Formation of third front hinges on inclusive growth..
By Sai Prasan
Congress led United Progressive Alliance (UPA) government is projecting itself a champion of farmers by announcing a Rs 60,000 crore loan waiver package for them in the Union budget for the year 2008-09. But, a close scrutiny of this so called package shows that it will only help the rich peasantry of Western and Southern India.
The 60,000 figure has created lot of debate and discussions on its impact in addressing the problems of the farmers. One thing has been clear that this will not help the small and marginal farmers who generally do not take loans from the banks, but they heavily depend on the traditional money lenders to meet their urgent financial needs.
In fact, the farmers whether small or big do not have much accessibility to the banking network in the backward regions. Moreover, this package will favour farmers of West and Southern states as they have better banking linkages and follow capital farming.
The major problem of the farmers specially in the back regions like Orissa, Bihar, Jharkhand and Chhatishgarh is the weak infrastructure in the agricultural sector. They need to have electricity for running cold-storages which in turn will help in marketing their agricultural produce. The absence of a proper roads is another major problem in the development of the rural sector.
These drawbacks are the major hurdles for the farmers to establish market linkages. And, they are becoming uncompetitive in a globalised economy. They are not able to sell their agricultural produce at a competitive rates leading to a big loss of their initial investment.
Both Congress led combine and BJP led National Democratic Alliance (NDA) governments at the Centre have failed to address these challenges of the farmers. The new economic policies adhered by them in the last 18 years have widened the gulf between the developed and backward regions.
In this backdrop, Left parties advocating the formation of a third front with an alternative economic policies gains ground. Both CPI and CPM should discuss and debate on the impact of liberalization and globalization in their national party Congress. CPI's five-day national congress has already started on March 23 in Hyderabad and CPM's five-day national congress will start on March 29 in Coimbatore.
Left parties need to focus on an economic growth with a distributive justice. They should focus on the inclusive growth - both at the individual and geographical level.
The globalization and liberalization has not done any good even for the urban areas. It has marred the growth of the manufacturing section. The capital and technology intensive industry in the global market has made several State run Public Section Units (PSUs) to close down. It has even badly hit the small and medium level enterprises to shut.
The mega private industries have done restructuring leading to retrenchment of employees. A large force of semi-skilled and skilled workforce has become redundant. The VRS and pink slips have become the order of the day since the introduction of new economic policies in May, 1991.
However, the new economic regime has boosted to the service sector where the nature of the employment is inconsistent. Only English speaking urban youth having sponge like temperament along with IT skill can fit into the work environment of service sector. And, hire and fire policy has replaced the law of the land.
Indian Leftist must understand the ground reality that both the controlled economy in the Communist regimes and unrestrained market economy in US have created crisis. The present sub-prime mortgage crisis and the recessionary like situation is going to be the focus of the debate in the forthcoming US Presidential poll debate this year. Presently, unemployment is a major concern for US government.
Hence, Left parties need to strike a balance between the two extreme economic models. They should see how an alternative economic model can encourage job-oriented industries. And, the educated youth can avail an easy loan for self-employment.
The Left parties idea of forming a third front, as an alternative to Congress and BJP, hinges on an viable economic model where both the have-not and backward regions like Orissa can get their due share from the national cake.
An alternative economic model can facilitate the formation of the third alternative with the support of Samajwadi Party, Telugu Desam Party and some of regional parties both from UPA and NDA combine. Then only, the voters can also give their verdict on an inclusive plank.
The author is a Mumbai based senior journalist. The views expressed here are his own. He can be contacted at
saiprasan2@gmail.com
