Line, Economic Times

An Agenda to Discuss………

Mindless killing of innocents in Jangalmahal (spread across West Midnapore, Bankura and Purulia) has left the rational man astounded. Blood shed in the name of any ideology is unacceptable and deserves criticism in the severest terms. Landless tillers, marginal farmers and daily wage earners have been systematically butchered by the Maoists in their self declared mission of attaining a class-less society.

How do the poor, who find it difficult to manage a square meal a day, serve to perpetuate the existing exploitive social order is indeed difficult to fathom. More bewildering is the fact that those owing allegiance to the Left Front have been at the receiving end of the Maoists who swear in the name of revolution and pledge for emancipation of the downtrodden. The prime target of the great peasant war against imperialism, feudalism and the bourgeoisie in West Bengal have been hapless village teachers and marginal farmers. Not a single incident has taken place where the CEO of a Multi-National Corporation or for that matter a clerk or a gate-keeper working there has been victimized by the Maoists. Not a single moneylender or landlord has ever fallen prey to the bullets of Maoists in West Bengal. Interestingly, this party believes in the annihilation of class enemies. Who then, according to them, are these class enemies – are the poor villagers, who live a hand to mouth existence, the class enemies that they are out to annihilate? What is striking is these Maoists have never been visible in any struggle against liberalization, privatization and globalization.

The Maoists claim to be fighting for the rights of the tribes in the forest belt that contains rich deposits of minerals which are of interest to mining companies. Though this argument may be true to some extent in states like Chhatisgarh, Orissa, Bihar and Jharkhand, it does not hold water in West Bengal. The affected districts here do not boast of any mineral reserves. Even though this region is not rich in natural resources, it was considered as the red bastion of West Bengal. The people living in this region have traditionally been left supporters. The Maoists, along with their allies, have, therefore, targeted this region to wean the people away from the Left. The supporters and workers of CPI (M) and their allies have been targeted and killed in the most brutal manner. The primary objective is to convey to the villagers, in no uncertain terms, that they should stop supporting and voting for the Left Front. A weak Left Front in these districts will pave the way for the extreme right-wing parties to spread their tentacles. But what is intriguing is the unholy nexus between an ultra-left organization and an extreme-right party. What common ideology could they possibly have? What could be their meeting point? A fascinating aspect of this bonhomie is that one does not believe in democracy or votes and the other speaks about democracy does not believe in practicing it.

The other cause that has been attributed to the growing influence of the Maoists is that the government has done little for the poor who have been deprived of the fruits of development. This hardly is the truth and presentation of a half lie can be dangerous for any attempt to establish peace in the troubled area. The Maoists, who talk about lack of development in Jangalmahal, has consistently ripped apart roads and destroyed schools. The question now arises, what according to the Maoists are infrastructure. Do they not consider roads and schools as part of developmental projects? Which ideology drove them to blow up the vehicle carrying a doctor and a nurse?

West Bengal is one of the few states where the focus of development has predominantly been on the poor and the underprivileged. Panchayati Raj system in the rural areas has ensured participation of the masses in development work in the villages. Establishment of successful three tier panchayati system serves as a watershed in the field of decenralisation of power. The success story of panchayati system in West Bengal is discussed and praised even by the detractors of the Left parties. That it has left a significant and a progressive impression on the rural socio-economic scenario is established beyond question. Effective transfer of power to the three tier panchayat bodies and allocation of meaningful resources to the rural bodies of self governance are giant strides taken by the Left Front government in making the rural people self reliant.

The indicators which testify the success rate of Panchayati Raj in West Bengal:

(i) Out-migration from villages has virtually stopped and begging in the towns or cities by the villagers is hardly found.
(ii) While in most Indian States, the percentage of rural non-workers has gone up, in West Bengal it has come down.
(iii) Agrarian production has virtually doubled in the last ten years, thereby exceeding all-India average. Bengal today is indeed greener than ever before.
(iv) West Bengal is the only State where the percentage of male agricultural labour in workforce has declined.
(v) The process of polarisation and pauperisation also appears to have been reversed in West Bengal.
(vi) Studies show that the agricultural labourers and the poor peasants in West Bengal have fully profited from the development work of the Panchayats.
(vii) Panchayati system has considerably eradicated village poverty.

Sustained efforts have been made to bring more area under cultivation. At present 78.42 lakh hectares of land is under cultivation and more than 75 % of this area is supported with irrigation. With planned development in agriculture, the state of rural economy has undergone a sea change since the Left Front has assumed power in West Bengal.

The recent times have seen a concentrated attack on the village system in West Bengal. Schools are being burnt, teachers are being shot in open daylight and even the students are not being spared. Elected representatives of village panchayats are killed regularly and many are driven out of villages by the Maoists in the name of effecting change and betterment of rural Bengal. Clearly the developments that have swept across rural Bengal are the cause of discomfort for those who had hitherto called the shots in the villages. The landlords and the moneylenders, for whom the farmers were nothing more than bonded labourers, exploited, underpaid and violated them in every other means. The present state of democratization through village panchayat and the granting of ownership of land to the farmers are state of things that they want changed. Through this chink in the armour walked in the Trinamool Congress Party, who commissioned the so-called revolutionaries into performing the role of private army of the landlords to usurp the rights of the people that they had acquired under the Left regime. TMC is in cahoots with the Maoists to be able to win a few seats in Jangalmahal in the forthcoming Assembly elections. Their desperation to win has blinded their judgment to the extent where they have no qualms about hobnobbing with that force which has been declared as "the single biggest internal security challenge ever faced by our country", in 2006, by none other than the Prime Minister of India, Dr. Manmohan Singh. The leader of TMC, Mamata Banerjee, has from an open podium declared that all political prisoners in West Bengal would be released after she became the Chief Minister. It was a clear signal to the Maoists to help her in becoming the Chief Minister in exchange of the freedom of all those Maoists and their sympathizers who are currently behind bars.

In the name of effecting “change” mischief mongers are fomenting trouble for realizing their narrow political gains. Conspiracies are being hatched with sections with vested interests to dislodge the government which believes in the power of the people. It is therefore time for the rationale minded to sit up and assess the nature of the change that is being professed so vociferously .The direction of “Change” has to be critically assessed before we fall in line for “change”.

Indian railways bankrupt under Mamata

From India Today
http://indiatoday.intoday.in/site/Story/127266/Special%20Report/indian-railways-bankrupt-under-mamata-banerjee.html

The Indian Railways has become a loss making entity

Indian Railways is on the brink of bankruptcy. The ministry has asked the Government to double its budgetary support to Rs 39,600 crore. The Finance Ministry has responded by saying, "Railways need to have a certain discipline." Railways Minister Mamata Banerjee can't blame anybody but herself for putting the organisation in red. Under her stewardship, Indian Railways has registered a sharp decline in earnings and a steep rise in expenditure. She promised 1,000 km of new lines every year but has not been able to deliver even 10 per cent of that. Expenditures have gone up by Rs 1,330 crore and earnings are down by Rs 1,142 crore, taking the net deficit to Rs 2,500 crore. The Operating Ratio (OR) of the Railways is likely to be the highest in recent times. It would be spending Rs 95 to earn every Rs 100. One of the best ORs in recent times was in 2007-08 when the organisation spent as little as Rs 75.9 to earn Rs 100. The Railways' reserves are at its lowest in recent years at Rs 5,000 crore.

Prime Minister Manmohan Singh, Finance Minister Pranab Mukherjee and Planning Commission Vice-Chairman Montek Singh Ahluwalia are a worried lot as Banerjee takes no advice. At a meeting with Manmohan and Mukherjee earlier this month, she asked them not to insist on a fare hike. Poised to present what she hopes will be her last Railway Budget, she has asked for a free hand. Banerjee knows it is also her last chance to woo the electorate in West Bengal. So it is going to be another bout of populism: more new lines and trains for her home state.

The Planning Commission has asked Indian Railways to cut its losses from passenger operations, which are at Rs 14,000 crore per year now. The losses were being subsidised by increasing freight charges, which too had come down by Rs 700 crore. The Railways does not have enough money to put into its two critical reserves-the Capital Fund and Development Fund, used to purchase and upgrade assets and improve passenger amenities. The Railways failed to put even a single rupee into the Capital Fund last year too, a sign of a bleeding organisation. Yet, Banerjee has announced a revamp of the Kolkata Metro network at a cost of Rs 11,000 crore.
Payments to suppliers have been held back for the first time in the history of the Railways. "It was bad enough last year when payments to contractors were held till after the budget, to present a relatively better picture. This year, payments to regular suppliers of crucial equipment such as cables used for signalling and fishplates for tracks have been withheld. Many suppliers have complained, saying that even they are running an industry and have to prepare balance sheets," says a senior Railway Board official.

The board has asked all 16 zones to send details of their carry-forward liability. Officials in the budget and finance departments have been trying to figure out how to best present the least scary picture of Railways finances. Here too they are constrained, working without a head. The whimsical minister has not appointed a finance commissioner (FC) since Sowmya Raghavan retired six months ago. Banerjee's handpicked official, additional member Samar Jha, is overseeing budget preparation. "She decided to go ahead with the budget without an FC since it is the official's job to question unnecessary spending and projects. Didi is definitely in no mood to have anything questioned or scrutinised," says a Railways ministry official.

Raghavan had said in March 2010 that "if the trend of spending more and earning less continues, not only the internal generation of funds suffers but there is a very serious threat of the ministry defaulting on the dividend-payment liability". She also said the fund balances have all been utilised, so there are no savings to meet shortfall in internal generation targets. According to Raghavan, unless the Railways controls expenditure and increase earnings on a sustained basis, "survival of the organisation will become a difficult proposition".

Apart from the FC, the Railways has been functioning without a Member (Traffic)-a post vacant for more than a year now. The Member (Traffic) is arguably the most important official, responsible for policy formulation, management of passengers and goods traffic. At a time when the Railways is losing revenue in carrying passengers and goods, the importance of the post can't be undermined.

Another flagship project of the Railways-Dedicated Freight Corridor (DFC)-is on the verge of derailment. Manmohan had laid the foundation stone of the project in 2006 but it has not gone beyond that stage. In the last budget speech, Banerjee had promised to get the project on track by revamping the DFC Corporation, in charge of executing the project. Nothing has moved in that direction. In fact, even the position of the managing director (MD) has been vacant after V.K. Kaul was removed five months ago.

Similarly, the Rail India Technical and Economic Services has been functioning without an MD for three months. "Banerjee is just not interested in these day-to-day tasks of running the ministry. Apart from her apathy, crucial decisions get delayed because she rarely comes to Rail Bhavan, functioning out of Kolkata," says another official. "All the files have to be sent there. Since those are important, most of the times, senior ministry officials, including Chairman Railway Board, have to personally take the files to Kolkata. As far as Rail Bhavan is concerned, she is the non-resident Railways minister."

In the run-up to the last budget, Mukherjee had raised objections to several projects which Banerjee had proposed since she had not got the mandatory clearance from the Planning Commission. Subsequently, the prime minister had written a note to Banerjee, making certain suggestions about running the Railways (see box: Prime Concerns). Obviously, Banerjee is in no mood to implement them.

Banerjee flags off the Singur-Howrah Express

An Indian Railways spokesperson defends the organisation's financial mess as something beyond the control of the ministry. Citing figures, he says the Railways had to dish out Rs 55,000 crore over the past three years as arrears and pension under the Sixth Pay Commission. Indian Railways lost Rs 2,500 crore for non-loading of iron ore from Orissa and Karnataka, and another Rs 1,500 crore on account of Maoist and Gurjar protests. The multiple hikes in diesel prices also cost the Railways Rs 1,000 crore. The organisation had to shell out Rs 1,500 crore under the modified assured career growth scheme. "It is a question of increased working expenses. The Railways will be able to overcome the impact in a year or two," he said. Reality defies such optimism.
 

PRIME CONCERNS

• ABSENCE OF A LONG-TERM VISION: Railways planning is not guided by a clear vision of where it should be 10 to 20 years from now. It should fix specific targets.
CAPACITY AUGMENTATION: GDP growth of 9 per cent requires total transport to grow at 10 per cent per year but the Railways is growing at only 7 per cent, leading to a steady loss of freight to roads. Its share is abnormally low at 30 per cent.
• TECHNOLOGY MODERNISATION: Globally, passenger trains reach 240 kmph, but the average speed of our Shatabdi is 80 kmph.
• RATIONALISATION OF TARIFF STRUCTURE: The next budget must include a minimum increase of 10 to 15 per cent in Class II passenger fare with no increase in freight. The unbalanced fare structure, with high freight rates and low passenger fares, has several adverse consequences. Indian Railways has consistently resisted the Planning Commission's proposal to set up a statutory regulator to fix fares.
• LAND ACQUISITION: A disturbing development is the Railways being told to avoid land acquisition and instead "negotiate" with farmers. Unless this is quickly resolved, we can expect long delays.
• PUBLIC-PRIVATE PARTNERSHIP: A decision on the role of Public-Private Partnership is urgently needed. The Railways has been reluctant to adopt the PPP model.
• DEDICATED FREIGHT CORRIDOR: Immediate review of the status of Dedicated Freight Corridor with clear timelines and fixing responsibility.

 

Aam Admi martyred by Food Inflation watched by Maa Mati Manush

Some time ago it was being suggested by the know-alls that the reason for the rising food prices in India is the increasing purchasing power of the rural people who have benefited immensely from MGNREGA (Mahatma Gandhi National Rural Employment Guarantee Act ).

The reason being put forward for the massive increase in the price of essential commodities was the success of the “pro–poor” schemes of the government which reflected in increased demand for food. How ridiculous is that? The most badly hit by the sky rocketing food prices are the aam admi ( maa mati manush ). A similar callous and preposterous statement was made at the World Economic Forum, Davos, by the Deputy Chairman of the Planning Commission, Montek Singh Ahluwalia, when he stated that the recent increase in petrol prices was justified. He did not stop at that. He went on to say that diesel prices would also be decontrolled and increased in the near future. We still do not know what Mamata Banerjee, who touts herself as the messiah of the poor and the marginalised, and her party, TMC, thinks about these issues.

The real reasons that are behind the northwards journey of food prices are very different from what we are being made to believe. The common man is facing the brunt of the neo-liberal policy pursued by the UPA II government of which TMC (the champion of maa mati maush) is the second largest partner. TMC has so far never spelt out its economic policies. Does it have one? Do they know that each political party has to have an economic policy based on which it frames its policies which are then pursued by its government? 

As measured by the WPI (Wholesale Price Index) the inflation rate in India has been rising continuously over the past three years. The overall inflation has been driven by the inflation in food.

 WPI Inflation ( year – on year )

2006-07	2007-08	2008-09	2009-10
7.99	5.97	9.07	14.52

Source: Office of the Economic Adviser, Ministry of Commerce and Industry, GoI

The latest data reveals an overall inflation of 8.4% in December 2010 while the food inflation stood at 17.05% in the week ending 22nd January 2011. In India where the population is growing at a rate of 1.3% per annum, the demand for food will naturally grow. However, neither food production nor its availability has grown commensurately. The annual per capita cereal availability, in India, in 2008-09 was only around 165 kg. What is intriguing is that the amount is the same as was available in 2000-01. During the same period, i.e. 2008-09, the per capita cereal availability in China was over 290 kg and in the US it was over 1000kg. As if, this was not enough. During 2009-10, despite high GDP growth the per capita cereal availability in India fell to 161 kg.

Even though the know-alls insinuate that the higher purchasing power of rural India is driving the food inflation upwards, the reality is dreadfully different. Both the income and consumption growth is getting disproportionately concentrated with the 10 to 15 percent of the creamy layer of the population. This section of the population is the sole beneficiary of the GDP growth. According to the Arjun Sengupta Commission report, 77 percent of the Indian population spends less than Rs. 20 per head per day. How someone with such meager purchasing power drive the consumption level high is any body’s guess.

The immediate reason causing the sudden surge in the prices of specific food items, like onions, is illegal hoarding to create a simulated scarcity to fleece people. Speculative activity or future trading has also created pressures on the market. Unscrupulous traders, powered by a bumbling government, are responsible for this.

The PDS, which can play a very critical role in moderating such food price escalation and controlling inflationary expectations and tendencies of hoarding, has been deliberately weakened. In most states, the role of the ration shops, state agencies like the NAFED etc. and consumer cooperatives in food distribution, have been whittled down.

Food production, in India, has not kept up with the growing population. Agriculture is in deep crisis. The government is not doing enough to raise agricultural productivity. There has been a deceleration in agricultural growth. The reason for this could be that the economists who are running the government apparently believed that the food demand would not, or may I say should not, increase much even in periods of significant income growth and among a population that has some of the worst nutrition indicators in the world. And may be because of this they did not see any need to work towards increased supply of food. The annual average farm growth which was 4.72 percent in the 8th Plan Period (1992 – 97) has slowed down to 2.13 percent in the 10th Plan Period (2002 – 07). “The primary answer to food price inflation lies in improved agricultural production,” said C. Rangarajan, Chairman of the Economic Advisory Council to the Prime Minister. The cuts in fertilizer subsidy and hikes of diesel prices are also contributing to the rising food inflation.

The know-alls argue that the only solution to the problem of high food prices is to bring in FDI in retail. They would like us to believe that this will reduce wastage in storage and costs of transport of food items, cut out the intermediaries in distribution and provide food more effectively to consumers at lower prices. However, this argument does not hold water. If the traditional supply chains are so deficient, why is it that such enormous hike in food prices did not happen earlier? Despite equally rapid GDP growth and the same system of distribution that is now being faulted, why was food inflation relatively low in the period until 2006?

If the problem is inadequate cold storage facilities and inefficient distribution network from the farm to the market, why proactive steps were not taken to correct the ills? The government would like us to believe that the only solution to these problems is the involvement of corporate retail (FDI).

International evidence indicates that corporate monopoly in food trade typically increases distribution margins rather than reducing them. The stalwart leaders of the ruling Congress make it a point to talk about the aam admi at every given opportunity. They would want us to believe that their “pro-poor” policies have worked wonders to the lives of the have-nots of this country. But the stark reality is that they are trying every trick in their knowledge to pave the way for FDI in retail food market. Corporate retail will drive the small retail out of business. If Wal-Mart and other global and local corporate are allowed to enter the retail sector, many farmers will be driven off land, into debt or suicide. The much talked about Second Green Revolution, as envisaged by the government, will be brought about by Monsanto and Wal-Mart, will undermine our farmers’ livelihoods and our food sovereignty.

TMC in general and Mamata Banerjee in particular have not said much on this burning issue, which directly affects the lives of the poor, other than blaming the state government. Has anyone ever heard Ms. Banerjee spell out what she would do, if she became the chief minister, to control the rising prices? Has anyone ever heard her enunciate what she would do to assuage the untold sufferings of the common man who are the worst sufferers of escalating food prices? Has any one ever heard her defining her party‘s policies in allaying the difficulties faced by the small and marginal farmers? She makes a big show of her empathy for maa, mati manush at every opportunity that she gets. Scandalous amount of money is spent in putting up banners and hoardings to pay homage to maa mati manush. Books are written and paintings are done. But when it is time for her to come out in support of that same maa mati manush she is busy calculating her chances of becoming the chief minister. Hence she cannot afford to take a position which might antagonize her coalition partner and ruin her chances of making a grand entry to the seat of power. What is more worrying is the lack of any particular economic policy of this party.

We, therefore, need to be very careful while electing our next state government. We have to elect a party which has a very clear economic policy. We have to keep in mind, while electing, that the government is genuinely pro-poor and will work for the welfare of the common man and not pander only to the privileged few. The people of West Bengal should be very vigilant and keep opportunistic political parties at bay. Parties like the TMC, which are not governed by any ideology or programmes, are out to fool the public to further their own narrow agenda. We should be on our guard and not allow these opportunists to mess up our lives and livelihoods.