By Krishna Jha
In 1947, when we attained freedom, our dream was to build a country for ourselves without any inequality. There was to be fundamental rights ensured in the Constitution. Directive principles of the state policy in the Constitution promised us all that only a socialist democracy offers. Our preamble says that we, the people of India having solemnly resolved to constitute India into a sovereign democratic republic and to secure to all its citizens, justice, social, economic and political, liberty, of thought, expression, belief, faith, and worship, equality of status and of opportunity, and to promote them all, fraternity ensuring the dignity of the individual and the unity of the nation. “…In our Constituent Assembly, this twenty-sixth day of November, 1949, do hereby adopt, enact, and give ourselves this Constitution.”Constitution came into force on January 26, 1950.Later in 1970s,two more words were added, and that were “Socialist” and “Secular’. We had felt the need to pronounce these two words that we had earlier found in built. When the first election (1952) results were declared, our first Prime Minister Jawaharlal Nehru had sent letters to all chief ministers saying that it was not the victory of any party, it was the victory of secularism.
Perhaps we should take stock of things now, after so many decades.
We had promised equality for ourselves in the Constitution, but the resources had all dried up. The country had been ‘bleached white’ by the British imperialism. Draining our economy to enrich their own, “British steam and science had uprooted the whole surface of Hindustan” (Karl Marx). We had to start rebuilding from the scratches. Our polity strengthened with constitutional commitments, greater share of infrastructural blueprint for foundation of heavy industries was prepared under the authority of state, not any individual. In super structure, education, science, health, progress and peace were all the pillars that stood to guard our democracy and freedom.
It was also true that state was dominated by entire capitalist class, and monopolies also had their own way, but the communists kept up their fight against every conservative step. We had liberated Pondicherry and Goa despite resistance. We had been instrumental in nationalising banks, mines and fought and gained rights for working class. All India Kisan Sabha had also its achievements.
But for every such move, within Parliament and without, there were the challenges from the forces of right, eroding the system. Their assertions are seen in the rise of finance capital, a new stage that capitalism has evolved into. Power in hand, they are busy in privatising every sector.
With prices hiking, essentials have gone beyond common citizen’s reach. We stand in front of a wall, the wall of depravity, and deprivation. According to Global Hunger Index (GHI), the score shows consistent fall since 2015. The data comes only from either the GHI or the government itself. The ruling regime has not accepted the charge since its own data shows otherwise. Government has even questioned the reliability of the survey.
GHI has shown a regular fall in figures, especially in urban areas. Hunger is generally characterised with quantity and the quality consumed. The government also has argued that three out of every four respondents are children, hence it cannot represent the entire population. But if the children are hungry, the country loses its human capital, the real treasure of a society. If the issue is not taken into account, the undernourishment may cause the growth in mortality rate. In fact children are the future and hope, for us, for the country, to keep alive the optimism.
The other face of the right reaction is seen in eco-politics flows. There is loss of investment, as the industrial capital has been merging with the banking capital. Last month unemployment rate surged to 8.3 percent as employment sequentially fell by two million to 394.6 million. The government at the Centre is not concerned about either the jobless growth from 2014 to 2022or the great employment crisis in the informal sector. There is no attempt made to recover from the fall.
But workers want results. They need jobs, and hence, there is simmering opposition to it. AITUC has been taking steps to organise agitations and movements against such injustices. In the rural sector too, agrarian labour and the farmers are launching movements. It is people’s unity getting organised for agitation.
Against this unity, Hindutva has been used to play the divisive role. Its communal fascist role comes alive in the book ‘Hindutva, Who is a Hindu’ by VD Savarkar, where he defines it, “…for though Hindusthan to them is Fatherland as to any other Hindu, yet it is not to them a Holyland too. Their Holyland is far off in Arabia or Palestine. Their mythology and Godmen are not the children of this soil.” The formulation seems familiar when we go through the role of fascists in Germany. Savarkar had praised the role of Hitler for his barbaric act of elimination of Jews. (IPA Service)
The post Going Hungry In Modi’s India: A Constitutional Fall From Grace first appeared on IPA Newspack.
