Government of India has taken several steps in the name of addressing the economic crisis. A close look at these measures shows that their real aim is to deploy public funds to protect the high profit rates of the Tatas, Reliance, Birlas and other big monopoly houses. No measures are being taken to protect the livelihood of working people. On the contrary, it is their tax money and their deposits with banks that are being deployed to bail out the capitalists. Saving corporate profits is being equated with saving the country. All working people must uncompromisingly oppose this course.

In the name of addressing the problems created by the global economic crisis, the Manmohan Singh government in India has taken a number of steps over the past few weeks. These include:

Government spokesmen claim that all these measures are essential for addressing the problems created by the global crisis. The direct and immediate aim of these measures is to put more public money into the hands of the big banks and corporate houses, so as to protect their high profit rates. In short, the aim is to prevent profits of monopoly capitalists from falling.

The measures taken by the Petroleum and Commerce ministries are targeted at protecting profit rates of companies in specific industrial sectors, such as aviation, iron and steel. More such “relief packages” are being proposed and demanded by big business associations for textiles, cement and other sectors. Tax revenue that belongs to the whole nation is being sacrificed to boost the profits of big capitalist corporations.

Government of India is reported to be considering the demand of the corporate houses to create a ‘sovereign wealth fund’ out of the country’s foreign exchange reserves. This is aimed at ensuring adequate supply of dollar funds for Indian big capitalists to buy up more companies abroad.

Raising the limit on foreign ownership of insurance companies is an example of the big bourgeoisie using the crisis as an opportunity to push through 'reforms' which have been consistently opposed by the working class and various parties in Parliament. Allowing 24% foreign ownership has already led to the entry of 33 foreign insurance companies, to operate alongside the 8 state owned insurance companies in the country. About Rs. 2500 crore of foreign capital has flowed into the insurance sector over the past decade. The latest Cabinet decision is aimed at maintaining and further accelerating this trend – to make insurance in India a lucrative business, oriented towards profit maximization.

Conclusions

Putting more money into the hands of big banks, and shoring up the profits of the Tatas, Reliance, Birlas and other big business houses, is not a solution to the economic crisis. Governments in the US and other so-called advanced countries have handed out enormous amounts of public money to bail out big financial corporations. Did this solve the economic crisis or lead to job protection? No, far from it! In spite of the massive bailouts, economic growth in North America and Europe is projected to turn negative in 2009. Over 12 lakh workers have already been thrown out of jobs in the US in 2008. There will be even more in 2009.

Robbing the working people to enrich the big capitalists is actually the source of the problem of economic recession. More of the same will not lead to its solution. It will only further aggravate the problem of economic recession. (see Economic Recession and the Way Out)

The working class and people cannot and must not fall for the bourgeois propaganda that equates saving the capitalists with saving the country. Protecting the profits of big capitalists has nothing to do with protecting the livelihood of the workers and peasants. Using public funds to protect corporate profits means to shift the burden of the crisis on to the backs of the toiling masses. This can and must be opposed by all the workers, peasants and their organizations.