Notes on GST Bill: An Integral Part of the Neo-liberal Reform Agenda

All the big economic reforms that have been offered to us especially in the last three decades have been generally accompanied with much fanfare and great enthusiasm on the part of ruling establishments. GST is no different. When polices of liberalization, deregulation and privatization were mooted in late 80’s and early 90’s, we were told that it will end the troublesome licence-permit raj and thus would help in curbing corruption. When the rates of direct taxes were lowered albeit gradually, we were told that it will increase voluntary tax compliance and widen tax base, and as a result curb the black economy. But most would agree that the real life experiences have been much different from what was promised. Corruption has ballooned to great heights from what it was during the much derided licence-permit raj and the graph of black money economy as a percentage of GDP has only gone one way in all these years!

It is argued that Goods and Services Tax (GST) is one key reform that will give a much needed boost to the Indian economy that is still reeling in the aftermath of the global recession. The ruling establishment has also been able to build a larger consensus on it as compared to other big reforms on its priority agenda such as the Land Bill and labour reforms. The protagonists of GST argue that it will promote free movement of goods and services in the country by building a common national market. They argue that the present multiple taxes and varied rates for goods in different states hampers the emergence of this much needed common market. The present indirect tax regime also results in cascading effect through double taxation (as taxes are levied on taxes already included in value as goods pass from one hand to another), which has created a situation where voluntary tax compliance is lower and several exemptions and multiple rates in various states has narrowed down the possible tax ambit. They argue that GST could effectively address all of these issues.
GST is an indirect tax that would replace many of the existing indirect taxes such as Cenvat (levied on production of goods, earlier known as Excise tax) and Service tax levied by the Central government and VAT (popularly known as sales tax), Octroi, luxury tax etc levied by State government with one single unified value added tax regime.

Constitutional Question

The present constitutional arrangement allows State governments the exclusive rights to levy taxes on sales and purchases of goods. Hence the GST Bill has taken the form of Constitution (122nd Amendment) Bill to enable the introduction of unified GST which would be value added tax on production, consumption and sale of both goods and services. With this Bill passed, States will lose their federal power guaranteed in the constitution of deciding which goods to be taxed or exempted, or to decide on tax rates that may suit state specific conditions. The Bill proposes a new constitutional body named GST council which would be controlled by the Central Government as it will have one-third voting rights. It is important to note here that VAT (Sales tax) is the single most important source of tax revenue for states, accounting for about 60-80 per cent of their total revenue generation. The proposed constitutional body will thus effectively takes away the right of elected legislatures and parliament to legislate independently on the subject of taxation. 

Centre-State relations 

The fact that the introduction of GST would negate the existing exclusive constitutional rights of States to levy taxes on sale and purchase of goods has raised concerns on the part of some state governments that it impacts the federal structure of the constitution. Tamil Nadu has been the most vocal state so far to raise this issue with AIADMK filing a formal dissent note in the Rajya Sabha demanding 100 percent compensation for five years, but Central government believes that its proposed promise to compensate states for loss of revenue for five years (100 percent in first three years, 75 percent in fourth year and 50 percent in last year) should allay their fears and would bring most of the regional parties on board. The Central government has also proposed the right for producing states to levy one percent additional tax. But some are arguing that this will again lead to a cascading effect and the proposal has become a bone of political contention with Congress opposing it in its dissent note filed in Rajya Sabha. Petroleum Products, Tobacco and Alcohol for human consumption have for the time being kept out of GST purview and the proposed GST council has been empowered to decide the time of implementation of GST on these products. But this too has raised questions, with AIADMK insisting that a provision should be inserted to keep them permanently out of the purview of GST. These products are major source of revenue for State govts.

Many of the regional parties despite the recent debate have refused to state their positions on GST. They seem more concerned with using GST as a bargaining chip for state level political negotiations rather than protecting the federal character of India. Ironically the CPI(M), which has long experience of running state governments and has long been an advocate of more power to the States, voted in support of GST when it was passed in the Lok Sabha in May 2015. However in the Rajya Sabha the left parties have filed a dissent note highlighting mainly the concerns about federalism raised by the GST bill with the demand that the voting rights of the Central government in the GST council should be reduced to one-fourth from proposed one-third. AIADMK too has insisted on this and it is the Rajya Sabha where the NDA govt found the going tough as it is dependent on Congress and other regional parties for GST bill to be passed.

 People’s Perspective

One important argument against the GST is that it impacts on the federal structure given in the Constitution by taking away rights of the States to plan their tax revenue based on their specific socio-economic situation and social sector spending requirements. It also takes away their rights to tax commodities of mass consumption at lower rates if necessary. But barring this point, which has been highlighted to some extent in ongoing discourse, the main opposition against GST from a people’s perspective comes when one looks at the proposed 'big bang' reform in the field of indirect taxation as an integral part of the overall neo-liberal policy direction of successive governments in the country which has been proving detrimental to people in various ways. Corporate and big capital seeks an integrated common market through GST for free movement of goods and services produced by it. Meanwhile local production of various essential goods of mass consumption is under threat as the unorganized sector will find it difficult to computerize its operation for issuing bills, receipts etc for compliance with GST while having to face increased competition from Corporate and MNC products. The operation of ‘market’ forces in the GST regime is likely to throw many of the small entities out of production creating increased unemployment which in turn will put further downward pressure on the existing stagnant wage market. It is not difficult to see that other big reforms such as FDI in retail and ‘Make in India’ can be most effective on the ground from the corporate perspective only if indirect tax reforms such as GST become operational. This concern of the Corporate lobby to create market space for themselves by displacing small scale production through measures such as GST was best highlighted by Adi Godrej when he recently went to the extent of saying that the GST bill is even more important than the Land Bill! It is this corporate interest in the GST bill which is pushing the NDA govt to get it passed to meet the April 1, 2016 deadline at any cost.

Genesis of GST rests in overall neoliberal philosophy 

The push towards GST internationally from 1970s onwards results from the demand of international finance for an investor friendly regime that promotes ‘ease of doing business’. The government is not willing to increase corporate taxes for raising revenue and there is limited scope to raise revenue from individual income taxes beyond a limit. Hence the increased push for reforms such as GST, as it is difficult to evade indirect taxes. The burden of taxation is imposed on common people especially those working and toiling masses and peasants who don’t deserve to pay taxes, whose wages are already falling and facing increased inequality in greater proportion. GST is naturally regressive in nature as indirect taxes have to be paid by all at same rate regardless of income. This renewed emphasis on reform of indirect taxation worldwide can’t be understood by ignoring the overall policy framework which created a situation of reduced corporate tax while increasing tax ‘ambit’ and ‘compliance’ for indirect tax through reforms such as GST.

While some procedural improvements and even rationalization for a few commodities may be needed in the indirect taxes regime, the haste with which the Modi government has pushed the GST bill in the Rajya Sabha at the end of the Monsoon Session, after it was washed out due to the brazenness of the government in the face of serious corruption allegations, shows that the NDA government was keen to give a message to the corporate world about its seriousness on the proposed GST reform. It will certainly go out of its way to get this cleared as soon as possible as an important part of its neo-liberal reform package agenda. This measure seeks to increase the ratio of the burden of taxation on the people in the long term, while the government’s intentions of favouring the corporates and the rich are clear as it does not want to reduce hefty exemptions and tax reductions being given to them. 

Tailpiece: The Government proposes uniform tax rates throughout the county, irrespective of local conditions; one wonders what stops the Government from ensuring uniform Minimum Wage rates across the country? Such a move will not need any Constitutional amendment, unlike the GST. When every field of production is today dependent on migrants, labour has already been universalised; why not the wages?

Critique of the demand for hanging the Rapist including Juvenile

Resist the demand for hanging Juvenile!
Stand firmly behind demand for ‘Azaadi’ for Women!!

One of the offenders in the Delhi gang rape case has been determined as juvenile by the court. He is also considered to be the main accused that has meted out the most brutal treatment to the rape victim. This has understandably revived the call for 'Hang the Culprit', 'Reduce the age of Juvenile from 18 to 16 years', Chemical castration and so on. The movement against sexual violence which started after Damini gang-rape has one most strong, visible and committed stream, which has consistently taken the position that hanging the culprit, is not an option. They have instead said that what is needed is swift punishment to the culprits, reforming police and judicial administration and to address the very root of this sexual violence by hitting hard at notion of Patriarchy itself which puts men above women in societal hierarchy. As a step towards this end they have raised the slogans which demands 'Azaadi' for women in every sphere of life starting from 'home' itself. They are raising the slogans mahilayeh maange 'azaadi', deen mai, raat mai, ghar mai, padhneh keh, job keh, office mai, metro mai, shaadi karne keh azaadi, kisi sheh beh karneh keh azaadi, kapdeh pehneh keh azaadi  and so on. These slogans basically go at the very root of patriarchy which seeks to control women in the name of protecting them. These slogans also challenge those who blame the victims of sexual violence for gruesome acts. Those who are saying hang the culprit including juvenile generally shy away from raising these slogans. Why? It is because they very simplistically and to an extent deliberately see sexual violence as an individual phenomenon or aberration and thinks that those who violate these social norms are animals and deserve to be hanged! Are they really animals, the hanging of whom will cleanse the society from the vice of patriarchy which seeks to curtail, restrict and control women independent decision making in every possible way and not just through sexual violence?

The 'theory' that hanging will create a deterrent suffers from the basic lacunae since it fails to appreciate that legal deterrent effect too can only be ensured by systemic changes in the way that complaints of sexual offences is registered, investigated and prosecuted in the police and judicial system and not by one-off hanging in many years. One of the major reasons for delay in rendering justice in sexual offences too boils down to the fact that vice of patriarchal notion is very much ingrained in the mindset of police and judicial administration and tend to get reflected frequently in their irresponsible statements which blames victims of sexual violence themselves for the crimes. Unless these officers are made legally accountable for their patriarchal utterances, no timely justice can be hoped. So any deterrent that is required to be put in place first is against the patriarchal mindset in police and judicial administration, which only can ensure timely justice for victims of sexual violence in systemic way in all cases. If through such changes justice is ensured in majority of cases in time bound manner than only legal deterrent will be effective by increasing the conviction rate which is at shamelessly low level of 26 percent in rape cases in 2011 even if punishment only amounts to minimum sentence of seven years in case of rape. 'Hang the rapist' protagonist  tries to put horse before cart by arguing that one-off hanging will become a deterrent.         

On expected lines, protagonists of hanging the juvenile are running away from taking the position that Justice J.S. Verma Committee report should be implemented in entirety. The report has key recommendations which ensure justice for women in case of different forms of sexual assault by recognizing new forms of sexual violence. The report also recommends to recognize marital rape legally for the first time in the history of the independent India and seeks to bring the Army men who are guilty of hundreds of brutal rapes and murders of women in Kashmir and North-East within the ambit of ordinary law by removing impunity enjoyed by them under draconian acts like AFSPA. RSS Chief Mohan Bhagwat and self appointed Godman Aasaram have already attracted the ire of people for their patriarchal statements. There statements were very near to the defence lawyer of the accused of the Delhi gang rape case who has the audacity even after this horrific incident to say that in India women with ‘honour’ don’t get rapped! When these people are attacked for making statements blaming the victims and in the process defending the accused, they generally take the defence that how can we be against women, we stand for hanging the rapist!! People standing firmly for the movement against sexual violence and for ‘Azaadi’ for women needs to understand and expose this politics which tires to sustain patriarchal values in society by hiding behind demand for hanging the rapist.

Some people are arguing that the guilty was just few months short of 18 years, so exception should be made in this case. This is legally untenable as laws are made for all with the tenant that everyone is equal in front of law. Secondly, if age be reduced from 18 to 16 years, what is the guarantee that such demands wouldn’t arise again to reduce the age even below 16 years in some other incident. What would be the minimum age limit for hanging then? Moreover, such demands fails to address (and in fact attempts to hide) the basic vice of patriarchy prevalent in the society which creates the misogynist responsible for these brutal crimes but tries to pinpoint and centre the brutal crime on an ‘individual’ in an attempt to maintain complete silence on the question of much needed social transformation in attitude towards women.

 The Verma committee too has opined against the demands for hanging the rapist, reducing the age of juvenile and chemical castration  after thorough, reasoned and in-depth analysis. If one try to draw an analogy even if not perfect such demands is like Talibani and Saudi Arabian brutal practice of mutilating the penis of rapist but can anyone say that this medieval system of justice has been able to ensure ‘Azaadi’ for half the population in those places!!

The need of the hour for the movement against sexual violence and for 'azaadi' for women thus boils down to identify and pin down the voices of patriarchy which are raising their ugly head by raising the superficial and inhuman demand of hanging the juvenile to deflect the demand for ‘Azaadi’ which can at the moment be best addressed by standing firmly behind the demand for implementation of J.S. Verma Committee report on which ruling establishment have maintained complete silence.

Defeat this 'politics of silence' of ruling establishment by standing firmly behind the demand for implementation of J.S. Verma Committee report in entirety.

Fact Finding Report on the Rapes in Haryana

A team of leaders and activists of AIPWA and AISA visited Haryana on 12-13 October, to investigate the alarming spate of rape cases in the state. The team comprised of AIPWA National Secretary Kavita Krishnan, JNU Students’ Union Councillor Anubhuti Bara, and AISA activists from Delhi University, Prerna and Saurabh Naruka. The team was accompanied by Comrade Prem Singh Gehlawat, in-charge of the CPI(ML) for Haryana.   

Findings and observations of the team are as follows:

Dabra Case

Reshma (name changed), aged 16 years, belonging to Dalit community (Chamar) was gangraped by 8 persons on September 9, 2012 near Dabra village in Hisar district.

Rape and Resistance – A Survivor’s Account

“On September 9, I was on the way to my grandmother’s (and maternal uncle’s) home in Hisar town, around 3 pm, when I was dragged into a car in which there were 8 men, and taken to a deserted place near a tube-well. They made phone calls after which four more arrived on bikes. They (12 in all) all raped me, and filmed the act. They also threatened me that they would kill me and attack my family if I said anything. They forced me to swallow a pill, after which I became drowsy. When I came to, I came to the main road, hitched a lift on a passing bike and returned home.

I said nothing for nearly 10 days. My mother and I went to stay at my grandmother’s place on 11^th. On 18^th, my father came there and my parents both began asking me what the matter was. They had noticed that I was silent and depressed. Eventually I broke down and told them. My father then wanted to take me to the thana to file a complaint, but for some reason – hesitation or some pressure, I don’t know why – did not do that.

He left the house and went with my mother to the house of Randeep Surjewala’s mother-in-law (Surjewala is a Congress MLA and Industries Minister in the Haryana Govt), where he (my father) worked as a gardener. I heard that her security guard (associated with Punjab Police) showed my father the video of my rape. My father then sent my mother back to my grandmother’s home. And he then took poison and committed suicide.

On the same day, we went and filed an FIR. Dalit leaders with the help of villagers held a candle light protest, demanding action by the police. We said that we will hold a dharna and refuse to accept my father’s body for last rites, till the police arrests the accused. The dharna began on 19^th. One of the accused is the nephew of the former MLA (elected from INLD), Puran Singh, who stays in the same village. Eventually we called off the dharna on 23^rd, after the police made the first arrest.  

I was shown photographs, and I made a positive identification of one of the rapists, and was unsure about another. But the police took the latter into remand, and beat that poor chap up badly, but did not take the one I had positively identified, into remand, though they did keep him in custody. Now, however, 8 of the accused have been arrested. The Test Identification Parade has not yet taken place, so I cannot say whether these 8 are indeed the culprits.   

Since most of the accused are from the Jat community, the Sarpanch and other influential Jats in the village are protecting them. They even tried, through someone, to try to offer me Rs 2 crore to withdraw the case.

The accused live in the same village, in the area where the Jats live. Many of the accused have a criminal background. One of them is accused of killing a Jay boy, and a Chamar (Dalit) boy. Other rapes have occurred, many of them with Dalit girls, at the same spot. But Dalits work under Jats, and so are scared or reluctant to speak out.    

The family of the Chamar boy who was brutally murdered have come forward to help us.

Where Jats are accused of rape, there are many powerful people to protect them. When Dalits rape someone from the Jat community, the entire Dalit community would be attacked. In our own village, a Dalit youth who fell in love with a Jat girl was killed. The girl was told to invite him home since her family had agreed to the marriage; they packed the girl off somewhere and killed the Dalit youth.   

Sonia Gandhi came to Haryana to visit the family of a rape victim. The media kept asking me that day – why didn’t she come here? How can I answer that – would she phone me to let me know the reason?! The fact is that she won’t come here for fear of antagonising the Jat vote for the Congress. 

The Government has promised my brother a job – but they are offering him a job that is not permanent.

I would like to go to school – but I feel I can’t go to the same school. I guess I will join a school that is further away.

Persistent Fear

Pushpa Barad and her daughter Sunita Barad (Reshma’s neighbours), told us that there are only three lanes in the village where Chamars live. There are about 500 Jat households, and 300 Dalit households(including Chamar, Dhanak and other Dalit communities.)  

So the Chamars and other Dalits feel very vulnerable. Since the gang-rape, Sunita said she has stopped attending the training classes (towards a job) that she had enrolled for. The reason is that her brother was threatened by Jat men that his sister would not be safe as long as Reshma persisted in her case. Other Dalit girls too are scared to go to school.

There is a 24-hour police watch around Reshma’s house – but the rest of the Dalit community also seek police protection. 

Pushpa told us that the former MLA Puran Singh family is quite influential locally, and the daughter of OmPrakash Chautala has also been married in their family.  

Local Congress MLA Ram Niwas visited the victim family but showed his helplessness when he said that he can’t do much as he is still only ‘under training’!

      

Arrests of the Accused

Baljit, one of the accused, was arrested on September 23. We were told that this arrest took place when a girl student from the Jat community spotted him on a bus and tipped off the police. The police too confirmed this.

Several others among the accused were picked up from Ranikhet, Uttarakhand. The 8 now arrested have been apprehended with the help of villagers, some of them Jats. 

The Sarpanch

The Sarpanch of the village is Mayawati Kaliravana, a woman, but her husband Inder is the one who goes by the title of Sarpanch. She (Mayawati) says she visited the rape survivor, but Inder admitted that while he had met her relatives, he had not actually met the survivor.

Inder denied that any help or protection was being given to the accused. He said that the accused were criminals, and had misbehaved with Jat girls just as well.    

Involvement of Non-Jat Accused

Not all the accused in the case are from the Jat community. Many we spoke to suggested that the rape survivor had gone to the spot of the rape, of her own accord, with a man on a two-wheeler. This man, they said, is from the ‘Chhippi’ (tailor) community and is married and has children. The Sarpanch’s husband Inder said this man has a mobile phone shop, and helped make the MMS.

We must stress, though, that none we spoke to denied that the gang-rape occurred or that the Jat boys were responsible for the gang-rape.    

The SP, however, said that this man from the Chippi community was a chemist, and had given the girl a contraceptive pill. When he and the girl emerged from the shack at the tube-well, they were surrounded by the Jat boys who had spotted them, roughed up the girl’s companion and raped her. According to the police, the accused had taken photographs of the girl at the time of the incident, but had not made or circulated an MMS. These photographs, though deleted from the phones of the accused, had been recovered through technology. They showed the girl weeping, and the faces of several of the accused, and were therefore valuable evidence. The man from the Chippi community too has been arrested. 

Was this, then, a caste crime?

The police seem to believe, based on the above version, that the gang-rape was of an opportunist rather than a pre-planned nature. Therefore, they seem to assume that the gang-rape should not be seen as a crime against Dalits.

It is true that a girl of any other community in the same situation, too might be vulnerable to rape. But what cannot be ignored is that these were Jat youth from the same village – who recognised Reshma as a Dalit girl from their village. Was this not a factor in emboldening them to rape, confident of their impunity as members of the dominant community. Their confidence that they could terrorise her into silence, surely arose not only from the gendered and patriarchal notion of ‘shame’ imposed on her, but also on the fact that she was a Dalit who would think many times before daring to take on Jats.

Moreover, the fear and insecurity of the Dalit community following the gang-rape is palpable.  

What if it is true that a married man from the backward Chippi community took Reshma along to the deserted spot with her consent? If true, this fact would in no way take away from the horrific crime of gang-rape that was committed by the other men – all Jats.

Hence, the SC/ST Act must be invoked in this case.    

Conflicting Versions?

We hold that there is no substantial conflict in the versions of the incident regarding the actual gang-rape. 

If (as has been suggested by some) the rape survivor has been reluctant to admit that she voluntarily accompanied a man to the spot, that is all too understandable. She would fear the social consequences of such an admission; the speculations about her morality that would follow; she would fear that her allegations of gang-rape would be questioned; and she might also not want to implicate the man with whom she had been friendly.

Can one blame her? She has seen the ruling party (Congress) spokesperson from her district say that 90% rape cases are consensual. Women in our society are told that if you agree to sex or even friendships with men before or outside marriage, why do you object to rape?

Social inhibitions of the rape survivor regarding admitting to a relationship, must not be made a pretext to undermine the credibility of her allegation of gang-rape.   

   

Pressures on the Survivor?

We learnt that the rape survivor had named some of the accused in the FIR, but in her statement before a magistrate, she failed to name any of the accused.  

There are indications of pressures on the survivor, not only from influential members of the dominant community as well as vested political interests from her own community. Some accounts suggested that the latter too were attempting to make political capital from the incident, while tacitly weakening the case by misguiding the survivor.

Our demands:

1.     The rape survivor is especially courageous and brave. All efforts must be made to ensure that the Government backs her aspirations for education, and also ensures a job for her, not just for her brother.

2.     Every effort must be made by the authorities to ensure protection and support for the rape survivor, to ensure that she does not come under any pressure, inducement, or advice by vested interests to ‘compromise’.

3.     The case must be fast-tracked, since the more time passes, the more scope there is for the accused to bring pressure on the victim.

4.     Rehabilitation for the family and schooling and higher education for the survivor be arranged as per their wishes

Banwasa Case

Naveena (name changed), a girl belonging to landless ‘Dhanak’ (Dalit Community) was gang raped by four persons on Sep 26, 2012. She was 18 years old and had been married just three months back.

Her father Karmaji is a ‘rajmistri’ with five siblings-3 sisters and 2 brothers. At the time of the incident, she was at her paternal house in Banwasa village of Gohana tehsil of Sonipat district.

The incident

Naveena was alone at her parental home when she received a message from her cousin Rambatheri that her husband is waiting for her at Gohana bus. Rambatheri apparently passed on the message given on phone by Shravan (one of the accused). Naveena’s brother, in the course of the conversation, later said that the call had in fact been made to Naveena’s bhabhi Malti. 

Falling in the trap she left for Gohana around 10 am on September 26, not to return for next two days. Her brother Gurmit Singh returned from his school at 2 pm when he found that Sunila was not at home after which he spread the word. The worried family made calls to relatives enquiring about her, including to her husband Sunil, staying at Adiyana village of Panipat district, who said she had not returned to his home.

They were not able to trace Naveena on September 27 and 28, after which they informed the police on September 29. In the meantime, Naveena was abducted in a car in broad daylight from Gohana bus stand by the four accused. They took her to Hartadi in Panipat district where she was gangraped for two days.

The Village Sarpanch who belongs to same community as Naveena assisted the family in tracking her. The police, taking the lead from Shravan’s mobile number, nabbed the culprits on September 29.

Three of the accused belongs to same ‘Dhanak’ community. The fourth accused of Sikandara Manjara village belongs to Brahmin community.

We had gone in the daytime, so Naveena was away working in the fields. We were unable to meet her in spite of our efforts, so many unanswered questions remain about the incident.

Our Demands:

Protection to the rape survivor, speedy trial, and punishment for those identified by the survivor as the rapists. 

Sachhakheda case

Sharmila, aged 16 years, committed suicide after being raped by Pradeep and Naveen in broad day light on Oct 6, 2012. The accused were assisted in the crime by Manoj, Meenu (Manoj’s wife) and Sanjeev.

The victim as well as the accused belongs to same Balmiki community.

The Incident

While Sharmila was returning home she was dragged into Manoj’s house, near her own house, by one of the accused, Pradeep. While she was being raped Manoj, Meenu and Sanjeev kept guard.

After the incident the girl later went to her uncle house nearby, poured kerosene on her body and immolated herself. On hearing her screams, the neighbours rushed to the spot and informed the police.

She was taken to Narwana Hospital in police van and was referred to Rohtak hospital. Her statement was recorded by the Magistrate only after much persuasion and delay, before she succumbed to her injuries at the emergency ward of the hospital.

One of the accused Manoj is related to the sitting MLA Prithvi Singh of INLD of Narwana constituency. After the initial lapse the police was able to nab all the accused in the next two days. However, Sharmila’s family was apprehensive that Manoj might escape punishment.

The Sarpanch of Saccha Kheda village, Nirmala, was initially reluctant to discuss the case, leaving it to her husband Ram Bhagat to do the talking. Eventually they both adopted the refrain, “The guilty should be punished but the innocent should not face unjust action,” indicating that in their view Manoj and Meenu are being unjustly accused. But they could not explain what motive Sharmila’s family had to level false accusations on anyone. The Sarpanch’s home had several large photographs and displays dedicated to the Chautala family and the INLD.   

As per some news reports the accused have also made advances earlier on Sharmila which was duly informed to the police but no action was taken.

Our Demands

1.     The rapists, as well as those who enabled the rape by preventing the victim’s escape, must be punished severely. 

2.     Measures must be taken to prevent any of the accused from taking refuge behind political protection. 

General Observations and Conclusions

  

The spate of rape cases in Haryana is cause enough for concern. The CM, Bhoopinder Hooda, has said there is nothing alarming about these incidents since they are not unique to Haryana. Sonia Gandhi too has said that the Haryana Government cannot be held responsible for the rapes. 

However, it is impossible to deny that the Government, as well as the entire ruling establishment including the ruling party and the main Opposition party, are deeply culpable for the rising instances of rapes and other crimes against women.

Dharmveer Goyat, one of the spokespersons for the ruling Congress, has declared that 90% of rapes are consensual. In other words, most rape complainants are liars, in his view.

Phool Chand Mulana, Chief of Haryana’s ruling party, the Congress, declared that the rapes are a conspiracy against the Government.

Khap panchayat leaders and former Haryana CM Om Prakash Chautala proposed child marriage as a solution to prevent rape. ‘Child marriage’ – i.e marriage before the age of 16 – is something the khap panchayats have long been demanding. Because marriage in childhood can help achieve their objective of preventing self-choice marriages – that they otherwise seek to achieve through threats of violence and ‘honour’ killings. When Haryana DGP R S Dalal said parents need to keep an eye on the activities of their children, he too is advocating greater surveillance – mainly on the mobility of young girls.     

Rape itself is one way of maintaining patriarchal and caste domination through terror. And these reactionary ‘solutions’ for rape only seek to strengthen the patriarchal stranglehold on women.  

The fact is that casteist and patriarchal forces are feeling emboldened because they feel that the Haryana Government and the police are with them. The Government and police have time and again protected the perpetrators of ‘honour crimes’ and atrocities against dalits be it at Bhagana, Mirchhpur, or Gohana. And this is undoubtedly a factor in the increasing rapes and other forms of violence on women.

We hear praise from some quarters nowadays for the Haryana Government’s efforts to campaign against sex-selective abortion by roping in the khap panchayats. The khap panchayats have also offered their services in preventing and punishing rape – suggesting that social boycott of rapists would be a deterrent. We believe that such initiatives are dishonest and misleading. Violence against women – be it rape, ‘honour’ crimes or sex-selective abortion - can be resisted and curbed only by measures that safeguard and promote women’s equality and rights and by struggles against patriarchal forces, attitudes, and structures. The solution to crimes against women cannot come from those very patriarchal forces that are the bulwark of sexist and misogynist attitudes.

Rather than claiming to rope in khap panchayats to fight crimes on women, the Haryana Government ought rather to heed the demands of women’s groups, act firmly against the anti-constitutional activities of khap panchayats; and come down hard on any instances of collusion between police forces and khap panchayats or others accused of crimes against women and Dalits.  

Team Kejriwal and Left

Team kejriwal after their decision to go political, even at the cost of split with their face of anti-corruption crusade Anna Hazare has certainly traveled some distance politically, away from their initial position of targeting UPA alone. They are now not demanding just 'JanLokpal Bill' but 'Vyavasthah Parivarthan' and are openly targeting both Congress and BJP with their abilities to 'expose' corruption scams almost on daily basis with backing of electronic media. They have even raise their level of demand to transfer 'Krishana Godavari' basin away from Reliance to some public sector company like ONGC after their latest 'exposure' on Reliance. They are time and again saying that 'Crony Capitalism' (are they willing to live with 'reformed' capitalism!!!) is resulting in a scenario where precious natural resources are being 'privatized' to benefit particular corporates and demanded transparency in the process. As a solution to the presumed evil of crony capitalism with its roots in corporate-political nexus Kejriwal is pointing out that it won't make much difference whether Congress or BJP rules and what is needed is 'Vyvastha Parivartan'. Most of these things have been pointed out by Left forces in India too for long though not with the advantage of media glare as Team Kejriwal enjoys for obvious reasons. It would be interesting to see what 'Vyvastha Parivartan' of Kejriwal entails since to trace and define the issue as crony capitalism would mean that their movement against corruption is restricted to demanding certain reforms within the limits of present neo-liberal policy framework like competitive bidding of natural resources, transparency and accountability in government functioning through institutions like Lokpal and doesn't seeks to widen its ambit to address the logic of market fundamentalism which is depriving 70 -80 percent of population of its basic needs through perpetuating glaring inequalities. When capitalism is not getting any substantial ideological challenge, most of these developments on the face of it do sound positive for most of us on Left of political spectrum and with added advantage of corporate electronic media may make some sense for 'few' on Left to go along with their call to people of the country to raise their banner of 'revolt' presumably for 'Vyavasthah parivarthan'. Since we on Left have always been raising similar sought of demands, especially after liberalization of early 1990's, for building ‘People Democratic Revolution' on road to Socialism should study these developments carefully with eye on present state of crisis of global capitalism.

 At the same time we shouldn't forget that it was the agrarian revolution on which we have put our basis of revolution through goal of radical land reforms (since about 60 percent of population of country is still dependent on agriculture) along with working class assertion for which this 'movement' has nothing to say for the time being even in their 'draft vision statement'. This is significant as it is to be understood that when Kejriwal talks about pushing the decision making power below to 'people' through institutions of gram panchayat in his book 'Swaraj' for making government and bureaucracy accountable to curb corruption, he misses the pertinent point that this can't be achieved just through some administrative and legal reforms. What would be needed is to break the socio-economic hegemony of ruling elite (landed aristocracy in left terminology) by usurping in radical land reforms. This can only ensure true 'swaraj'  at grass root levels by making Panchayati Raj institutions (PRIs) more democratic and responsive to needs of rural masses as opposed to rural elites which are presently behaving as lackeys of ruling classes of the country at local levels by controlling PRIs. For the working class too (not to confused with few privileged working at high pays in metropolis in private sector but to be understood as more than 85 percent workers toiling at below subsistence wages in unorganized sector), who creates the wealth that is being usurped away through loot by massive corruption scams on which Team kejriwal basis its movement, the draft vision document has sadly not much to offer. The document only says, 'it should be responsibility of State to provide full employment at appropriate wages' (sounds like Directive Principle of our beloved constitution which is being implemented from last 60 years!!) and 'there should be appropriate safety net for workers in unorganized sector' (Five year Plan!!). The document fails to be nearer even to the minimum demand that has been made by progressive movements of workers, youths and students in the country that 'Right to Employment' be made fundamental right and contract workers in unorganized sector be made permanent to ensure security of employment which is needed to enforce the right of collective bargaining won by working class through their historical struggle to determine wages. 

 Despite our demand of reversal of policies of liberalization and privatization after 1990's, we should be clear that there was not even an attempt to build socialism in India from 1950-90 despite rhetoric with larger share of 'State' public sector undertaking, as its basis, due to prevailing bourgeois-feudalistic class nature of State (which is the very basis of theory and practice of M-L). With the social basis of their movement largely in upper middle and middle classes which tends to dominate opinion making in society but are presently under sway of bourgeois framework, it is very much a possibility that to appease masses their demand and actions may take rhetoric nearer to left forces for a short span of time but are in reality bourgeois reformist in nature. For bourgeois to survive as a ruling class in long run it may be willing even to offer some concessions to such reformist movement (which are based largely on moralistic appeal along with demand for some administrative and legal reforms rather than concrete class analysis) in order to blacken out their adverse impact on majority toiling masses.  These developments under sway of exploitative system based on perpetuating  inequality  is to some extent similar to 'radical' call of Indira Gandhi of 'garibi hatoh' to appease masses in her battle to usurp leadership within the internal struggle of bourgeois class. This was done even at cost of nationalization of few industries like coal and banking at that time not to benefit masses at large but to maintain exploitative bourgeois system (some on 'left' did get fall in trap even at that time by failing to identify the true nature and class orientation of her movement) at hour of its then crisis. Later JP movement of 70's in absence of concrete class orientation and sound ideological basis to back its call of 'total revolution' met a fate of reformist movement despite much larger mass appeal. Similarly even in present crisis of capitalist-imperialist system of USA there was nationalization or support from public sector during last Obama regime to protect bourgeois system in pretext of saving jobs but can anyone truly on Left even think of it as revolutionary step!. Thus targetting of Ambanis by kejriwal movement and their demand of transferring Krishna Godavari basin to public sector undertaking need to be taken with pinch of salt.    

In every crisis of capitalism there are such forces which may sound revolutionary on momentary basis but Communists should be careful to analyze these forces for their real intention by relying on evolving M-L theory and practice to decide their approach to them. This is specially so when state of decadent corrupt prevailing bourgeois system in the country is at such abysmally low level historically that even call for some reforms in the system may sound 'revolutionary' in its appeal. Such reformist movements generally tend to only perpetuate the hegemony of bourgeois system over the masses by strengthening it internally through some reforms within the system. Some on left may argue that communists should interact with such reformist forces to deepen the content of the movement but the historical experience of tailing behind bourgeois reformist parties has not been very pleasant since it tend to obliterate the essential difference in the eyes of the masses between reformist and revolutionary political formations. As per M-L theory and practice too any alliance with such reformist forces can only be based on independent political orientation along with ensuring organizational independence from position of strength. With these conditions not essentially present, Left on its part should utilize the present deep crisis of the system by channelizing all its energy to build an independent revolutionary mass movement of workers, rural poor, youths and students to further its appeal politically and organizationally without getting trapped into any illusions being created by 'Team Kejriwal' reformist movement.  

Coal Scam: Saga of persistent loot of natural resources within neo-liberal policy framework

UPA government is walking a tight rope as it plunged in yet another massive Coalgate Scam which is allegedly the biggest in the history of the country. Parliament proceedings has been halted for nine continuous days now on the demand of resignation of Prime Minister as he was holding the portfolio of Minister of Coal at time of many of the tainted allocations of captive blocks to favoured private parties. It is feared that whole monsoon session will be white washed without the people of country getting to see a reasoned debate on the scam in the Lok Sabha to fix the responsibility. Ironically it is principle opposition party BJP which is stalling parliamentary proceedings though it is not over the board in the same scam as its Chief Minister of Rajasthan and Chattisgarh are on record in opposing competitive bidding for allocating captive coal mines and more importantly erstwhile NDA govt headed by BJP in 2000 even attempted to open coal mining for commercial purposes by private companies through amending Coal (Nationalisation) Act, 1973. Though, the amendment has not been carried to date in wake of opposition from Left parties and trade unions and was used by the UPA govt as a pretext to continue with the policy of allocation of captive blocks in non-transparent manner!! (More on it later) It can only be left to imagination of what would be the extent of scam in the backdrop of magnitude, which the country witnessed only for captive allocation of coal blocks, if amendment seeking commercial exploitation of coal by private companies would have carried the day. 

Undue benefits through primitive accumulation

CAG in its recently tabled report in Parliament on, ‘Performance Audit on allocation of Coal blocks and augmentation of Coal Production’ has revealed that non-transparent procedures adopted in allocations of captive coal blocks due to lack of competitive bidding has resulted in undue benefit to the tune of staggering Rs 1.86 lakh Crore to the private corporations. How these gains were made possible? It was very much similar to 2G scam where corporate-political nexus worked in a way that made possible the looting of natural resources of the country to allow private parties to reap the benefit in form of windfall gains by transferring precious natural resources to them at dirty cheap prices. Some may argue that it was case of crony capitalism but more than this, it was sophisticated form of ‘Primitive accumulation’ in which all checks of the even bourgeois parliamentary democracy was given a go by to effect direct transfer of natural scarce resources, supposed to be owned collectively by the people of the country through the instrumentality of state, to private corporate interests for hefty gains.

Delaying action on decision to avoid competitive bidding

The scam was perpetuated in a way that government even went on delaying action on its own decision of June 28, 2004 to move ahead with competitive bidding for allocating captive coal blocks in numerous ways. With rumours doing the round in 2004 that change in policy for allocation of captive coal blocks would be effected soon there was mad rush to corner the mines among the corporate within existing beneficial policy framework. Another major reason for rush was substantial rise in price of coal in international market (because of spurt in demand from China) during the period from $ 25-30 per tonne in 2004 to S 180 in July, 2008 opening up the possibility of windfall gains further. At present, it has been settled around the range of $ 100-105 per tonne. Within period of 2004-09 as per CAG report as much as 142 coal blocks was allotted out of which 75 went to private parties. The rush can be understood from the fact that there were only 39 blocks in total that stood allocated as on June, 2004 in all past years.

Rational for competitive bidding

The existing policy which was sought to be changed, which never materialized, was the prevailing method to allocate mines through ‘Inter-Ministerial Screening Committee’ set up through administrative order by then Congress govt headed by Narshima rao in 1992. It is amply clear from the series of documents relied upon by CAG in its report that the PMO repeatedly rejected the explicit recommendation of Secretary (Coal) to shift to the system of competitive bidding as the prevailing system lacked ‘transparency and objectivity’ and results in different kinds of pulls and pressures experienced by the Screening Committee during the selection process.  He also in a way indicated the reason for such pull and pressure when he observed in 2004 note itself on the issue that there was a “substantial difference between the price of coal supplied by Coal India Limited and the cost of coal produced through captive mining,” resulting in a “windfall gain to the party who was allocated a captive block.”  These piece of advice was never followed and Secretary (Coal) stand was later vindicated when CAG report itself observed that there was no transparency in the procedures followed by screening committee as the minutes of the committee failed to record the detailed reasons and rationale for allocation of captive coal blocks to particular private applicant. The Secretary (Coal) stand that allocation under present method would only result in windfall gains to ‘private beneficiaries’ in all likelihood was also proved to be correct as CAG report noted, “Delay in introduction of process of competitive bidding has rendered the existing process beneficial to a large number of private companies as had been observed by then Secretary (Coal) in June, 2004 itself”. As we have already seen the deliberate delay by the govt to effect change in existing policy, in one pretext or the other, for full seven years as resulted in undue gains to private companies of whopping Rs 1.86 lakh Crore.

Pretext for delay

Most relied upon argument to delay the change in policy was that Coal Mines (Nationalisation) Act, 1973 and Mines and Minerals (Development and Regulation) Act, 1957 need to be amended before the shift to competitive bidding could be done. It was so even when Ministry for Law and Justice clearly spelt out in 2006 that there was “no legal impediment” in making the shift without amending the laws as the existing mechanism too has come in existence through administrative order. Prime Minister in his recent statement in parliament on coal scam is now arguing that, “In any case, in a democracy, it is difficult to accept the notion that a decision of the Government to seek legislative amendment to implement a change in policy should come for adverse audit scrutiny.” And reading the argument one remain stuck whether in a democracy the delay in amending the law can be utilized to transfer control of natural resources through existing policy, the limitations of which a senior rank officer is continuously pointing out, and especially when the rate of allocation is rising at an alarming rate from 3-4 blocks per year earlier to 53 coal blocks in 2006, 52 in 2007, 24 in 2008 and 19 in 2009 sufficient to raise eyebrow of any reasonable man with clean intention that something is fishy. 

Flawed argument behind allotting captive blocks

It is to be understood that whenever there is transfer of  resources an element of loss in long run would always accrue to govt due to shift of command and control of ‘stock’ of  natural reserves to private companies. It’s true that allocation through competitive bidding can make the process more fair and transparent but it too can never recover the whole loss inherent in the process of transfer from public control to private control. The point would be further clear when one reads observation in CAG report that, “A part of this financial gain (windfall profit accruing to private companies) could have been tapped by the government by taking timely decision on competitive bidding of allocation of coal blocks.” Thus only a ‘part’ can be recouped by the process of competitive bidding. This is for the simple reason that private companies would only exploit natural reserves in a way that can satisfy their ‘profit’ motive. The govt. only facilitated this profiteering when it allowed Reliance Power’s ultra mega projects (UMPPs) at Sasan and Tilaiya (dealt separately in another CAG report as they were allocated through tariff based competitive route) to divert surplus coal from its two captive mines post-facto violating bid guidelines by changing rules of game which resulted in “undue benefits” of Rs 15,489 Crore. Similar benefits accrued to Tata-Sasol combine and Jindal Steel and Power for ‘Ccoal to L liquid’ project in Orissa of Rs 33,060 Crore and Rs 21,226 Crore respectively. 

The possibility of allocating coal mines for captive purpose for specified end use was opened up in 1993 through amendment to Coal Mines (Nationalisation) Act, 1993. The rationale given for same was that public sector company, Coal India Limited is not in a position to augment supply of coal to keep with the growing demand. It can be anybody guess that why instead of augmenting the capacity of CIL by streamlining its operations, govt. seek to transfer the stock and control of precious natural resources through captive route in pretext of ensuring supplies of coal to them. It could have also been done through dedicated ‘supply contract’ by such industries with CIL. Even specified mines could have possibly been dedicated for the purpose where extraction could continue to be done by CIL as earlier. This would have served the purpose and it wouldn’t have resulted in cornering of mines by private companies in such dubious ways as brought out by CAG report on captive coal block allocation. The argument that it would augment production in leaps too didn’t hold ground when one looks at the fact that out of 86 captive coal blocks with targeted coal production of 73 million tonnes, which were scheduled to start production in XI plan period (up to 2010-11), only 28 coal blocks (including 15 in private sector) started production as of March, 31 2011. They produced only 34 million tonne coal during 2010-11, 52.55 percent short of the target. Private sector captive coal mines allotted in the concerned period accounts for less than 5 percent of total coal production but has been able to corner more than 15 percent of proven reserve of 1,13,407 million tonne in the country. 

If one analyses these facts the haste shown in allocating coal blocks for the presumed reason of augmenting production of coal doesn’t hold water but it has certainly succeeded in effecting more than proportionate permanent transfer of natural reserves for future profiteering by corporate beneficiaries!

Another rational that is often offered by govt. circles is that in case coal blocks would have been up for competitive bidding for revenue maximization it would have increase the prices of end products like steel, power, cement etc. and thus wouldn’t be in the interest of consumers. In a market based system for determining prices this argument belies economic logic as the prevailing prices of end products are governed by demand and supply situation and not essentially input costs. There is no basis available to govt to claim that the private companies who benefited out of allocation of coal blocks have passed on the benefit to the consumers and the claim can only be said to be based on hypothetical premises. Moreover many private power companies are operating as ‘Independent Power Producers’ selling power in short term market at exorbitant prices of Rs 10-12 per unit. The Competition Commission of India has in June, 2012 slapped a fine of Rs 6,307 crore on 11 leading cement companies such as ACC, Ambuja Cements, Ultratech and Jaypee Cements for price cartelisation. Such facts go contrary to the government’s logic that the supply of cheap coal to sectors like cement and steel has benefited the end consumer.

Privatization of natural resources antithetical to national interest

The whole rational for not allowing privatization of ownership of natural resources either through competitive bidding or captive route is based on the premise that former method may succeed in recouping some loss to the national exchequer (as CAG report points out) but it too fails to retain ownership of public at large through the agency of government over the natural resources of the country. Even the CAG report fall short of pointing this out and anti-corruption crusader ‘Team Anna’ though demanding cancellation of licences and arguing for competitive bidding to transfer natural resources is also not questioning the very rational of transferring natural resources from public to private control inherent in any method of privatization.   The government’s retaining control over coal reserves would have enabled it to determine how and at what rate it should be exploited according to the requirement in any given period. Handing over captive coal blocks for private benefit implies that they would produce at the time when their ‘profit motive’ is best satisfied depending on the exigencies of the market which is increasingly governed as per global situation under contemporary times. This would be so even when the country is facing coal shortage.  Thus what is to be challenged by any genuine anti-corruption movement is the very rational of privatization of ownership of natural resources as the emerging massive scams have their underlying roots inherent in this process.  

PM unconvincing arguments and ‘Zero loss’

Prime Minister in his statement to the parliament argued that the quantum of loss is disputable. Prime Minister and senior cabinet ministers earlier too have attacked constitutional office of CAG basing them largely on the argument that quantum of presumptive loss to national exchequer is disputable or else the CAG is crossing his mandate by opining on policy issue. The double speak of leaders of BJP, who are now pretending to be great defender of constitutional authority of CAG, for scoring some political brownie points over Congress, were equally culpable for undermining the authority of CAG when the body exposed financial irregularities during NDA regime. About the CAG report on the Centaur Hotel divestment in February 2004,Arun Shourie, then minister for disinvestment, had said, “...the methodology of computing national losses is idiotic, sorry peculiar”. In 2001, when the CAG report on coffin purchases came out, Jaitley had said,“The CAG is an institution appointed to find faults.” And then defence minister George Fernandes had added that “CAG has acted unethically”  It is true that someone can argue on the methodology adapted to measure loss to national exchequer but this doesn’t mean there was no loss or undue gains to private parties as PM himself treaded carefully not to use discredited ‘Zero Loss’ theory. But still to target CAG report on this ground is basically indirectly questioning the very rational of the audit itself. This is because the very nature of any audit is such that it involves comparison with hypothetical desired situation to actual events resulting in a situation where conclusions are necessarily based on some reasonable presumption and available facts. Minister of Finance P. Chidambaram though shamelessly argued earlier of ‘zero loss’ on account of the fact that coal has not been mined till date. It would suffice to remind him about 2G scam when supreme court intervened to cancel 122 spectrum licences which is now being put on auction by the govt at the ‘reserved price’ which is more than what has been utilized at that time by the CAG to calculate presumptive loss on account of allocation of 2G licences. One can only hope that govt doesn’t wait for the apex court to again intervene in the matter of captive coal block allocation on lines of 2G judgement and respond to the popular demand of the people of the country to cancel licence of captive coal blocks allotted in non-transparent manner with immediate effect so that loss to the nation can be restricted to ‘zero loss’ through recouping already sustained losses from private beneficiaries. Thus cancellation of licences only seems to be the way out to upheld ‘Zero loss’ theory and reasoning behind it as captive coal mines with private companies would only result in coal being mined in some future time causing loss to the nation even as per Chidambaram argument, if extended logically to its conclusion!!