“The rich get richer and the poor get poorer” is an aphorism due to Percy Bysshe Shelley. “The rich have become richer, and the poor have become poorer; and the vessel of the State is driven between the Scylla and Charybdis of anarchy and despotism.” According to Zanny Minton Beddoes, Economics editor for the Economist magazine, “Growing inequality is one of the biggest social, political, and economic challenges we face. However, it is not inevitable.”

Inequality has been on the rise across the globe for several decades. Some countries have reduced the numbers of people living in extreme poverty. But economic gaps have continued to grow as the very richest amass unprecedented levels of wealth. The phenomenon of the rich becoming richer and the poor becoming poorer is not just evident in India; it is prevalent in every country. Globalisation has resulted in the widening of the gap between haves and have nots. The educated catches up with technological advancements while the uneducated are unable to keep pace with the rapid pace in science and technology. This has resulted in the educated getting better jobs in the city, while the poor are left behind in the society.

Poor people end up being trapped in the vicious cycle of poverty. To gain a higher standing in the society, it is important to get quality education. However, with the cost of education increasing at an exponential rate, lower income families are unable to send their children to good schools, forcing them to work at a young age for a living. The cost of living in urban areas in India has increased over the past few years, forcing many children to quit schools and join the workforce. Between 2013 and 2017, 71 per cent wealth in the country was appropriated by 21 per cent of the population, leaving 71 per cent of the population with just 29 per cent of the wealth. On one hand, development has increased, but on the other, so has conflict and disparities between the haves and have nots. This has resulted in the widening of the gap between haves and have nots.

Although the gap between the rich and the poor is increasing, a new group has emerged in between these classes, the great Indian middle-class changing the dynamics of the labor market. So, it is in our hands to reduce the gap between haves and have nots by ensuring the poor acquire good education, have access to health facilities, jobs, skills that are in demand in the market. Another major factor that further the rich poor divide in India in the recent times is demonitisation which had sent the entire country in a whirlpool of confusion & chaos. It mandated the creation of immediate interruption in daily lives. It shocked all as it was declared without any prior intimation. The chaos was created in every stratum of the society whether upper, middle or lower. Banking system was caught unawares as their ATMs were not calibrated for the new denomination notes. The introduction of the 2000-rupee denomination currency note has simplified the task of hoarding cash. Due to demonetisation, gross domestic product of India declined. 

A cursory review of the microeconomic effects has somewhat proved to be beneficial: first, the uncollected revenue at various corporations increased and second it was also a political move as it was a surgical strike on terror financing, forged notes circulation & black money. However, on the macroeconomic level large number of populations is considering this move as unfair due to the problems faced by them. Where some welcomed the move as it was seen for curbing black money, many suffered by this movement. But the supreme sufferers of this move were the informal sector of Indian economy, where cashless transactions are minimal. Informal sectors of Indian Economy include 106 activities like agriculture, workers in construction, local transport, community services and small workshops like shoe makes and garment makers, rural population and the urban poor and middle class. In a report by Azim Premji University, around 50 lakh people lost their jobs post demonetization.

The Goods Service Tax (GST)- reform, touted as a “game changer” and the “reform of the century”, was deemed worthy of a launch on the midnight of June 30, 2017 in the Central Hall of the Parliament. The enormous publicity that it received and the great gains spoken about the ‘one nation, one market, one tax’ by both the government and the captains of industry had raised high expectations. The over-optimism on its favourable consequences-built expectations which could not be fulfilled & has led to the second attack on the already fragile economy. It must be noted that petroleum products are excluded-they contribute over 35-40% of revenue from indirect taxes. It would be useful to simultaneously include petroleum products within the ambit of the GST, for the expanded base could offset the revenue loss due to the prevailing high rates on petroleum products. With multiple rates, it is not a simple tax and robbed much of the benefits from lower administrative, compliance and distortion costs. Having multiple rates was a sure recipe for disaster. Many small & medium businesses had to hire CA to file the GST returns. Many cottage industries went bankrupt. This also puts additional burden on administration, increases the compliance cost and the load-bearing capacity of technology needed for providing input tax credit with multiple rates by matching every invoice. Requiring the regular GST dealers to file 37 returns in a year raises anxiety on an unchartered territory. 

The coronavirus pandemic has dealt a huge blow to India’s middle and low-income groups. This is likely to further widen the wealth gap between India’s rich and poor. Taken together, these factors make it all but certain that if overall consumption has stagnated over the past five years, it must have declined in the lower-income reaches. This is of course the story of greater inequality, widely debated amidst the turbulence of the previous last five years post demonetization. The economic recovery is K-shaped, i.e., the better off are getting even better off, while the poor have got destitute. A Pew survey’s findings, reported that the numbers in India’s middle class have shrunk by as much as a third, with 3.2 crore slipping into the lower-income category while 3.5 crore have slipped from that category to join the ranks of the poor, whose numbers have therefore swelled. The economic recovery since, if it has not been accompanied by a recovery in employment and consumption, is almost certain therefore to be K-shaped. Hence the distribution of income and therefore the pattern of economic growth have become a matter of even greater than usual concern, and not just because of obvious humanitarian concern about those being left behind.

n 2014, for instance, the wealth possessed by the top 0.1% of India’s earning population grew at a faster pace compared to that held by 50% of the remaining population, according to the World Inequality Report 2018. “This rising inequality trend is in contrast to the 30 years that followed the country’s independence in 1947, when income inequality was widely reduced and the incomes of the bottom 50% grew at a faster rate than the national average,” the report said. However, led by privatisation, liberalisation, and disinvestment of the public sector over the years, the situation has changed dramatically, said the report based on a study by the economists Facundo Alvaredo, Thomas Piketty, Lucas Chancel, Emmanuel Saez and Gabriel Zucman. In fact, inequality in India may be at its highest since 1922, when the country introduced the income tax. The report noted that the structural changes to the economy, with changes in tax regulation, appeared to have had significant impact on income inequality in India since the 1980s. This income divide continued through the 2000s, with the richest 10% of the adult population in the country controlling most of the national income by 2014. The bottom 50%, meanwhile, had control over only 16% of the country’s income. The rise and rise of a small pool of India’s uber rich population has worsened this divide. The ultra-wealthy alone, comprising 1% of the country’s population, controlled about 23% of India’s total wealth in 2014. That’s almost four times the 6% of the riches they controlled in 1982-83. Income inequality has been on the rise across the world, but the situation is particularly startling in regions such as the Middle East and in countries such as Brazil and India. India’s per capital gross domestic product increased five times between the years 2000 to 2019. This does not mean the income of the entire population has increased. The income has been concentrated with a few individuals only. The top one percent in India earned 21 per cent of the total country’s income in 2019.  The top 10 per cent earned 56 per cent of the country’s total income in 2019 & the bottom 10 percent earned only 3.5 per cent in India.  

Unemployment, poverty & debts in the Indian scenario

The pandemic-led economic crisis has exacerbated the rising indebtedness among India’s poor households, and could push more families into a debt trap. Even before the pandemic, debts had soared by 84% in rural & 42% in urban India. The latest All India Debt & Investment Survey (AIDIS) reported that household indebtedness and vulnerabilities have since increased substantially due to the ongoing Covid-19 pandemic. Household debt’s share of GDP has risen from 32.5% in 2019-20 to 37.3% in 2020-21. A further rise is being predicted for 2021-22 because of depleting bank deposits as families struggle with the burden of health expenses incurred during the second Covid-19 wave. The pandemic-led economic crisis has increased indebtedness among small entrepreneurs, farmers, domestic workers and marginalised communities. Between 2012 and 2018, the incidence of indebtedness increased by four percentage points in rural areas while the average outstanding debt grew significantly in both rural and urban areas by 84% and 42%, respectively. Rampant unemployment with many poor left with no means of earning.

What is stunning is that for the first time in India’s history of estimating poverty, there is a rise in the incidence of poverty since 2011-12. Since the majority of India’s population (certainly over 65%) is rural, poverty in India is also predominantly rural. Remarkably, by 2019-20, poverty had increased significantly in both the rural and urban areas, but much more so in rural areas (from 25% to 30%). Poverty has increased in the last eight years with the nation seeing the largest increase in the number of poor. The monumental blunder of demonetisation followed by a poorly planned and hurriedly introduced Goods and Services Tax, both delivered body blows to the unorganised sector and Micro, Small and Medium Enterprises. The economic slowdown followed. Consumption stagnated and household savings rates fell. Joblessness increased to a 45-year high by 2017-18 (by the usual status), and youth (15-29 years of age) saw unemployment triple from 6% to 18% between 2012 and 2018. Real wages did not increase for casual or regular workers over the same period, hardly surprising when job seekers were increasing but jobs were not at anywhere close to that rate. Hence, consumer expenditure fell, and poverty increased. There is widespread economic distress. There is crippling inflation in the country coupled with the historic high of all essential commodities. The common citizen & the poor find it difficult to get two meals a day. India’s share of the world’s extreme poor is higher than its share of the world population.

The Mahatma Gandhi National Rural Employment Guarantee Act (MGNREGA) scheme, the flagship programme of the previous UPA regime did help during the pandemic crisis. As many as 21 States/UTs have utilized by end of October over 100% of their allocated funds for the current financial year is not a surprise. The utility of MGNREGA as a scheme that alleviates distress has never been in question. It is an extremely important scheme specially to ensure economic stability of rural India. It has been acting as a life saver in aiding poor farm households, helping to provide wages during agrarian crises, to being an avenue for employment during the economic crisis induced by the pandemic.

Conclusion

The thrust of the development policy initiatives must focus on how to handle the inequality of opportunity. There are many indicators of inequality & our track record in each of them is a cause for concern. Given the glaring gulf of wealth inequality, higher rate of income tax & wealth taxes such as inheritance tax, gift tax, net wealth taxation for the billionaires can fund the welfare schemes for the poor & the needy. This will allow revenue generation to be invested in health, education, infrastructure which could create equality of opportunity. The disinvestment of Central Public Sector Undertakings (CPSUs), public sector banks, railways, cannot be a permanent solution in an economy where there is a sharp spike in inequality. Policy makers need to track the poverty pockets of India. Periodic studies may help them think seriously about the issue & they can come up with out of box ideas to reduce inequalities.

*Views expressed are the author’s own.

Related:

World Inequality Report paints stark picture of lives of “haves” and “have-nots” in India

India ranks 71 on Global Food Security Index

GOI rejects Global Health Index after India’s worst ranking ever

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Keeping in mind the need for having a dedicated fund with the primary objective of dealing with any kind of emergency or distress situation, like that posed by the Covid-19 pandemic, and to provide relief to the affected, a public charitable trust under the name of Prime Minister’s Citizen Assistance and Relief in Emergency Situations Fund (PM CARES Fund) was set up.

PM CARES Fund has been registered as a Public Charitable Trust. The trust deed of PM CARES Fund has been registered under the Registration Act, 1908 at New Delhi on March 27, 2020. During 2019-20 (from March 27 to 31, 2020), an amount of Rs. 3,076.62 Crore has been collected under PM CARES Fund. Till now, the amount collected during 2020-2021 has not been reflected in the website: https://www.pmcares.gov.in/en/web/page/about_us

In pursuance of an appeal by the then Prime Minister, Pt. Jawaharlal Nehru in January, 1948, the Prime Minister’s National Relief Fund (PMNRF) was established with public contributions to assist displaced persons from Pakistan. The resources of the PMNRF are now utilised primarily to render immediate relief to families of those killed in natural calamities like floods, cyclones and earthquakes, etc. and to the victims of the major accidents and riots. Assistance from PMNRF is also rendered, to partially defray the expenses for medical treatment like heart surgeries, kidney transplantation, cancer treatment and acid attack etc.

The PMNRF consists entirely of public contributions and does not get any budgetary support. The corpus of the fund is invested in various forms with scheduled commercial banks and other agencies. Disbursements are made with the approval of the Prime Minister. PMNRF has not been constituted by the Parliament. The fund is recognised as a Trust under the Income Tax Act and the same is managed by Prime Minister or multiple delegates for national causes. PMNRF operates from the Prime Minister’s Office, South Block, New Delhi-110011 and does not pay any license fee. PMNRF is exempt under Income Tax Act, 1961 under Section 10 and 139 for return purposes. Contributions towards PMNRF are notified for 100% deduction from taxable income under section 80(G) of the Income Tax Act, 1961. Prime Minister is the Chairman of PMNRF and is assisted by Officers/ Staff on honorary basis. (More about PMNRF here: https://pmnrf.gov.in/en/about)

The balance as on March 31, 2020 is Rs. 4,393.19 crores as reflected in the website. The following two paragraphs contrast and compare both the funds. The differences (contrast) are given in the table below:

The similarities are enlisted below:

Both PMNRF & PM Cares

● funds do not require approval from Parliament for spending.

● are exempting donations from Income Tax under Section 80G. The contribution towards PMNRF is 100 % tax deductible under Section 80 G of the Income Tax Act. As per the Taxation and Other Laws (Relaxation of Certain Provisions) Ordinance, 2020 issued by the Finance Ministry on 31 March 2020, donations made to ‘PM CARES’ fund would be 100% tax exempt under Section 80(G).

● cannot be utilised without the directions of the Prime Minister.

● have the same auditors M/S SARC Associates Chartered Accountants, New Delhi.

● receiving donations by companies are classified as Corporate Social Responsibility (CSR) under Companies Act 2013.

● do not receive budgetary support.

● are set up as trusts.

● can receive foreign contributions. They are exempted from Foreign Contribution Regulation Act (FCRA).

● are not audited by Comptroller and Auditor General (CAG). This is one of the criticisms of both the Funds, despite both of them being audited by an Independent third-party auditor.

A single judge bench of the hon’ble High Court of Delhi had held in 2015 that the PMNRF was amenable to the RTI Act. The single bench verdict came in the W.P(C)-3897/2012 -Prime Minister’s National Relief Fund vs Aseem Takyar. In the appeal filed by the PMNRF against the single bench verdict, the division bench of the hon’ble High Court of Delhi delivered a split verdict on May 23, 2018, in the case LPA 231/2016 & C.M. 13063/2016 (for stay) – Prime Minister’s National Relief Fund vs Aseem Takyar. While Justice Sunil aur (now retired) held that PMNRF was not a “public authority” within the definition given under the RTI Act, Justice S Ravindra Bhat (now a hon’ble apex court judge) held that the fund was a “public authority” as defined under the Act. In view of the divergence in views among the judges of the division bench, the matter was referred to a larger bench. The reference is still pending. 

PMNRF is not a public authority under Right to Information (RTI). It is still not clear whether PM CARES comes under the ambit of Right to Information (RTI) Act. Time and again, when information on the PM CARES fund was sought through RTI, the information has been declined on some technicalities or the other. Owing to flip-flops of the government like an Olympic gymnast, it is not still clear even after the waters have flown across the Ganges.

The doctors’ associations at the All India Institute of Medical Sciences, New Delhi objected to a circular from the hospital’s administration, indicating that a day’s salary would be deducted from their accounts and donated to the PM CARES Fund. The AIIMS administration ultimately withdrew their circular and accepted a proposal that doctors could opt in to a scheme to donate to the fund or could donate to any charitable organisation of their choice, on a purely voluntary basis. Similar proposals for mandatory or opt-out donations were subsequently withdrawn from three other hospitals based in Delhi following protests from doctors’ associations: Safdarjung Hospital, Atal Bihari Vajpayee Institute of Medical Sciences (ABVIMS)-Ram Manohar Lohia (RML) Hospital, and Lady Hardinge Medical College and Hospital.

On April 19, 2020, the Revenue Department of the Finance Ministry issued a circular indicating that one day’s salary per month, from April 2020 to March 2021, from each employee would be redirected to the fund unless employees who were “unwilling to donate” indicated their unwillingness in writing to their departments. The move was criticised by government employees, who noted that this amounted to 12% of a month’s salary for government employees, many of whom could not afford to release the funds. The former Comptroller-General of Defence Accounts stated that the opt-out system left employees vulnerable to professional consequences if they did not donate. Other government employees objected on the grounds that it constricted their ability to choose to donate to other relief funds, such as state’s Chief Minister Relief Funds. Following public criticism, on April 30, 2020, the Revenue Department amended this circular, making the donation opt-in instead of opt-out, and asking employees to write in if they wished to donate a day’s salary every month to the PM CARES Fund. 

Similarly, on April 20, 2020, the Delhi University administration was criticised after funds collected for a donation specifically to the National Disaster Relief Fund (NDRF) were redirected to the PM CARES Fund without disclosing this to donors. Delhi University officials stated that the funds were redirected on orders from the Ministry of Human Resources Development of the Government of India. The Delhi University Teachers’ Association wrote a letter of objection to the Delhi University administration, noting that the University had traditionally supported the NDRF or Chief Minister’s Relief Fund either through local Staff Associations or through the Vice Chancellor’s Relief Fund, and that the redirection of funds without disclosure constituted a betrayal of trust. 

The point is that the PMO operates the Fund, but says it cannot supply any information about the PM CARES Fund because it is not a public authority. If the fund is private, then who allowed 100% deduction under 80-G. If the PM CARES Fund is unconnected with the Government, then the Fund could become an office of profit. And that could disqualify him and the three Ministers from holding those constitutional offices. It becomes an office of profit/misuse issue. The PM CARES Fund centralises the collection of donations and its utility, which is not only against the federal character but also practically inconvenient in any other democracy, this statement would have cost the PM his chair. As we are slowly slipping towards a ‘one nation one party’ rule, which is closest to autocracy, it amounts to exploiting the citizens to fill his coffers. Already the roof of democracy has crashed down like a pack of cards as the four pillars holding it are at various stages of erosion and collapsing.

The Fund also exempted the donations under Corporate Social Responsibility (CSR) and relaxed FCRA rules. The government in haste amended the companies act to include the PM-Cares fund. Using gov’t agencies in an advertising blitzkrieg. All the rungs of the bureaucracy were forced to contribute a day’s salary every month for one year in the garb of Covid-19 management, which was messed up. It was more of a rule than exception. This included banks, PSUs, corporations, statutory bodies and also private sector who did not have money to pay the salaries of the employees but contributed to the coffers fearing a backlash from the regime on their books by way of ED, IT raid. Business houses which run the fourth estate were afraid that they may be deprived of government tenders and advertisements. How the term PM was used if it is private. How the Union ministers are its trustees? The PM chairs a public authority that was used to ask for funds. Earning money, hoodwinking the citizens seems to be the ulterior objective. The domain name given is ‘.gov.in’ which is usually given for government websites only. 

It is the hard-earned money earned by the sweat of all types of collared workers who contributed under the duress and fear of both Covid-19 on one hand, and the likely victimisation on the other hand which set the cat among the pigeons. There was high pressure from the bosses of these workers, and no transparency meant scope for lot of fraudulent activities. This include the diversion of funds from PM-Cares towards purchase of ventilators, Covid-19 kits for the medical fraternity which were mostly faulty, that failed at the time of need which would be a topic for another article. 

Government employees who refused to donate money to PM CARES fund were asked to furnish their reasons for refusal in writing. It was a lot of arm-twisting. Employees in all categories-railwaymen, bankers, PSU employees, soldiers of the Armed forces were forced to shell out money for PM CARES. We may be the only nation that took money from the citizens instead of putting money in their hands. According to the Indian Express, as on December 18, 2020, soldiers of the Indian Army contributed Rs 203.67 crore from their salaries to this private fund.

PM CARES is the second biggest financial scam in Modi 2.0, the first being demonetisation in Modi 1.0. Rs. 205 cr donated from salary of staff of PSU banks which is other than the donation from the bank too. This too when the wage increment of PSBs staff pending since November 2017 even when MOU signed in July 2020. Public sector or government will never force for donation to private institution. This amounts to misleading the nation. The MPLAD was forcibly put into PM CARES. All the Central government employees were forced to forgo their Dearness Allowance (DA) given to offset the increase in prices for one and half years. All pensioners were forced to forego their Dearness Relief for one year. The government platform was used with zero accountability of the funds collected. The government machinery was (mis)used to advertise PM CARES in India and abroad. Corruption and abuse of power par excellence!!! PM-Cares, but privately!!!!

Thus, the amount collected by it does not go to the consolidated fund of Government of India. It is akin to a chit-fund by a private firm. It may be a political campaign fund to sponsor one party, an election fund of the ruling dispensation, made for the PM, by the PM of the PM. 

Important reasons that define the PM-CARES fund as a public authority, and hence liable to share the information under the Right To Information Act (RTI). 

The government has been stonewalling the responses to several queries raised by several activists, civil society related to the fund have been denied claiming that PM CARES is a ‘charitable trust’ and not a ‘public authority’. The definition of a Public Authority under the RTI ACT – “any authority or body or institution of self-government established or constituted by notification issued or order made by the appropriate Government.” The setting up of the PM-CARES Fund was notified to the public on March 28, 2020 by the Ministry of Corporate Affairs saying, “The Government of India has set up the Prime Minister’s Citizen Assistance and Relief in Emergency Situations Fund.” This clearly means that the Government of India has control over it. 

The office of the PM-CARES Fund is in the Prime Minister’s Office in Delhi. Just like as the PM is Chairperson of the Prime Minister’s National Relief Fund or PMNRF, the PM is also Chairperson of PM CARES also. In 2007, the then Chief Information Commissioner, Wajahat Habibullah passed an interesting order about the Prime Minister’s Relief Fund. He said, “Since PMNRF information is held by the PMO as a public authority, they are obliged to share it with citizens under the RTI Act.” Going by that same logic PM CARES should also come under RTI, since it is also controlled by the PMO.

Usage of GOV.IN in its Domain Name-pmcares.gov.in is the website address of the PM CARES Fund. But the government guidelines say a GOV.IN domain name can be allotted to six categories of offices or public authorities:

• Apex offices like the President of India or the Prime Minister’s Office
• Govt Ministries or Departments
• State and Union Territory offices
• India’s Parliament
• Judicial bodies
• All other legislative bodies and government institutions.

Does the PM CARES Fund fall under any of the above-mentioned categories? The guidelines make it amply clear that only bodies created by law and attached to the institutions of the government of India are allowed such registration. In one of the RTI responses, by accepting that this is the provision under which the PM Cares website was registered under gov.in, the government has now virtually admitted that the fund also comes under RTI.

Blatant (mis)use of government machinery 

The government machinery has been used blatantly to promote PM CARES. Following are some of the instances-The PM Modi, at a video conference with the heads of Indian Missions across the world on March 30, 2020, advised them to publicise the new PM CARES Fund to mobilise foreign donations. Now the pertinent point is – Can govt officials and govt machinery be used to publicise PM CARES if it is only a charitable trust? The Singapore government refused to allow official channels to promote PM CARES as it called itself as a charitable trust. The Indian Embassy in Moscow gave wide publicity on the Embassy website and social media pages as per the RTI reply given to one of the activists. Would any other charitable trust ever get publicity on any Indian Embassy website? Quite unlikely.

Everything was done in haste – tax exemption relief was given to PM CARES donations. On March 31, 2020, just two days after PM CARES was announced, a government Ordinance amended provisions of the Income Tax Act. As a result, a donation made to the PM CARES Fund would be eligible for 100% tax deduction. This was clear use of government machinery to promote PM CARES. Similarly, a day after the launch of PM CARES, the Ministry of Corporate Affairs issued a notification saying, “Any contribution made by a Company to the PM CARES Fund shall qualify as Corporate Social Responsibility, or CSR.” 

Points to ponder: 

1. Compelling reasons and exigency of circumstances to form PM-Cares?

2. Advantages of forming a new fund when the PMNRF already exists?

3. How come the GOI logo/email ids are being used to solicit for funds and their websites?

4. Why did the PM abuse his position to get donations for a private fund?

5. Why is the PM CARES fund shrouded in secrecy?

6. Tomorrow, if there is a change in the government, will the new PM have control upon it?

7. Will the funds have a smooth transition to the new dispensation or will it be empty by then?

Conclusions: 

The replication of PMNRF seems to indicate that there is no purpose for the creation of this other than presenting the people with some ‘showpiece’ measure and telling the public that the government is taking huge measures to fight the pandemic while it is actually not. It has given rise to a lot of debates, opinions, interpretations and assumptions. The true rationale of setting up a new fund despite the existence of PMNRF with similar objectives can be explained only by the present government if it believes in democratic values, ethics & transparency in the management of public funds. It is an obvious scam so much wrongs have happened with the way money has been collected forcefully using the PM’s public office & name and then state that it is not public fund, it is outside the ambit of CAG etc.

*Views expressed are the author’s own.

Related:

Is the PMCARES Fund using the national emblem illegally?

Plea in Bombay HC seeks CAG audit of PM CARES fund  

Plea in SC demanding transfer of funds from PM CARES to NDRF

Appellate Authority also says PM CARES not public authority

PM CARES not a Public Authority says PMO, in response to RTI query

The post Gadbadjhala: Mystery that is PM CARES appeared first on SabrangIndia.

The petrol prices per litre have breached the century mark per litre across many metros recently. It is not the fuel price alone that is burning a hole in the pockets of common citizens. In the past year and a half, prices of several essential items have shot up drastically so much so that tens of thousands of households have their backs to the wall. Grocery store owners said their hands were tied because they were having to buy stuff from wholesalers and distributors at a much higher rate than before, suggesting hoarding. Added to this, the slowing down of the economy, unemployment, job cuts, salary cuts & the Covid-19 pandemic all make it a bitter pill to swallow for the citizen. How will our economy reach the five trillion-dollar milestone & be a Vishwaguru is in itself a million-dollar question. 

On the face of it, the Oil Manufacturing Companies’ decision to resume daily price resetting would appear to be in broad conformity with the pricing deregulation that the Centre has been intermittently committed to ever since the government of the day freed up petrol prices in 2010. However, the timing of the recent moves to raise levies and retail prices by the governments and fuel marketers, respectively, is at odds with logic especially at a point when the country is grappling with the impact of a pandemic. The aim of maximising takings from fuel products to offset shortfalls in other revenue streams can only bear fruit if the petrol and diesel off-take remain unaffected and the rising fuel bill does not end up depleting household consumption budgets. The lockdowns imposed to contain the spread of COVID-19 having severely hit business activity at all levels, the onus is on the governments — both at the Centre and in the States — to facilitate the resumption of economic activity in every manner possible. Given that diesel is the primary fuel for the vast and essential road freight sector, every incremental addition to haulage costs ends up dampening both the transport industry and wider economic revival.

How are fuel prices computed in India?

India meets its domestic oil demand mainly through imports. Fuel prices in India are revised daily based on the changing crude oil prices globally. As global crude oil prices go up, the import cost also increases. But that’s just one reason for the high retail prices. The remainder of the amount is just state and central government taxes. A major reason for the high selling price of petrol is the high levy of local taxes. The Union government levies excise duty and cess on fuel, and states levy a value added tax (VAT).

In 2010, the prices of petrol were determined by the government and were revised every fortnight. In 2014 the price of diesel was also deregulated and since 2017 prices are being revised on a daily basis. Since then, the public sector Oil Marketing Companies make decisions on the pricing of petrol and diesel based on international product prices, exchange rate, tax structure, inland freight and other cost elements, according to a response in the parliament. Some state-run companies such as Indian Oil Corporation Limited Bharat Petroleum Corporation Limited and Hindustan Petroleum Corporation Limited fix retail prices of petrol and diesel in the country.

There are mainly four factors that influence the hike in fuel prices. These are (a) Crude oil, freight and processing charges to the dealer. (b) Excise duty charged by the government. (c) Dealer commission to the gas station. (d) Value Added Tax levied by the state government.

India imports about 82% of the required crude oil for its petroleum products. Crude oil is a dark sticky liquid that cannot be used without refining. It is heated until it boils and is then separated into different liquids and gases in a distillation column. This is used to make petrol and diesel. While Brent Crude is the international benchmark price used by the Organisation of Petroleum Exporting Countries (OPEC), West Texas Intermediate is the benchmark for United States oil prices. Since India mainly imports crude oil from OPEC countries, (Iraq, Iran, Kuwait, Saudi Arabia and Venezuela) Brent is the benchmark for oil prices in India. Brent crude is extracted from the North Sea of the Atlantic Ocean whereas West Texas Intermediate is usually extracted from US oil fields in Texas, Louisiana and North Dakota.

Worldwide taxes are levied on fuel. The following figure explains this:

At present India has the highest percentage of tax on both petrol & diesel making it one of the nations with the highest dose of taxation. Taxes now comprise over 69 per cent of the pump price of the two fuels. The following table shows the value of US dollar vs. Indian rupee since May 2014.

Source: Thomas Cook website(https://blog.thomascook.in/1-usd-to-inr-from-1947-to-2020/)

The value of the Indian rupee is largely related to crude oil prices. As oil price increases, the value of Indian currency also decreases, and vice versa. The withdrawal of foreign investors from the Indian market is another contributing factor. Government debts can cause investors to lose interest in the country’s market, resulting in inflation. Factors like these may combine with several others to cause further depreciation of the INR in the future.

Now we compare the international crude oil prices per barrel which is given in the table below for the same period:

Source:(https://www.opec.org/opec_web/en/data_graphs/40.htm)

The comparative prices of petrol in some of the countries are shown in the figure below:

But it is disconcerting that over the three weeks ending June 23, 2014, the spot price of Brent Sea crude rose from around $100 a barrel to more than $115 a barrel. At present, the price of crude oil is $71.32 a barrel. The month wise price of Indian basket crude oil & the retail selling price of petrol and diesel at Delhi during 2014 are given in the table below:

Source: (Reply to RS unstarred question-1090 answered on 4th March 2015 on “Comparative prices of crude oil in 2009 & 2014)-(https://pib.gov.in/newsite/PrintRelease.aspx?relid=116436)

The table below shows the retail selling price of petrol & diesel in Delhi during 2015-16 to 2020-2021 as given by the Petroleum Planning & Analysis Cell. (https://www.ppac.gov.in/). The cut-off date for each year is April 1.

The ordinary citizen will surely then wonder how the retail price of petrol has hit the century mark. The aforesaid tables show a different picture altogether. The fuel prices in the domestic market were supposed to fall as a result. But they are skyrocketing. This is because of the governments’ unscientific taxation policy. At present, petroleum products are under excise duty & VAT. The following table shows the breakup of both petrol & diesel price in Delhi (source: IOC website) that will make the above point clear.

The excise duty for a litre of petrol has risen from ₹9.48 a litre during the previous regime to ₹32.90 a litre in the present regime. The excise duty for diesel has risen from ₹3.56 a litre to ₹31.81 a litre in the same period. The present regime is misleading citizens by saying it has to pay for the oil bonds of the previous regime. The exorbitant rise of taxes is the primary reason for the skyrocketing fuel prices in the domestic market despite a steep fall of crude oil prices in the international market. If taxation is rationalised, the fuel prices would automatically come down. The cess was meant to be used for the development of the oil sector, but this never happened. If the funds had been used for the stabilisation of prices, the recent hike could have been avoided.  In practice, petroleum products are produced in refineries in India. One can understand the case for aligning Indian crude oil prices to international prices because 82% per cent of our requirement is imported. But there is no case for applying this method to oil refining, in which India is more than self-reliant (in fact, private companies such as Reliance export petroleum products). The opposition parties have been highlighting the fact that the whole point in promoting self-reliance is to establish entities in India to act as countervailing forces that would insulate the country from high prices in the global markets. If the current pricing system continues, even if India is completely self-reliant in crude oil and refined products, the consumer would still have to pay prices that are determined globally, even if the cost of production in India is lower. This is the biggest anomaly in the system that prevails, after the dismantling of the APM. In fact, this system is loaded against self-reliance. Even when a downward trend in international fuel prices had been observed, the benefit was never passed on to the people. It was neutralised by a higher incidence of indirect taxation, at both the Central and State levels. The ability of State governments to manoeuvre is far less than that of the Centre. The oil price hike has burdened the already strained State finances and threatens to jeopardise welfare programmes run by State governments.

In a reply to an unstarred question no-4309 in the Lok Sabha on March 22, 2021, the government had to reveal the amounts in tax collection on petrol, diesel & gas as a percentage of the Gross Tax Revenue Budget Estimates; figures show how this has increased. The year wise collection from 2013-14 to January 2021 are given below contained in the annexure to the reply in Parliament:

Conclusion

While income has not gone up, expenses have shot through the roof in hundreds of thousands of Indian households. A family which spent an average Rs 2,500 per month on groceries before the pandemic is now spending Rs 4000 per month. A litre of edible mustard oil which was sold for Rs 120 has now crossed Rs 200. Such a surge in prices has impacted the buying pattern of people as well. The price rise has hit harder because the virus has robbed many of their income and stalled the income of many more. The freezing of central government employees & pensioners dearness allowance given to offset the hike in prices has also added to the overall misery. High prices are also expected to inflate India’s current account deficit. In some States such as Kerala, trawler boat owners once engaged in deep-sea fishing are staring at a bleak future with the price of diesel going continually up and loss of significant number of fishing days owing to COVID-19 restrictions. The steep rise in the price of diesel too has been a big drag on fishing operations. An analysis of LPG hike will be taken up in a separate article.

Some crucial suggestions are being offered for bringing down the fuel prices. One is that the Central government reduce excise duty and also rationalise taxes on petroleum products. Two, the State governments reduce VAT. (Recently Government of Tamil Nadu reduced the price of petrol by three rupees per litre). Three, petroleum products should be brought under GST framework: with the establishment of a price stabilisation fund that can be funded by a cess for every tonne on the oil-prospecting companies like ONGC or Oil India.

The previous government had the vision to start the Indian Strategic Petroleum Reserves Limited (ISPRL)(http://www.isprlindia.com/) in 2005 to maintain crude oil stock. The present regime is not using this even while the oil prices are rising. There are about 55 lakh metric tonnes of crude oil stocked at the ISPRL facilities. It is both strange and questionable why the present regime has not released this stock despite the oil prices going sky high.

Related:

Democracy, anyone?

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The Pope may launch his Interdict,

The Union its decree,

But the bubble is blown and the bubble is pricked By Us and such as We.

Remember the battle and stand aside,

While Thrones and Powers confess,

That King over all the children of pride Is the Press -the Press -the Press!

– Rudyard Kipling

James Augustus Hickey is considered the father of the Indian press. He started the Bengal Gazette in the year 1780. But it was seized in the year 1872 as it was critical of the British Government. With the increasing number of newspapers, the government became accountable.

At the time of the first war of independence, any number of newspapers was in operation in the country. Many of these like Bangadoot of Ram Mohan Roy (before this he published Sambad Kaumadi),  Rastiguftar of Dadabhai Naoroji and Gyaneneshun advocated social reforms and thus helped arouse a national awakening. Other newspapers and journals like Payam e Azadi, Samachar Sudarshan, Doorbeen, Sultan ul Akhtar, Hindi Patriot, Neel Darpan, Indian Mirror, Gyan Prakash, Kesari, Maratha, Deccan Star, Pratap, Swadesamitran, Kudiarasu, Bombay Chronicle, Hindustan etc played a stellar role in the our fight for independence from the British.

Even after Independence, the press played a major role and the role of some of the newspapers during the Emergency was noteworthy. Things however began to change soon after 2014, when the current government came to power. The government started targeting media houses which were critical of its policies. Also, some media houses were co-opted into not only toeing the government line but acting as a propaganda arm of the government.

A slow drip of poison was also injected into the minds of the people through managed prime time debates, the sole aim of which was to demonise minorities. A combination of these toxic news channels and the WhatsApp forwards and social media posts, managed through proliferation by the IT cell of the ruling party was used to spread hatred towards minorities. Media persons who were critical of government were systematically targeted. The modus operandi was right out of the Nazi playbook. As Joseph Goebbels used to say, “If you tell a lie big enough and keep repeating it, people will eventually come to believe it. The lie can be maintained only for such time as the State can shield the people from the political, economic and/or military consequences of the lie. It thus becomes vitally important for the State to use all of its powers to repress dissent, for the truth is the mortal enemy of the lie, and thus by extension, the truth is the greatest enemy of the State.” This is known as the big lie. A big lie is a propaganda technique used for political purpose, defined as, “a gross distortion or misrepresentation of the facts, especially when used as a propaganda device by a politician or official body”.  In another context, the term was also applied to Donald Trump‘s staged efforts to discredit the results of the 2020 United States presidential election, which he fairly, lost; “the big lie” was the claim that the election was stolen from him through a massive fraud. More robust independent institutions like the offices of the Election Commission and the Judiciary saved the day for American democracy.

The code of business ethics is also titled ‘Living our values’ and it has eight governing principles: honesty and integrity, respect, humility, excellence, consumer focus, transparency and fairness, neither favour nor discrimination, and finally, commitment to social good.

If journalism is about maintaining a fair balance between what is in the public interest and what the public is interested in, the ethical business practice for a news organisation in its pursuit of a sustainable revenue model is to refrain from interfering with editorial practices. To ensure professionalism in editorial functioning independent of shareholder interference so as to maintain an impartiality, fairness, and objectivity in journalistic output.

“Is it right to give space to those who misguide and invent a mythical past and present? Why are we using the term ‘alternative facts’ for what are outright lies???”  It is well-documented that misinformation is germinated, incubated and nurtured by those who wield power. What should be the nature of reporting that is socially responsible? We must remember that it is not only journalism, but journalists, too, who are facing these existential questions.

In an interview with Newslaundry, Sodhi revealed that the Republic TV channel had devised a special term for harassing people to provoke dramatic reactions. “We used to call it ‘chase sequence,” “Go and do a chase sequence with whoever did not follow the ideology which they wanted.” Sodhi described the footage that this often yielded, “where the other person is getting irritated, he is trying to push you. So, that was the result of those chase sequences, because most of the time people are not comfortable.” The channel’s choice of targets was selective. “My job here was as a hit man,” basically to find out everything that the parties which are not following the ideology of a particular political party find out what they are saying, find fault in it, and report it that they are anti-national”.  “You had to find an angle by which you could bash a particular political party that was out of power”. We never touched the part wherein they used to say good things about the country, wherein they used to say good things about people, good about other communities. But yes, the one thing which they used to say which for our channel was anti-national, pro-lobby or whatever you call it, we used this to go against them. This is how things worked for us.”

The institutions once expected to play that role have failed to measure up to what is required. The Indian Express’s conduct during the Emergency is often cited as a model of how institutions should act in the face of an autocratic government, but it is difficult to make the same case for the newspaper’s conduct under the present Modi government.  The likes of Republic TV have done made an enormous effort to spread the extreme views of Modi and the BJP, and of the Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh that created them both.

Over and over again, the Express has allowed right-wing columnists publish on its pages outright lies that further the agenda of both the government and the RSS. Their writing may be presented as an ‘opinion’, but that is no excuse for disregarding basic norms of verification when the factual claims they make purport to be real. By allowing these lies to appear under its imprimatur, the Express makes it seem as if they pass the scrutiny of sound processes even when they do not, and so puts its own credibility at the service of passing falsehood off as truth. The responsibility for such deceit falls on both the columnists as well as on the leadership of the newspaper.

The 2019 media ownership monitor report on India, published by the international watchdog group, Reporters Without Borders and a local partner, identified the country’s top eight media companies in terms of audience share and “potential influence on public opinion”: the Zee Group, TV Today, the ABP Group, Network 18, HT Media, the Times Group, the Dainik Bhaskar Group and Prasar Bharti. The owners of four of these—Zee, Dainik Bhaskar, the Times Group and HT Media—come from a single sub-caste, the Marwaris. Network 18 is owned by Mukesh Ambani, a Gujarati Bania who belongs to a trading class closely affiliated with them. The Marwari clout over the media extends to other prominent media companies north of the Deccan too: Jagran Prakashan, Rajasthan Patrika Group, Lokmat Media and the Express Group.

Organisations such as the Times Group, Mukul said, have learnt to work with whichever government is in power. “Focussed on profits, most major media organisations do not want to annoy anyone,” he explained. “But with the current regime, things go beyond this paradigm. For many Marwari owners, profit and conviction have now come together; it is a win-win situation.”

In March 2020, hours before Modi put the country under lockdown in response to the coronavirus, he spoke via videoconferencing with many of the owners and top executives of the country’s largest media companies. He also personally called several of those who attended afterwards. According to the prime minister’s website, those in attendance committed to “work on the suggestions of the prime minister to publish inspiring and positive stories.” They included, among numerous others, Shobhana Bhartia of the HT Group, Rishi Darda of the Lokmat Group and Vivek Goenka of the Express Group.

Parliament passed a sweeping revamp of labour laws later that year, including a watering down of the Working Journalists Act, which governs the employment conditions of all print journalists. Earlier provisions for a six-month notice period for editors and a three-month notice period for all other journalists were dropped in favour of a one-month notice period across the board. This further strengthens media owners’ hand, and erodes journalists’ ability to stand up to them.

The veteran editor Harish Khare noted: -The “unmanageable” editor is a vanishing breed in India. Most of India’s political class, including the central and state governments and their opposition parties, finds strong, independent editors undesirable. Corporate bosses remain disdainful of professional editors. Owners of media houses, who handpick pliant journalists, are most unhappy if an editor turns out to have an intrepid streak.

Drawing on his experience at the (ABP) channel, Punya Prasun Bajpai wrote of “a 200-member monitoring team which duly functioned under the additional director general of the ministry, who reported directly to the minister concerned. 150 members were involved only in monitoring the channels; 25 members gave it the shape the government wanted; and the remaining 25 reviewed the final content. Based on this report, three officials of deputy secretary rank would prepare the report to be sent to the [Information and Broadcasting] minister, through whom the officials at the PMO [prime ministers’ office] would get activated and send their directives to the editors of the news channels about what was to be done and how.”

If editors remained firm on journalistic grounds, Bajpai noted, “then the officials at the ministry or the PMO would communicate with the concerned proprietor-they would send a file with the monitoring report, detailing how Prime Minister Modi’s statements, ranging from his election promises of 2014 to his claims on demonetisation, surgical strikes or GST could be shown again. Or how, in a report on an on-going scheme, the prime minister’s old claims could be included.” If this approach was not entirely successful either, BJP and RSS representatives would stop appearing for debate shows on the errant channel—as happened at ABP News while Bajpai was still employed there—dealing a blow to its primetime programming.

The final step was the boycott of a high-profile public event hosted by the channel. Bajpai wrote that “both the BJP and the Modi government declined to attend the programme—which meant no ministers at the meet. And when those in power are conspicuous by their absence, how can a programme be organised with just the presence of the opposition? The message, sharp and clear, to every news channel was this: go against us and your business will suffer.”

The government’s scrutiny does not leave any sector of the media untouched. Of the diminishing set of journalistic outfits that examine Modi’s rule critically, a large number operate as digital platforms. It is no surprise that the government is moving to regulate their work. As an editorial in The Hindu noted, the fear that bringing more rules is a euphemism for censorship cannot be brushed away. These questions are all the more important because there has been a wave of investments in the digital news media space in recent years. A large number of these media sites and magazines pursue legitimate journalism initiatives, which not only have the proper mechanisms to deliver quality but also operate with a high degree of accountability.

Therefore, soon afterwards, the government brought online news platforms under the purview of the ministry of information and broadcasting. It also applied a new cap to foreign direct investment in them, of no more than 26 per cent of total ownership. Among the first casualties was HuffPost India, one of the few outlets to carry reportage scrutinising the government. Its parent company, finding itself on the wrong side of the new norms, abruptly shut it down in November 2020.

In the BJP’s view, the Tamil television media is an unusual beast. Its anchors and editors tend to be more critical and professional—and far less dependent on pleasing the central government—than their counterparts in Delhi, for instance, where the party can sway channels almost at will. But there is also another trait, perhaps more profound, that sets the targeted journalists apart. Karthigaichelvan, Nelson Xavier, Gunasekaran and others on Maridhas’s hit list belong to a particular generation of Tamil journalists with a vastly different social composition to the upper-caste elite that dominates newsrooms in places such as Delhi. Their backgrounds, reflected in their journalism, feed the Hindu Right’s distrust.

The media has always been one of the most caste-segregated industries in India. A 2019 study by the international not-for-profit, Oxfam showed vast under-representation of Other Backward Classes, Scheduled Castes and Scheduled Tribes in newsrooms, especially at the leadership level. The media in Tamil Nadu is something of an exception. From the very beginning of large-scale print media in Madras Presidency, non-Brahmin activists recognised the danger of a Brahmin-monopolised press and actively fought against it.

Advani’s words, uttered then, now ring true in the ears of every Indian, decades after the Emergency was lifted. He had addressed the media and said: “You were asked only to bend, but you crawled.”               

But as Princeton historian Gyan Prakash noted recently “as someone who wrote a history of emergency, I can say that what’s happening in INDIA now is much worse”

Before and After 2014, the Indian Media Story

The table below in a nutshell shows some of the important points -comparison of the media before & after 2014

Contemporary media today

There are more serious problems than built-in disparity and unevenness in the development path within the Indian media. Increasing concentration of ownership in some sectors; higher levels of manipulation of news, analysis, and comment to suit the owners’ financial and political interests; the downgrading and devaluing of editorial functions and content in some leading newspaper organisations; the systematic dumbing down, led by the nose by certain types of market research; the growing willingness within newspapers to tailor the editorial product to subserve advertising and marketing goals set by owners and senior management personnel; hyper-commercialization; price wars and aggressive practices in the home bases of other newspapers to overwhelm and kill competition, raising fears about media monopoly; private treaties with corporates that undermine the independence and value of news; rogue practices like seeking favours, paid news, rent taking for favourable coverage, positive reviews all have eroded the moral & ethical values of the media as the fourth pillar of democracy.

The three major defects in the present-day Indian media are frequently diverting attention from serious socio-economic issues to non-issues and the trivialising of news, dividing the people by putting out communal or other divisive messages, and promoting superstition and obscurantism instead of rational and scientific ideas. This may also be due to the relatively low intellectual level of a majority of journalists, their poor general knowledge in the subject, lack of uncanny desire to probe deeply and their lack of ‘desire to serve the public interest’ but serve their political masters for a rosy life. 

Certain real life examples are (a) During and after demonetisation, especially while ordinary Indians suffered hardships and the informal economy was destroyed, many media houses carried out sensational news such as a chip has been embedded in the new two thousand rupee note (b) Human life can exist in moon during the failure of the landing of the rover launched by ISRO to the moon-a TV news anchor coming in a space suit added to the ‘entertainment’ (c) A famed news anchor in one of the channels stating that the full form of the Chinese army(PLA) as Pakistan Liberation Army during the Chinese intrusion into Ladakh when it is the People’s Liberation Army showed their obsession with Pakistan (d) Character assassination of Rhea Chakraborty in the Sushant Singh Rajput case with the reporters barging into the private space of their apartments putting awkward questions to security guards, neighbours, courier boys fanning out a spectacle which would put any news channel to shame. (e) Another anchor did not know elementary mathematics while quoting wrong figures. (f) A Pakistan missile with clear markings were shown as an Indian missile.

The proliferation of multi-channel private satellite television, without any regulatory framework in place, has certainly made a major difference to the electronic media landscape. On the face of it, satellite television delivered to homes by cable or direct telecast, with its plethora of channels, close to 600 of them, including more than 100 news channels.  For one thing, the satellite television channels lack the journalistic experience of the press and function in an immature environment. For another, the 24×7 cycle puts tremendous pressure on the values and methods of newsgathering, analysis, and comment. However, the satellite television does not necessarily offer a better and richer choice of content. It has promoted increased fragmentation of the television audience & this also may be one of the factors in polarising society as visual impact leaves a deeper impact on the minds of the audience.

The content too has raised concerns about veracity, accuracy, taste, decency, rationality, and of a brazen class bias. While bringing some worthwhile and occasionally excellent news, features, sports, and educational programming to tens of millions of homes, Indian satellite TV contributes, in disproportionate measure, to the sensationalisation and trivialization of news, the class bias, and the other ailments that have recently drawn a lot of public criticism. 

‘A newspaper that can really depend upon the loyalty of its readers is as independent as a newspaper can be, given the economics of modern journalism’, which is an economics overwhelmingly dependent on advertising. This insight from Lippmann (1922: 206) is as valuable today as it was when he presented it in his acclaimed study of public opinion nearly nine decades ago. How to retain the loyalty of readers who are migrating away from the printed press and the broadcast media to digital platforms – where there is weak or inadequate advertising support for content that news organisations offer – is another matter. But trust remains the key.

There is yet another issue that needs serious discussion, especially in the current Indian context. It is the propaganda or manufacture of consent contribution of the press and the other news media. This can be seen to be the subversion of the two central functions, the credible-informational and the critical-investigative adversarial. Liberal democratic theory asserts for the most part that in countries like the United States and the United Kingdom, the media are free, independent, respectful of a diversity and pluralism of views, strive to report the news fairly, fully and without undue bias, play adversarial roles, and act as watchdogs of the democratic and public interest. The propaganda model conceptualised by Herman and Chomsky (1988) in their influential book, Manufacturing Consent, is a frontal challenge to this liberal theorising on the media and democracy. 

Necessary Illusions: Thought Control in Democratic Societies, Chomsky (1989) explains that the propaganda model shows how ‘the media serve the interests of state and corporate power, which are closely interlinked, framing their reporting and analysis in a manner supportive of established privilege and limiting debate and discussion accordingly’. The propaganda of state-controlled television and radio is widely recognised and ridiculed in the Indian public arena, but the press too can be seen to manufacture consent from time to time in relation to sensitive, contentious issues. Two major cases in point are the complicit role of influential sections of the Hindi as well as English language press during the aggressive Ayodhya communal mobilisation by the Hindu Right between 1990 and 1992, and the propaganda role played by much of the press on issues and controversies raised by the post-1991 experience of economic liberalisation. In the case of Gujarat in 2002-2003, a similar point can be made about the differential coverage by the English language and Gujarati press. While ‘national media’ coverage has justly been applauded for truth-telling and blowing the whistle on a state-sanctioned genocidal pogrom, it was a sobering fact that the dominant Gujarati print media in the State performed the manufacture of consent function with a vengeance, attracting censure from various fact-finding exercises, including a report done for the Editor’s Guild of India (2002). ‘The mischievous role of certain Gujarati newspapers’, the fact-finding mission concluded, ‘cannot be glossed over. Some of them have been named for irresponsible and unethical journalism in the past but have regrettably learnt nothing and forgotten nothing. Wilful incitement to offence, propagation of hate, and fuelling disorder are criminal offences. In the event, these newspapers went scot-free. The New York Times may continue to print on its front page the claim, ‘All the News That’s Fit to Print’, patented in 1896. n C.P. Scott’s much-quoted dictum, ‘Comment is free but facts are sacred’ (Scott 1921).

Journalism in India is facing a serious crisis. The mainstream media is increasingly vested in the hands of a select few and refuses to question authority. Even the late president of India Sh.Pranab Mukherjee had said that “discussion and dissension” are crucial for a vibrant democracy, and it must hold public institutions accountable for all their actions and inactions”. “There should always be room for the argumentative Indian, and not the intolerant Indian. The media must be the watchdog, the mediator between the leaders and the public,” Mukherjee emphasized while delivering a seminal lecture honouring former press baron Ramnath Goenka. Commentators criticize how in recent years the media has lowered the quality of India’s public discourse. Media expansion has led to a shrinking of the public sphere, resulting in the spread of elitist and socially conservative values. The true test of a robust democracy is the independence of its media. Over the past few years, the Indian media has become the mouthpiece of the party in power. Coupled with the fact the corporate owners of media houses share close links with the government, the Indian media has tragically lost its voice. Serious issues like the beef ban, the crisis in Kashmir, demonetisation, GST, dissent in universities and even the unrest in societies where Dalits – the lowest level of India’s caste system – have been discriminated or killed, have received scant mention in media coverage.

In fact, given the current state of how the mainstream media works it will be difficult to expose tweaked data and opacity in government functioning. A new note of muscular nationalism has crept into media discourse.  Also conspicuous is the curbing of dissent and the rise of the surveillance state – developments that bode ill for the independence of the Indian media. The TV debates have lost value & adding to the knowledge with the panelists shouting over one another & the points made are lost in the cacophony of high decibels in some of the channels.

One reason why we do not see much criticism in the media is that the government, in the person of the Prime Minister, has the ability to completely dominate the media’s agenda, by saturating the public and media sphere with the message, image, and his voice. Thus, the media is bound to only react to the news agenda offered by the government, rather than investigate its action independently. The present government is a social media driven government with paid WhatsApp groups, telegram groups, twitter troll armies who set the agenda in all the debates, discussions & the narrative is set rolling. Facts go for a toss as the audience is dished out half-baked facts bereft of truth & impartial views. Filings with the registrar of companies in the ministry of corporate affairs have revealed that five Indian news media companies – NDTV, News Nation, India TV, News24 and Network18 – are indebted to either Mukesh Ambani, the richest Indian and the owner of Reliance Industries, or Mahendra Nahata, an industrialist and Ambani associate, who is also on the board of Reliance’s new telecom venture, Reliance Jio. What more do you expect when the media industry is dominated by such big players? The Indian media is now the B team of the Bharatiya Janata party and the Modi government & has become a propaganda machinery. 

Many noted journalists in their quest of truth have been stifled or silenced by the powers to be when they tried to expose the fact check from the ground. Many such impartial journalists have started their own YouTube channels & now the government has started to spread its wings for control & censorship of the online channels too by way of a proposed regulation. Another aspect is the sensation above sense with the media viewing the actions of citizens through the lens of nationalism, condemning those who question the state narrative as “anti-national”, “Urban Naxal”, “tukde tukde gang”, “Lutyens Delhi”, “Khan market gang” so on & so forth. The latest term added to this vocabulary is “Andolanjivi”. There is a credibility crisis and a tendency of the television news media to put sensation above sense in search for the Television Rating Points (TRP) ratings & breaking news. The recent Arnab chats expose during the investigation by the Mumbai police of the TRP scam is a point in this direction. The unwillingness across the media to not only robustly challenge the official narrative on key issues partly out of its own failings but also largely out of fear of being denied access to those in power. Debates on private news channels have been censured for being strident and shrill. India has one of the world’s most vibrant and competitive media environments. It is now time to conduct a reality check and ask whether all is well with it. Many journalists have been attacked & some of them are not reported as the reporters often succumb to threats, pressures from local politicians, law enforcing agencies & most important the self-appointed vigilantes.  Journalists are watchdogs—not cheerleaders. They ignite dialogue on essential issues. They share the truths that powerful people would rather conceal.

Freedom of the press is important because it plays a vital role in informing citizens about public affairs and monitoring the actions of government at all levels. While the media may be unpopular —43 per cent of Americans say the media supports democracy “very poorly” or “poorly,” a Knight Foundation/Gallup report found — this role should not be forgotten.

When Donald Trump was president of USA, he had re-tweeted violent memes against CNN and railed against reporters and news outlets that criticize his administration, even stating that certain media outlets should lose their broadcasting licenses. He has called the press “enemies of the people,” a phrase also used by 20^th century authoritarians. The same is being followed by our right-wing sympathisers/supporters in India. The recent farmer’s protest which was highlighted by the international stars such as Rihanna, Greta Thunberg is a point. The script from Nagpur was re-tweeted by our international cricketers, Bollywood stars verbatim proves it.

The drop in India’s ranking in press freedom has been linked to the existence of a sedition law that encourages self-censorship particularly in a period of heightened nationalism. In the latest ranking of the World Press Freedom Index of RSF or RFB (Reporters Sans Frontiers or Reporters Without Borders) 2020, India is ranked 142 just ahead of Pakistan at 145. Even Sri Lanka is ranked above India at 127(rsf.org). There is no doubt that the media freedom is under greater threat. “Freedom after speech – that is really what freedom of speech is all about”. He emphasised that “you are allowed to speak, speak as much as you like, but there is a fellow waiting there to nab you and out you in so you can’t speak again”! Even the RWB points out that hate against the differing views of journalist is dangerous for a democracy.

It is a vicious cycle. The owners of the print, electronic media are big business houses who do not give freedom to the editors. As it becomes a costly proposition, their business interests are to be safeguarded. The media depends on advertising, tenders etc & the government is the major contributor to the advertisements & tenders being published in the newspapers. Newsprint is the second largest expense for small papers after human resources costs, according to the National Newspaper Association of USA. Hence, the business houses here in India have to depend on the government for their survival. The fact that many of these have contributed to the PMCares during the corona pandemic either as a part of their Corporate Social Responsibility (CSR) voluntarily or by coercion even though many of them could not pay salaries to the staff owing to massive job cuts. The inherent perils of a business that should not have been a business has resulted in prime-time news was (and is) littered with advertisements which at times come with the power of submission to a corporate agenda. And every other daily gave up the sanctity of their mastheads and front pages to put business in the form of ads, way ahead of news.  Many journalists have started to lose their objectivity, getting as excited by a tax cut as a consumer would, describing budgets as ‘dreams’; expressing elation by the fanciness of a new car entering the market or the rank of India as a country to do business and the rise in the GDP or the success of Indians who had left the nation.

The Indian government’s decision to stop buying adverts in newspaper groups has drawn a spotlight on a system that critics say is used by the state to control media coverage. The administration had frozen all advertising spending with the publishers of the Times of India, The Hindu and The Telegraph, three of the country’s highest circulation English-language outlets. The decision appears to have come after all three papers published articles or a series of articles that irritated the central government. The government has strongly denied using advertising expenditure to influence editorial content, saying the existence of critical stories in Indian media is evidence enough that this does not happen. Rewarding or punishing media outlets through the allocation or non-allocation of advertising by the government is common practice, and an effective way to make them toe their editorial line. This political leverage over the media that has seen India under Modi constantly drop places in the organisation’s World Press Freedom Index. In 2002, India ranked 80 in the same index.

An explosion of media took place, turning the Fourth Estate into an industry of competitive market forces. Price points of media defied actual cost and inflation, lending to greater competition and the trivialisation of content, particularly news. No wonder headlines changed, becoming as attractive as ad lines, aimed at garnering eye-balls, chasing audiences defined largely by marketing departments.  This also meant the representation of news was bound to change. Journalists disengaged from the farmer and other minorities and powerless sections of India, reporting less and less from the ground. Journalists began to don the role of government propaganda machinery & started to give the entertainment industry a run for their money. The Press is the voice of people, it is considered to be the voice of the voiceless. The Press existed even before independence and it certainly proves that any sort of media or press is by the people of the state not by the ruling body. The media acts as a bridge between the government and the people as it tends to inform people about the functions performed by the government. It also informs the government officials about the problems faced by people in their respective constituency. Hence, the democratic system is only fully efficient when the state enjoys a free press, though the Indian constitution doesn’t have a separate article for freedom of the press in the Constitution like the United States. The free press is a term used for the media which is not controlled or restricted by the government for propagating political agendas or ideological matters among the masses. May 3rd is celebrated as world press day or world press Freedom Day. 

The realities of running a business hit several media houses. Some opted for private treaties and others openly allowed paid news legitimising the same with a pricing menu. Others sold their equity to large industry. With no policy framework in place, this was waiting to happen. For example, Reliance Group was allowed to own the Network 18. It was called a ‘bail out’ for the then promoter, Raghav Bahl, but it eventually cost the large corporation a voice and say in public opinion. Coupled with the growing reality of cronyism between industry and governments, the media was quietly emerging as a critical weapon that the two could share in a self-serving manner. It is no wonder why corporates have bought into or bought out several media houses. Another instance is of Rajeev Chandrashekhar, a MP helping Arnab Goswami start the Republic TV channel.

The White House is calling for tariffs of up to 32 per cent on uncoated ground wood paper. That would be a major blow for an industry already suffering from layoffs and downsizing: From January 2001 to September 2016, the number of newspaper jobs fell from 412,000 to 174,000, according to the Bureau of Labour Statistics. Thomas Jefferson once quipped that he’d rather have newspapers without a government than a government without newspapers. He changed his mind, however, after the presidential campaign of 1800, when he endured the scrutiny of the press. Politicians from Franklin Roosevelt to Bill Clinton to Donald Trump have complained about the media, which means the press is doing its job. Journalists are watchdogs—not cheerleaders. They ignite dialogue on essential issues. They share the truths that powerful people would rather conceal. They are the force that holds our leaders accountable for their actions. When our leaders threaten journalists, they are threatening the First Amendment, along with our most basic rights. “Our liberty depends on the freedom of the press,” said Jefferson, “and that cannot be limited without being lost.”

The respected N. Ram, was quoted in The Hindu saying, “Nobody has figured out a viable business model for quality journalism”. While quality of journalism has to improve significantly, why should there be a business model if the media is the Fourth Estate and critical pillar of democracy? Think of it – the government runs without profit and loss as its prime criteria. It is to govern and provide certain services. The same applies for the judiciary and the legislature in different measure. The fourth pillar should remain unobliged and unapologetic if it is to remain free with a purpose of service to the nation. Conflict of interest is not taken seriously in the Indian scenario.

There still remain some silver lining in the dark clouds-Ravish Kumar who won the Ramon Magsaysay award, Faye D’souza, Abhisar Sharma, Sakshi Joshi, Punya Prasun Bajpai, Prashant Kanojia & many more who have stood their ground that speaks volumes of their courage & conviction.

Now the government is trying to regulate the online content of channels started by some journalists in the garb of censorship. Even the social media microblogging site twitter is not spared although this government has relied heavily on twitter to have connect with the citizens. In the on-going farmers’ protest, twitter was directed to take down an estimated 250 twitter handles which were later restored by twitter owing to the public opinion maintaining constant pressure which made twitter see the light of the day.

Attacks on journalists

According to ‘Getting Away with Murder’ – a study by Free Speech Collective, 198 serious attacks on journalists have been documented in the period between 2014-19, including 36 in 2019 alone. The study also states that there has not been a single conviction in attacks on journalists in India, targeted for their investigative work. In India, since the BJP has come to power, we have seen an escalation in attacks against journalists. The legitimacy of stories by reporters have been challenged by prominent people including politicians and it has always been followed by violence.

Journalists across the world are risking their lives to gather news and information during the COVID crisis. However, in India since 25 March, when the nationwide lockdown was announced, police and authorities have questioned, filed cases or arrested at least 10 journalists for reports critical of the government’s handling of the coronavirus crisis. Interestingly, this trend isn’t just limited to states under the BJP government. Cases have been filed against journalists by the Congress government in Chhattisgarh, AIADMK in Tamil Nadu and the Shiv Sena, NCP & Congress government in Maharashtra.

Although journalism and media activities have been declared essential services during the lockdown period, a number of cases of assault on media freedom have come to fore. Two FIRs have been filed by the UP administration against the Co-founding Editor of The Wire, Siddharth Varadarajan for very routine reporting of facts. The present dispensation has expressed open disdain or almost a contempt for the freedom of press and for the functions of press. They find a tailor-made solution to either cow the journalist into silence or effectively put them out of business. The government consistently seem to deny the role of press scrutiny as an important pillar of democracy. Women journalist in India face severe online harassment and bullying while reporting. They often face death and rape threats and are stalked and doxed with their personal data shared online. Women have been seeing a lot of harassment. There is documented online harassment of women journalists. The sexualised abuse, the misogyny that they face from troll armies, these are ways of policing them and punishing them for speaking out. Lodging of FIRs against women journalists and the direct physical attacks are also a threat to free speech or factual reporting. Journalism continues to be a risky proposition in the present-day scenario in India. This culture of cracking down on dissent, on questions, it permeates to every level. Siddique Kappan is another example of a journalist incarcerated when he covered the Hathras case.

The present-day ruling dispensation is insecure either by accident or design. This stems from the fact that these people do not understand the function of criticism, do not understand the function of press scrutiny and think that the function of the press is to be a cheerleader to power rather than hold the power to account. The media fraternity too is polarised like every section of the society into good & bad journalists. Media houses reporting truth based on facts are dubbed as anti-national or the bad media and the good media is the one promoted by the state.

Factors which threaten the freedom of press or media

It stands for the civic rights, political rights and religious rights of the people. Media plays a vital role in forming opinions and influencing decision making by the people, comparing present and past experiences, actions, works etc. done by different governing bodies. It also helps in giving feedback, exposure and conduit mechanisms by the people to the government, so that the representatives can work according to their needs and requirements.

Citizens receive the information about the new policies, projects, schemes, laws, amendments etc. through media, by which they can assess the working of the government and analyse if the deeds are beneficial for them or not. The Press also acts as a crucial instrument for accounting. A person can forget the promises made by their leaders but a printed newspaper, video, or audio recording will act as a piece of reminding evidence for both citizens and the government. The people who work in the press must be unafraid. Some brave journalists do perform string operations, do investigations and find out the reality. It tends to fight against corruption, unfulfilled promises, disloyal behaviour or misuse of power in public or private life.

1. Corporate Sector: Not only does the government try to control the press but sometimes, even the corporate sector tries to control it in order to increase their business sales or other personal users may control the press by paying the editors, writers and reporters.
2. The killing of Reporters and Journalists: Many a time, reporters and journalists are killed for presenting a piece of news or covering a story by the supporters of a particular group, organisation or political party. 
3. Targeting: Press workers are often the targets of hate campaigns, trolling, character assassination etc.

Though journalists have the choice to publish or not publish names with their reporting, choosing to remain anonymous depicts a sense of fear in one’s own nation.  India has the world’s largest democracy, and it is absolutely necessary that the press is not controlled by the government or any other sector of society.  The Press is the voice of the voiceless and should promote the rights of the minority; it is the duty of the press of any country to ensure that the government is functioning properly and no section of the society is left behind or is not treated well. It ensures the proper functioning of the executive Legislature and the judiciary because it raises questions!

“The press is the only tocsin of a nation, when it is completely silenced, all means of general effort are taken away.”-Thomas Jefferson

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The term ‘migrant labourers’ or ‘migrant workers’ is a misnomer. Everyone is a migrant in their own nation at some time or the other. The reasons for this migration may be the quest for better education, better job opportunities, greener pastures, better quality of life that makes the people migrate.  Th difference lies in the access to opportunities and fair wages. Migrant labourers or migrant workers term describes that section of our people who are not just a cog in the economic wheel of a society or nation, but men and women, Indians, who are not just the toiling masses of this nation but those who most seminally contribute to the growth and productivity of the economy. Rural India (Bharat) which is the backbone of this nation is fleeing from Urban and swanky India. Should we stop calling them migrants for the reasons referred to below?mentioned in this article.

The COVID-19 pandemic has been a great leveller as we near the seventy third year of our independence in 2020. It took a pandemic for Urban India toto to the lives of migrant labout Indians, so far unseen and unheard of even with respect  aspect of the country’s economy. These are the faceless and nameless Indians on whom we depend for our basic daily activities in the cities. They are not fleeing the pandemic; they are fleeing us. They took one long, clear, searing look at us – identified us as the industrial strength ingratiates that we are – and they packed their bags and left. It was not the bug, it was not being denied wages, it was not the heat, it was not the filth in Swacch Bharat, it was not even the slumlord’s overnight eviction. They just realized who we were – people who saw other humans as essentially a replaceable means to an end – and they decided to replace us. And none of us – a nova middle-class, greedy, selfish, impatient, thirsting for success by hook or crook, intolerant, lack of empathy, carbon foot print counting, urban constituency of mid-of-career hash taggers – imagined that our employees would left swipe us. But yes, that’s exactly what happened.

Migrant Workers or Guest Workers?

So where do we start? We stop calling them migrant labourers or migrant workers. They live and work here, in all the metros like Mumbai, Delhi, Chennai, Kolkata, Bengaluru, Hyderabad. This is their home, although they might – like a lot of us – have birth homes, too. The phrase ‘migrant worker’ is consciously disempowering. Migrant is reinforced in media discourse to divest something vital: an assertion of residency in the same city as ourselves.

Does it scare us to think that they might inhabit the same public space as us? By repeatedly calling them migrants we also suggest that we can simply ‘pack them back to where they came from’. A reinforcement of the word migrant diminishes their agency as citizens; its invisibles them by equating them with wandering beings (as if a pack of sheep) and it detracts from their more powerful role as citizen, by insinuating that they are essentially homeless and therefore entirely reliant on the host state for residence. In essence, an elite existentialist’s reprehensible rap set: they are not from here/they are here to clean/ and cook/ and cook/ and clean/, press clothes, where do they go from here, who ’knows?  

Every time we think – Thank the almighty that we have a roof on our heads, a own home, secure job, afford two square meals a day in this pandemic – we acknowledge all those who had originally left their own home, travelled hundreds of kilometres, shacked up under plastic roof shanties for months, without a kitchen or indoor plumbing, to build that house you now call home. Those Indians walking on the streets, hungry, dispossessed, broken, betrayed by the government they voted into power with brute majority hoodwinked and brainwashed by the ruling dispensation, betrayed by the people whose businesses they established – they’re the folks who made the place sheltering you during this storm of storms. They are not migrant workers: they are the original founders of your home. No one out of choice, or from lack of judgment, sleeps on train tracks. Tracks suggest a path to your village, serving as compass for those without the privilege of GPS. P. Sainath of People’s Archive of Rural India (PARI), an authority on rural development and a Ramon Magsaysay award winner had rightly pointed out that the Urban India did not care about these labourers/workers till March 26, 2020 and cares now as it has lost their services and needs them.

Death on the Tracks

And what happens when people die on tracks? From a Quora thread: ‘With a high-speed hit all you get is lots of blood spray, chunks of flesh, organ and bone with the odd recognizable chunk thrown in.’ Now imagine, for a moment, their funereal. When the rich come back from London or Rome, bringing home some of the contamination, we don’t ask – Who told you to go to Europe and fall sick? So on what account do we ask the poor: Why were you sleeping on train tracks? We are not equating the two questions but are asserting the right to question an establishment that believes it is wrong for us to prioritise one question over the other. And, for the record, the correct answer to the question is: They would never have been sleeping on train tracks if they were, instead, in the trains and on their way home to their villages. 

The workers in Bangalore were held back (restrained, shackled, forbidden ‘free’ passage). Their trains were cancelled after the capitalist builder lobby realized that if these labours or the toiling masses vanished, so would be their projects. Much like slaves – or in keeping in with our indigenous traditions of bonded labour – Indian citizens were not allowed to travel home. The nexus between capitalists and governments is devious enough to hold you in captivity. Like a caged animal.   After protests, the Karnataka Government relented. But the recommencement of the Indian economy never factored for an unsettling absence of labour; after all, they assumed: where the hell would these Indians go? As it turns, they would go any place where people did not treat them like vermin, as disposable, as replaceable, and where they endured a need-based visibility, which is to say: when we need them, we see them, sell them lofty, swanky dreams. But now that the laborers left, the mazdoors have left us in a state of majboori: no one here to lay a brick, no one to cook the food, no one to look after the plants, no one to clean the luxury cars, no one to wash and press clothes, no one to give a haircut and shave and without a maid, who is cleaning the utensils, sweeping and mopping our homes, cleaning the toilet?

The lockdown announced on the March 24, 2020 without giving sufficient notice has put these workers into a fix. In a nation of a 130 crore population of diverse regions, the time given (or rather dictated) was just too short, only four hours. To put things in proper perspective there are approximately 45 crores or 450 million migrant workers working in different parts of India. They never knew how long would this lockdown continue as there were no specific strategy from the Government to tackle the pandemic and the human issues related that could have far reaching consequences. Although the Government said that their wages would have to be paid for this duration, owners were not to force them to pay rentals, the corporate honchos whose prime motive is profit while human welfare is secondary did not agree with the views of the Government. Result was that the restlessness in these workers which saw a mass exodus that had the social distancing going for a toss. Many started walking with their belongings staring at a bleak future and no guarantee of returning. Had the present dispensation displayed an iota of sensibility and apathy, a week could have been given, special trains could have run and these workers could have been paid their salaries and they could have managed to reach their hometown and spend the lockdown peacefully at their home town with their near and dear ones. This could have given a window for them to return after the lockdown is lifted. Now with the chaos all around, their return seems to be a remote possibility.

There has also been confusion about the railways handling the travel arrangements of these workers. This confusion has arisen because of an absence of political clarity, commitment and dithering from an otherwise authoritarian government! The Central government clearly did not want to foot the bill, the expenses for the travel of these Indians, back home! Some of the workers had to sell their phones for purchasing the train ticket, making the physical distancing norms and Arogya Sethu application a mockery as many did not have phones let alone have smart phones. The trains also had special Rajdhani trains having premium fares which were out of reach for the poor. This led to a steady growth in the number of stranded workers waiting outside the major railway stations without a ticket as the ticket had to be purchased on the IRCTC portal which could not withstand the digital traffic of transactions and crashed adding to the chaos. After walking long distances to reach the railway station from within and outside the various cities, only to realise hunger had over taken them, ticket available only on the web portal and  long distances from within and outside the city, only to be told they can only buy a ticket on the IRCTC web portal with the fares being high and not affordable by the poor masses. In case the PMCares funds is not meant to help poor workers, labourers and families on railway tracks and road, then what is the purpose of such a fund? The trains are far and few given the huge number of labourers and workers outside their respective home States. The capitalists are worried about their production, profits, services and are treating labourers like commodities. Agreed, the capitalists need the workers to restart the production and manufacturing to kick start the economy, but this cannot be the reason to violate the most fundamental rights enshrined in the constitution-right to life and livelihood. It was only after the Congress party sprang a surprise that they would foot the travel of these workers caught the Central Government on the wrong foot and with no clear strategy in mind, it was chaos all around.

Many deaths have taken place owing to accidents on railway tracks, highways and also starvation. They have been run over by cars or killed when overloaded vehicles tipped over. The most noted one was the death of sixteen labourers sleeping on the tracks in Maharashtra’s Aurangabad district.  By ignoring the workers who are still taking to highway to walk in this hot summer towards their home towns, the Central Government is perpetuating its disastrous error that is assuming Himalayan proportions. If they walk continuously for long duration, they can suffer from dehydration, hunger, heat stroke etc in the extreme hot conditions. On March 31, 2020 the Centre informed the Supreme Court that there were no migrant labourers on the roads given the measures State governments had adopted to house and feed them in various States. This submission was made after petitions were moved asking the Centre to act to avert a humanitarian crisis as the workers/labourers began walking hundreds of kilometres to get back to their native towns and villages from far flung locations. Obviously, this was not even a factually correct statement. Even. Lots of voluntary organisations belonging to various communities organised common kitchens to prepare food from donations in kind and distributed it to them following the guidelines prescribed by the authorities, even though helping hand of government was nowhere to be seen.

There can be no doubt over the fact that this labourers’ crisis is the result of government apathy. The Centre has not found it necessary to establish a task force to help these toiling masses reach their homes ever since the sudden enforcement of the nationwide lockdown. But the same Central Government has shown alacrity in helping the more prosperous stranded Indians in other countries due to the global COVID-19 situation under the massive Vande Bharat mission. Even it was not free. Countries like Qatar who were mis-lead into believing it as a relief mission offered many concessions to Air India, but when it found that it was a paid trip, withdrew the concessions.

There has also been law and order problem in various States. There have been sporadic protests by these labourers in cities such as Surat and some other cities but the scale of these protests is nothing compared to the magnitude of the crisis. The fear that they may end up in the wrong side of the law has made them endure the unimaginable hardship silently. No money to buy the essentials, no food, no potable drinking water, starvation, hunger still they walked long distances with not more than biscuits and a small bottle of water having only a solitary meal in a day. Some have fallen sick or died owing to fatigue, accidents which underscored the extreme risks they have been exposed to under measures to stop the spread of coronavirus.
 

UP, Gujarat and MP follow Centre’s footsteps

Many State Governments particularly the ruling dispensation of Uttar Pradesh, Gujarat and Madhya Pradesh passed an ordinance that effectively suspended various labour laws in force in the States to boost investment and increasing the number of working hours without overtime wages for the extra hours put in by them. UP alone suspended thirty five out of thirty-eight labour laws. It is not what digital media claims as Golden India. The Gujarat notification says that no overtime would be paid to the workers. Karnataka too has joined the league in tweaking the labour laws to boost investment through the post facto approval by the State cabinet. The workers will work 12 hours a day for the straight six days. All these laws were made in a great hurry without going through discussion, debate and talks with all the stake-holders. This is a retrograde step to say the least. The workers have no say whether they want to do the extra hours or not. It is an attack on basic human rights and enslavement of labour. This will affect the weakest sections of the society the most. Trade Union organisations and activists have criticised these flawed attempts to take them home. Himachal Pradesh, Haryana, Odisha, Maharashtra, , Bihar  enhanced the daily working hours from eight hours to twelve hours through executive orders in violation of the Factories Act, taking advantage of the lockdown situation. Lot of orders issued on the handling of the travel of the labourers/workers has created more confusion and conflict than solution to the problem in hand. The industrialists would employ more persons for lesser wages and can render the existing workers jobless in case they raise their voice. The industrialists can form a cartel, but the workers cannot form Unions or associations which robs them of their constitutional rights.
 

Out of sight, out of mind: India’s unorganised sector

The unorganised sector comprising the labourers, workers have always been out of sight to the policy makers. The Centre is perpetuating this disastrous error by sweeping this burning issue under the carpet. The Central Government which sees opportunity in this pandemic has ignored these crucial strata of the society and had a chance to fix its approach towards this vulnerable population. This population can be brought back only by incentives and not by coercion and draconian laws or by the whims of the capitalists. Reverse migration will compound the agrarian distress in an absence of non-agricultural jobs in villages. It will affect the income levels. MGNREGA needs to be strengthened. When the poor become literate, the rich lose their palanquin bearers is an old saying. Suddenly, we have lost the palanquin bearers. This has added a new dimension to the categorisation of work force as nameless, faceless, collarless workers.  The Government did not factor this category of workers which we now routinely see as a daily spectacle in all print, electronic and social media. Their fate is left to the good Samaritans and humanity which is a scarce commodity now in this era of materialistic world. These toiling masses are found everywhere making our lives comfortable and cosy and living on a hand to mouth situation. These are the masses who load and unload huge sacks of rice, wheat, vegetables, cement, steel, bricks, mortar at various places such as markets, mandis, agricultural market yards, road side eateries making crispy samosas, sweet meats at the local halwai, painters, miners etc. Many a times, we have seen that the shirts are an impediment in their jobs and standing before the ovens, stoves in the tropical regions such as ours. They would always be in their vests or banians which sometimes bear the brunt of their hard labour and maybe torn and ragged. These new categories of aspirational toiling masses are our fellow Indians whose confidence in the system which they dreamt to be a part of is shattered and punctured difficult to salvage.

According to various media reports there have been estimated 650 deaths of these migrant workers walking back home due to various causes. The deaths keep rising every day. Some of them go unreported.

The Government’s piecemeal steps are of little use in handling the situation. The Government erred in reading the situation, failed to respond either with empathy or efficiency. This episode has proved to be an international embarrassment for our nation. This is a huge failure on the first anniversary of the second term of this Government, yet another blot in its 6 year-old history. Now the latest slogan for this publicity crazy Central Government is Self-reliance or Atma Nirbartha: the last in a series of slogans such as Acche Din, Sab Changa si, when all that was expected of it was a minimum of governance.

The response of the government in this crisis reminds me of a famous Urdu couplet:

“CHAMAN UJAADNE KE LIYE EK HI ULLU KAFI THA,

  HAR SHAAKH PAR ULLU BAITHA HAI,

 ANJAAM E GULISTAAN KYA HOGA”

(The author is a concerned Indian who has requested anonymity)

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