Less Food

The most obvious impact is on the country's food security. Under pressure from the WTO, the Vajpayee government cut down on farm subsidies and further restricted the Public Distribution System (PDS). In addition, it pursued policies that benefit profiteers by allowing free trade in grain and foodstuffs. These put together have created a situation where for the vast mass of people the availability of the very basics of life is threatened.

In 1997-98, the output of wheat declined by some five million tonnes. That of rice and pulses remained stagnant. So the rural masses were denied even the dal-roti that they eat. Rapeseed and mustard registered a decline of some 2 million tonnes, oilseeds some 2 million tonnes, sugarcane 1 million tonnes, and millet the staple food of the tribal people, by nearly 3 million tonnes. Even the production of the humble potato fell by nearly 5 million tonnes. In fact, despite imports the per capita availability of cereals went down from 473.7 gms per day to only 450.9 gms, while that of pulses declined from 38.4 gms per persons daily to 33.2 grams. And, all this in just one year!

When we see that the minimum recommended intake of pulses is 40 gms per person per day and that of cereals is 478 gms per person per day, we can only come to the conclusion that the Vajpayee government has succeeded in bringing the rural masses closer to starvation. Inspite of this, the BJP government has just decided to export 3 million tonnes of wheat at an international market price of $120 a tonne. This is amazing since the production and delivery costs $190 a tonne! This loss is at the cost of the rural masses. Such profligacy to please the WTO is unthinkable by any but the worst of governments. In fact, the noted agro-scientist Dr. M.S. Swaminathan has warned the Vajpayee government against pursuing this policy.

Price Rise

Virtually, the first thing the BJP did on coming to power was to loot the people. Onions bought at less than Rs. 5 per kilo from the farmer sold at prices as high as Rs. 60 to Rs. 120 per kilo by allowing the export of onions just at this time. Inflation peaked at 8.8 per cent in September 1998 and the consumer price index for agricultural labour had soard to 1607.2 by February 1998 and to 1736 by December that year. In other words, the prices of the necessities of life were some twenty times more than in 1986-87. In fact, in the largest state of India -- Uttar Pradesh -- agricultural labour generally have little food to eat.

That is why, with prices rising beyond buying power, we have burgeoning foodstocks in the Central pool with 40 per cent people going to sleep with half-filled stomach every day. And, this has been done as a matter of policy. Even before the budget was placed this year, pre-budget increases in the PDS price of wheat, rice, sugar, of LPG gas cylinders and diesel, looted the rural masses of Rs. 3200 crores at a time when the price of oil had hit rock-bottom in the world market. This was then coupled with hikes in the prices of railway freight and increased postal charges. The prices of almost everything are beyond the pockets of the poorest of the rural masses. Also, the unsold stocks left with the Food Corporation of India (FCI), which the government wants to export or pass on to the open market, can only depress the price of the farmers' produce without giving relief to the consumer. That is the farmer-friendly policy being propagated by the BJP!

The BJP Election Manifesto stated that: "Imports will be kept to the bare minimum and that too if warranted by extraordinary circumstances. In both export and import of farm goods, the interest of Indian kisans will be given the highest consideration". What is the experience of the sugar market? When there was a stock of more than 4 lakhs tonnes of sugar, government allowed huge imports, which ultimately affected the peasants by forcing them to sell their sugarcane at low prices and prevented them from getting a fair price. On top of all these, the BJP-led government has introduced a revised Export-Import (Exim) Policy for 1999-2000 putting 894 additional items on the free import list and another 414 under special import category. The supporters of the BJP's agrarian policies claimed that this was going to boost our exports in a big way and the peasants were going to be benefited. But the recent paper prepared by the Federation of Indian Export Organisation (FIEO) says that "WTO and its new norms for exports and imports, have had a negative effect on exports of India in the last two years. Products which have been hit in this period in the last two years include basmati, floriculture, mushroom and marine products."

Unremunerative Prices

But it is not the poor alone, the vast mass of the peasantry are also subjected to the vagaries of the global market and competitive imports for which they do not have the economic capacity to compete. As a result, they are forced to borrow large amounts of capital. But they have no assurance of being able to pay it back as they are competing in a highly volatile market.

For example, the Indian farmer is unable to compete in a food-grain market where the US farmer can sell wheat at about $120 a tonne, subsidised to the extent of $70-$80. The Indian farmer is expected to sell at $190 with declining state support. No wonder, the area under foodcrops declined by 4% during the BJP rule.

However, cash crops too are subject to the same cutthroat competition. The 3 million tonne fall in the output of cotton in 1997-98 over the year before, as well as the stagnation in the output of tea, coffee and rubber reflect the helplessness of the farmers in competition with global multinational producers of plantation crops. The price of rubber has, in fact, recorded a seven-year low last year, ruining hundreds of rubber planters. However, the BJP government, expressed its determination to continue importing rubber from other countries as part of its commitment to the WTO. In effect, by dismantling our existing system of government intervention in the agrarian market and support to the producer, the Vajpayee government has left the farmer at the mercy of unscrupulous traders and black-marketeers.

Farmers Kill Themselves

This has led to the suicide of over two thousand five hundred farmers all over the country. They grew different crops like cotton, tea, rubber and even wheat and rice, in states that are as widely scattered as Karnataka, Andhra Pradesh, Maharashtra, Uttar Pradesh, Rajasthan, Haryana and Punjab. Clearly BJP rule has meant ruin for the peasantry. And, domestic savings have gone down by more than 1 per cent of the GDP in 1997-98 as compared to 1996-97, which is equivalent to a sum of $6.5 billion dollars (more than Rs. 26,000 crores). This is the extent to which even the well-off farmer has had his pockets emptied under BJP rule.

Infrastructural and Credit Collapse

Perhaps, the most serious development has been the collapse of irrigation, electricity and other infrastructural facilities which showed an absolute decline between April to December 1998. This is disastrous as 85 per cent of the Indian peasantry are small-holders who cannot do without state provision of electricity, irrigation, good quality seeds, subsidised fertilisers and even state procurement of their output. But instead of providing these, the BJP-led government has raised the price of urea and is set to handover seed production to multinational corporations.

The BJP has systematically stifled the whole support structure so carefully built up over the five-year plans in independent India. While the total shortfall in Plan Outlay, resulting from the refusal of the BJP-led government even to spend money on those developmental activities necessary to give our rural masses a chance of survival was 15.9 per cent in 1998-99 as a whole. In agriculture and allied activities, it was a crippling 28.1 per cent, followed closely by a 20.3 per cent shortfall in energy, 11.1 per cent in transportation, 7.7 per cent in irrigation and flood control and 5.5 per cent in rural development. Clearly, the policy of the BJP is to destroy the small producer and aid wholesalers and blackmarketeers. It intends to allow the assets of petty producers to be bought over by corporate houses and multinationals as a result of "natural" economic developments.

Not only is the small-holder deprived of infrastructural support, he will be denied credit as well. Rural credit declined in 1997-98 by 1 per cent. And, now there is a scheme to privatise NABARD, with the RBI disinvesting its share in the bank. This will immediately result in the drying up of the Integrated Rural Development Programmes. As it is, only a small fraction of rural credit comes from the banks and financial institutions. The BJP has now thrust the peasant back into the hands of the moneylender. A recent study of the "well-off" state of Punjab shows the peasantry selling wheat at Rs. 250 to Rs. 300 a quintal, sunflower oil at Rs. 800 a quintal, and potatoes at Rs. 5 per kilo -- that, at half price. No wonder they are in a massive debt. The financial institutions have provided only Rs. 19,000 crores while the money-lenders some Rs. 38000 crores at interest rates as high as 40 per cent. It is this state of affairs that has led both to suicides and even to distress sales of land and tractors. It is only after election dates were announced that the BJP got cold feet and promised a 10 per cent increase in the support price of foodgrains that the next government is meant to implement! Does the BJP-led government expect cheers of support from those who have suffered like this in one year of its rule?

Land Reforms -- The BJP Way

The BJP, in its Election Manifesto of 1998, declared that it would ensure "enforcement of the implementation of land ceiling laws in all states" and "expedite distribution of ceiling surplus land among landless farmers" on a priority basis.

However, in this period, land reforms have been reversed and multinational companies have purchased or leased in vast tracts of cultivable land and fallow land for developing horticulture, floriculture, and for plantation purposes. During the last three years, the total number of proposals of foreign investment in this area were more than 600 and the lands purchased and grabbed by the multinationals run into tens of thousands of acres. So the BJP's way of implementing land reforms has successfully prevented any assets being marshelled to cushion the rural masses against the worst effects of its policies. On the contrary, they are forced to sell their land or find sale or leasing out to corporate sector a better option. This is only a step away from their joining the huge army of the rural landless. That this should happen when some millions of acres of surplus land have "disappeared" in the land records shows the supreme unconcern of the BJP for the rural masses.

No Comprehensive Central Legislation

for Agricultural Labour

In the last fifty years, the number of the rural dispossessed and landless has increased five-fold, from over 2 crores in 1951 to our 10 crores today. But they have no laws to protect them or regulate their work. No government at the Centre has denied the seriousness of the issue or the need for such legislation. Every Prime Minister promised to table such legislation but landlord interests were able to prevent it. The BJP-led government at the Centre, however, is the first to declare its opposition to passing such a legislation to protect the rural dispossessed and legislate for their human rights in accordance with ILO resolutions.

The Vajpayee government has also openly declared its distrust and contempt for every tenth Indian by saying that a legislation to protect this section would unleash "agrarian unrest". This is a shameless lie as such legislation has been in existence in Left-led Kerala since 1974 and has been an unqualified success helping to end atrocities on scheduled castes and tribes and raise the standard of living of agricultural labour. The BJP's opposition to this legislation reflects nothing more than its lack of concern for the rural masses and its contempt for the poorest of them.

In fact, not only does it refuse to protect them, but its policies like encouraging the shift from food to cash cropping have considerably reduced the number of days of work available for agricultural labour from 100 days to less than 70. So, thanks to the BJP raj, the rural masses are closer to starvation, poorer and have less chances of getting a job.

Insurance Scheme -- A Fraud

All the blandishments in the Election Manifesto of the BJP are hollow, like their promise "To begin a nation-wide crop and animal husbandry insurance scheme to cover all farmers". Nothing was done about this in the thirteen months when they were in power. After losing the confidence vote and after becoming a caretaker government, that too after the election dates were notified, they have announced a new crop insurance policy which is to implemented by the future government! Even in this election gimmick, there is no new element to benefit the peasants. First, the premiums are raised. Secondly, implementation is left to the state governments, most of which are not prepared to implement the scheme. In effect, the new scheme is a clear cut move to whitewash the Central government's failure and make the insurance scheme a business with a profit motive. This combined with the move to privatise the insurance sector will be disastrous for the peasants in India.

Moreover, the BJP which has promised in its 1998 Election Manifesto, "Remunerative prices for the entire range of agricultural produce by linking them with input costs", and also to "vastly expand the network of warehouse and mandis (market yards), and to make it mandatory for the mandis to pay 80 per cent of the price as an interim payment at the time of delivery of the farmers produce" has done nothing in this direction all these months. In fact, its drive to privatise everything, including the state electricity boards, and the delinking of their production, transmission and marketing functions has created chaos in rural areas.

Patent Bill Drama

The BJP's policy of pretending to oppose a sell-out to multinationals while actually facilitating it is an open scandal. On the patents issue, its initial stand is clear in the statement of a BJP member of Parliament on March 20, 1995, when the Congress placed the Patents Bill in Parliament: "It would be a gross injustice against our farmers. It is thus a suicidal law, it is a plot to endanger our freedom".

"We should see to it that we do not become bonded labour, we are not enslaved and Lord Clive is not given a new life. Do not repeat the history of East India Company, Clive is dead but Dunkel has taken his place in India". Atal Behari Vajpayee, the leader of the opposition then, sent a memorandum to the President saying that to become a member of WTO was to subordinate the law of the country to outside dictation. After coming to power, the same Vajpayee, as Prime Minister, followed the WTO path even more aggressively by pushing through the new Patent Bill, even bypassing the Law Commission in the process.

This is BJP and its political sincerity! The law they have altered is the Indian Patent Act of 1970 based on process patents but not product patents. This law helped our agricultural research and led to rapid development of Drug Industry, providing cheaper health care, important for our rural masses.

At the time of Independence, India used to produce hardly Rs. 10 crore worth of drugs, keeping the country dependent on imports for much of its requirements. But after the Patent Law of 1970, the drugs became cheaper and the country became nearly self-sufficient, producing drugs worth Rs. 5,000 crores and even exporting drugs worth Rs. 1,500 crores.

Not only this. One of the main reasons for the notable increase in both per capita production and net per capita availability of foodgrains in the past was the protection of innovations by scientists and peasants which led to producing new varieties of seeds and to improvement of productivity during Green Revolution period. Now, all these advantages will go with the new enactment of Patent (Amendment) Bill to honour the "commitment to WTO" by the BJP government.

The amendments to the Indian Patent Act are designed to grant exclusive marketing rights (EMR) as a statutory right to multinational corporations which may hold a product patent in any country outside India. The Prime Minister on 16 January, 1999 tried to present this sell out as a defence for our scientists: "The country's law with regard to the Patents issue have to be consistent with the best international practices, so that innovations by scientists are protected and commercialised in the best possible manner". But what is the reality? The new law will not only fail to protect innovations by our scientists, but will also help the piracy of indigenous knowledge and innovations developed by the peasantry over generations. The damage that it can cause to Indian plant varieties and plants for medicinal use is indicated from the patenting of Basmati, Turmeric and Neem and recent news of the patenting of anti-diabetic formulations based on karela (bitter-guord), brinjal and jamun. Once more, this policy of the BJP will protect the rich and leave the poor unprotected.

The question that should be asked all over India is: "Should this process of looting be tolerated as an inevitable part of a new global ethic even if it threatens to destroy the traditional knowledge-base of the country?"

70 per cent of Indian health care is provided by herbal medicines. EMRs based on bio-piracy will immediately deprive the poor two-third of India of their right to health care. The latest analysis in this regard says that "out of the 668 pharmaceutical patents filed during 1997, the majority of the applications were based on Ayurvedic knowledge". This means that the multinational companies and agro-chemical corporations are already going ahead to claim exclusive marketing monopoly on traditional formulations based on most of our indigenous plant varieties.

Take another example: Bovine insulin, without which significant sections of diabetics cannot survive, is going out of the reach of most of patients. The price of the drug has gone up to Rs. 75/- from Rs. 30/-, anticipating the patent regime. It was estimated that 60 per cent of the diabetics in India can no longer afford the drug even at the earlier cost. Now, it will be out of hand altogether.

Terminator Seeds and Water Control --

The New Danger

Adding insult to injury, the multinationals are going on to capture the entire seed market through their new technology of Terminator seeds that will not germinate after one harvest. They have already got the sanction for the same from the WTO. If permitted in India, they leave the peasant with no other option but to go back to the same company for purchasing costlier seeds for every sowing season. The Vajpayee government has, in effect, opened the flood gates for bio-piracy and bio-hazards. Already, Monsanto has bought MAHYCO, Maharashtra Hybrid Company, EID Pany and Rallis. Jack Kennedy of Monsanto has said, "we propose to penetrate the Indian agricultural sector in a big way. MAHYCO is a good vehicle."

Monsanto also plans to penetrate the Indian market for safe water by establishing a joint venture with the Tatas. Since by 2010 about 30 per cent of the population in India is expected to face lack of access to safe drinking water, Monsanto expects to earn millions of dollars through its water business. Monsanto also expects to earn more than 250 million dollars through aqua culture in Asia alone.

 Silver Lining

But, this dreadful state of affairs can be remedied. Even in India, today there is a silver lining in this dark cloud. It is the role played by the three Left-led governments in West Bengal, Kerala and Tripura. Inspite of the limitations they face on account of bourgeois-landlord rule at the Centre, land reforms were properly implemented. In West Bengal, land reforms combined with the domestic decentralisation of power have changed the face of the rural areas.

Out of the 29.02 lakh acres surplus land vested with the West Bengal government, 10.05 lakh acres have been distributed amongst 23.53 lakhs landless peasants. For the landless agricultural labour, three other steps undertaken are: guaranteeing a minimum living wage; provision of work during the lean months; and providing house sites. Besides this, till 1995, names of 14.74 lakhs sharecroppers have been recorded, giving them security of tenure. With all these measures, 75 per cent of the rural population has been given minimum relief.

As a result of these measures, the rate of growth of food production in West Bengal has become the highest in India in the last six years.

In Kerala, more than 15 lakh agricultural workers received land as a result of the Land Reforms Act brought in by the EMS Namboodiripad government in 1969. Kerala's 1969 land reforms are considered one of the most radical and most successful in South Asia. This contained a rice levy on the largest owners, to be collected by the government and redistributed to the poor through the fair price shops; a ceiling on absolute size of land holdings, with excess land to be redistributed to the landless; the abolition of tenancy, and thus the abolition of rents to the landlords who held title to them. The Left Front government of Kerala also gives unemployment benefit and pensions to agricultural labourers which have benefited lakhs of poor people in rural areas.

Now, the "Peoples' planning experiment" being implemented by the Kerala Left Front government has proved to be the most successful programme to effectively utilise the funds allotted to panchayats, cutting wasteful expenditure and checking corruption greatly. With this programme of real devolution of power to panchayats, the Kerala Left Front government has shown the way to whole of India as to what people's power means and how it is to be successfully exercised. A recent survey shows that the percentage of people living below "poverty line" is much less in Left-led states compared to all other states.