New Delhi : Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s promised “better days” (achche din) are “turning from illusions into a nightmare”, the CPI-M said in an editorial released on Thursday.
The one year of Modi’s rule has also witnessed a sharp widening of the hiatus between the two Indias, the editorial in “People’s Democracy”, the party’s mouthpiece, said.
It also mocked at claims that no corruption scam had emerged during Modi’s one year in office.
“Does anyone recollect any such scam during the first four years of the UPA government? Time will show this government’s record on this score as a result of aggressively pursuing crony capitalism.”
In the editorial titled “Triple Dangers”, the journal said there was a concerted attempt to portray the Modi government “as the only one capable of delivering a resurgent India”.
In reality, it said, the government was unleashing neo-liberal policies of economic reforms, relentlessly attacking the country’s secular democratic foundations, and eroding the democratic institutions.
“All key sectors of our economy are now opened up for greater FDI inflows… The most brazen U-turn has been the Land Acquisition Ordinance they have pushed through…
“The urgency to hand over real estate to foreign and domestic corporates for fast profit maximization is driving this agenda at the expense of ruining vast sections of our peasantry.
“Natural mineral resources are being opened up to foreign and domestic corporate houses along with ambitious targets of the privatisation of the public sector. Crony capitalism is having a field day,” it said.
The editorial said the agrarian distress was deepening, resulting in continued incidence of distress suicides. “The state of the workers is no better…
“On the other hand, the rich have become richer. As per the Forbes list 2014, the 100 richest people in India are all billionaires ($1 billion is equivalent, now, to over Rs.6,400 crore).
“This is 45 more than the figure of 55 in the same list in 2011. The combined wealth of these 100 billionaires comes to $346 billion. The share of top 1 percent in the total wealth of households has increased from 36.8 percent in 2000 to a phenomenal 49 percent in 2014.”