It is not surprising that the Prime Minister Narendra Modi is still continuing his vicious campaign against the Congress Party and its senior leader Rahul Gandhi on the issue of robbing the common people, especially Hindus of their gold, real estate and other hard earned wealth through redistribution after coming to power.PM is making allegation on the basis of something which is not in the Congress Party’s manifesto.
He is consistently bringing the issue of redistribution of wealth in favour of Muslims mischievously distorting a speech by the former PM Dr. Manmohan Singh eighteen years ago. The distortion was pointed out but still, not only he, other senior leaders like Amit Shah, Rajnath Singh and Anurag Thakur are following their leader with more vengeance. It is apparent now, this sort of communal propaganda will be the main feature of the BJP’s poll campaign in the remaining five phases of the present Lok Sabha elections.
But why? BJP is a big party containing many members who are highly educated and aware of the contents of the Congress manifesto and also what Rahul Gandhi is saying in his campaign. BJP’s 2024 poll manifesto was released on April 14 and normally this should have been the main focus of the BJP’s campaign which aims at this baar – 400 paar. But curiously in the last few days after the second phase of elections , the Prime Minister in all his election meetings are not talking of BJP’s Sankalp Patra, he is talking of the unwritten part of the Congress manifesto and projecting the Muslims as the future beneficiary of the alleged redistribution of assets to be implemented by the Congress Party in power.
This sudden switch in the campaign tenor by the Prime Minister can be attributable to the fact that PM and his advisers have come to the conclusion that the Modi Guarantees given in Sankalp Patra are not clicking, rather the Rahul Guarantees given in the Congress manifesto are appealing more. Further, the issue of rising inequality in the last ten years of the BJP rule is very much in the minds of the Hindu voters, The Congress manifesto’s programmes are more favourable to the non-rich Hindus. By diverting the poll campaign on the alleged communalising redistribution by the Congress or the INDIA bloc, Prime Minister is seeking to divert the debate on inequality issue under his regime to the spectre of alleged appeasement of minorities through redistribution.
Let us call the spade a spade. The BJP may the apprehensive now of the impact of the burning economic issues on the current Lok Sabha elections, but for the Congress and the INDIA bloc, they have to campaign in favour of redistribution of resources in favour of the poor including the minorities more effectively. This programme for persuading the super rich to be ready for tax to contribute to the reduction of inequality in the society is under discussion for long. Even in the World Economic Forum of the global billionaires, this was discussed and endorsed. More importantly, the developing countries have been discussing the possibility of taxing the rich more for providing additional funds for the underprivileged.
Brazil, as the president of G-20 has taken the move to place a proposal for the imposition of a global tax on super-rich in order to bring down the level of inequality between the rich and the poor in the current phase of the global economy. Brazil’s finance minister told a G20 meeting in Sao Paulo early this year that countries should implement a global tax on the super-rich in an effort to tackle rampant tax evasion.
Speaking to a meeting of finance ministers, Fernando Haddad said that tax evasion could be resolved through international co-operation so that “these few individuals make their contribution to our societies and to the planet’s sustainable development.”He informed Brazil is pushing for a declaration on international taxation by G-20 members by July this year. India was the president of G-20 last year and Prime Minister Narendra Modi made a big show of his presidential tenure to impress the Indians on the eve of the general elections scheduled for April/May 2024, but he did not take any initiative as Brazil has taken.
According to a 2023 study by advocacy group Tax Justice Network, countries around the world could lose up to $4.8 trillion (£3.8 trillion) in tax revenue over the next decade due to tax havens. These havens are patronized by the global companies as also the rich many of them belonging to India. A report earlier this year by the EU Tax Observatory found that billionaires worldwide have effective tax rates equivalent of between 0 per cent and 0.5 per cent of their wealth. What is shocking is that during pandemic years, while the poor and others suffered and died, the profits of the big companies as also the worth of the rich individuals went up. In fact inequality widened more in pandemic years.
For India, the imposition of a special tax on super rich is overdue as all the recent report including the latest OXFAM report released in January this year show that inequality has been steadily going. In pandemic and post pandemic years, the poor people without assure social security are having pathetic living conditions whereas the incomes of upper middle class and rich have been on the rise. The widening of inequality has special impact in India because the common citizens are not protected through social security measures like many other countries of West and Latin America and other developing nations.
According to OXFAM report, India is facing rising industrial concentration in just five hands, and is enriching billionaires, private equity funds, and crony capitalists driving unprecedented level of inequalities and poverty among people. Dalits are facing high and unaffordable out-of-pocket fees in the private healthcare sector, financial exclusion in the private healthcare sector, and overt discrimination in both.
Globally, since 2020, the richest five men have doubled their fortunes, but during the same period almost five billion people globally have become poorer. Hardship and hunger are daily reality, and at the current rate, it will take 230 years to end poverty, but we could have the world’s first trillion are in just 10 years.
“A new era of monopoly: The supercharging of Corporate Power”, Oxfam report says that we are living through an era of monopoly power that enables corporations to control markets, set the terms of exchange, and profit without fear of losing business. Far from being an abstract phenomenon, this impacts us in many ways: influencing the wages we are paid, the foods we eat and can afford, and the medicines we can access. Far from being accidental, this power has been handed to monopolies by our governments.
In sector after sector, the report says, increased market concentration can be seen everywhere. Globally, over two decades, 60 pharmaceutical companies merged into just 10 giant, global ‘Big Pharma’ firms between 1995 and 2015. Two international companies now own more than 40% of the global seed market. ‘Big Tech’ firms dominate markets: three-quarters of global online advertising spending pays Meta, Alphabet and Amazon; and more than 90% of global online search is done via Google. Agriculture has seen consolidation within Africa. India faces ’rising industrial concentration’, especially by the top five firms.
As the report points out, Corporate power fuels inequality in four ways: Rewarding the wealthy, not the workers; Dodging taxes; Privatising public services; and Driving climate breakdown. Corporations drive inequality by forcing wages down and direct profits to the ultra-wealthy. Oxfam analysis finds that 791 million workers have seen their wages fail globally to keep up with inflation and as a result each worker lost wages of nearly a month (25 days) in the last two years. Further, corporations have used their influence to oppose labour laws and policies that could benefit workers, such as minimum wage increases. They supported reforms that undermine workers’ rights, and also political restrictions on unionization.
Privatization can drive and reinforce inequalities in vital public services, entrenching gaps between rich and poor, excluding and impoverishing those who cannot pay while those who can pay are able to access good healthcare and education. Privatization can also drive inequalities on the basis of gender, race, and caste. For example, Oxfam found that Dalits in India face high and unaffordable out-of-pocket fees in the private healthcare sector; financial exclusion in the private education sector; and overt discrimination in both.
In India, where the private healthcare sector is now worth US$236 billion and rising rapidly, the World Bank’s private sector arm, the International Finance Corporation (IFC), has directly invested over half a billion dollars in some of the country’s largest corporate hospital chains owned by some of its richest billionaires. Yet in June 2023, Oxfam found that the IFC has not published a single evaluation of its health projects in India since these started over 25 years ago. Indian health regulators have upheld multiple complaints, including cases of hospitals overcharging, rigging prices and refusing to treat patients living in poverty for free, despite this being a condition of receiving government land for free. Furthermore, of the 144 hospitals funded, only one is located in a rural area.
As the Indian people are participating in the 18thLokSabha elections, the crucial issue of the living conditions of the underprivileged. can not be ignored despite all the efforts of the Prime Minister. Rahul Gandhi is right when he talks of crony capitalists and how Narendra Modi is protecting a few families in raising their wealth disproportionately while the real wages of the ordinary workers are falling. INDIA bloc leaders will do well to expose the game of the PM and the BJP in giving a communal colour to a bread and butter issue. PM should not be allowed to run away with his bluff. Modi should get a fitting rebuff in the remaining course of the poll campaign till June 1. (IPA Service)
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