Worse still, it actually provides a clean chit to the Gujarat government on the most violent communal attacks against the Christians and remains chillingly silent about the communal clashes and disturbances being fanned by its affiliates in Karnataka. The Prime Minister, taking a leaf out of Ms. Indira Gandhi's tactics of blaming the `foreign hand' for all negative consequences of her own policies, has gone to the extent of seeing a conspiracy to defame the government behind the attacks on the Christians. Surely, he would not have been unaware of the fact that the Gujarat government under popular pressure has belatedly arrested some people for the attacks against the Christians which included leaders of the various outfits of the Saffron Brigade in the Dangs district of South Gujarat. Leaders of his own party, the Vishwa Hindu Parishad, the Bajrang Dal and the Hindu Jagran Manch have thus been indicted by the BJP government in the State. In what amounts to adding insult to injury, the National Executive resolutions has `complemented' the Gujarat government for taking `prompt action'. Nothing can be more nebulous and diabolic. Instead of chastising the Gujarat government, the BJP National Executive chose to exonerate the Vishwa Hindu Parishad and Bajrang Dal by advancing a preposterous theory that they have nothing to do with the Hindu Jagran Manch! This is a chilling reminder of the run up to the demolition of the Babri Masjid in 1992. Clearly the BJP has exposed itself, once again, as virtually patronising and protecting the Saffron Brigade to continue its rabid communal attacks against the Christians. This is confirmed by the findings of the Left parties delegation (published elsewhere in this issue) that visited the affected areas.

In this context, one must recollect that the Supreme Court, while upholding the dismissal of the BJP-ruled State governments in the post-Babri Masjid demolition context, observed that any "state government which pursues unsecular policies or unsecular course of action acts contrary to the Constitutional mandate and renders itself amenable to action under Article 356". The Vajpayee government, all too eager to dismiss the Bihar government for political reasons only to be rebuffed correctly by the President, will do well to re-read this particular Supreme Court judgement which has defined secularism as a fundamental feature of our Constitution.

It is instructive that, following its massive defeat in the recent assembly elections, the Saffron Brigade finds itself with no other option than to fall back on intensifying the communal divide and whipping up hatred and passion as its weapon of political mobilisation. This has assumed crucial importance in view of the coming elections in the three states of Karnataka, Andhra Pradesh and Goa, in the latter half of this year. Having failed to elicit popular support on any of its economic policies or the performance of the central government, the Saffron Brigade will have to rely on communal polarisation as the only means for its political survival. It is precisely for this reason that it had chosen Bangalore as the venue of its meeting, and it is precisely for this reason that it has whipped up controversy and tensions relating to the centuries-old Sufi shrine of Baba Budangiri in Chikmagalur. And, it is precisely for this reason that communal riots have erupted in Suratkal as the elections draw closer. One can expect, that at tremendous cost to the unity and integrity of India's social fabric, there will be an escalation of such tensions. The people will have to pay the price through blood and death for the Saffron Brigade's attempt to survive in government.

ON THE ECONOMIC FRONT

This then will be the manner in which the Saffron Brigade seeks to divert the people's attention away from its stark failures -- total lack of governance, misrule, and the compounding of people's miseries through its policies. That such diversion is necessary becomes clear when one looks at the economic resolution adopted by the National Executive. In one stroke, the BJP has not only virtually endorsed all the disastrous economic policies pursued by the government, but it has also guaranteed that there will be no opposition in future as well, thus, finally sealing the coffin of `Swadeshi'.

That this slogan of Swadeshi was only meant to mislead the people, as repeatedly argued in these columns, stands now completely established. The Saffron Brigade and the BJP have come out in their true colours as the current dedicated representatives of the Indian ruling classes whose interests, it has clearly demonstrated are its first priority to protect and advance. Having displayed earlier its complete pro-US imperialist bias by surrendering India's interests on one issue after another, the BJP has now openly endorsed this mortgaging of our economic sovereignty, on the one hand, and the heaping of our unprecedented burdens on the people, on the other, which goes along with it.

The insurance and patents bills have been endorsed without even a word of remorse, given the fact that it was the BJP's support to the Left opposition to these bills during the Congress regime, that prevented them from becoming legislation then. The massive plans for the privatisation of the public sector have been hailed. Free entry to multinational capital has been further liberalised. As for the people, save the rhetoric of the desire to control prices, etc., there is not a single tangible proposal.

THE LAST TEN MONTHS

In this context, it is necessary to have a look at the state of the economy since the present government took over. The recessionary tendency has intensified. According to a survey conducted by the Confederation of Indian Industry (CII) for the period April-October, 1998 compared to the same period in 1997, out of 120 sectors accounting for more than 65 per cent of the total industrial output, production in 34 sectors showed negative growth, i.e., registered an absolute decline, while 49 showed a growth of less than 10 per cent.

In a situation where the inflation rate is hovering around 10 per cent, growth rates below 10 per cent, in effect, mean a real overall negative growth rate. Thus, in more than two-thirds of the industrial sector, industries have failed to grow.

Similarly, out of the 55 sectors surveyed for export growth, 38 reported real negative growth. Out of 77 sectors surveyed for sales growth, 58 reported real negative growth rate. In all these aspects, less than 10 per cent showed a healthy growth. Thus, despite the unbridled liberalisation, and the fanfare associated with projecting the pro-industry bias of the present government, the state of the economy continues to sharply deteriorate.

On the external front, exports in dollar terms during this period declined by 5.1 per cent while non-oil imports increased by 18.7 per cent, widening the trade deficit to a whopping 5.8 billion dollars. Only the sharp fall in the international prices of oil and petroleum products have given the government a respite. Thus, according to some estimates (Economic Times, December 12, 1998) the government is likely to have a windfall saving of Rs. 20,000 crores. After accounting for many other costs in the Oil Pool Account, the government is likely to get a savings of nearly Rs. 15,000 crore or one per cent of the GDP. This amount of money rightly belongs to the people and should have been passed on to the consumer by reducing the prices of oil and petroleum products. By not doing so, the government is actually stealing money from the people and in all likelihood will use this to narrow its unmanageable fiscal deficit.

The fiscal deficit is bound to grow much higher than projected, due both to a spurt in unnecessary government expenditures and the extra defence outlay concomitant with the Pokhran tests. The net result of all these will lead to greater borrowing and reduction of government expenditure on social infrastructure like health, education etc. This, in turn, will exacerbate the disastrous consequences of the liberalisation process, i.e., further mortgaging our economic sovereignty and further burdening the people.

In short, the BJP's National Executive has not thrown up what many of its own supporters and admirers (though their numbers are fast dwindling) had hoped for. Instead of the application of corrective measures to at least restore a semblance of governance, the BJP National Executive has simply dittoed all that this government has been doing and adopted an audaciously absurd stance of saying that this is the best that the country and the people can get!