June 16 – Country-Wide Protest Day Against Modi’s Ruinous Policies

Remember the PM Garib Kalyan Anna Yojana (PMGKAY) grandly announced by the Narendra Modi government after the lockdown began? For three months, it was declared, all ration card holders would get free foodgrain to tide over the sudden snatching away of earnings and jobs. Seemed like a good idea although it could have been done earlier. But the latest data available on the concerned web portal shows that even this basic duty of the government has been botched up badly.

A total of 12.1 million tonnes of foodgrain was allocated for distribution. As of date, some 9.3 million tonnes have been lifted from Food Corporation of India custody, and of that, about 7.5 million tonnes only has finally reached the hungry people.

Two and a half months have passed since the lockdown was announced – and this is what the “caring” and “efficient” government has managed to achieve. Just short of 62% food grain has been distributed leaving behind some 4.7 million tonnes in warehouses. This, when thousands of people are on the verge of starvation, managing with meagre meals, unemployed and hungry, even as the raging COVID-19 pandemic continues to spread.

This botch-up of an essential programme is one of the reasons that has prompted widespread anger and resentment against the Modi government’s spectacular failure to handle the COVID-19 pandemic. Its “strategy” has been marked by an ill-thought lockdown, followed by belated attempts to rescue the situation and a fumbling, miserly approach towards boosting the healthcare system.

The Left forces in the country are the only cohesive opposition to these disastrous policies. On June 16, a country-wide protest day is being observed at the call of the Communist Party of India (Marxist) demanding that at least 10 kg of foodgrain be provided free of cost to each individual every month, for the next six months. Current government programme was for distribution of 5 kg food grain (rice or wheat) for three months, April, May and June.

Another key demand being raised by the Left is for provision of Rs.7,500 per month to all families in the country that do not have an income tax paying member. Currently, the Modi government had provided a shameful dole of just Rs.500 for every Jan Dhan account holder. There are about 39 crore account holders of which at least 20% have been estimated to be defunct or unused (presumably double accounts, opened under pressure). So only a fraction of the country’s families would have received these crumbs.

Curb Raging Unemployment

But the economic distress has been far more severe and relentless. According to Centre for Monitoring Indian Economy or CMIE estimates, immediately following the sudden lockdown, some 12 crore persons lost their gainful employment. Since then, the pressure of survival, and the easing of lockdown has seen the return of millions to the workforce, but under very onerous and fragile conditions.

People are willing to do any job at any wage, just to get some cash and survive. Despite this, latest CMIE estimates show that about 3.3 crore people are still not back to their earning jobs – the number of employed was estimated at 37.1 crore in the week ending on 14 June as opposed to 40.4 crore on 22 March, two days before the lockdown began.

This shows the dire need for direct income support for suffering families, at least till the economic opportunities are restored to whatever extent they can. It also highlights another demand being raised by the Left: that the rural job guarantee scheme (MGNREGS) should be extended to 200 days per year for all and wages should be increased.

The rural job guarantee scheme has been providing life saving (though minimal) wages to millions of people but it ground to a halt in the early days of the lockdown because the Modi government had not thought about what would happen to it. Belatedly, almost a month later, the scheme was restarted. A meagre increase in wages was announced and only in May was an additional allocation of Rs.40,000 crore provided to boost the scheme.

Roll Back Privatisation and Anti-Labour Policies

On the protest day, the demand for roll-back of all anti-people policies that have been smuggled in and imposed on the country during the pandemic, is also a key demand. Privatisation of agricultural produce trade, selling off valuable public sector units, invitation to foreign predatory companies to loot the natural resources, privatisation of defence production and space exploration, etc. are some of the policy measures announced by the Modi govt. recently – all in the name of boosting the economy.

Hand in hand with these pro-business policies, and to further make the rich 1% of India even richer, the Modi government has also dismantled the protective labour laws which ensured that workers and employees do not face harsh exploitation and low wages.

At the behest of the Modi government, several state governments have suspended key provisions of these laws, claiming it was necessary in order to kick-start the productive activity. In reality, these changes were being resisted tooth and nail, by the workers, as witnessed in the series of powerful strikes in the past few years.

The Modi government has simply jumped at the opportunity of the current health emergency to push through a long- standing agenda of its own, which has drawn jubilant applause from big business.

The call for the country-wide protest day is a key link in the ongoing struggle of the Indian people against the regressive regime of the Bharatiya Janata Party, led by Narendra Modi. It has evolved into a dispensation that is destroying India’s secular, federal and democratic Constitutional framework, pushing working people into the embrace of slavery and selling out the country’s resources to private capital, both domestic and foreign.