Interview with Vijoo Krishnan
Interviewed by Pranjal , Produced by Newsclick Production

The BJP had come to power three years ago promising “Achhe Din” for the farmers and agricultural workers. It had promised an end to farmers’ suicides, ensure remunerative prices for crops, more investment in agriculture, expanded employment opportunities and higher wages under MGNREGA, irrigation facilities to all farms, effective insurance, pensions, scientific land acquisition legislation to protect interests of the peasantry and much more. In this interview Vijoo argues that rather than promised “Achhe Din”, the reality is a deepening of the agrarian crisis.

The post No Achhe Din for Farmers appeared first on SabrangIndia.

Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) Bachu C Marak is seen in this photo. (Photo: Facebook)

"I have decided to quit the party because I am a Christian and Garo first," Mr Marak said today. "The BJP is hurting sentiments here on the beef issue. Tribal society has its own laws. The BJP is trying to push Hindutva."

While Mr Marack was the only one to make such a promise, the other party leaders did not appear too enthusiastic about the new Central rule. Calling Mr Marak's opinion's his own, state BJP chief Shibun Lyndoh said they were not "against people having beef".

"Total beef ban is something that even people here do not support," he said, adding what was required in the state were regulations and hygienic slaughter houses.

The post Northeast Blues: Meghalaya BJP Leader Quits Party in Protest of Cattle Ban appeared first on SabrangIndia.

The BJP government, under Prime Minister Narendra Modi, has unveiled the true character of the BJP functioning as the political arm of the RSS.  The RSS continues to pursue its ideological project of converting the secular democratic Republic into their version of a rabidly intolerant fascistic `Hindu Rashtra’.

In the process, the government has unleashed a quadruple attack on India and the people.  At one level, there is a sharp rise of communal polarisation with growing murderous attacks on dalits and the Muslim minority community; secondly, neo-liberal economic reforms are being pursued more aggressively by this government than ever before; thirdly, growing authoritarian trends are undermining the democratic and parliamentary institutions; and lastly, India has been reduced to the status of a junior strategic partner of US imperialism. 

DETERIORATING PEOPLE’S LIVELIHOOD CONDITIONS
This BJP government assumed office promising acche din for the people. It had promised to create two crores of jobs every year.  As against this, the job creation in eight major industrial sectors in the country was lowest in the last eight years.  1.35 lakh jobs were created in these sectors in 2015. In 2016, the Labour Bureau reports that 2.31 lakh jobs were created.  Over and above the backlog of huge unemployment in the country, 1.5 crore youth join the job market every year.   Even amongst those who are working, the ILO reports that 35 per cent of India’s working people are `under employed’. 

The much tom-tomed IT sector has reported a dismal picture regarding job creation.  International agency, McKinsey has estimated that amongst the 40 lakh workers in the IT sector today, nearly 50 to 60 per cent would be rendered redundant.  Three major IT companies – Infosys, Wipro and Cognizant – have reported considering retrenching 56,000 workers.  The IITs, across the country, have reported a sharp fall in corporates hiring students passing out from the campuses. 

Rural employment has been severely curtailed with the refusal of this BJP government to release funds for the legal commitments made under the MGNREGA. The government, on an average, has reportedly informed that during the course of these three years, more than 20,000 people under this scheme were denied payment of wages each year.  Take the case of Tripura, a state which ranks number one in providing the maximum mandays under this scheme, averaging around 94, the funds released by the central government are so meagre that Tripura can now only offer 42 mandays, ie, less than half of what was there during the past three years.

The scenario for the future looks bleak on both the employment as well as industrial/manufacturing front. The growth rate of industrial output has dropped from 5.5 per cent to 2.7 per cent last year.  Credit growth from the banking sector has dipped to its lowest level in 63 years.  Clearly, manufacturing activity has declined considerably reflected in this fall of banking credit growth. 

The demonetisation had crippled the informal sector of our economy which contributes to over 40 per cent of our GDP and accounts for nearly three-fourths of our employment. 

The conditions in rural India have worsened during these last three years.  The central government has informed the apex court that, on an average, 12,000 farmers have been committing distress suicides in every one of these three years.  The major reason for these distress suicides is the debt burden under which the majority of the Indian farmers are groaning. Three years ago, this BJP government promised to increase the minimum support price for our farmers to the level of one and a half times the input costs required for agricultural operations.  The government has betrayed the peasantry on this account as well. 

On top of this, the import duty on wheat has been eliminated resulting in wheat coming into the market at a price lower than the MSP declared by the government.  The farmers are being forced to undertake distress sales which further worsen the debt burden.  Even the existing MSP is not being paid to the farmers for many crops, including cotton. This is the state of our annadatas during the course of these three years.

While this government is considering proposals for restructuring (read `writing off’) the massive loans taken by Indian corporates from our nationalised banks, it is not prepared to consider the restructuring of loans taken by our farmers.  The outstanding NPAs against corporates, including interest, would amount to a humongous Rs 11 lakh crores.  While the poor farmers are harassed with the properties and cattle being attached by the bank, pushing them towards distress suicides, no punitive action against any defaulting corporates is even being considered.  This is the true character of this government that has been exposed during the course of these three years. 

GROWING INEQUALITIES
Naturally, under these conditions, the Human Development Indicators for the vast majority of the Indian people has sharply declined.  The reputed international medical journal, The Lancet, has shown that India ranks at a low position of 154 out of 195 countries on the global index of `burden of disease’.  India has fallen eleven places on this index during the last one year.  Indian people today face a `burden of disease’ which is worse than our sub-continent neighbours like Sri Lanka, Nepal, Bhutan and Bangladesh. 

Such anti-people policies of enriching the rich and impoverishing the poor have resulted in a huge growth of economic inequalities. Between 2014 and 2016, the richest one per cent of Indians increased their share of nation’s wealth from 49 per cent to 58.4 per cent. This figure stood at 36.8 per cent in 2000. The same Credit Suisse report that gives this information also shows a more alarming feature that the share of the bottom 70 per cent of Indians together is today just 7 per cent of the nation’s wealth. This figure was double at 14 per cent that this 70 per cent owned in 2010.

The latest National Sample Survey report on household expenditure in India shows the huge gulf between the rich and poor that is widening in a rapid manner. The top 10 per cent of Indian households today have an average asset holding of Rs 1.5 crore. This is 50,034 times the average value of assets held by an urban household of the bottom 10 per cent of our country.

The expenditures of India’s poor are so meagre that this does not figure in any compilation of statistics of macro entities of GDP or tax collections. In fact the lower half of India’s population spends virtually nothing on any item other than what is required for their survival. Given these disparities the devastation that the demonetisation has struck on India’s poor had made little difference to the overall spending patterns in the country because it is only the rich and to a certain extent the upper section of the middle class that spends. This explains why the figures for the GDP or that for the tax collections or for that matter the sensex do not show a decline following demonetisation. In other words, it is not that demonetisation was not inconsequential to people’s livelihood, it devastated India’s other half while statistically this does not get reflected.

SHARPENING COMMUNAL POLARISATION
In almost all BJP ruled states, private armies in the name of cow protection have surfaced that are mounting murderous attacks on dalits and minorities.  Squads for `moral policing’ like the anti-Romeo squad in Uttar Pradesh or Sri Ram Sena in Karnataka continuously harass our youth prescribing what to wear, what to eat, whom to  befriend etc. Unless such private armies are banned, the protection of the rights of the dalits and minorities cannot be ensured.
The situation in the state of Jammu & Kashmir continues to worsen.  This BJP government’s Kashmir policy has proved to be a complete failure.  The government has reneged on its promises of implementing some confidence building measures in Jammu & Kashmir and starting the political process of a dialogue with all stakeholders in the state.

There is a systematic and intensive effort to change the country’s education policy. Syllabus to be taught in schools and colleges is being rapidly communalised.  To control the institutions of research and higher education, central universities like JNU and HCU are under attack to destroy the progressive and secular content of these institutions.

All these put together amount to the advancing of the RSS agenda to convert the secular democratic Republic into their version of a rabidly intolerant fascistic `Hindu Rashtra’.

UNDERMINING INSTITUTIONS
Parliamentary institutions are being undermined.  This government is taking frequent recourse of declaring various legislations as `money bills’ in order to avoid the Rajya Sabha where it does not have a majority.  Most of the legislative business is passed without discussions in the Lok Sabha where the BJP exercises its tyranny of majority.

Recently, the laws governing the donations made to political parties by the corporates have been amended in such a manner that they will now legalise political corruption.  The existing limits on the amounts the corporates can donate to political parties have been removed.  The transparency of such donations are also being adversely affected with the introduction of electoral bonds. It is no longer necessary to know who has bought the electoral bonds and given it to which political parties.  Thus, there is no transparency any longer for political funding and, therefore, no accountability.  This government refuses to amend the existing laws to impose a ceiling on the expenditures of political parties during elections, nor, ban corporate funding of political parties.  Consequently, the role of money power distorting the democratic choices of the people has sharply increased.

India has now opened up almost all areas of its economy for the in-flow of foreign funds. This includes crucial sensitive sectors like defence production.  This largely facilitates the profit maximisation of multinational corporations at the expense of the Indian economy and the people.  A massive drive of privatisation of the public sector has been launched.

With the signing of Indo-US treaties, India has entered into a logistics sharing arrangement with the USA and has been accorded the status of a `US defence partner’.  This is not in the interests of India’s independent foreign policy status and position in the world. 

These three years, hence, have seen an all-round attack on the vast majority of the Indian people.  The people’s discontent is being sought to be diverted away from protests against the BJP government and its policies through the rousing of jingoistic nationalism of the Hindutva variety.  All patriotic Indian people have to uphold the banner of Indian patriotism as opposed to the whipping up of Hindutva nationalism.  These three years have shown that it is only the power of popular united struggles that can put the pressure on this government to change its policy direction in favour of improving people’s livelihood and to safeguard the republican character of our country. 

The post Growing Inequalities, Communal Polarisation & Undermising Institutions Mark 3 Years of the Modi Sarkar appeared first on SabrangIndia.

"Garo Hills BJP to organise bitchi-beef party to celebrate three years of Modi Government," Bachu Chambugong Marak, president of the BJP's North Garo Hills district, posted on his Facebook page. Bitchi is the Garo term for rice beer.

This BJP leader in Meghalaya also said on Monday said his party will not ban beef and legalise slaughterhouses if it comes to power, thus reducing the prices of various meat. The post brought to the fore the diversity of India and the challenge the Centre will face if it tries to enforce the new cattle rules across the country.

"In Meghalaya, most BJP leaders eat beef. The question of banning beef does not arise in a state like Meghalaya. BJP leaders in Meghalaya are well aware of the historical background and the Constitutional provisions over hill areas," BJP leader Bernard Marak said. The former militant-turned-politician said: "If BJP comes to power in 2018, BJP will not ban beef. Instead, it will regulate proper rates for meat and legalise slaughterhouses, reducing the prices of beef and other meat."

"Beef is an expensive meat which cannot be availed by all. The government has failed to regularise uniformity in rates of meats which is harassment to the public," he said.
Noting that Meghalaya does not have proper slaughterhouses to check the meat sold at market places, Marak said: "People are exposed to unhygienic edibles and sometimes chemical substances are induced in them which is consumed by the old and young."

He reportedly also said the BJP will do everything that the Congress government failed to by establishing slaughterhouses, checking meat quality and bringing down meat prices.
Several states, including Trinamul-ruled Bengal and Left-ruled Tripura, have said they would not implement the rules that ban the sale of cattle in markets for slaughter.

The issue of eating beef, selling it and sale and slaughter of animals has received much attention of the RSS-led government at the centre. The May 23 controversial Ban on Cattle Sale Rules invoked by the Union Environmental Ministry have also drawn criticism and mixed reactions. A student of IIT Chennai was thrashed for simply attending a discussion on the Beef Ban.

The Courts have also reacted differently to this ban. While the Madras High Court has stayed operation of the controversial ban on sale order, the Rajasthan government has in fact asked for the cow to be declared a national animal!

(Reports from Telegraph and IANS)

The post BJP Leader Will Hold Beef Party to Celebrate 3 Years of Modi Sarkar: Meghalaya appeared first on SabrangIndia.

As the third year of Modi government ends, the communal Hindutva campaign of RSS-BJP has reached top gear. Yogi Adityanath, the unashamedly divisive face of the Saffron Brigade, being put at the helm of the biggest state of the country is the most blatant expression of this. The selection of Aditynath for the top post after Modi-led victory in UP, though not totally unexpected and actually in continuity with the election campaign, was still a deliberate choice made by Modi. This continuity can be best understood by the 'Kabristan' versus 'Shamshan' debate raked up by none other than PM Modi himself. Of course, this was only the icing on top of communal cake made by Shah and company. One ingredient was the so called 'Hindu migration' from Muslim dominated areas of western UP. On this issue Adityanath was made to campaign most vociferously, claiming that he himself liberated Poorvanchal (eastern part of the state), through his Hindu Yuva Vahini, from this menace by showing Muslims their place in the streets. Other important ingredients were not putting up any Muslim candidates, promise of closing down all the 'mechanical slaughter houses', fighting 'love jihad', 'triple talaq' etc. and last but not the least, 'constructing Ram Mandir at Ayodhya'. This cooked up complaint of 'Muslim appeasement' was very craftily combined by the RSS-BJP with a similar complaint against dominant Dalit and OBC communities, the Jatavs and Yadavs, to achieve a winning electoral combination. In this, the theme of 'Muslim appeasement' worked both as a component and as a wider ideological cement to hold this unnatural combination together. In this context Adityanath's elevation to the CM's post was hardly a surprise. Still it was a conscious choice that indicated readiness of Modi led BJP and RSS to put reveal one of its most divisive faces as it's real face in the most populous state of the country and that too after heat and dust of elections had settled down. This was the second Modi moment for Hindutva forces. Masks are off at the end of the third year.

Adityanath has not disappointed the Hindutva brigade. One of his first acts after taking over as CM was a full scale attack against slaughter houses and meat trade in general which is very visibly dominated by Muslim community. In the name of acting against illegal slaughter houses, entire chain of export and distribution of meat was disrupted, including production of leather. More than a direct attack on the livelihoods of over 25 lakh people and basic food sustaining crores more, it was also meant to be seen as indicator of the Hindutvavadi intent of the new government.

This has naturally encouraged the Saffron Brigade to adopt a more aggressive posture and running amok, leading to break down in law and order in large parts of this vast state. In a significant new move, police forces violently attacked protestors in many places when they tried to restrain the Saffron Brigade. Even more significantly, after such prominent incidents in Agra and Saharanpur, senior police officials who had earned the wrath of leaders of BJP and other RSS affiliated organizations, were summarily transferred by Adityanath. This has send the clearest possible signal to the state police that Saffron Brigade is the new ruler and has to be treated as such.

Not surprisingly Hindu Yuva Vahini, run under direct patronage of Adityanath himself is exhibiting a phenomenal swelling of its ranks. So much so that now it has to put some restrictions on new recruitment, especially in giving organizational posts to newcomers. This Aditya Vahini has very quickly expanded out of Gorakhpur division and has made its presence felt in almost all the communal incidents in western UP. In one incident in Bulandsahar, motor cycle riding Vahini sainiks killed a Muslim old man just because one Muslim man in a neighboring village had eloped with a Hindu women. In another case of similar nature in Amroha, all Muslims of an entire village had to run away from their homes to save themselves from wrath of Hindutva brigade. And in Saharanpur, that has remained continuously in the news for last one month, Hindutva forces led by local BJP MP and other leaders first tried to use a so called celebration of Ambedkar's birth day to mobilize Dalits against Muslims and then, those Dalits who did not oblige were attacked ferociously in the name of celebrating Rajput hero Maharana Pratap's birth day. Receiving the necessary message from summary transfer of SSP earlier, local police is now trying of keep Hindutva forces in good humour by selectively acting against Dalits only. In such a situation, it's not surprising that Adityanath as CM has formally denied permission for prosecution of Adityanath, the then MP, in a 2007 case of communal rioting and provocation. It's worth noting that Adityanath and his close lieutenants have many such cases pending against them.

But Adityanath at the helm in UP, with all its ramifications, is not the only Hindutvavadi achievement of the third year of Modi government.  Everything else inaugurated in first two years of Modi government has continued in significantly intensified form in the third year. Three examples should suffice. In spite of PM Modi himself calling 90% of them fake, the so called "Gau-rakshaks" have only increased their area of operations and frequency and ferocity of attacks. In one of most recent such attacks, Muslim Meo dairy farmer from Mewat area in Haryana, Pehlu Khan was brutally killed by cow vigilantes at Behrod, in Alwar district of Rajasthan. He had bought a cow from Jaipur Municipal Corporation's cattle market, complete with receipt, etc. While transporting the cattle their group was attacked by cow vigilantes on the busy National Highway. As has become the norm in BJP ruled states, the first action of Rajasthan police was to book the victims under various sections related to cow smuggling, while the real culprits roamed around freely. In spite of the countrywide outcry especially since Pehlu Khan's succumbed to his injuries, the BJP state government has refused to drop charges of cow smuggling against other victims of Hindutva vigilantes. BJP governments of both Rajasthan and Haryana have not cared to give any relief or compensation to the victims. Actually, subsequent to the killing of Pehlu Khan, BJP led state governments in Haryana, Jharkhand and few other states, reflecting overall view of Sangh Parivar in government, have only further tightened their steps for 'cow protection'. No surprise that besides Muslims, Dalits and other Hindus are also increasingly becoming victims of these cow vigilantes.

Whatever is happening in Kashmir is another major Hindutvavadi achievement. The situation in Kashmir has not only gone from bad to worse in the third year of this government, it has practically reached a stage of mass revolt in the Valley. Only 7% voting in Srinagar parliamentary bye-election, followed by only 3% voting in re-poll in dozens of booths shows the depth of alienation of Kashmiris. But the Modi government is not really concerned. Not only that, it has totally tied the hands of PDP-BJP alliance government of Mehbooba Mufti. She has repeatedly asked the Centre to start a political dialogue with all stake holders, but the Modi government clearly does not want any dialogue. This is in spite of the government’s promise of starting a dialogue and confidence building measures given after the J&K visit of all-Party Parliamentary delegation led by the Home Minister himself. 'Tough' is the key word in Modi government's Kashmir policy. This government is hell bent upon forcing a security solution to an essentially political problem, which is bound to fail. But even this failure is a success for Hindutva forces, as they cynically seek to use the disturbed situation in Kashmir for their strident efforts to sharpen communal polarization elsewhere in the country, especially in Jammu. Pakistan is the external and Kashmir internal 'other' for this communal polarization.

All out offensive against secular research in general, and JNU and other prestigious universities in particular, is yet another important achievement of Hindutva forces. If second year of Modi government saw a direct offensive against left student activists, activities and student's union, the third year is seeing a serious offensive against research level entry in to these institutions. Current offensive that looks more successful than the last one, is naturally accompanied by steps for gradual destruction of democratic academic atmosphere in these institutions, with help of RSS filtered appointees everywhere. The latest controversy in once-prestigious Indian Institute of Mass Communications is an apt example. This institute is hosting a seminar on 'nationalistic' journalism, which is to be addressed by controversial ex-top cop of Chattisgarh, Kallori and is to be preceded by two hour long "yagna"!  All this is part of RSS dictated education policy, formally still in process of formulation, but actually already in different stages of implementation. This policy is exclusively dictated by RSS and its affiliates. Fate of cultural organizations is no different. Only in addition to communalizing, they have also to commercialize. This is naturally weakening and even destroying the reputation of these institutions. BJP state governments’ promotion of RSS supported "garbh sanskar" is not only promoting of mumbo jumbo as science and bringing Indian science to ridicule, it is also strengthening of racial prejudices through such 'best progeny' programme, inspired by the hated eugenics project of Hitler's Germany.

Further encouraged by latest electoral victories, specially in UP, BJP-RSS have intensified their campaign against left in general and CPI(M) in particular. Left is specially targeted as they consider it their main ideological adversary and biggest challenge to their project of converting India in to a "Hindu Rashtra." Second RSS chief Golwalkar, considered as main theoretician of Sangh, has identified communists, as one of three main enemies of their fundamental project, others being Muslims and Christians. Naturally left's main bastions are specially targeted. Since formation of LDF government is Kerala, RSS has intensified its violent attacks against CPI(M) cadre. At the same time, playing victim, they have also launched a massive disinformation campaign using all the clout of their central government. Meanwhile, RSS-BJP combine is working overtime to build an anti-communist alliance of all the communal and casteist forces. Similarly in Tripura where Left Front government is going to complete its seventh term early next year and Assembly elections are to take place, RSS-BJP combine is trying to build anti-communist unity around itself. They have practically swallowed TMC in state and almost replaced Congress as centre of opposition. They are trying to cobble up alliance with tribal separatist organizations to complete their anti-left alliance, though this can disturb tribal-non tribal unity built by the left that is mainly responsible for Tripura being a peaceful exception in disturbed North-East. In Bengal, using mainly majority communalism card and taking advantage of ruling TMC using Muslim minority card, BJP is trying to push the left out of space of main opposition force. This campaign can only further intensify in fourth year of Modi government.

Masks are off as Modi government completes its three years. With real economy in bad shape and fast increasing unemployment exposing all its claims of development benefitting people, BJP-RSS is going to more and more openly show their real communal face to polarize the people. Forces of democracy and secularism can only expect more challenging times.

Courtesy: Cpim.org

Disclaimer: The views expressed here are the author's personal views, and do not necessarily represent the views of  Sabrangindia

The post The Masks are Off : Communal Aggressiveness in 3 Years of the Modi Sarkar appeared first on SabrangIndia.

The Modi government has completed three years at the Centre. The BJP came to power with the slogan of ‘Sab ka sath Sab ka vikas’ but in practice, the governance of the country has become ‘Poonjipati ka Sath Vanchiton ka Vinash’ (Support the capitalists, destroy the deprived). Modi went around saying that he was from the ‘pichhda varg’ (backward class) and played with identity politics. But all this was done just to get votes. All his promises have only been election jumlas (bluffs).

The marginalised communities – Scheduled Castes, Scheduled Tribes along with the minorities – have been on the receiving end in these three years. They have been given lesser priority than the ‘cow’. But none of the misdeeds of the present regime are part of the discussions in the media.

False Promises
The best way to expose the misrule of BJP is to look at their Election Manifesto for 2014 general Elections and then compare it to actual implementation.

“BJP is committed to eliminate manual scavenging”

This promise is far from reality. In fact, in the 2017-18 Budget presented this year, Modi government reduced allocation for the rehabilitation of manuals scavengers to half – from 10 crore to 5crore. According to the 2011 Census, there are nearly 26,07,612 dry latrines, which require 2,00,000 workers for this inhuman work. If we take into consideration the number of people who are engaged in cleaning the sewers and railway tracks, it would be an even bigger number. If we were to calculate Rs. 40,000 that is given as cash incentive per person for the rehabilitation of the people engaged as manual scavengers Rs. 800 crore would be required. Only 7,573 people were rehabilitated till 15 February 2016. That leaves a whopping 1,92,427 more people still to be rehabilitated. There is no data on how many dry-latrines have been even discarded or dismantled to claim as part of Modi’s ‘Swachh Bharat’ programme.

“We [BJP] will accord highest priority to ensuring their security, especially the prevention of atrocities against SCs & STs.”

The Hindutva forces have been emboldened since BJP came to power. The above quoted claim made during the election campaign is far from reality. As one of the victims of Saharanpur violence said, “We are Hindus for the elections and after that we become untouchables.” Dalits have been facing severe atrocities under their rule. The recent attack on the Dalits in Shabbirpur, Saharanpur district, Uttar Pradesh is a reminder that whenever Dalits seek to uphold their human dignity they would be attacked to reinforce the caste codes in the society. The incident in the village was like any other attack, the upper castes’ pride was hurt as the Dalits wanted to install a bust of Dr B. R. Ambedkar in the Sant Ravidas temple compound and this was not acceptable to the dominant castes. On May 5th, 2017, when the Thakurs were congregating to unveil Maharana Pratap’s statue in the neighbouring village, a rumour spread that the Dalits have misbehaved with the procession that passed through Shabbirpur. After the rumour spread, people went with swords, attacked Dalits and set fire to their homes. This pattern is often repeated in most of the cases of atrocities against Dalits.

Another horrendous incident that evoked widespread protest was the attack by the gaurakshaks on four Dalit youths in Una while they were involved in their traditionally forced work of disposing dead animals. The youth were publicly flogged using the police baton. It shows that the police have a tacit support for gaurakshaks.

Every year the Ministry of Home Affairs brings out the ‘Crime Scenario in the Country’ in its annual report. It is interesting to note that although there is an increase in media reports of atrocities against Dalits, there is a clear decline in the cases registered under the SC/ST (Prevention of Atrocities) Act. The cases registered in 2013 against this Act were 13,975 and have decreased to 6,005, a massive decrease of 133%, in 2015. The data shows that there is an increase in most other crime cases, including other crimes against dalits. In all probability, police have been instructed to curtail registering cases under the POA in order to bring about an artificial dip in the data. Otherwise, how is it that all crimes are increasing steadily over the years, yet atrocities against Dalits have suddenly started decreasing from 2014?

No Jobs for Dalits
Dalits are a community with no access to property. Employment in the government sector had been a major contributor for their progress. With the governments of the day adopting the neo-liberal economic agenda which increases privatisation, the numbers of government jobs have been decreasing. The BJP government which has been making a noise about empowering Dalits, has no concrete policy for recruiting to fulfil the backlog in jobs. The last special drive to fulfil the backlog posts for the SC/STs was carried out in the year 2008.

BJPs Denial of Budget allocations to the Dalits
The government had provisions called the Special Component Plan (SCP) for proportional allocations in the budget for the SC/ST population. These allocations were monitored by the Planning Commission. This year’s (2017) budget has been a bane for the Dalits with the planned economy being scrapped. According to the National Campaign for Dalit Human Rights (NCDHR), the budgetary allocations for the SC-ST as a proportion to their populations, should have been Rupees 91,386 crore and 47,276 crore respectively. But the current allocations are only 55% for the Dalits – Rs 52,393 crore and 66.5% for the Adivasis – Rs 31,920 crore. Even these figures are not exclusively for SC-ST population. They include allocations that are for other sectors as well. The SC/ST MPs had written to the PM stating that “The increase is notional as the funds for SC/STs have been diverted to administrative heads such as salaries, pensions and the like rather than properly-targeted schemes for empowerment of the SC-STs.”
The provisions that directly benefit Dalits are scholarships. The MPs pointed out that an outstanding amount of Rs 11,267.61 crore of scholarships was pending from the previous years. Education has been the vehicle for social mobility for the SCs. This deliberate delay is a way to make the Dalit students drop out from schools and colleges.

Alternative to BJPs jumlas- The Real Empowerment of the Dalits
On the other hand, CPI(M) led governments in Kerala and Tripura have retained the planned budget. Dr. Thomas Isaac said in his budget speech, “Rs. 26.00 billion for SCP (Special Component Plan) and Rs. 7.51 billion for TSP (Tribal Sub Plan) are earmarked. 9.81% of total outlay is being earmarked for SC population, who comprise 9.10% of total population. 2.83% is earmarked for STs who form 1.45% of the population. Rs. 1.88 billion for Scheduled Castes and Rs. 3.66 billion for Scheduled Tribe has been allocated in excess of the proportionate normative share. This allocation is higher than that of any other State in India.”

The message of alterative development taking place in the Left ruled states are an answer to the hollow ‘ache din’ of the BJP.

Courtesy: Newsclick

The post Hindutva’s Assault on Dalits: 3 Years of the Modi Sarkar appeared first on SabrangIndia.

 
As of May 25, 2017, 13,523 villages have been electrified, but 100% household connectivity has been achieved in only 1,089 villages, according to data in the power ministry’s Grameen Vidyutikaran (GARV) dashboard.
 
Besides, 25% (45 million) of rural households across the country still have no electricity. In Uttar Pradesh, Nagaland, Jharkhand and Bihar, fewer than 50% of rural households have electricity, three years after the BJP was sworn in at the Centre having promised “electricity for all”.
 
Among the 43.5 million below-poverty-line households identified to be provided with free electricity connections under the Deendayal Upadhyaya Gram Jyoti Yojana, 23.5 million (59%) have been covered, and many geographically remote locations have been connected with off-grid sources of power. However, this kind of basic energy access does not provide larger benefits to recipients, and is not a substitute for grid connections, studies show.
 
As the BJP government completes three years in office this week, IndiaSpend is analysing five of its key electoral promises–on employment, Swachh Bharat, roads, access to electricity and terrorism. In the fourth part of the series today, we look at how the government has performed on providing access to electricity.
 
Households remain without power
 
A village is considered electrified if electricity is provided in public places such as schools, panchayat offices, health centres, dispensaries and community centres, and at least 10% of households, according to the criteria used by the power ministry since October 1997. So, a village can be considered electrified if 90% of its households do not have electricity.

Source: Central Electricity Authority
Note: Data up to March 2017. Hover for details on number of inhabited/uninhabited villages in the state.
 
As such, household-level data is a better metric to assess citizens’ access to electricity. At the household level, several states such as Bihar, Jharkhand, Nagaland and Uttar Pradesh report less than 50% of their rural households have electricity supply, data from the ministry of power show.
 
As of May 16, 2017, while 73% of the 18,452 villages identified for electrification had power, as we said, only 8% of these villages had all their households electrified, according to data published by the ministry of power.
 
“Two challenges to electrifying households are: One, many poor households cannot afford to pay the upfront cost of connection, which ranges from Rs 2,000-3,000 depending on the state,” Abhishek Jain, senior programme lead at the Council on Energy, Environment and Water, a not-for-profit research institution based in New Delhi, told IndiaSpend. “And second, even if they get connections, the supply is far from reliable; so there is no incentive for rural households above the poverty line to connect to the grid.” This is because families below poverty line get free connections.
 
This suggests that the challenge of 100% electrification can only be overcome through concerted improvements at various levels–not the least in the income levels of rural households and in the reliability of power supply.
 

Source: Ministry of Power
 
“100% village electrification by May 2018”
 
In 2014, when the BJP came to power, India had the world’s largest energy access deficit in terms of electricity–270 million people, accounting for just under a third of the world’s deficit, according to the World Bank’s 2017 State of Electricity Access report.
 
“Certain segments of India have been historically disadvantaged. Due to a lopsided development approach and skewed allocation of resources, they continue to lag behind the rest of the country in socioeconomic indicators,” the BJP had said in its manifesto for the 2014 general election, promising to ensure equitable growth and development by “Ensuring a basic level of Infrastructure to all – Home, Electricity, Water, Toilets and Access”.
 
The previous Congress-led government, under the Rajiv Gandhi Grameen Vidyutikaran Yojana (RGGVY, a rural electrification scheme), had connected 108,280 villages to the grid between 2005-06 and 2013-14. From 2014 to 2017, under the BJP’s rural electrification drive, 14,528 villages have been electrified. On average, the United Progressive Alliance (UPA) government electrified 12,030 villages per year, while the BJP government has electrified 4,842–less than half the UPA’s average.
 
In the BJP’s third year, 2016-17, 6,015 villages were electrified, five times more than in 2013-14, according to this May 19, 2017, press release by the ministry of power, but fewer than the villages electrified the year before in 2015-16.
 
Celebrating the achievement, power minister Piyush Goyal tweeted: “In the past three years rural electrification has witnessed an unprecedented change, and it is our aim to provide everyone with 24×7 power.”
 
 
Source: Rural Electrification Corporation Ltd data; Power Ministry press release.
 

Source: Ministry of Power
 
Chhattisgarh, Jharkhand, North-eastern states lagging
 
Of the 4,492 villages that remained to be electrified at the end of March 2017, 2,268 were scheduled for grid connection, 2,196 for off-grid electrification because of geographical barriers, and 28 for electrification by state governments, according to data from the Central Electricity Authority.
 

Source: Ministry of Power
 
Most off-grid village projects are concentrated in states such as Arunachal Pradesh (958), Assam (357), Jharkhand (356) and Chhattisgarh (306).
 
Studies have shown that decentralised solutions that provide consumers with basic energy access do not provide larger socio-economic benefits, and are not a substitute for grid-connected electricity, as IndiaSpend reported on May 18, 2017.
 
Once provided off-grid power and marked as “electrified”, a village provides lesser of an incentive to the government to provide grid connectivity, further dimming the prospects of villages that already count among the least developed in the country.
 
As part of the Deendayal Upadhyaya Gram Jyoti Yojana, the BJP’s rural electrification scheme, the government had also proposed to provide free electricity connections to over 43.5 million rural households below the poverty line (BPL, with the poverty line set at Rs 816 per capita per month for rural areas).
 
As of April 2017, 25.68 million BPL households (58.9%) were provided free electricity connections, according to this report by the power ministry. Between 2005, when the RGGVY was launched, and March 2013, a total of 20.5 million BPL households were provided free electricity connections.
 
However, the connection these households get is often unreliable, and the two free-of-cost LED bulbs they are entitled to are often siphoned off to the black market by unscrupulous sub-contractors, IndiaSpend found during travels in villages of eastern UP.  
 
As per the Modi government’s promise, all of India’s villages could be electrified by May 2018. However, it remains to be seen how many households will actually have access to reliable electricity supply. Despite villages having an electricity connection, true energy access remains low in many states, marked by poor quality, reliability and duration of supply, as IndiaSpend reported in October 2015.
 
(Patil is an analyst with IndiaSpend.)
 
This is the fourth of a five-part series tracking the status of the BJP government’s promises three years after it was sworn in. You can read the first part here, the second part here and the third part here.

Courtesy: India Spend
 
 

The post In 2 Years, BJP Govt Electrified 13,523 Villages; Of These, Only 8% Were Completely Electrified appeared first on SabrangIndia.

 
However, compared with the Narendra Modi government’s own performance in the first two years, the pace of rural road construction has slackened, connecting, up to January 2017, less than half (46%) of the habitations targeted under PMGSY-I in 2016-17, an IndiaSpend analysis of rural development ministry data shows.
 
As the BJP government completes three years in office this week, IndiaSpend is analysing five of its key electoral promises–on employment, Swachh Bharat, roads, access to electricity and terrorism. In the third part today, we look at how the BJP government has performed on promises it had made on building roads and improving connectivity in the party’s electoral manifesto.
 

Roads allocation up, completion time down, but target not met
 
In its manifesto, the BJP had made three major promises on roads: It would connect tribal hamlets with all-weather roads, improve village-level road infrastructure, and connect ports with roads to the hinterland. While standalone data on roads connecting tribal hamlets are not available, on roads connecting ports to the hinterland, consolidated numbers are available only up to 2013.
 
In case of rural roads, for which data are available, the pace of construction has slacked off, as stated before. Less than half of the habitations targeted under PMGSY-I for 2016-17 had been connected by January 2017. The length of roads built as a share of the government’s target has also dropped from 167% in 2014-15 and 108% in 2015-16 to 73% in 2016-17, according to IndiaSpend’s analysis of data available up to January 2017.
 
PMGSY-I aims to build all-weather roads to habitations with a population of at least 500 in plain areas and at least 250 in “special” areas such as hills or tribal hamlets and located at least 500 m (1.5 km of path distance in case of hills) from an all-weather road or a connected habitation.
 
The good news is that under Modi, allocation to the rural roads scheme has risen back to the Rs 19,000-crore peak seen under Manmohan Singh’s prime ministership–it had subsequently dropped to Rs 9,000 crore during the Congress-led United Progressive Alliance’s second term–an analysis by the Centre for Policy Research (CPR) shows.
 
The time taken to complete a project after sanction under PMGSY has also fallen progressively by 74% to 124 days under Modi, from 474 days under UPA-II’s final year 2013-14, according to CPR’s analysis. Compared with Modi’s first year, the time taken has fallen by 67% in 2016-17, from 374 days in 2014-15.
 
Pradhan Mantri Gram Sadak Yojana: Allocation Up, Faster Completion Of Projects

 
National highways construction slows down
 
In 2016-17, the pace of construction of national highways has also dropped to 44%, the lowest in this government’s three-year rule. This year has seen an average rate of highway construction of 22 km a day, according to information provided to the Rajya Sabha (upper house of parliament) in April 2017.
 
The government had initially set a target of building 40 km a day. Roads and Transport Minister Nitin Gadkari claimed at an Aaj Tak Editors Roundtable on May 21, 2017, that targets had been intentionally set higher than feasible to “push the bar higher”.
 

(Vivek is an analyst with IndiaSpend.)
 
This is the third of a five-part series tracking the status of the BJP government’s promises three years after it was sworn in. You can read the first part here and the second part here.

Courtesy: India Spend
 

The post In 2016-17, Rural Roads Built In Record Time, Less Than Half Of Targeted Habitations Reached appeared first on SabrangIndia.

Courtesy: Dhruv Rathee
 

The post EXPOSED! 3 yrs of Modi Govt. appeared first on SabrangIndia.

The post 3 years of Modi Government: Where are the Jobs? appeared first on SabrangIndia.