Can we hope better sense will prevail in 2015?
It has been a year of disappointments and worries. The first half of 2014 was last six months of the UPA II government, in which the corporate media did not see any merit. They spent those months ignoring the considerable achievements of the UPA government and building a crescendo of hope and hype about the next government, which they were sure would be the one led by Modi.
Nobel laureate Amartya Sen wonders why were UPA’s achievements not brought to the notice of the voters? He thinks the UPA leaders failed to tell it to the people. However, the fact is that the media never let them do it. As the media built up the hype about Modi’s development agenda, Sangh activists got busy with organising attacks on Muslims (and, sometimes, Christians) across India. The two-pronged strategy worked out fine: some voted for ‘development’, others liked the idea of teaching minorities a lesson. Both kinds voted for Modi.
Still, a point to remember is that 69 % of the vote went to others. That means more than two-thirds of the country was not convinced about the dual agenda.
The second half of 2014
Delhi, which had not seen communal violence since 1984, saw it in 2014 as anti-Muslim violence was staged at different places in the second half of this year. These riots were meticulously planned. Placing of beef and pork in places of worship (a surefire recipe for communal conflagration) in several areas of the city created tension, which did not always result in clashes, showing a sign of the maturity of citizens. But we have not seen the last of it as such provocation is still going on in Delhi and at many other places in north India.
There has been no distinct policy initiative of the Modi government except the continuation of UPA’s policies by other names. Whatever new it has brought is injurious to the country’s democratic tradition and public interest. Instead of proper legislation, the government has been resorting to rule-making through ordinance. The latest is the land allotment ordinance, which has been passed to dilute the farmer-friendly law of the recent past – to make it easier and cheaper for businesses to acquire land without much consideration for farmers’ interests.
In a country where farmers have been committing suicides in thousands, this new move is sure to create more difficulties to the people who grow our food in already difficult circumstances. Whatever change has come, has only aggravated things. Whatever change is scheduled for early this year will deepen common people’s worries as that in Reagan’s America and Thatcher’s Britain. These changes, which amount to private profit at the cost of public wealth and bartering away our assets to foreign companies, include the proposed unfettered entry of foreign insurance companies.
This government has been brought in with the help of corporate money and corporate media, and it is bound to serve their interests before it even thinks of common people’s interests. The unkindest cut that is going to affect common people’s health, wellbeing and life has come in the public health sector.
The government has ordered a 20 % cut in 2014-15 healthcare budget, which will directly threaten the health and life of the poor who depend on government hospitals and dispensaries. The rich and powerful do not have any objection to it as they go to flashy 5-star private hospitals that the poor cannot afford.
Rs 60,000 crore has been cut from the public health budget for 2014-15. This has been done despite the fact that India’s health budget is among the lowest in the world. As it is, India spends only 1 % on health compared to China, which spends 3 % and the United States which spends 8.3 %.
As one-third of world’s poorest people live in India, this is going to be greatest disservice to the poor who are at a greater risk today. Besides the health budget cut, the Finance Ministry slashed Rs 13,000 crore from the HIV/AIDS programme even though more than half of AIDS-related deaths in the Asia-Pacific region occur in India and one-third of people with HIV live here.
Where do we go from here?
That’s the right question to ask. Perhaps the next round of meat-eating related lafda would be kicked up in early 2015, followed by another bout of love-jihad turmoil by mid-year and a conversion-reconversion controversy in the third quarter of the year, to be followed by a lousy, foul-mouthed comment by some ill-bred sadhvi against a section of Indians by October.
And, if nothing works, the beef-pork prescription (the wrong kind of meat to be placed surreptitiously in the right kind of place of worship) for igniting communal frenzy could be tried.
This has worked in the past, should work in future, hopefully.
The last question to ask is: what do we get out of all this? Better ask the people who are running the government and who are allowing all this to happen. All that people like us can do is hope that better sense would prevail.
Best wishes for 2015.
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(Dr Mohammad Manzoor Alam Chairman Institute of Objective Studies and General Secretary of All India Milli Council.)