• Cauvery dispute:
  The bourgeoisie kindles water wars to divide the people

• Issues in India-Bangladesh relations

• The Tenth FiveYear Plan advocates further anti-people measures

• There is enough water for everyone

• Maharashtra human development report
  Rich get richer, poor poorer

• Children die of malnutrition and lack of elementary public health care

• Schools asked to procure rice for mid-day meals

• Children die in prestigious Calcutta hospital

• President Bush and links with the big capitalists of America

• Low interest rates help big companies

• Protests and demonstrations greet Advani in Britain

• 55 Years of Independence
  Resident Indians in Southall, London take stock

Cauvery dispute:

The bourgeoisie kindles water wars to divide the people

The Cauvery waters have been a perpetual source of contention between Karnataka and Tamilnadu. Every year, the politicians and governments in both the states whip up national chauvinism and hysteria over the distribution of the Cauvery waters. Every year, the Central government and other such central authorities, including the Supreme Court, pass judgements and orders to allegedly address the issue. However, the facts show that the present Indian state is incapable of addressing this problem in the interests of the people. The facts also show that what the Indian state is doing very willingly and consciously is to play the role of the "monkey", with the two cats being the peoples of Karnataka and Tamilnadu. The losers are the peasantry of both the states and their unity.

Neither the Central government nor the state governments of Tamilnadu and Karnataka have ever seriously put forward a principled basis for solving the dispute in a manner that is of mutual benefit, and at the same time consistent with the well established norms that have been evolved internationally for settling such disputes. On the contrary, the Central government uses its power to favour one and discriminate against the other, depending on political exigencies. This adds fuel to the fire. The two state governments, on their part, play into the hands of the central government very willingly. Each one cosies up to the Central government in an unprincipled manner when it seems as if the Central government will "favour" it against the other, and acts "hurt" when things go the other way.

The solution to this problem is that the four riparian states – Karnataka, Tamil Nadu, Kerala and Pondicherry –work out a mutually beneficial agreement. It is not a tall order for the involved state governments to systematically agree and allocate funds for the rejuvenation and protection of water shed and rain water harvesting structures, which had been degraded over time by neglect and greed, so that the river system does not come under excessive pressure.

The solution — that the peoples and states that are party to the conflict sit together and work out a mutually acceptable permanent arrangement — this has never been done nor will it be done as long as the big bourgeoisie remains in power. The reason is obvious—the big bourgeoisie, as well as the regional bourgeoisie of Tamilnadu and Karnataka are not concerned with the problems of the peasantry. They are not concerned that toiling people should have drinking water, or that the peasantry should have irrigation for their crops. Their concern is make maximum profits through the exploitation of the land, labour and resources of the Indian people.

A look at the manner the problem of water has been addressed in Karnataka and Tamilnadu will bear this out. Karnataka used the fact that it is the upper riparian state to exploit the waters of the Cauvery through dams. This no doubt benefited some sections of farmers in the area round the Cauvery. However the same state government has not addressed the issue of water for irrigation for the peasants of North Karnataka, who are the victims of drought. In Bangalore, the Karanataka government has initiated privatisation of water supply. In Tamilnadu, the successive state governments organised the exploitation of ground water in the Chennai region in a ruthless manner over the past three decades. As a result, the ground water in Chennai is unusable and saline, and the city is dependent for drinking water on private tankers. No attempts have been made to address the genuine problems of the farmers of the Cauvery delta or other areas of Tamilnadu. Instead, Karnataka "bashing" becomes the favourite preoccupation for Tamilnadu’s reactionary politicians in the same manner as Tamilnadu "bashing" becomes the favourite preoccupation for Karnataka’s reactionary politicians.

The whipping up of hysteria over water sharing serves the bourgeoisie in another way as well. It is the preferred weapon to prevent the workers and the majority of peasants who are suffering under the capitalist system from uniting around a program of deep going transformations. Such a thing is a nightmare for the bourgeoisie. On the other hand, the easiest thing for the bourgeoisie and political charlatans is to don "patriotic" colours and rally the peasantry around false slogans. This is also one reason why the bourgeoisie is not interested in a just solution to the Cauvery dispute.

The workers and peasants have to take up the problem for solution. The present arrangement of political power in India is an arrangement between the Indian big bourgeoisie and the regional bourgeoisie of various states with the big bourgeoisie acting as the leader. Such an arrangement will never solve the problems of workers and peasants. What is needed is that a new political power be established in India in which the workers and peasants are in power.

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Issues in India-Bangladesh relations

The main issues causing tension in the Indo-Bangladesh relationship at present are:

Overwhelming trade deficit

The overwhelming trade deficit between the two countries, which is very unfavourable to Bangladesh. Officially, it is estimated that Bangladesh imports about $1.2 billion worth of goods from India, while exporting in return only about $50 million. In fact, if trade through unofficial channels is taken into account, the total imports into Bangladesh from India are reported to amount to as much as $2 billion.

Talks in March of this year between the Commerce Secretaries of the two countries to reduce the trade gap broke down. India agreed to lift tariff duties on only 40 items from 16 categories of Bangladeshi imports, instead of the 191 items from 25 categories requested by Bangladesh. This was seen in Bangladesh as a violation of a commitment given by Atal Bihari Vajpayee when he visited Dhaka in connection with the inauguration of the Dhaka-Kolkatta bus service. At present, general opinion in Bangladesh seems to be that even lifting restrictions on the 191 items would not be enough, and drastic measures are required to prevent the trade gap from widening even further. What they would like is duty-free access on a non-reciprocal basis for their goods across the board to Indian markets, on the lines of India’s arrangements with Nepal and Bhutan. They believe that the Indian economy is big enough to take without damage to itself the likely increase in imports from Bangladesh that would follow as a consequence.

The World Bank and other donor agencies are instead telling Bangladesh to export its natural gas to India to bridge the trade deficit. This is not a popular move in Bangladesh, where the feeling is that the natural gas should be used to meet Bangladesh's own energy needs. The Indian government has not been openly pushing for natural gas imports; however, it appears to be linking concessions on the tariff front to getting for itself transit facilities through Bangladesh between India’s north-east and West Bengal – something which Bangladesh has not rejected, but says it can decide only after considering the concrete benefits that will follow from this. In the absence of an agreement on trade issues, both India and Bangladesh are taking unilateral measures to ban or impose prohibitive duties on each other’s goods, including lead batteries from Bangladesh, and sugar and cotton yarn from India.

Firing by Indian BSF troops

The incidence of firing by Indian BSF troops along the border. This issue has got particularly inflamed since April of 2001, in which a large number of casualties from both the BSF and the Bangladeshi BDR troops resulted. In recent months, Bangladesh has strongly protested at the BSF firings in which as many as 47 people have been killed. The situation results from the fact that the international boundary in that region twists and turns through a very flat and riverine countryside, with few natural demarcations. Also, moving back and forth from one side to the other is a natural way of life for the people living in that area. In particular, there are 13 disputed enclaves along the border which spark conflicts all the time. A leading Bangladesh paper has put forth a proposal to observe a "zero-incidence zone" along the border, first for three months, and then six months, with the prospect of extending this even further.

Sharing of Ganga waters

The sharing of Ganga waters. At present, this is governed by a treaty signed in December 1996, but all issues pertaining to this cannot be said to have been resolved. The present ruling party has for some time been calling for a review of the provisions of the treaty.

Indo-Pakistan relations

In regional forums such as SAARC, Bangladesh has been particularly outspoken about how regional cooperation and regional advancement affecting all the countries of the region have been held hostage to the hostility in Indo-Pakistan relations. This has been resented by the Indian government which holds dogmatically to the position that bilateral issues must not be raised in such forums. In Bangladesh, there is resentment over how neighbours who are closely affected are being told that Indo-Pakistan relations is ‘none of their business’, while mediators from the US and other Western powers are daily flitting in and out of the area and advising both countries on what they should do.

Yashwant Sinha’s visit achieved no real breakthrough on any of these issues. Both sides said that they would take steps to ensure that no firing was initiated from their side of the border. There were no more concessions on the trade balance issue, with Sinha sticking to the duty waiver on only 40 items. It was a sign of the serious concern about India in Bangladesh, that Sinha had to assure a group of intellectuals and newspaper editors that India did not have a "big brother" attitude towards Bangladesh or other neighbouring countries, and that it would not let India-Pakistan hostilities stand in the way of regional cooperation.

Although there have been some comments that under the new Foreign Minister, India is trying to mend fences with its neighbours, it seems that not enough is being done, and that issues are being allowed to fester. The Indian ruling class is subordinating relations with the neighbouring countries to its larger geo-political strategy, which is to grow in power and clout by tying up with US imperialism’s designs in this region. This is clearly against the immediate and long-term interests of the Indian people, who want to live in peace and friendship with all the other countries of this part of the world.

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The Tenth FiveYear Plan advocates further anti-people measures

The Approach Paper to the Tenth Five Year Plan cannot hide the fact that five decades of planning by the Indian rulers has been five decades of tortuous capitalist growth in India during which capitalism flourished and extended its tentacles to all parts of the country while at the same time keeping alive feudal and colonial remnants as its props. While India is among the ten fastest growing economies, more than half the children 1-5 years old in the rural areas are undernourished. While Indian multinationals are emerging as world leaders in the software and IT enabled industries, out of every 1000 live births 72 babies die at the time of delivery. The juvenile sex ratio decreased further during the nineties revealing the extreme discrimination that this system promotes against women and girls. After more than five decades of planning, 60 per cent of rural households do not have a power connection.

In the face of such sordid facts, the Approach Paper has no other option but to advise that the Tenth Plan "must prioritise to halt and reverse such regressive trends". It warns the bourgeoisie that "we must respond to the growing impatience in the country at the fact that large numbers of our population continue to live in abject poverty and there are alarming gaps in our social attainment..."

The Approach Paper recommends that the role of the government (i.e., the state) should be "redefined". It should not be taking on many of the roles that it had been taking earlier, meaning that it should do away with the remnants of social democratic welfare measures which were initiated at a particular stage of the growth of the Indian economy and the state and leave the people to fend for themselves. The Approach Paper candidly argues that the government played a dominant role in the economy at a particular stage when private capitalists did not have the huge resources required to invest in heavy industries and infrastructure development. Now that private capitalists have fattened themselves enormously with state support, the government should withdraw itself from these areas and let them have complete freedom to exploit the land and labour of the Indian people. The Paper suggests that "our policies must therefore provide an environment which is conducive to such growth".

At the macroeconomic level, the Approach Paper has proposed a target of 8 per cent growth in GDP during the plan period. This is to be achieved basically through stepping up the intensity of exploitation of the working people and opening up the doors of the Indian economy to further plunder and pillage by foreign multinationals. This GDP growth, which will further intensify the divide between the rich and poor, as all earlier capitalist growth has done, will be achieved through:

• Increase in direct foreign investments;
• Increase in the domestic savings rate by primarily mobilising the life savings of small investors and providing the big bourgeoisie with cheap capital; and
• Increased productivity and efficiency by stepping up modernisation at the expense of the working force, intensifying the exploitation of the work force and closing down "unviable" units.

To cover up all these anti-people measures in the interests of the ruling class, the Approach Paper goes through the usual demagogic routine of declaring shamelessly that "economic growth cannot be the only objective of national planning and indeed over the years, development objectives are being defined not only in term of increases in GDP or per capita income but more broader in terms of enhancement of human
well being."

The Approach Paper for the tenth five-year plan is the blueprint of the ruling big bourgeoisie to utilise the state to plunder the whole of society to enrich the big bourgeoisie. Just like the First Five-Year Plan in Jawaharlal Nehru’s time was the handiwork of Tata and Birla and was known as the Tata-Birla plan, the present plan is the handiwork of the biggest , most rapacious sections of the bourgeoisie such as the Tatas, Ambanis and Birlas. Just as the first few five year plans were accompanied with clap-trap (demagogy) about building a "socialistic pattern of society", the recent five year plans, including the tenth, are accompanied with claptrap about "enhancement of human well being". The bourgeoisie is expecting the working class and peasantry to believe that the policies it is pursuing are not dictated by greed, but by the highest ideal of enhancing the well-being of the toilers!

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There is enough water for everyone

This works out to roughly 4,500 cubic meters per person, which, statistically speaking, is adequate. Of course, the bulk of the rain is in the monsoon months, and requires widespread water conservation and rainwater harvesting efforts.

Irrigation systems have existed in the Indian subcontinent for many centuries. In the north, there is evidence of Mauryan era irrigation works dating back 2,000 years. In the south, tens of thousands of tanks and canals were constructed in Pandya/Chola times perhaps 1500 years ago, for instance the Grand Anicut. Some of these are still in place.

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Maharashtra human development report

Rich get richer, poor poorer

Maharashtra is known as a state which in growth indices (indices of capitalist growth) ranks on the top in India, after Tamilnadu and West Bengal. The Maharashtra HD report shows that human development has fared miserably in the state.

There are great income disparities between Northern Maharashtra and Western Maharashtra. The lob sided character of the incomes can be judged from the fact that, the per capita deposit figures, if Mumbai were not considered as part of Maharashtra, would drop to Rs. 5,630/-, i.e., less than one third of the figure claimed for Maharashtra as a whole (Rs. 18,050/-). Within Mumbai itself even sharper disparities exist between the rich and the poor. The nutritional level of the people shows that more than half, amongst both the urban and rural populations, do not get the standard calorie intake. In the area of health care, too, 80% of the hospital beds are in the urban centres of Maharashtra, while there are not even 25 doctors for every one lakh rural population of the state. In irrigation, disparities are even greater. The sugarcane crop, which has barely 4% cultivation area gets bulk of the irrigated water (60%). Large parts of the state are under drought conditions for years on end.

Other indicators of human development also show alarming state. While a ratio of 1050 women to 1000 men is considered to be the normal sex ratio, Maharashtra has a shocking ratio of 922:1000, reflecting high rates mortality for girls and young women. Infant mortality rate of 48 deaths in 1000 births is also much higher in Maharashtra compared to Kerala state, where this figure is 14 deaths per 1000 births. Maharashtra also has a shocking 50% of all the AIDS cases in India. Another worrying trend has been identified as diminishing funds available for primary education.

It may be noted that the HDR report is based on excluding the tribal population. It has recently been highlighted that human development is the lowest amongst the tribal population. The conditions of existence of these people and their nutritional levels are so marginal that in one district alone more than 20 children have been reported to have died in the last five months due to malnutrition and lack of adequate medical facilities.

The income-disparities in Maharashtra clearly show that capitalist development cannot benefit the people at large. If production in the society is based on profits derived from exploitation of the majority of the people, then there cannot be any other outcome of development. Maharashtra is one of the more capitalistically developed states of India and greater disparities here indeed reflect the greater capitalist development. It is thus clear that toiling people cannot leave the development of society in the hand of the ruling class of the big capitalists. The working class of Maharashtra, with its rich experience of struggle against exploitation, should take the lead to wrest the power from the hands of the rich and run the society in the interest of the ordinary workers, peasants, women and youth.

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Children die of malnutrition and lack of elementary public health care

The Maharashtra government has the audacity to claim that their administration is not at fault! According to the Chief Secretary of the Thane district there is adequate food supply to the ration shops and adequate supply of medicines in the nearby primary health centre in Khanivli. The Thane collectorate ordered an inquiry only to conclude that none of the deaths are due to of malnutrition!

Reporters, who have visited the taluka, have reported on the pathetic conditions in which the tribal people are living there. They live in huts made of bamboo frames, mud walls and grass roofs, often without any tarpaulin or even a plastic sheet to prevent water from dripping during rains. It is no wonder that so many children and adults, there, are suffering from pneumonia and TB. Young girls, even in their teens, get tired from the slightest exertion. Most of the residents get no milk or fruits. They are barely able to afford gravy made from rice and occasionally some sea food. The poorest of these tribal people have been allotted ration cards meant for people above the poverty line, which is of little help to them.

Young mothers have complained that they do not even receive the motherhood allowance from the primary health care centre. A survey conducted by the Tribal Research & Training Institute showed that more than 25% of the funds meant for pregnant women were diverted before they could get there. People who have tried to go to the nearby hospitals also have not had any good experience. The Wada rural hospital, for example, refused to admit a four-month-old boy having persistent cough, who did not survive. In another case, the Bhiwandi hospital expressed their inability to do anything for a six-month-old girl whose retina has gone inward.

Social workers and other voluntary organisations working with the tribal people in Thane district say that the conditions of the tribal people in other talukas are about the same.

The condition of the people in the rural areas of Thane district is an indictment of the capitalist system and the state that defends this system. The Indian state defends this system of plunder. It does so, by trampling on the rights of the people, including the right to food security and health care.

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Schools asked to procure rice for mid-day meals

The Supreme Court had ruled last year that government should provide nourishment in state run schools for students in the age group 6 to 11 years. With regard to implementing the above scheme, Maharashtra government did not supply the rice to schools for a whole year. Then, suddenly during the summer holidays, it woke up to the court ruling, and dumped truckloads of rice in the schools. Since most of the primary schools have no place to store large quantities of grains and children were not coming to schools, many of the schools had to simply return the supplies.

It is well known that the ration shops only get sporadic supply of grains and often of extremely sub-standard quality. Moreover, the municipal schools are hardly equipped to take on the extra burden of transportation and don’t have even adequate manpower to lift the grains from the ration shops. The government has promised to increase the non-salary grants to the schools for the extra expenses, but no one is ready to believe such an assurance. The fact of the matter is that the govt has not even paid the non-salary grant for last three years.

The Supreme Court ruling came following a Public Interest litigation that spoke about the huge stocks of foodgrains rotting in the government godowns while people were forced to starve. The ruling was accompanied by a lot of hype about the right to food security and so on and so forth. Right at the time of the ruling, it was extremely clear that the aim of the ruling was to ensure that the credibility of the state—which had taken a beating following the reports of starvation deaths in Orissa—was restored. None of the arms of the Indian state—taken either separately or together—are really concerned about the plight of children of the toiling masses or ensuring the solution to the problem of hunger. This comes through clearly with the actions of the Supreme Court, the Central and Maharashtra governments, and so on. The "problem" they are addressing is how to get rid of the rotting foodstock in the granaries which nobody wants to buy. Within this situation, each of the arms of the state is passing the buck to the other. This is what the scandal surrounding the mid day meal scheme in Maharashtra reveals.

The Muncipal school teachers in Maharashtra are well within their right to highlight the terrible conditions of work and their increasing exploitation. However, it will be far better for the working class movement if they took up the question of providing proper foodgrains to the children as their own problem, for solution. By doing so, they will differentiate themselves from the state and its utter callousness to the working people and their children, as well as make a contribution to the opening of the path to progress for Indian people today.

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Children die in prestigious Calcutta hospital

Residents of Delhi would be quite familiar with the conditions in some of the prestigious hospitals of the capital such as AIIMS and Safdarjung hospital. Although these hospitals have some of the best doctors, medical staff and equipment, government apathy and neglect has led to pitiable conditions here, for the thousands of patients who come for treatment daily from all parts of the country. This apathy of the Indian state towards the state run health care services forces millions of toiling people to seek treatment of dubious quality from private doctors and private clinics, while paying through their noses for it. Eventually, when the conditions of the patients deteriorate so much that they can be treated only at the big state run hospitals, they have to face these pitiable conditions.

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President Bush and links with the big capitalists of America

A close look at the team of ministers (called secretaries in America) of President Bush shows that it is a government of big companies and capitalists, not of the American people.

The top four cabinet secretaries, i.e., ministers, are former chief executives of large American companies. Vice-President Cheney was the head of an oil-service company, Halliburton before joining President Bush. Paul O’Neill gave up the position of the Chief Executive of Alcoa, the largest aluminum producer of the world, to become the treasury secretary at the request of President Bush. Donald Rumsfield was heading a company called General Instruments before he became the defence secretary. The close links of President Bush with oil industry are by now well known. Chief Executive of another oil and gas company, Tom Brown, was appointed commerce secretary.

The close links of the armament industry with the American government are starkly revealed if we see who are the next levels of secretaries in the American defence department. Gordon England, secretary of navy, was the chief executive of General Dynamics, a large supplier of missiles and other arms to the navy and air force of America and many other countries. James Roche headed Northrup Grumman before being appointed the secretary of air force. Northrup Grumman is one of the largest suppliers of arms and equipment to the American defence forces. The secretary of army, Thomas White, headed the energy trading division of the notorious Enron Corporation.

The car industry plays a dominant role in the economy of America. Andrew Card was its chief lobbyist in Washington before President Bush appointed him as his chief of staff. So what Andrew Card did for the car industry from outside, he can now do from inside the government.

The Security Exchange Commission (SEC) is supposed to be the all-powerful regulatory body to ensure that the stock market and American companies follow all the rules. This is considered necessary to protect the interests of small investors. Mr. Pitt, head of SEC under the Bush government, used to be a lawyer for the accounting industry, which SEC is supposed to regulate and supervise. SEC is right now investigating ten of Mr. Pitt’s former clients for various types of violations. Mr. Pitt, who used to be the defense lawyer earlier, is now occupying the seat of judge in the SEC and is supposed to act in the interests of millions of small investors of America! President Bush has not stopped at this point to take care of the interests of the big companies. He appointed another two members, out of a five- member Commission, who were earlier executives of the world’s largest accountancy firms, to ensure that accountancy companies act as per the law!!

It is not, therefore, surprising if the Bush government believes what is good for big American corporations is good for American people. The government’s policies seem clearly tailored for (and heavily influenced by) business lobbies operating in Washington. Vice-President Cheney announced an energy plan for America last year. It now appears that the plan was largely written by the energy industry and the executives of Enron Corporation were closely involved in the preparation of the plan. Similarly, the government announced an "economic stimulus plan" this year to revive the American economy out of recession. Its main focus was on how to help big American corporations, and so it announced tax cuts on investments made by companies during the next three years.

In March 2002, the American government imposed a custom duty of 30% on imported steel to protect American steel companies. All the talk and sermon on ‘free trade’, given to the whole world by the American government, was of course forgotten. Similar support was also given to the American lumber and textile industry.

A few months back, the American government introduced a new farm bill to provide larger subsidies supposedly to American farmers. The real purpose was to help American agri-companies, who corner bulk of the subsidies for agriculture in America.

Just after the 11th September, 2001, attack, the airlines industry all over the world received a setback. The American government readily offered $20 billion of doles to American airlines companies to get over the crisis.

And the list goes on and on…

Can the reality be very different in our country? We openly saw a glimpse of the close links of big capitalists and big corporations with the Indian government when Dhirubhai Ambani fell ill and passed away recently.

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Low interest rates help big companies

The financial performance of large companies during the first quarter of the current financial year, April 2002-March 2003, show how low interest rates are helping them to earn higher profit. A study of 802 companies shows that they reduced their interest cost by Rs. 1,138 crore from Rs. 5,223 crore to Rs. 4,095 crore during April-June 2002. The reduction in interest costs by 22 percent helped these companies to increase their profit by a hefty 46 percent. If this saving in interest cost was not available, the increase in profit of these companies would have been only 14 percent and 77 companies would have reported loss instead of profit.

During the last financial year, April 2001-March 2002, a saving in interest cost of Rs. 4,100 crore was reported by 2,270 companies due to reduction of interest rates.

Low interest rates is yet another way of making people pay for super-profits earned by big companies.

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Protests and demonstrations greet Advani in Britain

Demonstrators condemned the communal policy of Indian State and the state organized communal massacre in Gujarat. They also vehemently opposed the growing collaboration of Indian big bourgeoisie with British Imperialist and Anglo-American interference in South Asia.

Reminding Mr. Advani of his direct involvement in Babri Masjid demolition, the demonstrators demanded that criminals like Advani and Narendra Modi should be tried in court and given severe punishment.

This clearly demonstrates that Indians living abroad also hate the communal policy of Indian State.

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55 Years of Independence

Resident Indians in Southall, London take stock

Nearly 200 people participated in the seminar. Representatives of many political organizations put forth their views. Taking stock of 55 years of formal independence, the participants condemned that even after 55 years majority of Indians live in abject poverty and are victims of starvation, while a small minority of exploiters and profiteers have amassed huge wealth. The speakers declared that as long as the colonial legacy and the policy of "divide and rule" continues, the problems facing the people cannot be resolved.

All the speakers expressed their anguish and anger over the recent communal massacre in Gujarat and demanded that the criminals be punished, immediately. They also expressed their concern at the increasing marginalization and devastation of workers, peasants and middle strata, under the policy of globalization through privatization and liberalization, heightening tension and war-mongering between India and Pakistan, increasing militarization and Anglo-American interference in South Asia region.

The participants in the seminar concluded that although India gained independence 55 years back, colonial institutions and idea still continue to exist and system of exploitation has not come to an end. This is the root of all the problems that Indians face. Making clean break with colonial legacy and creation of a political and economic system, that puts interest of people at the center stage, is of immediate importance.

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