People's Democracy

AMIDST strong opposition of the CPI(M) members, the dreaded Patents (Amendment) Bill, 2005 was introduced in Lok Sabha this week. Opposing the introduction of the Bill, which amends the Indian Patents Act of 1970, the CPI(M) members, Suresh Kurup, V Radhakrishnan and N N Krishnadas warned that the Indian drug industry will be doomed if the Bill, in its present form, becomes a law. They reminded that the Indian drug industry is the strongest and most self-reliant industry in the developing world and said it would now be at the mercy of the MNCs. With this amendment, the common man in the country would not have easy access to life-saving drugs. Since the right to medical care, including the right to access to life-saving drugs, falls within the ambit of Article 21 of the Indian constitution, the CPI(M) members asserted that the House had no legislative competence to enact a law which affects the fundamental rights of the people, reminded Suresh Kurup.

A large number of CPI(M) members in Lok Sabha – Basudeb Acharia, Rupchand Pal, C S Sujata, Alakesh Das, P Mohan, Dr M Babu Rao, Lonappan Nambadon, Abdullah Kutty, Basudeb Barman, Jyotirmayee Sikdar, Minoti Sen, Ajay Kumar, P Satheedevi, P Karunakaran, Sunil Khan and Susmita Bauri participated in the general discussion on Railway Budget, Demands for Grants on Account (Railways) and Supplementary Demands for Grants (Railways). The discussions in Lok Sabha sometimes stretched up to midnight.

In Rajya Sabha, CPI(M) members, Prasanta Chatterjee and Tarini Kanta Ray participated in the discussion.

The CPI(M) members in both the Houses drew attention of the government as to how states like Kerala, Andhra Pradesh, Tamil Nadu, West Bengal and North-East region are being neglected by the Railways for years together. While the industries in West Bengal are facing crisis due to non-availability of rakes, in Kerala – one state which is consistently neglected by the Railways – no new industries are coming up due to insufficient connectivity of railways.

Same is the case with other states, particularly in the north-east, pointed out the CPI(M) members. They demanded allocation of more funds to Railways so that various on-going projects can be completed, survey for the new projects undertaken, new railway lines could be laid, existing single line be made double lines, gauge conversion work speeded up, renewal of tracks and electrification be undertaken etc. They said increase in funds would also help in connecting of trains to various places, increasing the number of bogies, train services and their frequency, up-gradation of railway stations, platforms, construction and repairing of bridges and over-bridges, railway signals in their respective states and constituencies. They also demanded complete passenger safety with track renewals, proper inspection of bridges and railway tracks and maintenance of time schedule for train services.

From CPI(M), Rupchand Pal, P Karunakaran and Sebastian Paul in Lok Sabha and Chittabrata Majumder and K Chandran Pillai in Rajya Sabha participated in the discussion on general budget. They noted that unlike the past budgets of earlier governments at the centre, this budget had a welcome shift in terms of emphasis on employment generation, development of infrastructure especially in rural areas and investment in social sectors, which was in accordance with what was suggested by the Left parties in their memorandum. At the same time they highlighted the negative aspects of the budget.

CPI(M) members strongly criticised about the proposed FDI invasion in pension fund.

Chittabrata Majumder in his speech said that the increase in the outlay for agriculture, rural development, health and human resource development sectors is too meagre in comparison to the problems being faced by the people, particularly in rural areas. Same is the case with irrigation and flood control where the allocations are too meagre to touch even the fringe of the problem as the floods and droughts destroy crops worth hundreds of crores of rupees, houses, communications and so on every year.

Majumder also criticised the government for not undertaking any measure for employment generation. In fact, certain steps like the de-reservation of 105 more items from the small-scale sector would force many small-scale units into closure thus making lakhs of workers unemployed, he pointed out. He also criticised the budget for discouraging small savings, which will adversely affect the poor people. Majumder urged the government to moblise more resources by enhancing the tax-GDP ratio to at least 11.5 per cent, as suggested by the Left parties. He demanded the government to take strong measures to bring down the Non-Performing Assets (NPAs), which today amount to a whopping 1 lakh crore rupees. He also wanted the government to recover huge arrears of taxes. He said that if all these suggestions are sincerely implemented, there would be no dearth of resources. In conclusion, he urged the government to provide necessary protection for jute and tea industries and more funds to West Bengal to control flood and soil erosion.

Speaking in Lok Sabha, CPI(M) chief whip, Rupchand Pal questioned the very economic philosophy of the government and asked it to introspect whether it was good for the country, for self-reliance and for establishing an egalitarian and progressive society. He doubted whether the budget really addressed the burning issues facing the Aam Aadmi (common man). "Let not the budgetary exercise be reduced to sophisticated window-dressing", he added. Pal criticised the dilution of the rural employment guarantee scheme, which has been limited to only 170 districts of the country. He opposed the offloading of the food component of Food-for-Work responsibility to the Food Corporation of India (FCI). The recommendations made by the Twelfth Finance Commission are creating very serious problems to most of the states. With fiscal deficit responsibility passed on to the states, and many states resorting to commercial borrowings to meet their requirements, there is the danger of having weaker states and a strong centre, said Pal. Not only would this be against the constitutional framework of federalism but will also weaken the entire nation in the coming period, he warned and reminded that the dangers of terrorism and communalism are lying in wait.

Rupchand Pal opposed the imposition of a cess of 50 paise per litre of petrol and diesel saying it would have a cascading effect. Taking up the cause of senior citizens, Pal charged the government of allowing MNCs to exploit old people’s pension fund, insurance and savings. He concluded by highlighting the plight of small savers who are heavily dependent on their savings in the banks but who are getting very meager returns as the interest rates are coming down.

CPI(M) deputy leader in Lok Sabha, P Karunakaran criticised the budget for making insufficient allocations for various schemes. He demanded an increase in the honorarium being given to the poor helpers and teachers as it was very low. He asked the government to pay special attention to develop the traditional industries sector, which plays a dominant role in Kerala’s economy. He wanted export promotion for these items, particularly cashew which brings lot of foreign exchange into the country. Karunakaran welcomed the increase in the number of ICDS centres as also the primary step to make the budget gender-sensitive. However the imposition of tax on production of beedis cannot be accepted as nearly 99 per cent of workers in this traditional industry are women. Similarly, khadi and village industries are facing a difficult situation today. Sea erosion is threatening the coastal areas of Kerala. So, the central government should give more funds to the state government for the construction of sea walls and also to plant special trees along the coast to prevent sea erosion. Saying that the Indo-Sri Lankan Accord has affected farmers of many states, including Kerala, he asked the government to take special care in this regard.

Sebastian Paul in his brief intervention reminded the government that unless the problems of illiteracy, ill-health and unemployment are addressed properly, the efforts of the government to address the issues of mass poverty and deprivation would remain a quixotic exercise.

In Rajya Sabha, K Chandran Pillai of CPI(M) participated in the discussion. At the outset, he put it on record that the recommendations of the Twelfth Finance Commission are, to a large extent, against the interest of Kerala. As for the budget, he criticised the lack of adequate protection to the agriculture sector, on which the livelihood of crores of people is dependent. On the corporate tax front, after providing all relaxations the finance minister is expecting a 33 per cent increase in revenue, and another 21 per cent through customs duty. Pillai expressed doubt about this optimism. He also found fault with the finance minister for giving the manufacturing sector a raw deal in the budget, particularly the reduction of customs duty which will affect this sector negatively.

Saying that the small-scale industries are in doldrums today, Pillai blasted the decision to de-reserve almost 77 items in this budget, which will push these units further into crisis. He said the admission of the MNCs to the mine sector is totally unwarranted and demanded that it has to be reviewed. In this budget, certain major allocations are actually off-budget allocations. But, these off-budget allocations are leading to a lesser allocation to the vital sectors, he pointed out.

Both the Houses after discussion approved president rule in Bihar and Goa. In fact, Lok Sabha sat on a Saturday only to approve the president rule in Bihar. The CPI(M) floor leader, Basudeb Acharia and member Lakshman Seth took part in the discussion on behalf of the CPI(M). They said the CPI(M) has always been against imposition of president rule in any state. But in this case it is compelled to support the proclamation of president rule in Bihar as the verdict in the recent elections was a fractured one. They reminded that recent elections were held in Bihar not to impose president rule, but to form a popular government. Saying that the mandate is in favour of secular parties, they called on all secular parties to come together and provide a government. made it clear that they do not want president rule for a longer period in Bihar.

In the discussion on Goa, CPI(M) members T K Hamza in Lok Sabha and Matilal Sarkar in Rajya Sabha placed the Party views on the matter. They said the central government took the correct step in the matter and imposed president rule in the state as the BJP government lost its majority and created a situation for this. But they warned that president rule cannot be a substitute for popular rule in the state. Hamza said though governor is the custodian of the constitutional authority in the state but in actual practice he always acts on the advice of the central government. The BJP’s Parrikar government lost its majority when the two MLA’s left the Party and withdrawn their support to the government. Then the governor acted constitutionally and dismissed the BJP government. The next process before the governor was to invite the opposition leader to form the government and only that was done. Questioning the dubious role of Goa assembly speaker, the CPI(M) members called for a debate on this issue.