People's Democracy

 ALL INDIA SFI SPECIAL CONFERENCE

Guwahati Call: Defeat BJP To Save India

Isfaqur Rahman

FORMER all India SFI president and CPI(M) Polit Bureau member Sitaram Yechury has said that BJP has nothing to “feel good” about.  Instead the people of the country are feeling good that an opportunity to oust the communal forces led by the BJP is approaching in the form of coming Lok Sabha polls.

THE DELEGATE SESSION

Inaugurating the delegate session of the all India special conference of the Students Federation of India (SFI) at Guwahati on February 8, the Polit Bureau member pointed out that globalisation has led to withdrawal of the state from the social sectors resulting in privatisation and commercialisation of education. The primary task of the SFI is to put pressure on the government to continue the state support and resist privatisation and communalisation of education, he said.

The special conference, being attended by over 300 delegates from all over the country, aims at strengthening the democratic and progressive student movement by updating the “Programme and Constitution” of the SFI, which was adopted in 1970, in the context of prevailing national and international situation.

Highlighting the danger inherent in return of the BJP-led National Democratic Alliance to power, Yechury said that the US-led imperialist forces have found their best ally in the BJP to continue their economic aggression in India in the form of globalisation and liberalisation. He called upon the SFI to strengthen the anti-imperialist forces among the students to continue the struggle against the aggression of the imperialist forces.

The CPI(M) leader said that during the five year rule of the BJP-led NDA government the divisive forces have come to the centre stage, which he cautioned, if allowed to continue would directly influence the mindset of the student community of the country.

STUDENTS RALLY

Earlier, addressing a massive students rally --- attended by more than 10,000 students from different parts of the state --- held at Sonaram School playground on February 7, that marked the beginning of the conference, Yechury underlined the need for avoiding a spilt in the votes of the secular platform --- one led by the Left parties and the other by the Congress so that the BJP-led communal forces can be resisted from coming back to power. He urged upon the student community to play a decisive role in this regard.

The CPI(M) leader said that while his Party has been trying to build up a platform of its traditional secular allies, there are some other secular parties, which would go along with the Congress. “We are making all efforts to avoid a split in the votes of these two platforms,” he added.

Yechury said that while the BJP had promised to end hunger, fear and corruption, the corruption had surpassed all past records while poverty increased by leaps and bounds (despite what the fudged statistics show) leading to starvation deaths. More than ten lakh people became jobless while attacks on minorities by the saffron brigade increased adding to the fear among the people. Yet, he said that NDA government has launched a campaign that “India is shining.”

Addressing the rally, Tripura chief minister, Manik Sarkar, also stressed on the need for strengthening the Left, democratic and secular forces to defeat the BJP and its allies in the coming Lok Sabha elections. He said that the five-year rule of the BJP-led NDA government resulted in the steep rise in unemployment, corruption and aggravation of other problems of the common masses. Saying that backwardness of the north-eastern states has increased during the NDA government tenure, Sarkar alleged that it has been fuelling insurgency in the region. The sincere efforts made by the United Front government led by Deve Gowda to address the problem of backwardness of the region was discontinued by the successive BJP governments. Lauding the Assam state committee of the SFI for hosting the first ever all India conference of any Left organisation in the region, Sarkar said that conference and the massive public rally would send a positive signal and help in removing the wrong perception about the northeast region being dominated by insurgent elements.

Echoing the concern expressed by the CPI(M) leaders, SFI president K K Ragesh and general secretary Kallol Roy also appealed to the country’s student community to overthrow the BJP-led National Democratic Alliance in the coming Lok Sabha elections to save education from rampant privatisation and communalisation. Assam state secretary of the CPI(M), Hemen Das, state SFI secretary, Nayan Bhuyan, also addressed the rally.

The rally was preceded by hoisting of the SFI flag by president Ragesh at District Library premises, paying of tributes to martyrs followed by taking out of a colourful cultural rally representing rich cultural heritage of different ethnic communities of the state.

The entire city of Guwahati wore a festive look with multifarious programmes like Cultural evenings, competitions among school students, seminars etc being organised in connection with the four-day conference. A media centre was also set up in district Library premises to disseminate the news items in connection with the conference. The centre was formally inaugurated on February 7 by Haidar Hussain, Editor of Asomiya Pratidin, the largest daily in Assam.

SEMINAR ON GLOBALISATION

Deliberating at a national level seminar on globalisation, education and society on February 8, internationally renowned economist and professor at the Centre for Planning and Development Studies, Jawaharlal Nehru University, Dr Prabhat Patnaik ridiculed the campaign of “shining India” saying that there has been a drastic decline of state expenditures in social sector of the country compounding the problem of poverty, particularly in rural areas. Patnaik said there has been a drastic cut in the investment in social sectors including education in the country as a result of globalisation. The whole range of universities do not have funds to pay even the salaries of teachers. In Orissa, for example, when a teacher retires, an ad-hoc teacher is appointed in his place at one-fourth of the salary of the teacher who retired.

Patnaik also made the point that privatisation is leading to a decline in the quality of education. Yet, he said, a campaign is being launched that India is shining.

The eminent economist said that while supporters of globalisation say free flow and mobility of capital will benefit underdeveloped countries and there will not be any rich or poor countries, the truth is otherwise.             

The new aspect of globalisation, he said, is that capital in production is much less than capital in speculation. Speculative capital dominates the present phase of globalisation. Capital in production creates some sort of industry, national wealth and employment while capital in speculation does not create any such industry, national wealth or employment, he added. When this speculative capital leaves a country or in other words when capital flight takes place it ruins its economy. In the present phase of globalisation what is most mobile is speculative capital. When such speculative capital flows to a country, it demands deflation of its economy.

Patnaik said that when economic activity goes up and the demand expands, there are chances of inflation. Inflation, on the other hand, devalues currency resulting in turmoil in the currency market. In such a situation the IMF, World Bank dole out prescription that depresses the demand. It forces the governments to curtail spending in social sectors in the name of reducing the fiscal deficit. At the same time it restricts the capacity of the state to raise spending because the moment a country invites investors through appeasement it has to dole out tax concessions. As a result of which tax-GDP ratio comes down drastically as has happened in India. If the tax-GDP ratio prior to the advent of liberalisation policies were maintained another about 30,000 – 40,000 crore of rupees would have come to the hands of the state.

Expenditure for rural development is also drastically reduced. Consequently, the development of rural infrastructure is suffering on the one hand and the vast majority of rural poor are undergoing massive impoverishment on the other hand. The purchasing power of rural masses is going down. This is reflected in burgeoning stocks of foodgrains in the godown of FCI while peasants in a large number are going hungry, he added.    

Patnaik called for a social movement to reverse the process of globalisation, which he said has taken a heavy toll on education and other social sectors in countries like India.

The seminar was organised as part of the four-day all India special conference of the Students Federation of India (SFI). Director of Omeo Kumar Das Institute of Social Change and Development, Dr A N Sahmed also deliberated in the seminar which was chaired by Purna Sarma, former Director, Academic Staff College, Guwahati University.