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An exposé of one year of the NDA government

Ache dina da Katu satya

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Contents: Executive Summary 6 - 7

Modi government’s Handbook on How To Wreck The Public Health System 9 - 12

One year of BJP government has been detrimental to Child Rights 14

Abysmal focus on Women’s Issues 16 - 17

One year of BJP led NDA government and Major Shifts in Agriculture Policies 19 - 21

Violating our Environment 23 - 25

Labour Reforms that Enable Businesses and Hinder Workers 27 - 29

Infrastructure and Planning: Unplanned and Unsustainable 31 - 34

New cult(ural) regims: trends and avataars 36 - 39

Rise of Communalism in the past one year 41 - 44

Judicial reforms 46 - 47

Concluding Remarks

Cartoons

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Executive Summary The report is a collective articulation of around 30 Civil Society organizations based in Bangalore reflecting and interacting for nearly a month on the impact of the NDA’s policies and style of governance over the past one year on several sectors of Indian society. This particular expose consists of different reports on specific subject areas of involvement of those who are part of this loose knit forum and the difficulties these sectors face due to direct and indirect impact of the policies of the BJP led Gov-ernment. The subjects of the expose span across Agriculture, Environment, Labour laws, Child rights, Public health, Judicial reforms, infrastructure development specifically with regard to airports, Culture, etc. This report is in no manner exhaustive of all the sectors that have been affected in the past year, but is an attempt to throw light on the few that have taken a beating within the scope of activities of various civil society organisations. The areas introduced in this summary have been dealt with in detail in the body of this text.

Public Health:

Heath care is increasingly being privatized, pharmaceutical companies have been allowed to raise prices of medicines, the inaccessibility of free health care, medicines and diagnostics, ruthless budget cuts in health and other related issues have led us to raise eyebrows at the promise of Ache Din.

Child Rights:

The lack of concern towards the rights of children was keenly felt this past year with key amendments to the Juvenile Justice Act and the Child Labour Prohibition and Regulation Act. The implications of these amendments are dealt with herein.

Women’s Rights:

The telltale slash in welfare budgets, push towards dilution of Section 498-A of the IPC, non-inclusion of marital rape in the IPC, increasingly sexist statements by top leaders of the BJP calls for sharp criticism.

Agriculture: Agriculture has taken a back seat in the current regime due to Reduced spending on research and irrigation, Changes in the MNREGA, Policy changes, Faulty Land Acquisition Bill, Impetus to Genetically Modified Organisms.

Environment:

The instances of the Government supporting development dictated by the corporate lobby are on the rise. Destabilizing insti-tutional structures like the NBWL, EAC, SPCB and regressive changes suggested to the framework of environment legislations are some of the dangerous trends identified in this report as undermining participatory governance.

Labour:

Rampant amendments to key labour legislations, curtailing the formation of unions, rigid rules for strikes and other issues brought to light herein are all indicators of dire times ahead.

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Infrastructure and Planning:

The key areas of concern in this report are tourism and airports. The launching of two tourism schemes, National Mission on Pilgrimage Rejuvenation and Spiritual Augmentation Drive (PRASAD) and Swadesh Darshan, raise a plethora of questions regarding selection processes, the need for sustainable development and many more. Disturbing effects of setting up new airports, the increasing privatisation of airports and the Greenfield Airport Policy are dealt with in this report.

Media and Culture:

This report presents an exhaustive take on the present government’s radical and unconstitutional trend of appropriating cul-ture, stifling dissent, keeping the “anti-nationalist” threat alive and curbing the freedom of the press.

Communalism:

The Ghar Wapsi campaign, the Government’s Hindutva agenda, Love Jihad, the beef ban and a comprehensive timeline of the disturbing growth in communal attacks are dealt with in great detail in this report.

Judicial Reforms:

Doing away with the collegium system of appointment of judges of the High Courts and the Supreme Court has cropped up in recent debates. However, the Government’s “solution” in the form of the National Judicial Appointment Committee will certainly intensify the evil sought to be remedied.

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Modi government’s handbook on how to wreck the public health system >>

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n the past one year the Modi government and its corporate cartel has scripted the destruction of the public health system through sometimes aggressive, sometimes sly but relentless attack on health governance, systems and structures.

One of the many highly suspect promises of Modi’s election campaign fought on the specious idea of ‘development’ was its promise of ‘health assurance to all Indians’. No sooner did Modi come to power it was pay -back time and he has lost no time in returning the generous favors bestowed on him by the corporate cartels including the medical / pharmaceutical mafia.

Here is a list that should be put up in the Modi government’s hall of shame:

The grand deception of free health care, medicines and diagnostics

Modi government never meant to fulfill it electoral promises. The government’s mastery over double-speak and the yawning gap between its words and actions was clearly evident in the 20% cut in the health budget. After having made grandiose promises of free medicines diagnostics and health care during its misleading electoral campaign, the Modi government quickly did a u-turn and announced a 20% reduction in the budget. India’s spending on health is among the lowest in the world at 1% of the GDP and has among the worst health indicators including maternal and neonatal mortality, malnutrition, prevalence of communicable and vector borne diseases despite its economic growth.

In addition to the healthcare budget, the finance ministry also ordered a spending cut for India’s HIV/AIDS programme by about 30 percent to Rs. 13 billion rupees ($205.4 million). India had the third-largest number of people living with HIV in the world at the end of 2013, according to the U.N. AIDS programme, and it accounts for more than half of all AIDS-related deaths in the Asia-Pacific.In October, India was on the brink of running out of a critical medicine in its free HIV/AIDS drugs pro-gramme due to bureaucratic delays. Second line ART drugs are in acute short supply that had led to increased non-adherence leading to serious side-effects and complications.

What will get affected?

• The National Health Mission that provides all the preventive / promotive health care services focusing on maternal, neona-tal, infant and adolescent health will be the first casualty. The NHM supports a network of ASHAs, sub-centres, PHCs and CHCs whose strengthening is critical for reduction of maternal, neonatal and infant mortality.

• ASHA workers who are among the most exploited health care workers will be the worst hit as the pittance they earn will get strangled.

• As many as 15 national programs, including tobacco control, mental health, prevention of blindness, trauma care, elderly care, and human resource development have not been allocated a single rupee.

• The free drugs scheme will go into cold storage.

• District hospitals will continue to reel under lack of staff, poor infrastructure, lack of essential drugs, supplies and equipment.

• The budgetary cut will affect the high priority tribal districts in several states, adversely impact proposed interventions in the districts and will reverse what little gains have been made on improving health indicators of the most vulnerable popula-tion.

• There are several states that are moving into high HIV prevalence category and the present cut in funding will retard HIV prevention and control activities in these states.

• The Integrated Child Development Scheme (ICDS) run by the Ministry of Women and Child Development has got just half of the funding allocation it had last year which has a direct bearing on maternal and child nutrition and adversely affect survival of most vulnerable women and children.

• Most of the States including the North East States will not be able to augment their spending on health.

In other words with the government spending less on health care the proportion of health care costs borne by people out of pocket which is presently at 80% will continue to rise and push many more people into the vicious cycle of destitution pover-ty and ill-health.

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The Parlimentary Standing Committee on Health and Family Welfare has come down heavily on the government for the budgetary cuts particularly on NHM, free medicines, strengthening primary health care including district hospitals and has demanded increasing the allocation of Rs.10500 crores to the NHM.

“It is too obvious to labour a statement that provision of affordable “Health For All” will remain a far cry if adequate budgetary provisions are not made in a timely manner as health is a vital parameter on which the success and progress of the society and the country depends. The Government, therefore, needs to take expeditious decision on the enhanced fund allocations for health sector”. ----Parlimentary Standing Committee on Health, April 2015

Conniving with the pharmaceutical industry to keep up the price of life-saving drugs

In September 2014, the Modi government bowing to the pressure of the powerful pharma lobby axed the powers of the National Pharmaceutical Pricing Authority (NPPA) to fix the price of drugs that are not in the National Essential Medicine List (NLEM).

In May 2014, the National Pharmaceutical Pricing Authority (NPPA) had put out certain internal guidelines clarifying how Para 19 of the Drug Price Control Order (DPCO) 2013 can be used to bring life saving drugs outside the National List of Essential Medicines under price control. Paragraph 19 of DPCO, 2013, authorises the NPPA in extraordinary circumstances, if it consid-ers it necessary to do so in public interest, to fix the ceiling price or retail price of any drug for such period as it deems fit.

On July 10, 2014 the NPPA actually invoked Para 19 of the DPCO to cap prices of 108 life –saving cardiac and diabetes drugs outside the NLEM 2011.Predictably the pharmaceutical lobbies reacted with uproar. They filed cases in Bombay and Delhi High Courts and went cry-ing to the Central Government with complaints of how such a move by the NPPA will destroy their industry. The ‘responsive and efficient’ government promptly acted on these specious complaints and in a written communication dated September 22, 2014, directed the NPPA to withdraw the guidelines: “In compliance with the directions received from the government in the Department of Pharmaceuticals...the aforesaid inter-nal guidelines issued by the NPPA on May 29, 2014 under Paragraph 19 of DPCO 2013 are hereby withdrawn with immediate effect,”

The government further strengthened its stance by consulting the Solicitor General of India, who opined that the interpreta-tion of Para 19 as given in the NPPA’s guidelines of May 29, 2014 is not correct. Para 19 can henceforth be used only as per a restricted interpretation of the Solicitor General, confined to rare cases of “emergency”.

This means that the present government is willfully allowing the cost of life –saving drugs as well as those for chronic condi-tions to spiral and become increasingly inaccessible to patients. This also means that the government is rendering regulatory bodies toothless and stripping them of whatever powers they have to use to safeguard public interest. Presently the NLEM 2011 covers only 18% of the drugs and is following market-based formula to compute the ceiling price of drugs. Not only is this irrational but ensures that pharma companies’ profit margins remain high. Instead of expanding the NLEM and reverting to the rational cost-based formula for drug pricing and strengthening drug price regulation, the Modi government is aiding and abetting the pharma companies to make obscene unbridled profits. Such a move is in keeping with the Modi government’s larger game plan of revoking what little regulation and safeguards exist to feed into unbridled greed and profiteering by the corporate cartels of various kinds and denominations.

The vaccine lobby has received a fillip with the continuation of the controversial pentavalent vaccine

The Modi government has been conniving with the Gates Foundation and its organisation, GAVI to push for controversial ex-pensive vaccines such as the pentavalent vaccine that put children’s lives at risk. There is ample evidence that the pentavalent vaccine was introduced into the UIP through bare –faced lies and cooked up data only to serve the interests of the vaccine lobby. This vaccine is being given in 8 states of the country where in a total of 51 deaths have been reported. Goa with the best surveillance system and lowest IMR in the country has reported 26 deaths per 100000 population, which translates to 6500 deaths of healthy children due to vaccine each year across the country!

There is continued resistance in the government to accept or investigate these deaths scientifically. There is news that the government is entering into ‘Advance Marketing Agreements’ with vaccine manufacturers where it is not allowed to back track from payment even if confronted with increasing adverse events. There are concerns being expressed about modifica-tion of the criteria for categorizing Adverse Events Following Immunization!

Much like the two child norm that imposes punitive measures on those having more than two children, there is a push towards mandatory vaccination. In fact the BJP –led Gujarat government does not issue a permanent birth certificate - un-less full immunization is achieved. And without a permanent birth certificate school admissions are also refused. Mandatory immunization using hazardous vaccines is a double whammy jeopardizing lives and democratic rights.

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One would remember that the Gates Foundation supported NGO PATH had been held responsible for unethical trials of the controversial HPV vaccine that led to deaths of adivasi girls in AP and Gujarath. While the government reacted with alacrity to freeze accounts of Greenpeace and put the Ford Foundation under its watch-list, it awarded Bill and Melinda Gates the Padma Bushan and let PATH off the hook even though indicted for its violations in the HPV vaccine demonstration project.

Opening the floodgates of privatization /corporatisation: The National Health Policy

The Modi government’s National Health Policy cobbled together by sundry ‘experts’ and World Bank consultants is unscien-tific, poorly articulated and barely qualifies even as an exercise in public posturing. Therefore it is no surprise that it does not examine how its ‘growth rate’ obsessed idea of development is inducing illness and disease by decreasing people’s access to land, water, food, just wages and other basic entitlements. NHP is blind to specific health issues of dalit and adivasis who con-tinue to bear a disproportionate burden of ill- health and disease that are driven by ‘business friendly’ policies of the govern-ment aimed at reducing their sovereignty over land, water and forest and pushing them to dispossession and displacement.

Despite its wily double speak the NHP leaves one in no doubt as to whose interests the government will uphold. Unabashedly proud of the health care ‘industry’, the NHP commits itself to continuing policy support for its growth through lower direct tax-es, higher depreciation in medical equipment, Income Tax exemptions for 5 years for rural hospitals, custom duty exemptions for imported equipment, Income Tax exemption for Health Insurance, Active engagement through publicly financed health insurance, preferential and subsidized allocation of land, subsidized education of medical personnel graduating from govern-ment institutions who work in the private sector, provision for 100% FDIMuch like Modi’s public speeches, the NHP throws in dangerous ideas along with useless rhetoric and empty words. Here is a peek into what one can expect from Modicare:

• Primary health centres that presently have a strong curative care element will be downgraded where doctors will be re-placed by nurse practitioners.

• There will be competition between government and private facilities for public funds:

• Funds to district /taluk hospitals and CHCs will be released based on caseloads, volumes and quality.

• If government facilities do not achieve a certain ‘threshold’, then funds will be transferred to private hospitals. • To manage such large-scale transfer of funds to private hospitals, autonomous Trusts and Societies will be set up that have minimal integration with the health departments in the state.

• Will hand over primary care facilities to not for profit organizations ‘with a tradition of public services’;

• Will contract out all kinds of services ranging from advanced diagnostics and imaging services, ambulance services to non-medical services like catering, laundry, maintenance and so on.

• Will expand health insurance schemes

What are the issues that Modicare has willfully glossed over?

• Does not commit to increased government spending in health care!

• Despite global attention and concern about lack of medical ethics among Indian doctors, the rampant cut and commission practice, the extreme level of corruption among both private and public doctors alike in exploiting patients, the NHP does not suggest even a grievance redressal mechanism.

• There is no clamp on private medical colleges, their fee structure or the need to re-orient them.

• Focus only on ‘biological’ women’s ‘reproductive’ function and completely ignores ‘non-reproductive’ health issues and invizibilises specific health care needs of persons with various gender and sexual identities, women with disabilities, single women and elderly women.

• Even after the deaths of women post sterilization in Chattisgarh, the NHP shockingly does not state that it would do away with the two child norm, targets and incentives.

• Does not call for shifting focus from female to male sterilizations.

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Saffronization of health care

Modi government’s core agenda of saffronization communalization and corporatization is at its crude best in Modi’s speech at the inauguration of a hospital in Mumbai funded by the Reliance Foundation on 25th October 2014.

The fact that a PM of a country inaugurates a corporate funded hospital when those very forces are destroying the public health system, driving people to penury and destitution and represent an ugly commercialized health care, sends out the government’s anti-poor stance loud and clear.

In his speech Modi invokes the Vedas and epics to illustrate a glorious Hindu past that had mastered ‘genetics and plastic surgery’. He uses the Hindu deity Ganesha to illustrate that India of the past had the capability to conduct plastic surgery and cites the episode of Karna’s birth in the epic Mahabharata to illustrate that there was ‘genetic science’ capability! This is not surprising given that Gujarat textbooks developed under Modi are replete with such grossly unscientific misinformation.

He reduces problems in the health sector and people’s suffering to a matter of national shame and pride and not as a matter of failure of the government to ensure basic entitlements for a life of dignity. Nowhere does he refer to what his government will do to strengthen public health of the citizens, what he will do to reduce maternal and infant mortality, malnutrition, en-sure safe drinking water, adequate wages and social security or what he will do to rein in corruption, greed and profiteering of the medical mafia. Instead he uses pop science, mythical mumbo-jumbo and divisive, religious propaganda to divert atten-tion from the real everyday struggles of people for socially just good quality health care and a life of dignity.

References

1. Deep cuts to India’s health spending will delay universal access to healthcare BMJ 2015; 350 doi: http://dx.doi.org/10.1136/bmj.h1632 (Published 09 April 2015) http://www.bmj.com/content/350/bmj.h16322. http://jacob.puliyel.com/download.php?id=3143. http://currenthealthscenario.blogspot.in/2012/07/unscientific-excessive-use-of-newer.html4. http://www.indiaspend.com/cover-story/facing-health-crises-india-slashes-healthcare-576295. http://timesofindia.indiatimes.com/india/NDA-fund-cuts-put-healthcare-on-the-sickbed/articleshow/46926938.cms6. PARLIAMENT OF INDIA, RAJYA SABHA, DEPARTMENT-RELATED PARLIAMENTARY STANDING COMMITTEE ON HEALTH AND FAMILY WELFARE, Report No. 82, Rajya Sabha Secretariat, New Delhi April, 2015 http://164.100.47.5/newcommittee/reports/EnglishCommittees/Committee%20on%20Health%20and%20Family%20Welfare/82.pdf7. India’s BJP Government and health: 1 year on, World Report, The Lancet Vol. 385 May 23, 2015 http://www.thelancet.com/pdfs/journals/lancet/PIIS0140-6736(15)60977-1.pdf8. National Health Policy 2015 Draft, Ministry of Health and Family Welfare, December 2014 http://www.mohfw.nic.in/show-file.php?lid=30149. http://pmindia.gov.in/en/news_updates/text-of-the-prime-minister-shri-narendra-modis-address-at-the-ceremony-held-to-rededicate-sir-h-n-reliance-foundation-hospital-and-research-centre-in-mumbai/10. http://www.epw.in/letters/reviving-past-future.html

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One year of BJP government has been detrimental to children’s rights >>

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udget cuts in FY 2015-16 seen in education, Integrated Child Development Scheme (ICDS) and Integrated Child Protection Scheme (Read HAQ: Centre for Child Rights budget analysis note attached). The 10% devolution to States in the current budget, which is used to eclipse budget cuts, will not result into social sector spending. This will de-stabilize families and communities of which children are an integral part.

We have on our hands two critical law amendments which are on the anvil.

The Juvenile Justice (care and protection) Bill, 2014: In the aftermath of the Delhi gang rape case, public outcry in the name of safety of women lead to the proposal to re-enact the juvenile justice legislation to exclude children in the age group of 16-18 years who commit heinous offences (offences punishable with 7 years and more of imprisonment) from the protection of the juvenile justice act. This decision of the government violates the Constitution of India, and international commitments under the United Nations Convention on the Rights of the Child (UNCRC). It also goes against 2 recent Supreme Court judgements which upheld the constitutional validity of the existing juvenile justice legislation and the report of the Parliamentary Stand-ing Committee of the Rajya Sabha.

If approved, the new law take a regressive step, destroys a progressive legacy on juvenile justice for which the country has been lauded. It will deny young people a chance to reform. Data on juvenile crimes indicate almost 80% of those apprehend-ed for offences are children from underprivileged backgrounds-poor, uneducated. It is public knowledge that the juvenile justice and child protection systems in the country are range from severely lacking in quality to being non-existent. The JJ Bill, 2014 should have introduced a financial memorandum to ensure the strengthening of the child protection system, instead of focusing on incarceration of children.

Sending children to prison is not the answer to the safety of women. It will only serve as a crime school, breeding hardened criminals and a much larger problem in the future. The Juvenile Justice bill 2014 has been approved by Lok Sabha in the cur-rent session and is awaiting approval in Rajya Sabha. Refer to www.noprisonforchildren.com for more information (data and infographics). The Amendment of The Child Labour Prohibition and Regulation Act (CLPRA):

As of today Cabinet has approved the amendment of the CLPRA. This amendment allows for children under 14 years of age to help out in home/family based industry if their education is not affected. The government justified this provision under the garb of preserving traditional skills, and occupations, and states that the current socio economic conditions require certain children to help augment family income. Family based work also includes a wide range of economic activities much of which is outsourced on a ‘per piece’ basis. Many forms of which are hard to conceive of or define and are harmful and exploitative to children (eg. Sorting cut hair for wigs, packaging foods-masala powders, weaving, embroidery, etc.). Poor parents find training their children in their traditional occupation, or putting them to work with the rest of the family, a more viable option to the poor quality public education system which does not give the child much option to earn a livelihood despite the RTE. This would result in a number of children, especially girls dropping/staying absent from school. The government has no system in place to regulate this phenomenon. Giving legal sanctity to children of all ages working in domestic units will only endanger the safety of children. It is against principles of equal opportunity and would ensure that children of the poor stay poor. After almost 30 years of implementation of the child labour law, it is shameful that the state’s aspiration for children is so low.

India, which is home to a fifth of the world’s child population, and bases its path to achieving growth on the strength of its young population, is stripping childhood away from its children. The move to allow children to work, and to incarcerate them for heinous crimes takes away key protections guaranteed to children by the Constitution of India and the UNCRC. Clearly, India is on a path to becoming No Country for Children.

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Abysmal focus on women’s issues >>

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lash in budgets

A month after Narendra Modi launched “Beti Bachao Beti Padao Scheme”, the government slashed the allocation to Women and Child devlopment schemes by 50%. While, Rs 21,000 crore was allocated to the Women and child Ministry in 2014- 2015, this has been cut to Rs 10, 286.73, crore in 2015-2016. This also means that the plans for Rs 900 crore national Nutrition Mis-sion and a hike in the salary of anganwadi workers will not be implemented this year.

The budget for Nirbhaya centres has been slashed from 244.48 crore to Rs 18 crore.

The National Health Mission that fund to states for programs on maternal, reproductive, child and newborn health, has been allocated almost 25% less in 2015-2016, than it did in the previous year. This is on top of reduced allocations to the health ministry in November of 2014, which was part of “fiscal management”. The mission supports ten lakh community health workers. Prominent economist Jayati Ghosh states, “This [cut in health spending] is appalling and unjustifiable since it will be associated with continued stagnation and even deterioration of health indicators in a country where inadequate public health is already a huge problem, and out of pocket spending even by the poor is one of the highest in the world, contribut-ing significantly to poverty risks”

Dilution of Section 498A

The Ministry of Home Affairs has been pushing for amendment of the Section 498A to make the offence non-cognizable & compoundable (allowing compromise, and no trial). The government intends to insert provisions that would allow compro-mise and settlements before trial. Women’s groups argue that women victims are already often forced to make private com-prises due to pressure, and the conditions of reconciliation and compromise are unfair. Furthermore, they argue that dowry is a social evil and should be dealt with by the law and private compromises should not be given legal sanction.

Excluding Marital Rape Under IPC

In continuing with the policies of the previous government the NDA has made no attempt to bring marital rape under the In-dian Penal Code. On the contrary, several BJP ministers have made public statements normalizing marital rape and legitimiz-ing it under the garb of institution of marriage and Indian culture. For instance, Minister of State Home, Haribhai Parathibhai Chaudhary, said “It is considered that the concept of marital rape, as understood ... mindset of the society to treat marriage as a sacrament.”

Food Security and Labour

There is a move to weaken the Food Security Act that provides nutritious food for children, maternity benefits and grain under the Public Distribution System. Shanta Kumar, head of a high-level panel on restructuring the Food Corporation of India claims that, “When the Act came, people in our party felt 67% coverage was high... As an Opposition party, we had to sup-port it due to political compulsion..It was our thinking that when we come to power, we would correct this and balance the coverage. Had we opposed the law ahead of elections, people would have called us anti-poor”. The panel recommends that coverage under the PDS be reduced be 67% to 40%, and a transition from providing grain to giving cash transfers. A recent survey conducted in nine states shows that 2/3rd people prefer receiving grain to receiving cash.

There is a planned weakening of labour legislations - the Contract Workers Act, Industrial Disputes Act and Factories Act. The Rajasthan government has already made amendments in June-July 2014. Women are underrepresented in trade unions, paid lower wages than men, and have higher job insecurity. Hence, weakening of laws that protect the interests of labourers havea greater impact on women both directly and indirectly.

Failure to implement SEXUAL HARASSMENT AT THE WORKPLACE ACT 2013

The government has done very little to ensure compliance on the formation of sexual harassment complaints committee at workplaces. Several private and government companies are not in compliance with the Vishakha guidelines, and some are even yet to constitute committees against sexual harassment. Recently the Delhi High Court, commented on the lack of implementation of the Vishaka Guidelines in the aviation industry. “What steps you have taken for the implementation of Vishaka guidelines in all Airlines or at every workplace? You should have done it by now...You should ensure that Vishaka guidelines are functional in every other organisation. I am not only on this case related to Sri Lankan Airlines. The harassment is taking place at every place,” the court said.

Sexist statements by BJP leaders

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The past year prominent NDA leaders have made strong misogynist statements . We will leave you with just a handful of them : “Rape is a social crime which depends on the man and the woman. It is sometimes right and sometimes wrong.”tt Babulal Gaur, BJP politician and Madhya Pradesh home minister

“Male pigeons always chase female pigeons. It’s an animal instinct. – Kiran Bedi, BJP Leader

“One small incident of rape in Delhi advertised world over is enough to cost us millions of dollars in terms of lower tourism.”- Arun Jaitley, Finance Minister and BJP Leader

“If a girl is dressed decently, a boy will not look at her in the wrong way…If you want freedom, why don’t they just roam around naked? Freedom has to be limited.”- Manohar Lal Khattar (Haryana Chief Minister and BJP leader)

“I believe if yoga comes into the life of common people, then the daily incidents of rape, I would not say, they will cease to exist, but there will definitely be a decrease in them.”- Murli Manohar Joshi (BJP MP from Kanpur, UP)“A Hindu woman must have at least four children. Give one to the army, another to us religious leaders and teachers.”- Sakshi Maharaj (BJP MP from Unnao, UP)

References

1. “50% cut in allocation of funds for women and child development schemes”, Times of India, May 1, 2015, http://timesofindia.indiatimes.com/india/50-cut-in-allocation-of-funds-for-women-and-child-development-schemes/article-show/47123033.cms ^ Ibid. 2. “Nadimul Haque raises concern on reduction of funds for Nirbhaya Centres” , March 11, 2015, http://aitcofficial.org/aitc/in-parliament-rajya-sabha/nadimul-haque-speaks-during-zero-hour-on-the-governments-decision-to-reduce-number-of-one-stop-rape-crisis-centre-for-women-transcript/?0&cat_id=13. William Haseltine, “ India’s BJP Government and Health: One Year On”, Access Health International, May 25, 2015, http://ac-cessh.org/indias-bjp-government-health-one-year/ 4. “Unfairly targeting Section 498A”, Indian Express, http://indianexpress.com/article/opinion/columns/unfairly-targeting-sec-tion-498a/ 5. T.K. Rajalakshmi, “Diluting a Law”, Frontline, Vol 29, Issue 4, http://www.frontline.in/static/html/fl2904/sto-ries/20120309290410100.htm,6. Rahul Bhagchandani, “Concept Of Marital Rape Not “Applicable” In India, Says Union Minister”, Youth Connect, April 29l, 2015, http://www.youthconnect.in/2015/04/29/concept-marital-rape-not-applicable-india-says-union-minister/7. http://www.dnaindia.com/india/report-food-security-act-bjp-wanted-to-oppose-but-feared-backlash-20548628. “Food vs Cash”, Outlook India,March 24, 2014, http://www.outlookindia.com/article/food-vs-cash/2898049. Pushpa Achanta, “ Women Garment Workers Organize Against Inhumane Conditions in India”, Truth Out, January 18, 2015, 10. http://www.truth-out.org/news/item/28603-women-garment-workers-organize-against-inhumane-conditions-in-india11. “High Court raps Centre, Delhi government over failure to implement Vishaka guidelines”, The Economic Times, Nov 12, 2014, http://articles.economictimes.indiatimes.com/2014-11-12/news/56025752_1_sexual-harassment-vishaka-guide-lines-delhi-high-court12. “Politicians Say the Darndest Things”, The Ladies Finger, March 15, 2015 http://theladiesfinger.com/politi-cians-say-the-darndest-things/

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One year of BJP led NDA government and major shifts in agriculture policies >>

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he new government under the leadership of Prime Minister Narendra Modi at the Centre since May 2014 has made a number of changes in the agriculture and related policies. These have serious implications on what agriculture, which has been the backbone of the Indian economy, will look like.

Shifts in agriculture and related policies

It is critical to start with farmers’ suicides in the country, which has reached a new height or rather hit rock bottom. In either case, it is both a problem in itself and a symptom of a deep agricultural crisis, which the farming community is grappling with. While this has been a long outstanding issue, it is important to underscore that in the last one year alone, there has been a sharp 26% increase in the number of suicides in Maharastra according to a data shared by the Minister of State for Agriculture Mohanbhai Kundaria in a written reply to the Lok Sabha. The situation in other states, particularly Telangana, Karnataka, Pun-jab and Tamil Nadu are not significantly better off. As in the case of the previous Government, the current Government con-tinues provide to a small extent bandage solutions such as compensation or the waiving off loans rather than addressing the core issue of a policy level change at multiple levels. The changes in policies over the last one year from reduced procurement, land acquisition, reduction in institutional credit and support and the destruction of natural resources and seed sovereignty also indicate that the symptom (suicides), is only but likely to exacerbate.

Changes in the Land Use Policy and Land Bill

Changes in the land use bill, which focuses on “adopt a National Land Use Policy which will facilitate scientific identification of non-cultivable land and its strategic development,” will have serious implications on farming. In most of the cases, non-farm-ing land or the common property resource is an integral part of farm economy as well as farm ecology. Isolating agricultural lands from the fallow land is going to further destroy farmers’ economy. Yet, a rather contentious issue has been the government’s land acquisition reforms that have come under the scanner and are being criticized for being ‘anti-farmer’. It is being said that farmers may be short-charged for the land acquired from them. A serious concern has been the underutilisation (an estimated 50%) of land already acquired under the UPA Government for SEZs between 2006 and 2013 across the country , the diversion of land to private companies and therefore the misuse as not-ed by the CAG in its report in 2014. Shift in food procurement at the state level

Another major shift is that the Government is discouraging state governments from procuring farmers’ produce. It was clearly reflected in untimely, faulty and unenthusiastic procurements of wheat and rice even in states like Punjab and Haryana where the system of food procurement has evolved over the years. The government has restricted the MSP increases for wheat and paddy to an economically bearable Rs 50/qtl, which is a third lower than the UPA’s 10-year average of Rs 75/qtl. Prime minister has also restricted the powers of state governments to announce bonuses for MSP, a step, which has affected BJP-ruled states as well. After his return from the US, the prime minister had asked the ministries concerned to buy only 25 per cent of the rice needed for supplies through the public distribution system or ration shops. The earlier practice was to procure between 35 and 70 per cent of the requirement. Reduced procurement of paddy and cotton and refusal to reimburse any incentive given by the states have brought farmers to a situation where they cannot even recover their basic cost of production. In a letter (dated February 18) to General Manager, North, FCI’s GM (Procurement) K.K. Paliwal has stated that the corporation would not open any purchase centres in Haryana during the Rabi marketing season 2015-16. The state government and its agencies would carry out all the procurement, it said. Similarly, the letter mentioned that it will reduce its purchase centres by 50% in Punjab. Meagre Increase in the MSP; Threat to Stop Procurement from States

If the last one year of the NDA is indicative, they seem no different from the UPA. This is indicative by the apathy towards farm-ers and farming under successive Governments. The last minimum support price (MSP) increase by the UPA government, in March 2014, for the kharif crops, was 8.2% versus 6.1% in March 2013. The order of magnitude of the first MSP of the Modi-led government in October 2014 was minus 0.3%. It is critical to note, that the MSP, which in addition to being meagre, supports only the rice and wheat farmers, who have access to mandis and constitute small percentage of the farming community. While the argument is that there is only a small percentage of beneficiaries, there is a pressure from the corporate lobby on even this section, in order to bring down prices, and thereby this will expose farmers to the vagaries of the market. Additionally, the food ministry has directed state governments (for instance Madhya Pradhesh, Rajasthan and Chhattisgarh) to refrain from providing any additional bonus over the MSP announced by the Centre. In the last few years, the states were sup-porting farmers to the tune of Rs. 100 per quintal in addition to the MSP. The Centre threatens to stop any further procurement in case the states do not stop this practice.

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In addition, the Central government has now declared that it will procure crops only from farmers in deficit States, a peculiar strategy that will defeat the original purpose of moving grains from surplus to deficit areas and will expose farmers in all other places to the vagaries of market price fluctuations and declines.

Changes in the MNREGA

The question of declining soil health got an apt hearing by the politicians as well as the policy makers in the last government. Several schemes and programmes were initiated and converged to check the decline. MNREGA was so designed that it could help farmers creating infrastructures for making eco-fertilisers. The new government’s gesture towards MNREGA seems worrisome. Reetika Khera in her article in Outlook says, “Yet the worries remain: first, instead of reaffirming the government’s commitment to NREGA, there were some distasteful remarks from the PM in Parliament the day before the budget. Second, the budget has declined in real terms (ie, when adjusted for inflation). Third, as states revise minimum wages, the scale of em-ployment that can be generated shrinks. Finally, last years’ experience suggests that the plan is to strangle the programme by delaying release of funds so that wages of the poor remain unpaid and they give up on NREGA.” It has reduced the scope for infrastructure building for ecological fertiliser production. Instead there is a big push for soil testing. Presently we do not have a comprehensive soil testing system which accounts the quality in terms of biological, organic and physical structures of the soil. The focus is only on the chemical presence. This approach will lead to more use of chemicals ignoring the health of soils.The employment guarantee scheme has been squeezed so much that it is no longer any kind of guarantee at all, and the pro-gramme will struggle simply to survive. Those who feel that this will not affect farmers because they employ workers rather than the other way around miss the point that around 40 per cent of cultivators joined the programme as wage labour to supplement their meagre and uncertain farm incomes. So, reducing or killing this programme will also affect them very badly, and that too at a time when other sources of rural income are drying up. Reduced spending on research and irrigation Plan Outlay for Agriculture Research and EducationBudget year 2012-13 2013-14 2014-15 2015-16Amount in crore rupees 2898.00 3113.00 3715.00 3691.00Source: http://indiabudget.nic.in/ub2015-16/eb/po. pdf

Public spending on agricultural development and on research and extension has already fallen in real terms and is set to de-cline even further in the coming year. The public spending on agriculture has stayed at 0.4% of the GDP since over a decade. An Umbrella programme, namely, Krishonnati Yojana covering various development programmes / Schemes viz. soil health card, integrated scheme on Agriculture Cooperation, Agriculture marketing, Agriculture Census & Statistics, Horticulture, sustainable agriculture, National Agri-tech infrastructure. The total Central Plan is Rs. 5845.45 crore. Modi government has expressed its concerns for soil health and its Agriculture minister blames farmers for indiscriminate use of chemicals. In an interview he said “Farmers are not aware of soil health and they blindly use fertilizers. The result is a drop in productivity.” But this realisation did not get translated into any policy shift. In 2015-16 budgets the Fertiliser subsidy has been pegged at Rs 72,968.56 crore, higher than Rs 70,967.31 crore estimated for last year. After the much hue and cry for soil health promotion of organic farming in the country the government allocated only 300 crore rupees for Paramparagat Krishi Vikas Yojna the new avatar of Organic farming.

This is the context in which the unseasonal rain and other weather changes have had such a devastating impact on so many farmers. Even in this punishing context, government responses have been at best tardy. The Central government is effectively treating this as the responsibility of State governments, passing the buck on this critical area of public intervention to States that are already hugely financially stretched because of the reduction of so much other Central social spending.

Impetus to Genetically Modified Organisms

As in the case of the UPA, the NDA has given a significant impetus to GMOs in agriculture. This became apparent, with the Genetic Engineering Appraisal Committee in its first meeting on July 18, 2014 clearing 60 of 70 field trials of different geneti-cally modified crops including rice, mustard, chickpea. An RTI application revealed that on August 21, 2014, the GEAC, which falls under the Ministry of Environment, Forests and Climate Change gave a clearance to open field trials for both Bt Brinjal and Bt Mustard , , This despite the fact that in case of Bt Brinjal, former Minister, Jairam Ramesh had put an indefinite morato-rium on the crop following a series of public consultations, acknowledging serious gaps in regulation, and receiving scientific inputs on serious concerns from around the world on February 10, 2010. , There is no demand for any of the crops. Moreover, it is unclear, what has changed in the regulatory framework, and the gaps from Jairam Ramesh’s time seem to persist. In the case of Bt brinjal, it is unclear what these new open field trials are out to establish. Also, this is in complete contradiction to its own position, and promise of taking a precautionary approach towards open releases of risky GMOs, which the party made in its election manifesto, and Mr. Javdekar himself has been flip-flopping on the issue. This also completely sidesteps the Parliamentary Standing Committee on Agriculture, which had 7 members of the BJP and urged to stop all open-air field trials under any garb as well as the Supreme Court-appointed Technical Expert Committee (TEC), which has strongly recommend-ed against such field trials. The TEC has recognised has the potential to irreversibly contaminate seed and food supply chains, and recommended a complete stop on all field trials till regulatory gaps are filled. The final recommendations of the Supreme Court’s Technical Expert Committee were further recognised and accepted by 250 scientists. Following the GEAC’s approval, four states, three out of them under NDA allies like Andhra Pradesh, Maharashtra and Punjab and Congress-governed state

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Karnataka have given a go ahead to the field trials.

Quotes and statements from politicians and the government

“Nothing is more important than farmers’ lives. Nothing is more important than a human being’s life. We have to identify flaws in the system, we have to identify shortcomings in the system. We cannot leave the farmers to fend for themselves in a helpless condition. We will have to be a part of his pain and sorrow. We have to be a part of his future. I appeal to the House to resolve to ensure that farmers would not be allowed to die like this. There should be a collective resolve in this regard. We have an open mind to consider any suggestion that is made... We cannot let the farmers die,”- Narendra Modi- Indian Prime Minister.

“In the last few days, we have seen the tragic picture of farmer suicides...(these) are complicated matters. There is no easy explanation to why somebody takes ultimate step.”- Raghuram Rajan- RBI GovernorNames and contact information of groups to be contacted for moreRajesh KrishnanGreenpeace India

References

1. http://indiatoday.intoday.in/story/farmers-suicide-maharashtra-achche-din-narendra-modi-bjp-government/1/422042.html2. http://timesofindia.indiatimes.com/india/Farmer-suicides-on-rise-IB-report/articleshow/45609708.cms 3. http://timesofindia.indiatimes.com/india/Modis-governance-agenda-Bringing-back-the-profit-in-farming/article-show/36319948.cms4. http://epaperbeta.timesofindia.com/Article.aspx?eid=31808&articlexml=Over-50-of-land-acquired-for-SEZs-be-tween-21042015011031 5. http://www.saiindia.gov.in/english/home/public/In%20_Media/21of2014.pdf 6. http://www.dnaindia.com/india/report-quiet-reforms-by-narendra-modi-double-edged-sword-2040061 7. http://www.tribuneindia.com/news/nation/fci-not-to-procure-wheat-in-haryana-cuts-ops-in-punjab/46983.html8. http://www.financialexpress.com/article/fe-columnist/column-why-no-applause-for-reform-modi/23503/ India’s deepening farm crisis: 76% farmers want to give up farming, shows study http://www.downtoearth.org.in/content/india-s-deepening-farm-crisis-76-farmers-want-give-farming-shows-study http://www.downtoearth.org.in/content/india-s-deepening-farm-crisis-76-farmers-want-give-farming-shows-study9. Why “Grow in India” too is important… http://www.deccanherald.com/content/440805/why-quotgrow-indiaquot-too-im-portant.html 10. http://www.tribuneindia.com/news/nation/fci-not-to-procure-wheat-in-haryana-cuts-ops-in-punjab/46983.html 11. http://www.frontline.in/cover-story/agriculture-in-crisis/article7048078.ece 12. http://www.livemint.com/Politics/XItLjYAhVMJbwb3E9FPLBO/Farmers-arent-aware-of-soil-health-they-blindly-use-fertil.html13. http://articles.economictimes.indiatimes.com/2015-02-28/news/59612732_1_subsidy-bill-food-subsidy-fertiliser-subsidy14. http://www.frontline.in/cover-story/agriculture-in-crisis/article7048078.ece 15. http://www.thehindu.com/news/national/geac-clears-field-trials-for-gm-crops/article6225697.ece 16. http://www.hindustantimes.com/india-news/govt-allows-field-trials-for-gm-mustard-brinjal/article1-1279197.aspx 17. http://www.business-standard.com/article/economy-policy/sjm-upset-over-modi-govt-nod-to-gm-crop-field-tri-als-114102801066_1.html 18. Permit letters received through RTIs attached. 19. http://indiatogether.org/btbrinjal-environment20. http://www.thehindu.com/todays-paper/its-moratorium-on-bt-brinjal-jairam/article707176.ece 21. http://archive.financialexpress.com/news/centre-to-take-call-on-allowing-gm-crop-field-trials-after-sc-decision/1285045 22. http://www.prsindia.org/administrator/uploads/general/1349957427_Standing%20Committee%20Report%20Summa-ry-%20GMO%20Final.pdf 23. http://www.indiaenvironmentportal.org.in/files/file/TEC-Main-Report.pdf 24. http://www.thehindu.com/news/national/no-gm-field-trials-till-regulation-gaps-are-addressed-says-tec-final-report/arti-cle4942668.ece 25. Accept majority TEC final report”: More than 250 scientists write to PM http://indiagminfo.org/?p=649 26. http://www.greenpeace.org/india/en/Blog/Campaign_blogs/states-resist-as-the-centre-persists/blog/51123/

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Violating our environment >>

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uring the final months of UPA II government there was a systematic propaganda by big corporations in the media and other spaces that, environmental regulations and forest clearances are actually hampering India’s growth. The NDA gov-ernment after taking charge in May 2014 blamed clearances processes, moratorium on setting up industries in critically pollut-ed areas, declaring inviolate forest areas where mining will not be permitted as the reasons for sluggish coal production and it made very clear that “environment will not be a road block to development” and the government will do everything within its power to ensure business friendly environment will prevail at the cost of environment and marginalised communities. Prime Minister’s Office (PMO) together with the Ministry of Environment, Forest & Climate Change (MoEFCC) has made more than 60 changes to the current legislations so far. The strategy is simple minimum laws and regulations, weaker institutions, no people’s participation in decision making and finally no access to justice.

Destabilizing institutional structures

This is one of the first moves by the government to approve close to 120 projects without even forming a standing committee of the national board of wildlife. Then Supreme Court had to intervene to get the government to form a committee. As opposed to its original mandate of scrutinizing projects of its impacts on wildlife the committee went into a “project clearance spree mode”. Even after forming the NBWL it remains as a committee that is more eager to approve projects. Ministry of Environment, Forest & Climate Change (MoEFCC) has also enabled the NBWL is approve projects within wildlife sanctuaries and National Parks without obtaining recommendations from State Board of Wild Life (SBWL). The government has also asked the supreme court to stay away from intervening in matters pertaining to approvals within sanctuaries and national parks because that account to delay of projects.

The ministry has diluted the spirit of the committee by appointing non-qualified members to the FAC, of the two independent members newly appointed to the committee; one is a full-time activist with the RSS’s tribal wing in Maharashtra. Chaitram Pawar is the vice president of the RSS’s Vanvasi Kalyan Ashram in Maharashtra. The committee so far cleared 3800 square kilometres of forests for developmental projects.

Environment Appraisal Com-mittee (EAC), State Pollution Control Board (SPCB): MoEFCC notified that EAC and pollution control boards should not seek additional clarifications or put additional conditions after granting the Terms of Reference (ToR) for preparation of Environ-ment Impact Assessment (EIA). While the government accepts that such studies/clarifications are asked only “sometimes”, the circular directs that EAC/SPCB should refrain from critically analysing even in rare situations and rely only on what the project proponent submits. MoEFCC has constituted a high level committee (HLC) under the chairmanship TSR Submramaniam to review all the environmental laws. The report of the TSR committee recommended that powers vested in the NGT should be restricted to a judicial review rather than a merit review. Most disturbingly, the committed aims to defang the National Green Tribunal: A quasi Judicial body that has emerged as the most effective grievance redressal mechanism on environmental issues. It limits the role of the NGT to the narrow confines of ‘judicial review’ as opposed to a comprehensive ‘merit review’. It is therefore a clear attempt to insulate the Government decision from judicial scrutiny. It has recommended that power to review the decisions should vest with a body comprising of serving and retired secretaries to the Government. The basic constitutional scheme of separation of powers is thus planned to be disturbed.Weakening legal frameworks

The High Level Committee to review all the environmental laws under the chairmanship of Mr.T.S.R Subramanian was con-stituted in August 2014. The committee prepared the report in a haste and submitted committee submitted its report within three months, on 20-11-2014. The report is replete with factual inaccuracies, misleading and wrong conclusions and the incorrect interpretation of the laws it was meant to review. The Committee also overstepped its terms of reference and suggested changing the framework of environmental justice (like the Scheduled Tribes and Other Traditional Forest Dwellers (Recognition of Forest Rights) Act, 2006 and the National Green Tribunal Act, 2010), and even recommends a brand new piece of legislation to be strangely called the Environmental Laws (Management) Act or ELMA, which would prevail over all contrary judgments issued in past decades or the provisions of any environment law promulgated till date. The TSR Committee report is a ratification of most of the dilutions MoEFCC has done on environment legislation so far and was laying out options for further. While there are many critiques available on how disastrous the TSR Committee’s recommenda-tions are, this section is highlighting some of the important dilutions that have already taken place In the past one via notifica-tions, Office Memorandums (OM) and Circulars. Some of the key dilutions are:

• The government gave general forest clearances for forests 100km within the Line of Control (LoC) and forest areas in Naxal affected areas.

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National Board Wild Life (NBWL)

Forest Advisory Committee (FAC)

Environment Appraisal Committee (EAC), State Pollution Control Board (SPCB)

National Green Tribunal (NGT)

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• To quickly ramp-up coal production for enhancing power production in public interest, for expansion of Coal Mining Pro-jects involving one time Production Capacity Expansion upto 20 MTPA, the EAC may after due diligence consider exempting public hearing subject to the ceiling of additional production up to 6 MTPA if the transportation of additional production of coal is proposed by means of a conveyor and / or rail transport. MoEFCC also exempted projects within industrial estates/parks which were notified before 2006 from conducting public hearing.

• Lifting the moratorium on critically polluted areas using a bureaucratic loophole - Modi government used a delay in the review as an excuse to suspend the moratorium. While the Modi government is allegedly all about efficiency, it has given the CPCB an entire year to review the index.

• Exemption from EIA: Irrigation projects of capacity up to 2000 ha. Of cultivable command area - Now there is some dilution in the original Notification. Irrigation projects involving ‘cultivable command area’ up to 2000 ha. would be outside the ambit of the EIA Notification 2006. Earlier all irrigation projects below 10,000 ha. of cultivable command area, were in Category B.

• Thermal Power Projects based on biomass: No longer in Category A - Thermal power projects [Section 1 (d)], generating power greater than or equal to (≥) 20 MW (from biomass), have been removed from Category A. Now, all projects generating power greater than or equal to (≥) 15 MW from biomass fuel, would be treated as Category B.

• Relaxation for Category A projects of Synthetic organic chemicals industry - ‘Synthetic organic chemicals industry’ [Section 5 (f )] was considered as Category A if ‘located outside the notified industrial area/ estate’, but now a relaxation has been given to small units with ‘water consumption of <25 cubic meter per day, fuel consumption of <25 TPD and not covered in the category of MAH units as per the Management, Storage and Import of Hazardous Chemical Rules, 1989.’ These ‘small units’, will now be treated as Category B.

• The distance from the boundary of a Protected Area (PA) for treating ‘Category B project as Category A’ has been reduced from 10 km to 5 km. i.e. Category B projects beyond 5km will no longer be treated as Category A, unlike earlier.Undermining Participatory Governance:

The TSR committee set up by the government not on lay have the required approv-al from the prime Minister, lacked clarity on purpose/need to review all the environmental laws. The order passed OM 22-15/2014-IA-III, dated 29.08.2014 by MoEFCC merely stated the need for the review as “bring them in line with current re-quirements to meet objectives” failing to state what the current requirements actually are. The committee also had members with questionable background like Mr. Vishwanath Anand has the dubious distinction of dismissing every single appeal when he was the Vice Chairperson of the National Environment Appellate Authority. None of the other members have any prior experience in the area of environment.

The process of consultation by the Committee was also highly opaque. Public comments were invited but with the rider that the comments should not exceed 1000 characters. The few “Consultation” meetings that were held were in urban locations (mostly capital cities), with the participation limited to selected individuals by invitation. The report of the HLC provides neither any details of the stakeholders consulted nor the list of submissions received or min-utes of the meetings.

The report on “Setting up objective parameters for identifying inviolate criteria” to protect India’s last remaining forests from mining and other big infrastructure projects has been in the pipeline for years now. It is to be noted, that MoEFCC agreed to the Group of Ministers to hold wider consultations with all the stake holders (with coal ministry, ministry of mines and civil society) while reviewing the comments received for the first draft in 2013 - later conven-iently went ahead ignoring the views of the civil society, scientists and communities - ensuring ministry of coal and ministry of mines are part of the committee finalising invited only ministry of coal and ministry of mines to the meetings it convened to discuss the parameters.

Under the NDA government, the environment secretary held a series of formal and informal meetings to finalise the inviolate criteria. Thus, the inviolate policy has been watered down steadily to cover only 55 out of 725 coal blocks, as inviolate blocks. Within months, the policy was further diluted making the number of coal block to be kept away from mining to just 35 out of 793 coal blocks. The government which is making big noise about the transparent process of the “coal auction” is covertly quiet about the opaque route in which it almost paralysed this crucial process, which otherwise could have helped achieve protecting our forests.

Conducting public hearing for obtaining environmental clearance and obtaining con-sent from gramsabha for obtaining forest clearance are two most important aspects of inclusive decision making. The current government, by relaxing coal mines expansion projects, projects falling within industrial estates/parks has taken away the space for the communities to express their grievances. Under the current norms, obtaining consent from communities under forest rights act 2006 before diversion of forests for non forest purposes under Forest Conservation Act 1980 is mandatory. There are documentary evidences to show that the now Prime Minister’s Office, Ministry of Coal with MoEFCC have been attempting to circumvent taking consent from forest dwell-

National Green Tribunal (NGT)

Non-transparent Process

Non-participatory Committee

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ing communities in various ways – exempting linier projects from obtaining gramsabha consent, restricting consent only to scheduled areas, exempting projects from taking consent where public hearing is been done already, obtaining consent after getting stage 2 forest clearance from the central government, exempting consent clause for forest areas that were notified less than 75 years from December 2005 where no schedule tribes are present as per Census reports 2001 and 2011 Coal auction-ing vs environmental governance. Endgame -“India’s Environment?”

Environmental challenges will become all the more pressing in the coming years as Modi embarks on his “Make in India” cam-paign, which aims to transform the country from an agrarian society to a global manufacturing hub. Forest cover will be taken care of through stringent afforestation norms, in exchange for industry enjoying easier access. The TSR Subramanian Commit-tee suggests that ‘no-go’ areas for industry should be restricted only to regions enjoying 70 per cent canopy cover — which account for less than 5% per cent of total forest area. The policy narrative on environment issues is changing, with Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s recent remarks - from an earlier approach that purportedly scrutinised industrial projects on envi-ronment grounds, holding up the occasional one, we have moved to a set-up where ‘automatic’ clearances shall be the norm. Policy paralysis, we are told, is over. There is no attempt now to view the environment as a livelihood issue. This is despite the fact that 250 million are dependent on forests for their livelihood, a population not much less than all of urban India.Prepared by Greenpeace India with data obtained from EIA Resource and Response Centre (ERC)

References

1. http://www.piyushgoyal.in/uploadedfiles/views/ministry_english_booklet.pdf2. http://indianexpress.com/article/india/india-others/green-ministry-is-no-more-a-roadblock-prakash-javadekar/3. http://www.business-standard.com/article/economy-policy/pmo-ordered-60-changes-to-green-clearances-environment-ministry-delivered-on-most-115012001495_1.html4. http://ibnlive.in.com/news/narendra-modi-governments-environment-policy-encourages-deforestation-leading-to-eco-logical-imbalance/545139-37-64.html5. http://indianexpress.com/article/india/india-others/to-speed-up-infra-projects-stay-out-of-wildlife-clearance-govt-tells-sc/6. http://www.ndtv.com/india-news/truth-vs-hype-bypassing-green-checks-by-nominating-compliant-members-7102597. http://moef.gov.in/sites/default/files/OM_EAC_SEAC_07_10_2014.pdf8. https://sandrp.wordpress.com/2015/01/08/the-high-level-committee-report-on-environmental-law-a-recipe-for-cli-mate-disaster-and-silencing-peoples-voice/9. http://www.moef.nic.in/sites/default/files/Guidelines_040714.pdf10. http://moef.gov.in/sites/default/files/OM%20Dt%2002.09.2014_6%20MTPA_onetime%20expansion.pdf11. http://www.moef.nic.in/sites/default/files/O.M%20Dated%2010.12.2014.pdf12. http://www.moef.nic.in/sites/default/files/PDF%20file_2.pdf13. http://envfor.nic.in/content/comments-invited-suggestionscomments-are-invited-high-level-committee-hlc-review-vari-ous-env14. http://envfor.nic.in/sites/default/files/press-releases/Final_Report_of_HLC.pdf15. http://www.business-standard.com/article/economy-policy/only-35-of-793-coal-blocks-remain-inviolate-after-dilution-of-policy-115031301194_1.html

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Labour reforms that enable businesses and hinder workers >>

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roposed changes in labour laws

‘Let’s start with trust’, the PM reportedly said while lauding labour reforms. Labour reforms, he said, would make it easier for companies to do business in India and that in turn would fulfil India’s aspirations to become a manufacturing hub through a new programme called ‘Make in India’. Catchy tagline aside, the project itself appears support the revamping of labour laws to suit business in India.

Launch of the Shram Suvidha Portal

A significant move was the unveiling of the Shram Suvidha Portal, which will allow employers to submit a self-certified, single compliance report for 16 central labour laws. This reform is expected to simplify business by putting the onus of compliance with the firms through self-certification. The Prime Minster described this reform as follows: “These facilities are what I call minimum government, maximum governance”. He justified these in the following terms: “Let’s start with trust” (ibid.). Howev-er, self-certification suffers from a basic drawback of non-revelation of truthful information, if there are incentives for doing so (like saving on a range of compliance cost in this case).

Ineffective system of random selection for inspections

One might argue that the problem of non-revelation of truthful information may be largely curbed if there is a rigorous in-spection mechanism in place. It is precisely here that Mr. Modi announced another radical change. In the name of ending the ‘Inspector Raj’ labour inspectors will no longer be allowed to decide on their own, the establishments to be inspected. Instead, they would be sent to randomly selected establishments (administered centrally through computerized draw of lot; similar to those done during random scrutiny of income tax returns) and have to upload their reports within 72 hours, without future scope of modifying them. However, since labour inspectors generally have better ground level information about establish-ments and their functioning, centralized selection of enterprises for inspection even if randomly chosen, is certainly going to compromise on the effectiveness of inspection.

It is pertinent to note that this centralized control of inspections violates the International Labour Organization’s (ILO) Labour Inspection Convention 81 (1947) – to which India is a signatory. According to Article 12 of the Labour Inspection Convention 81, labour inspectors are empowered inter alia, “to enter by day any premises which they may have reasonable cause to be-lieve to be liable to inspection; and to carry out any examination, test or enquiry which they may consider necessary in order to satisfy themselves that the legal provisions are being strictly observed.” The new stipulation, by regulating inspectors’ visits to establishments curbs the freedom of inspectors to visit any enterprise, thus violating the provisions of ILO convention 81.

Amalgamation of various key legislations

The current labour law changes are in sync with the government’s ambition of converting India into a manufacturing power. The government wants to increase the share of manufacturing in gross domestic product, or GDP, from its current level of 16% to 25% by 2022. In his Independence Day address to the nation on 15 August, Mr. Modi invited foreign manufacturers to “come, make in India”, products ranging from paper and plastics to submarines and satellites to enable the country to reduce its reliance on imports and boost exports.

The Industrial Relations Bill proposes to combine Industrial Disputes Act, 1947, Trade Unions Act, 1926, and Industrial Em-ployment (Standing Orders) Act, 1946. The Code on Industrial Relations Bill, 2015 is one of the initiatives of the government to subsume 44 labour laws into five broad codes, dealing with industrial relation, wages, social security, industrial safety and welfare. The new bill also makes hiring of employees easier which is being opposed by various labour unions. It is important to mention here that the labour movement in India has been demanding labour law reforms for a long time. But this reform was to be targeted to unify various labour laws, end the multiplicity and inconsistency in various provisions of different labour laws, and upgrade existing labour standards. The issue was discussed at various forums and meetings like In-dian Labour Conference and the working groups formed by the planning commission. However, it is ironic that the views and demands of trade unions were completely ignored by the governments. The proposed amendments are mainly targeted to address only employers’ demands and have very little concern for demands raised by labour and trade unions. Therefore they may lead to downgrading the labour standards and reducing the collective bargaining power of labour.

Curtailing of formation of unions

The National Democratic Alliance government has proposed allowing companies hiring up to 300 workers to lay them off without seeking official sanction. Currently, industries employing up to 100 workers were allowed to do this. Another propos-al is to significantly reduce politicisation of workers. Only employees would be allowed to form unions. In the unorganized

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sector, two members from outside will be allowed to become members of a union. The BMS chief said that the proposed law will curtail the democratic right of workers to organise themselves into trade unions. At present, seven employees can get together to form a trade union. However, as per the draft, employees would not be allowed to form a union unless they had a minimum 100 members and 10% of total workers in the unit. This provision will hit the hi-tech sector hard since they general-ly work with small teams.

Several organizations have criticized the centre for trying to amend the labour laws without consulting the trade unions. Slamming the proposed Industrial Relations Code, labour unions had said the consultations in this regard were a “farce” as representatives of workers should have been involved at the drafting stage itself.

Scrapping of labour courts and introduction of rigid strike rules

During conciliatory proceedings, workers in all industrial sectors will not be permitted to go on a strike. The ministry has pro-posed scrapping various arbitration forums, including the labour court. “The industrial tribunal will continue, but the labour court, the board of arbitration and the tribunal court will cease to exist,” the official said. Further, strikes will not be allowed without a six-week notice. Now, only workers at public utilities need to provide such a notice to employers. Mass casual leave will be considered a strike. The proposal says if more than half the workers are on casual leave, it will be treated a strike. As per the draft, the employer would not require the permission of labour ministry to close down a company. This provi-sion gives a lot of autonomy to the employers and it will drastically affect the rights of the employee. Recently, the Madhya Pradesh cabinet gave its approval to twenty labour laws being amended. The labour commissioner announced that ‘lay-offs, retrenchments and even closures will not require any permission.’ It will, he is reported as having said, be akin to a ‘hire-and-fire’ policy in establishments of a designated size. In small and medium enterprises with less than 50 employees, employers may terminate any employee without assigning any reason or conducting an enquiry.

Drastic increase in overtime working hours

The idea of more labour being extracted from the labouring class is common in a lot of laws. So that labour may not be made to do more than what is fair and reasonable, the Factories Act laid down that a worker may do 50 hours of overtime work in a quarter. This is now proposed to be increased to 100 hours. The law currently says that the 50 hours may be increased to 75 hours a quarter if the government makes the exemption; this is now to be raised to 115 hours. Additionally, ‘The state gov-ernment or the chief inspector may, subject to prior approval of the state government, by order enhance the total number of hours of overtime in any quarter to 125 in the public interest.’

Women

The proposed amendments in the Factories Act are also supposed to benefit a lot of women. The restriction on night work for women has been contentious issue for several years. Women have been demanding their autonomy at work and the right to choice however, as Usha Ramanathan rightly says, “The time has come, but the language in which it is couched carried the confusion that patriarchy has when it tries to speak the language of equality with which it is both uncomfortable and unfamil-iar.” The proposed amendment, which puts in place a tedious and impractical procedure, reads as follows: “No woman shall be required or allowed to work in any factory except between the hours of 6 A.M. and 7.P.M.Provided that where the State Government or any person, authorised by it in this behalf, is satisfied that adequate safeguards exist in a factory or group or class or description of factories as regards occupational safety and health, provision of shelter, rest rooms, lunch rooms, night crèches and ladies‘ toilets, equal opportunity for women workers, adequate protection of their dignity, honour and safety, protection from sexual harassment, and their transportation from the factory premises to the nearest point of their residence, it may, by notification in the Official Gazette, after due consultation with, and obtaining the consent of, the women workers, workers, the employer, representative organisation of the employer and representative organisation of workers of the concerned factory, allow women to work between 7.00 P.M. and 6.00 A.M. in such factory.”

Issue of Apprentices

By the amendments proposed to the Apprentices Act, 1961, the state government will be sharing the cost of apprentice-ship. If a company having less than 250 workers hires apprentices, the state will absorb half the cost, and if it has above this number, the state government will absorb a fourth of the cost. Under the Act, in no case have employers absorbed trained apprentices as regular workmen. After the successful completion of training, apprentices are left high and dry.

Recent labour law changes in Rajasthan

The BJP led government in Rajasthan recently proposed amendments to three key labour legislations namely, the Contract Labour (Regulation and Abolition) Act (CLRA), 1970; the Factories Act, 1948 and the Industrial Disputes Act (IDA), 1947 which were approved by the State cabinet and the centre. The concrete change in case of Contract Labour Act, 1970 is that it would now be applicable only in case of establishments employing 50 or more workers instead of the earlier threshold of 20 workers. Making Contract Labour Act (restricting the use

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of contract workers) applicable to establishments employing 50 or more workers instead of 20 workers would mean that all regular jobs in establishments below 50 workers (but above 20 workers) would be abolished. This move would bring in inse-curity in the lives of these workers. Moreover, this employer-friendly move would also implicitly encourage the use of contract workers more liberally in establishments employing more than 50 workers. Before amendment the Factories Act, 1948 covered those factories employing 10 or more workers (using power) or 20 or more workers (without using power). The recent amendment increased this threshold to 20 workers (using power) and 40 workers (without using power). Any firm engaged in manufacturing activity and registered under the Factories Act comes under the organized segment of manufacturing. Therefore, by increasing the workers’ threshold in establishments that is required to reg-ister under the Factories Act, some of the factories erstwhile registered under the Factories Act (namely, factories employing 10-19 workers using power and 20-39 workers not using power) would no longer be required to do so. Thus, at the stroke of a pen, these manufacturing establishments would now be categorized under the unorganized sector. Consequently, workers in these establishments now being placed in the unorganized segment of manufacturing would stand to lose on various rights like social security benefits, old age benefits and other benefits. According to Chapter VB of the Industrial Disputes Act (IDA), 1947 previously it was necessary to obtain prior government permission to retrench, layoff workers and closedown factories in an establishment employing 100 or more permanent work-ers. The recent amendment raised the employment threshold to 300 workers. This would now sets stage for a good number of employers owning enterprises employing 101 to 299 workers to retrench permanent workers working for decades with impunity and replace the costly permanent workers with cheap young contract workers. Also, Companies now would open new production sites with young and cheap labour or may even manipulate number of employees to replace the permanent labour with young cheap labour. The production sites would not have permanent workers.

References:

1. Usha Ramanathan, “Through the Looking Glass”, Seminar 669, EPW, May 1, 2015.2. http://sanhati.com/excerpted/12592/#sthash.5DK0XkD3.dpu3. http://sanhati.com/excerpted/12592/4. http://www.livemint.com/Politics/BVhf7QbiY10fDbs2M3IT3M/Labour-market-reforms-Can-Modi-govt-pull-off-what-no-earlie.html ibid5. http://articles.economictimes.indiatimes.com/2015-05-05/news/61833573_1_trade-unions-draft-bill-industrial-rela-tions-bill6. http://sanhati.com/excerpted/10936/7. http://www.rediff.com/business/report/modi-govt-takes-the-lead-in-labour-reforms-/20150430.htm8. http://epaperbeta.timesofindia.com/Article.aspx?eid=31818&articlexml=FRESH-HURDLE-FOR-ANOTHER-KEY-BILL-BMS-Joins-090520150020199. http://www.business-standard.com/article/pti-stories/draft-labour-code-govt-says-rights-of-workers-to-be-protect-ed-115050701049_1.html10. http://www.rediff.com/business/report/modi-govt-takes-the-lead-in-labour-reforms-/20150430.htm11. http://epaperbeta.timesofindia.com/Article.aspx?eid=31818&articlexml=FRESH-HURDLE-FOR-ANOTHER-KEY-BILL-BMS-Joins-0905201500201912. Shashikant Trivedi, ‘MP Agrees to Amend 20 Labour Laws’, Business Standard, 23 September 2014.13. Usha Ramanathan, “Through the Looking Glass”, Seminar 669, EPW, May 1, 2015.14. Clause 38 of the Factories (Amendment) Bill 2014, amending section 64 of the Factories Act 1948.15. Clause 39 of the Factories (Amendment) Bill 2014, amending section 65 of the Factories Act 1948.15. Usha Ramanathan, “Through the Looking Glass”, Seminar 669, EPW, May 1, 2015.16. http://labour.nic.in/upload/uploadfiles/files/latest_update/what_new/53994ae87860bBriefforNIC.pdf17. K Chandru, “Ad-hocism in the Decisions to Modify Labour Laws”, EPW, July 26, 2014 vol xlIX no 3018. http://sanhati.com/excerpted/12592/19. http://sanhati.com/excerpted/12592/20. http://sanhati.com/excerpted/12592/21. http://sanhati.com/excerpted/11037/

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Infrastructure and planning; unplanned and unsustainable >>

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ourism

The two schemes were launched in March 2015 and to be implemented from 2015-2016:(i) National Mission on Pilgrimage Rejuvenation and Spiritual Augmentation Drive (PRASAD) (ii) Swadesh Darshan These schemes will be dovetailed with HRIDAY (National Heritage Development and Augmentation Yojana), being implement-ed by the Ministry of Urban Development. The two schemes are very similar in approach and process of implementation with the difference being on the focus. While PRASAD concentrates on pilgrim cities, Swadesh Darshan is on theme based circuits.

Unclear process for selection

To go a step further, of the 12 cities chosen under the PRASAD scheme, 8 are Hindu pilgrim places with one having an overlap with Buddhism and 1 each of Buddhism, Islam, Christianity and Sikhism. Even the circuits chosen under Swadesh Darshan, of the five, three are in eco-fragile areas which the government has been meaning to open up for long (Himalayan, North east and Coastal regions) and two which are pilgrim circuits. However what is not clear is the criteria and process of choosing these places as well as the rationale for the schemes themselves. For instance, if we are to compare the statistics from the domestic tourism survey, 16.2% of the urban tourists and 12.9% of the tourist from rural area traveled for the purpose of Religious & Pilgrimage in 2002-03. These numbers reduced to 12% and 9% respectively in 2008-09 .

Need for sustainable development

Key components in the mission statements of both schemes speak about high tourist value, competitiveness and sustainabil-ity in an integrated manner, synergising efforts to focus on needs and concerns of all stakeholders, enrich tourist experience and enhance employability. Further down the document this statement is used in ways to suit the needs of the government and the industry. The concept of sustainability is construed in such a narrow manner as it seems to feature only in the use of green technology. Sustainability in tourism is the management of all resources in such a way that the economic, social and aesthetic needs can be fulfilled while maintaining cultural integrity, essential ecological processes, biological diversity and life support systems. There is an understanding that the needs and concerns of all stakeholders and especially of people in tour-ism places can be resolved by enhancing employability without taking into consideration the other economic, environmental, social and cultural impacts of tourism that are currently exist. Secondly, in the schemes they speak about slum upgradation, building of convention centres, golf courses, aquamarine parks, shoreline development of natural water bodies, etc. One fears if slum upgradation will be the justification of beautification and cleanliness drives forcing / evicting these communities out of view of the tourist. How does the large scale development of golf courses, convention centres and themes parks, which are extremely resource intensive, fit in with the idea of sustainable development? There are five key agencies that will plan, guide and monitor the implementation of these schemes – the National Steering Committee, Mission Directorate, Central Sanction-ing and Monitoring Committee, Project Management Consultant and Implementing Agency. Except in the preparation of the detailed project reports, where local bodies will be consulted, there is no reference of them in any of the other processes. Truly the constitutional role of the panchayats / municipalities / gram and ward sabhas, is not limited only to consultations, it is one of self governance.

Role of Ministry of Tourism

Lastly the Ministry of Tourism believes that there role is limited to fixing the gaps in infrastructure development, capacity building, marketing (online presence) and funding and it also with this myopic thinking that they approach planning and monitoring. For them ‘the entire project would be ‘outcome oriented’ rather than ‘process oriented’. The Ministry’s core pur-pose is to ensure that tourism policy and the planning, coordinating and monitoring of tourism development is based on research and ground realities, privileges local community benefits and local economic growth, which in its current thinking is largely lacking.

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Statement of Civil Society Organisations to the draft National Tourism Policy, 2015

Limited Vision, Flawed Approach and Craving to Centralise, Places Central Bureaucracy and Corporates at the core and is anti-people

In the introductory chapter of the draft National Tourism Policy (NTP), 2015 the Ministry of Tourism (MoT), attempts to present the overarching perspective of the proposed policy, and which is further elaborated in the next chapter on Vision, Mission and Objectives. Both these chapters lead to what follows in the rest of the policy. Keywords across the two chapters which stand out are:

• Host Community• Focus on positive impacts• National political and economic agenda of tourism• Responsible Tourism• Government-led, private sector driven and community welfare oriented

The tourism industry is probably the only industry that sells what it has not produced. While the argument offered by the industry and the draft NTP, 2015 is that the tourism sells an experience, necessary ingredients for the manufacture of this experience are the natural systems as well as human societies and cultures which they have nourished. The tourism industry’s playground – forests, beaches and hills and mountains are not merely benign ecoscapes to be bartered away by the industry. Instead, they are homes and backyards of people, communities and villages and towns that the tourists descend upon with their demand for as unique an experience as their money can buy.

Not viewing life and livelihood of the people as embedded in nature, we come across terms like ‘host communities’, who are taken to be subservient to the industry. This identity that is thrust on people living in ‘tourism destinations’ takes away the multiple, diverse and vibrant identities that the communities really have. Identities which bestow rights, empower and through which people can negotiate with the State and tourism industry are thus wiped out in the proposed policy.

The draft NTP, 2015 portrays tourism as an industry that accrues nothing but positive outcomes. It chooses to ignore the existence of negative impacts, by omitting its mention from the document. Though the Ministry has historically not openly admitted to tourism causing negative impacts, some documents do acknowledge the same.

Tourism is not just a holiday, it changes the entire social, cultural and economic nature of the place where it thrives. Local economies become dependent on tourism, which like a weed slowly strangles traditional occupations like agriculture, fish-ing, pastoralism, arts and handicrafts. Land and beaches get taken over for construction of tourism infrastructure affecting farmers, adivasis and fishworkers. Pastoralists find their movement restricted due to tourism and are often forced to ‘settle down’ and become labour in the tourism industry. People who are dependent on natural resources like forests, coasts and grasslands often find themselves restricted, as tourism is developed without taking into consideration the carrying capacity of these regions. Artisans are co-opted into the tourism industry and often forced to compromise on their art to deliver cheap souvenirs. The unorganised sector which according to various studies contributes 60-70 % in tourism industry, is often seen as being a nuisance, affecting the attraction of the destination and therefore marked as something that should be removed. There are social costs: abuse of women, children particularly those forced into sex work, trafficking and child labour because of tourism. Current forms of tourism, systemically and systematically perpetuate the caste system, with sometimes even fur-thering caste based occupations especially those concerning dalits and adivasis. Further, the tourism industry needs to take a positive view of dalits and adivasis for e.g. recognition of their arts and handicrafts. Gender and sexuality stereotypes are also upheld – some examples being women dressed up at front desks of hotels and transgender communities having no other option other than sex work and begging in tourism destinations. Therefore tourism not only maintains but furthers social hierarchies.

The draft NTP, 2015 does not alert the industry as to implications of un-regulated tourism development, thereby not creating the space for much needed regulatory mechanisms to protect the rights and interests of people affected by tourism.

Over the past decade or so, despite governments claiming that they hold an economic perspective to tourism, through its argument of employment generation and resource creation, tourism has in effect been used as a political tool. The push for tourism in regions of conflict like Jammu & Kashmir and the North East region is testimony to this. What is surprising is that central India has not been mentioned! Several documents of the Government of India linked to ‘Left Wing Effected Areas’ have spoken about the role of tourism in maintaining peace. Tourism is being used to drown out people’s struggles for self-deter-mination. Besides, hospitality of people must not be equated with ready-for-tourism. Tourism is no more an innocent industry that provides a good experience for tourists. It is being used as a front to change the social and economic fabric of communi-ties.

A policy document provides insights into the political and philosophical underpinnings of the government. While it sets the developmental goals for the Ministry, it also suggests the path to be taken. In this context, the Ministry has apparently chosen to walk the path of ‘Responsible Tourism’, while deliberately moving away from Sustainable Tourism, which at least found

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mention in documents, if not actually followed.

The law of the land in our country recognizes the concept of Sustainable Development , from which emerges the understand-ing of Sustainable Tourism.

The UNWTO defines Sustainable Tourism as ‘leading to management of all resources in such a way that economic, social and aesthetic needs can be fulfilled while maintaining cultural integrity, essential ecological processes, biological diversity and life support systems. Article 3 of the Global Code of Ethics for Tourism, adopted by the World Tourism Organisation (UNWTO) in 1999, further articulates practices that the tourism industry should engage in to achieve goals of Sustainable Development.

Furthermore, the Agenda 21, an action plan formulated at the United Nations Conference on Environment & Development Rio de Janerio, Brazil, in June 1992 identifies tourism with the potential to play an important role in the global movement towards Sustainable Development. Additionally, Chapter 28 of the Agenda 21, focuses on the role of local authorities in the fruition of the objectives of Sustainable Development.

Therefore, the approach of Sustainable Tourism is most likely to align goals of tourism with principles of social justice as be-stowed by the Constitution of the country.

The crux of the proposed NTP lies in one of its objectives: “Evolve a framework for tourism development, which is Government – led, private sector driven and community welfare oriented”.

Given the market driven nature of tourism and with its welfarist approach people affected by tourism are perceived as receiv-ing doles from the tourism industry. With the private sector in the driver’s seat, that it would not steer the industry towards fulfilling its profit motive but towards the well being of those affected by tourism, should seem a little too naive a statement for the Ministry to believe. This is a clear message to the people that the private sector’s / corporations’ interests would be upheld, this being reflected in the chapter titled ‘Action Plan’. The residual welfarist approach will also ensure that rights of the people affected by tourism will neither be recognised nor upheld.

This statement is primarily one on governance. The National Tourism Authority which will be reposed with authority to respond quickly to market needs and take decisions will comprise primarily private sector and the administration, with the Ministers playing an advisory role as members of the National Tourism Advisory Board! With this, the tourism industry will be completely liberalised, both in letter and spirit. (Until now, the role of the Ministry and Departments of Tourism had some sem-blance of monitoring, at a minimum).

The proposed NTP is absolutely unconstitutional, one of the pillars of which are the 73rd and 74th amendment. Where are the Gram Sabhas and Ward Sabhas in the policy? Who decides on what form of tourism will be developed where and in what manner? Surely this is a mockery of the world’s largest democracy!

While the NTP seeks to emphasize upon the enhanced and greater role of Center, state tourism institutions (that include state TDCs, other autonomous public sector agencies, District Councils, elected bodies like panchayats and municipalities) find no mention in it. Once again, this is grossly erroneous in a democratic and federated polity like ours. Also, emphasis on centrali-zation and placing tourism in the concurrent list undermines not only their present significant role in tourism promotion, but also the scope of meaningful participation of these institutions in future policy interventions.

The process undertaken by the Ministry to write this policy document is flawed and unconstitutional. It seems that the tourism consultants have been employed to write this document. It’s a global norm now to democratize policy making for its long term consequences. Even for projects there is need for free prior informed consent particularly for Indigenous Peoples, and this is about a policy. Before the announcement of the draft policy, the Ministry received suggestions that the process be reviewed and a democratic one be put in place, yet the Ministry chose to go ahead and this release of the draft policy.

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irports

Infrastructure creation through modernisation of existing airports and the development of low-cost airports to promote air connectivity, particularly to remote areas, is priority for the Narendra Modi-led government, and such development will see increasing stakeholding of private players. The same is reflected in the Bharatiya Janata Party’s election manifesto - “We shall modernize existing and operational Airports, and build new ones especially connecting smaller towns and all tourism circuits. In addition, there is a potential for inland air transportation to various remote and local locations in the country. Such air strips will be developed so that low cost air travelling becomes possible within the country. Public Private Partnership would be encouraged to tap into private sector resources as well as expertise.”

New Airports

Upon coming at the helm, the government has given the country a flurry of quick announcements of airport development and plans of large investments in the aviation industry. 50 no frills airports and 15 greenfield airports were announced as of September 2014. Government of India (GoI) had granted “in principle” approval for setting up of 15 Greenfield airports in the country namely, Mopa in Goa, Navi Mumbai, Shirdi and Sindhudurg in Maharashtra, Bijapur, Gulbarga, Hasan and Shimoga in Karnataka, Kannur and Aranmula in Kerala, Durgapur in West Bengal, Dabra in Madhya Pradesh, Pakyong in Sikkim, Karaikal in Pudducherry and Kushinagar in Uttar Pradesh. Further, GoI has laid down Route Dispersal Guidelines (RDG) with a view to achieve better regulation of air transport services taking into account the need for air transport services of different regions of the country.

The 5 airports included in Phase-I of development are Teju (Arunachal Pradesh), Jharsuguda (Odisha), Hubli and Belgaum (Karnataka) and Kishangarh (Rajasthan). As of March 2015, Airport Authority of India has announced their construction and have expressed the openness towards private investments.3 Also, in the World Route Development Forum in Chicago in September 2014, 29 cities have been identified to be marketed for increase in global air connectivity by inviting international airline companies. These airports include- Amritsar, Chandigarh, Jaipur, Lucknow, Leh, Srinagar, Varanasi, Bhubaneswar, Gaya, Kolkata, Port Blair, Ranchi, Raipur, Guwahati, Ahmedabad, Aurangabad, Bhopal, Indore, Goa, Pune, Surat, Chennai, Coim-batore, Calicut, Madurai, Mangalore, Trivandrum, Trichy and Visakhapatnam. The Pakyong Airport in Sikkim, that was planned to be ready by 2016, has been stalled as of January 2015 due to protests from the local communities on rehabilitation and compensation issues. However, creating a greenfield airport in an ecolog-ically sensitive area has it own repercussions, as has been seen in this case, where the slopes around Pakyong are showing signs of instability.

On the other hand, the Aranmul International Airport, a Rs.2000 crore project, is being stalled by the local people due to impacts on paddy and vegetable growing as well as environmental degradation. The opposition to the airport is also based on pleas that it would hurt the sanctity of the Aranmula Parthasarathy Temple and also ruin the heritage status of Aranmula village. The BJP unit of Kerala, which had promised to stall the project if voted to power, had garnered a lot of Hindu voters on those grounds. Activists are now trying to seek an appointment with Narendra Modi through the State BJP leadership, and submit a memorandum. Since the project promoters had secured wetlands and paddy fields for the project, the committee of activists have decided to revive paddy and vegetable cultivation as a mark of protest against the decision, and protests should be simultaneously extended to other states and to the national level.

The rushed, unplanned manner in which the airports are being pushed, without proper consent from local communities and even environmental clearances, is symbolic of wanting to create more infrastructure in the name of development without considering any other options. While this might be a game of numbers of units created or amount of money pumped in to show in media and international forums about the progress of the Indian aviation sector, there are many things that need to be looked at before pushing for such drastic amounts of new infrastructure.

Many aviation industry watchers are sceptical about the grand plans of the Ministry of Civil Aviation to build 200-odd air-ports across the country in the coming two decades. Aviation experts point to the fact that most of the existing airports are loss-making and thus are financially non-viable. While certain elements in the airline industry blame the government’s poor planning and execution for the plight of the existing airports, it is only logical for the government to first try to turn around its loss-making airports before building new ones. A cursory look at the latest balance sheet released by Airports Authority of India (AAI) reveals that most of the airports are in incurring heavy losses. For example, airports in the Western Indian region (except for Goa, Mumbai, and Pune) are loss-making ones. These include airports at Akola, Kandla, Aurangabad, Bhavnagar, Bhopal, Bhuj, Diu, Gondia, Indore, Jabalpur, Jamnagar, Keshod, Kolhapur, Porbandar, Rajkot, Songarh, Soplapur, Surat, Va-dodara, Ahmedabad, and Juhu.

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Privatisation of Airports

The Ministry of Civil Aviation further announced a privatisation of the existing airports of Chennai, Kolkata, Ahmedabad and Jaipur in February 2015 for upgrading the services to international levels, which was not in sync with many in the Airport Au-thority of India, especially when recent investments have been made on both the Chennai and the Kolkata airports- Rs 2,700 crore for expanding capacity and upgrading the Kolkata airport and Rs.2,400 crores invested for upgrading the Chennai. AAI is sitting on cash reserves of Rs 2,400 crore and if required can even raise resources to meet planned development works at Chennai and Kolkata (totalling Rs 867 crore).

Chennai Airport is said to have over 2000 acres of prime land which now seems to be given to the capitalists on a platter. The members of Airport Authority of India Employees ‘ Union (AAIEU) allege that the private operator will thus have free hand to leasing these lands to five star hotels reaping exorbitant profits and the lands acquired from the poor by evicting them from their lands at one time or the other will be claimed to be used for “Public cause”. There has also been a nation-wide uproar amongst the AAI employees against the privatisation bid, as it is anti-labour and does not protect the needs of the workers. The AAIEU’s fear stems from the way the `request for qualification’ (RFQ) has been worded on the rehabilitation of AAI staff post privatisation - “Current employees of the Authority shall remain posted at Chennai airport on deemed deputation basis with the SPV (special purpose vehicle) for the period to be specified by the Authority.” Also, when Delhi and Mumbai airports were privatized, due to the fierce opposition of the workers at that time, government set up a tripartite committee consisting of the management, government and the unions, to examine this issue in Feb 2006. That committee carried on its proceedings for 3 years and finally recommended that all the remaining 123 airports should not be privatized and all the work relating to modernisation and operations of these airports will be carried out only by AAI. These recommendations were accepted by the government in July 2009. However, the privatisation bid now comes in blatant violation of this agreement.

Greenfield Airports

Greenfield Airport means a new airport which is built from scratch in a new location. The word greenfield originates from software engineering, meaning a project which lacks any constraints imposed by prior work. According to the Greenfield Air-port Policy of Government of India, “In the past, government policy relating to greenfield airports was restrictive and aimed at protecting the financial viability of the existing airports. However, the spurt in traffic suggests a liberalized approach towards setting up of greenfield airports with a view to bridging the growing deficit in airport infrastructure.” 12One of the planned greenfield airports, at Bhogapura, Andhra Pradesh, has seen massive protest by thousands of farmers due to the way land pooling has been done for the airport. 15000 acres have been pooled for making an international-standard airport, while the busiest airport in the world, the Hartsfield-Jackson Atlanta International Airport, Georgia, U.S.A is existing on one-fifth the area of this project, raising serious questions about the intention behind the land-pooling. Also, this airport has great implications on the lives and livelihoods of the farmers and the fisherfolks of 16 villages in the vicinity. The ruling party of Andhra Pradesh, Telugu Desam Party (TDP), a part of National Democratic Alliance (NDA) has decided to go ahead with the land pooling processes despite the protests as of May 2015.

The Greenfield Airport Policy also says that there cannot be another airport within the radius of 150 km, a norm that the Min-istry of Civil Aviation has been ready to dilute, meaning that the effort on improving existing infrastructure will be sidelined eventually, since now there would be clearances for creating new ones. Also, because, there is a clear understanding within the governance system that such developments would be in the form of PPPs, which would mean more and more land and resources in the hands of private players and even more unjust land acquisitions.

Conclusion

The airports and aviation industry is a service sector. India, that is categorised in the Lower Middle Income bracket by the World Bank, despite recent growth in per capita income, still stands at 168 amongst 213 countries, with 22% of the population under the poverty line. How is the vast amounts of investments and resources being poured into development of airports justified in a country where only a small minority can actually afford air travel? The understanding for the increased air con-nectivity was to boost travel and trade, both in domestic and international circuits. But there has been no talk of decreasing air fares to boost passenger numbers. If the airports are increasingly privatised, such would not be possible as airports then charge the passengers high rates of user charges in privatised airports, for example, The Delhi airport levies Rs 275-550 as user development fee on passengers departing and Rs 233-466 on passengers arriving on domestic flights. Thus, it is the same eco-nomic class that would have access to air travel despite increased infrastructure. What is even more appalling is the amount of damage meted out to local livelihoods and environment in the name of hurried development. The government needs to immediately review its plan on creation of airports and emphasis more on holistic upgradation of the 125 existing airports for creation of capacities. Given the constraints of geography, density of local communities directly dependent on the concerned lands and the economic viability of having number of airports, the government should come up with a more responsible and comprehensive plan for airports quickly, to be able to mitigate the harm already done.

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References

Tourism:1. http://www.tourism.gov.in/CMSPagePicture/file/marketresearch/statisticalsurveys/01%20dtsurvey.pdf2. http://mospi.nic.in/mospi_new/upload/press_note_536_20oct10.pdf3. Statement of Civil Society Organisations to the draft National Tourism Policy, 2015 10th May 2015.

Draft:Judgements in 2 cases: 1. Vellore Citizens Welfare Fourm vs. Union of India & Ors. On 28/8/1996 and M.C. Mehta vs. Kamal Nath & Ors. On 13/12/1996 http://indiankanoon.org/doc/1934103/ and http://indiankanoon.org/doc/1514672/ (accessed on 4 May, 2015)

Airports: 1. BJP Election Manifesto 2014, http://www.bjp.org/manifesto20142. New Airports for Increased Traffic, Press Information Bureau, Government of India, Ministry of Civil Aviation, 12th May, 2015, http://www.pib.nic.in/newsite/erelease.aspx3. Press Release by Airports Authority of India, 22nd September, 2014, http://www.aai.aero/misc/AAI_PR_Routes_22Sep14.pdf4. Work on N-E’s first greenfield airport comes to a halt, Business Standard, January 30, 2015, http://www.business-standard.com/article/current-affairs/work-on-n-e-s-first-greenfield-airport-comes-to-a-halt-115013001616_1.html5. The Pakyong Airport landslide issue in India, 29th January 2015, http://blogs.agu.org/landslideblog/2015/01/29/the-pa-kyong-airport-landslide-issue-in-india/6. Aranmula airport: KGS Group submits fresh application for eco clearance, The Hindu, 13th April 2015, http://www.thehin-dubusinessline.com/news/states/aranmula-airport-kgs-group-submits-fresh-application-for-eco-clearance/article7098585.ece7. Even as government plans 200 new airports, AAI data says most existing ones are unprofitable, DNA, 14th January 2015, 8. http://www.dnaindia.com/india/report-even-as-government-plans-200-new-airports-aai-data-says-most-existing-ones-are-unprofitable-20523229. PPP Model for New Upcoming Airports, Press Information Bureau, Government of India, Ministry of Civil Aviation, 24th February 2015, http://www.pib.nic.in/newsite/erelease.aspx10. Eight firms line up to bid for airport privatisation projects, The indian Express, 12th February 2015, http://indianexpress.com/article/business/business-others/eight-firms-line-up-to-bid-for-airport-privatisation-projects/11. Airports Authority of India staff fear job loss as government goes ahead with airport privatisation, DNA, 28th February 2015, http://www.dnaindia.com/money/report-airports-authority-of-india-staff-fear-job-loss-as-government-goes-ahead-with-airport-privatisation-206490412. http://www.cgpi.org/pa/node/322313. Greenfield Airports Policy, Government of India, http://attaindia.com/Greenfield%20Airports%20Policy.pdf14. Greenfield airports within 150 km of existing ones soon, Business Standard, 8th July 2014,15. http://www.business-standard.com/article/economy-policy/greenfield-airports-within-150-km-of-existing-ones-soon-114070800106_1.html

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New cult(ural) Re-gimes: trends and avataars >>

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ven before the BJP government came to power, the plot to take over the discourse had taken its hold over the public imagination. The Congress, personified by Manmohan Singh, was effectively framed as weak and indecisive - caught, nay, trapped between its secular socialist past and challenges of a new future. Once in power, media and culture have been de-ployed for a broad dual-objective project - of reconstituting identity and of putting the newly (re) formed Indian in the service of the free market. The media, along with other systems of cultural representation are crucial cogs in the larger political and economic system. In other words, media and culture is not separate from politics, policy, regulation, economic activity or any other spheres of activity that may seem more “real” than culture. Media and culture influence the political and economic aspects of our society on a daily basis. On the other hand, culture too is regulated by politics and economy – through a wide range of formal and informal institutions. More often than not, the attention given on shaping culture is because cultural forms, including the media, can and are deployed to reinscribe power relations of one set of people over the other. The current government has taken a decidedly transparent approach to neoliberal development. Of course the neoliberal en-vironment itself has been in vogue since the late 80s. What is new is that this government is perhaps the first to unabashedly and transparently celebrate its directionality (towards the right). There was an innocence and newfound joy in neoliberalism in the 90s (with Manmohan Singh playing a key role), but it always contained a note of caution. Rather, it was something of an obscene secret - something that everyone in the government knew but no one could acknowledge publicly. The difference today is that we no longer feel the need for this perverse secrecy.

Like as with other neoliberal economies, drastic change is often accompanied by dramatic cuts to public sector (often wel-fare) spending - which logically hits the poorest hardest. Arguments of false consciousness can only take one so far in terms of understanding this puzzle. Enter the representational regime of culture - of which the media is a small but significant and powerful part. One crucial function of the media is to thus explain to us how we should feel about our lives and the changes we experience in our lives.

Cultural systems, simultaneously message and massage the public. This is not strictly through the electronic media. Media here needs to be understood in the wider sense of medium and mediation. The entire physical and virtual aspect of society becomes redeployed as texture, the fabric on which cultural symbols weave ideology deeply. Thus it is not only the TV and the radio, but all forms that shape our experience - walls, museums, architecture, fashion, roads, schools, prisons etc. It is targeted simultaneously across past, present and future. This is why the current regime attempts to rewrite history books and is forever entangled in convoluted discussions, trying desperately to find its own ‘originary’ moment. At the same time, there is the urgency to define and encode us with a sense of purpose. If there is one part of culture that is deployed to look at the past, the other part is rooted in the present and looking at the future. The sense of purpose here is to have a unified and unambiguous meaning of development and growth.

The dual process that the Government is attempting - one of identity reconstruction, and the second of turning the political citizen into a global consumer are not easy to achieve within a formal democratic system like India. Given below are a few illustrations that occupy the landscape of media and culture that perhaps exemplify some of the broader trends outlined thus far.

The Curious Case of Community Radio

There are more than 170 community radio stations operational in India as of today. These radio stations, many of which broadcast in remote, rural and hilly areas of India, have tremendous potential to enhance free flow of ideas and opinions, practice grassroots journalism, contribute to transparency in local governance, rejuvenate forgotten cultures and languages and so on. Unfortunately, the current government has chosen to see community radio as mere tools through which govern-ment propaganda can reach the last mile.

Since the BJP has come into power in 2014, all community radio stations have been sent letters “encouraging” them to re-broadcast Prime Minister Modi’s Mann Ki Baat speech which was broadcast on All India Radio. At the same time, the policy for community radio explicitly prohibits them from broadcasting news and current affairs. Ironically then, local community ra-dio stations are prevented from considering the deeply political aspect of any local developmental issue. However, they have been asked to rebroadcast the Prime Minister’s speech which apparently is beyond politics. It remains to be seen whether those who choose to not broadcast this speech will be targeted. The targeting can happen through various avenues - cutting off sources of revenue through sponsored programmes, government ads, increasing paperwork for renewal of license, and so on.

In May 2015, there was a letter sent to about 30 community radio stations asking them to send their broadcast content to the I&B Ministry through the Internet. As far as the policy is concerned, there is one clause in the Grant of Permission Agreement (GOPA) where community radio stations are required to keep a record of previous 90 days recordings in case the government wants to check the same for violations of programming code. There is no mention of providing access to daily broadcast. This

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kind of overt surveillance of community radio station is a clear example of the chilling effect - where radio stations might not broadcast programmes on certain issues because of the knowledge that Big Brother is watching. Luckily many advocates of community radio complained about this draconian measure, and a few newspapers published op-eds or articles critiquing this move. The Secretary of I&B Ministry has promised that they will rescind the order, but unfortunately, none of the 30 sta-tions have received any communication rescinding the original order. In fact, it could very well be the case that the Ministry would like to know which community radio stations are complying with Mann Ki Baat rebroadcast and which stations have chosen not to. On the whole, the BJP regime has created a climate of fear, suspicion and uncertainty for the community radio sector. Rather than direct “Emergency” type oppression of the media, this regime is much more effective. Using a delicate mix of financial control (funding, advertising, sponsorship) and ideological control (emphasis on development, i.e. the government’s defini-tion of development); the government has managed to (so far) successfully repress any radical potential of the medium. In the absence of such a kernel, community radio stations have little else to do but echo the vision of the establishment to ensure its own survival.

Appropriating culture, stifling dissent

Quite recently Prime Minister Narendra Modi, in China, extolled his belief in federalism - not just cooperative but also compet-itive federalism, where states compete to attract investors and finance for their projects, adequately supported by the gov-ernment in Centre. While the application of such a project is yet to be tested, there is an area where the state governments, (especially those where BJP is in power) seem to be competing - the saffronisation of education and culture.

On June 30, 2014, with a circular issued to 42,000 primary and secondary government schools across the state, made it com-pulsory for them to include a set of nine books by Dinanath Batra as supplementary literature. Dinanth Batra, as the convenor of Shiksha Bachao Andolan Samiti, has close ties with RSS and its ideologies. Mr. Batra has been unabashed in his project to “save hinduism” - a project that led him to actively campaign against the presence of AK Ramanujan’s critical essay - Three Hundred Ramayanas in Delhi University curriculum. The same project led Batra to file a civil suit against Wendy Doniger’s book The Hindus. Intimidated by Batra and his suit the publisher Penguin decided to pulp Doniger’s book; Ramanujan’s essay too was purged. Both these works were provocative because they questioned comfortable notions of history, myth and religion and also showed us, through research and scholarship, several alternative and opposing views to the dominant notions of Hinduism. The content of the nine books prescribed by the Gujarat government reveals opens the current approach to educa-tion. In books bearing titles such as Indianisation of Education and Shining India, Batra expends what he considers important lessons for children on the glorious history of India. The books include claims that the stem cell research and television were actually invented in India during Mahabharata; that students should draw the map of India which includes Pakistan, Nepal, Sri Lanka etc. - the undivided ‘Akhand Bharat’. The books stretch ‘patriotism’ to a level where they deem the division of India ‘unnatural’ and even tell the students that it can be united again. This was the first time that a government had actively propa-gated Batra’s views that had earlier been on the fringe.

One might be tempted to dissociate them from the government at centre and look at them as isolated reports and develop-ments in individual states. Yet, these significant moves towards assertion of a “cultural nationalism” through education are hardly isolated. They are united by the echoes they find among the union ministers. Batra had met with Smriti Irani, Union Minister for Human Resource Development, soon after she was sworn in and had told journalists that the minister had assured him that she will change the entire syllabus. Batra’s wild ideas on scientific validity of epics like Mahabharata and Ramayana were hard to laugh away when the Prime Minister himself proposed that plastic surgery began with Ganesha’s head and cited the story of Karna’s birth as a proof of existence of genetic science in ancient India. Dr Hashwardhan who occupied the port-folio of health minister baffled us by claiming that fidelity is better than condoms to prevent AIDS and, just like Batra, said that sex education should be banned. Can one really imagine that the policy of centre towards education is any different from the few states discussed above when the Home Minister of this country, Rajnath Singh, in Rajasthan repeats the exact words and sentiment of Vasudev Devnani - If Akbar can be called ‘Akbar the Great’ for his contribution, then why can’t Maharana Pratap be recognised as ‘Maharana Pratap the Great”.

Curiously enough, the debate around education and syllabus is centred, over other disciplines, on humanities. The discourse of culture that the government is whipping up is that of uncritical patriotism, the glory of India and a strong resistance to “for-eign” culture even when it is restlessly courting foreign investment and technology. All of these notions have worked towards stifling voices which dissent, differ and question.

The Anti-Nationalist threat

One of the most effective tools is to brand any criticism of the government as anti-national or Naxalite. Today, a dalit poet, a worker who unionises, a singer who speaks of injustices, a wheelchair-bound academic who has different political views, an independent journalist who may be writing about atrocities, is endangered and can be arrested under the Unlawful Activities Prevention Act, and be simply branded as a “Naxalite”. Arun Ferriera, GN Saibaba, Jiten Marandy and several other writers and artists have had unforgettable experiences of their time in court and jails. Independent artists, writer, journalists are under the scanner.

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A progressive artists’ collective like Kabir Kala Manch which is part of a long tradition of dalit culture and poetry that uses song and theatre to speak of oppression and injustice, has three of its members in jail since 2013. Nothing has changed for Sachin Mali, Sagar Gokhare, Ramesh Ghai Chor with the change in the government at the centre. Instead troubles for KKM have only aggravated. ABVP, the students wing of BJP, has repeatedly attacked them, stalled their performances and even in-timidated the organisers against inviting them to perform. This year, on 10th April, the Bombay High Court again denied them bail. The judge remarked that 2 years is not that long compared to a life sentence. It should be noted that none of the 3 are accused of any violent crime. They are charged under the draconian Unlawful Activities Prevention Act, a tool in the hands of the government, to carry out arrests on prejudicial grounds. Their ‘crime’ is that their songs do not correspond to the glorious uncomplicated version of Indian society. The India they sing about, rife with caste oppression, gender inequality and vio-lence, slum demolitions, and the unending plight of the workers, is far from shining. This is the reason why ABVP stopped the screening of Anand Patwardhan’s film Jai Bhim Comrade which featured the troupe and its songs in Symbiosis College, Pune and violently beat the students of FTII and members of KKM who performed there because they refused to say - ‘Jai Narendra Modi’. This was just few months before the Modi government assumed power.

As Jyoti Jagtap rightly said “We will continue to fight in jail as well, but the arrest has marked a huge setback for our group. That is the idea of the current Government, to break and slow down the process of organized groups of progressive actors.”The activities of ABVP have only found greater validation and intensity with the BJP government at the centre. It continues its attack against any forms of cultural expression considered ‘anti-national. In March, this year, members of ABVP disrupted and called for a ban on a street play, performed by students at Khalsa College, Delhi University. The play called “Welcome to the Machine”, is an investigation into the occurrence of communal riots. An ABVP spokesperson claimed the play was an attempt to “malign Hindus” and was sending a wrong message to society. Far from condemning these acts, the spokespersons of BJP at the centre have either denied it or justified it, again using that baseless allegation of anti-nationalism.

Banning as a strategy is increasingly deployed by the government to quell any kind of counter-narrative. From guidelines issued by the central board of film certification, that proscribe a list of swear words in English and Hindi, to the erratic prohibi-tion of films on grounds that they dishonour the nation, or are inciting violence, the government seems to be on a rampage to stamp out any form of expression that poses a challenge to its authority. The icing on the cake was a statement issued by the Karnataka government that all parties and music shows must end by 10 pm, and details of ‘any foreigners’ attending must be submitted to the tourism and police department. Recently, the Chhattisgarh tourism and culture minister Ajay Chandrakar, issued an invitation to Anand, a magician from Raipur, to use ‘jaadu’ (magic), to combat Maoism, which he considers ‘apsan-skriti’ (bad culture). In a public statement, Chandrakar appealed to Anand’s patriotism, asking him to rid his ‘nanihal’ (maternal home) of Maoism.

Laughable though some of these objections are, they are indicative of a shift, towards increased surveillance and monitoring. The government appears to have its eyes and ears peeled, using all technology at its disposal to gauge and mould public opinion.

Curbing Freedom of the Press

If you don’t belong, you are simply removed from the system. Systematically, journalists and editors have been sacked for not adhering to the politics of the media house which are now protected by business and political interest. Media today is mostly owned by either political parties or large businesses. Hartosh Singh Bal was ousted as editor of Open magazine due to his clear political positions. Siddharth Vardarajan resigned from the Hindu, citing a change in company policy of it being a family run business, and was denied editorial position in India Today, reportedly due to his insistence to have editorial independence including the choice to be critical of the Modi Government. ‘Sagarika Ghose, deputy editor of CNN-IBN, received instructions from the management of Network 18, not to post disparaging tweets about Narendra Modi. Similarly, Marathi journalist and editor Nikhil Wagle was pressurized by the management over his views of Narendra Modi and resigned one month after the BJP government came into power. Several journalists and editors have expressed their loss of freedom in the press, and its subsequent effect on what gets published. Public opinions also are shaped by this hegemonic control asserted by editors and driven by the market.

These are examples strewn across different parts of the country, happening in radically diverse contexts. It would be absurd to insinuate that Prime Minister Modi, or the BJP has so much power as to play a constitutive role or to directly influence all these events. No, instead the current regime has played a much more subtle role. Power is exercised not just by oppression or manipulation. Sometimes power is exercised even, in fact precisely by not doing anything. The absence of action is a kind of action in itself. It signals implicit assent, a subtle nod to what is allowed to happen. Direct control and direct orders are no longer necessary, if discourse is framed effectively - as the BJP has proved. Today, the regressive elements in our society are prepared to do the dirty work, as efficient agents of the discourse.

It is possible to read the overall cultural and representational logic as schizophrenic against the backdrop of resilience. On one hand there is a return to a mythical unified Hindu identity. On the other hand there is a push to move in the direction of global capital - secular in its relentless drive to accumulate wealth for those at the top of the system. This paradox has been pointed out quite a few times already. Practices of resistance need to take cognizance of this internal paradox. Today it is no longer enough to insist on secularism (found in neoliberal market - present and future), or faith and tradition (found

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in the mythical past). Thus past, present and future, tradition/faith and secularism - all have been efficiently captured by the discourse. Resistance can only begin by a tacit acknowledgement of the need for either of these - need to reclaim discourse that has been appropriated or a need to invent a new discourse that is capable of subverting the existing one. Pragmatic and strategic measures - how to disseminate new discourse through society, at what cost, by whom and when etc. will only come much later.

References

1. http://scroll.in/article/725834/why-india-has-only-179-community-radio-stations-instead-of-the-promised-40002. http://scroll.in/article/725837/from-forced-mann-ki-baat-broadcasts-to-ban-on-politics-community-radio-in-india-is-chok-ing3. http://www.thehindu.com/news/national/community-radio-stations-now-face-the-heat/article7160000.ece4. http://www.thehindu.com/news/national/govt-goes-back-on-community-radio-content-scrutiny-order/article7165258.ece5. http://www.caravanmagazine.in/reportage/network-effect6. http://www.indiantelevision.com/television/tv-channels/people/nikhil-wagle-quits-ibn-lokmat-1407217. http://scroll.in/article/655950/why-cnn-ibns-sagarika-ghose-can-no-longer-criticise-modi

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Rise of communalism in the past one year >>

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ommunalism, as we understand it is the violent reassertion of religion not as faith but as an ideology which pur-ports to divide and polarise communities. The hindutva groups are strategically doing campaigns to polarise communities and promote hostility. Communalism is associated with religious fundamentalism and dogmatism. In the past year, there have been various incidences of communal tension and violence in India and we wish the trace the same in this section and show how the current Government holds much of the responsibility for it.

The Ghar Wapsi Campaign

Ghar Wapsi became a household phrase last year when Hindutva hotheads backed, by the VHP and the RSS, went on to con-vert poor non-Hindus to Hinduism. With no action from the government, leaders of saffron parties claimed that such a thing was constitutional, while the opposition and liberals heavily criticised the Prime Minister. Under pressure, PM Modi made it clear that the government won’t tolerate religious discrimination, but notwithstanding his comments, the Ghar Wapsi contin-ued. VHP leader Praveen Togadia defended ghar wapsi saying, “Since the Supreme Court has observed that Hinduism is not a religion but a way of life, ‘ghar wapsi’ cannot be termed as unconstitutional.” Provocative statements by Hindutva hardliners — from BJP members to those belonging to allied saffron outfits, to those who claim to be linked loosely to the Sangh Parivar — made it clear that they saw the installation of the “Hindutva strongman” as marking the beginning of the golden period for implementing their ideological project. The Hindutva Agenda

The government remains passionate about Hindutva and cultural nationalism which appear to be the sub-text of projects like ‘Namami Gange’ and runs as a thread through the evocations of gods, religious icons, local languages and culture. Sadly, the prime minister seems to feel ideological objectives can be better achieved if he delivers on his development promises: Some-thing that can potentially find support and credibility for the cultural themes. Seeking to create a social security infrastructure as he seeks to speed up development, Modi seems to be laying the foundation of a new conservatism: One which fuses devel-opment with culture, and is not shy of using technology, engaging with other countries and accessing their wealth. While Niranjan Jyoti rose to fame with her ‘ramzade vs haramzade’ comment, Sadhvi Prachi wanted Hindu women to have at least four children (this was to out-populate Muslims). The most recent one came from Sakshi Maharaj who blamed the Nepal earthquake on Rahul Gandhi because he ate beef before visiting Kedarnath.

Acts of Violence

The ongoing acts of violence against Christians include the arson of churches, re-conversion of Christians to Hinduism under the threat of physical violence, distribution of threatening literature, burning of Bibles, raping of nuns, murder of Christian priests, and destruction of Christian schools, colleges, and cemeteries. There were repeated attacks on churches across the country, including in Delhi several times in 2014, in Mangalore in February 2015 and the latest was the attack on Navi Mumbai’s St Sebastian Church in March. The worst was the gang rape of a 71-year-old nun in West Bengal’s Nadia district. This incident saw harsh criticism towards the government from all sections of society. But the government has maintained distance from the issues and written-off anti-minority theories as hokum. Stand on Bangladeshi immigrants Among the other related core issues, the settlement of Hindu refugees from Bangladesh and Pakistan figure prominently in the party agenda. In fact, there seems to be a RSS backing to such the move. The Sangh has already passed a resolution in this regard. The resolution says that “the Hindus in East Bengal have not lost and cannot lose their nationality and are consequently entitled to every protection and relief from the state of Bharat”. The resolution called upon the nation for total help to the “helpless victims” of East Bengal aggression. Now, sources in the BJP suggest the government is exploring possibilities of enacting a law or issuing an ordinance.

Beef Ban in Maharashtra

Meat lovers in the state were left heart-broken and beef starved when Maharashtra’s BJP government backed by the NDA at the Centre brought a ban on slaughtering of cows, bulls and buffaloes. Consuming or even possession of beef is now a crime in Maharashtra, in a bid to protect the gow mata.

Love Jihad

Leaders from the BJP and affiliate groups like the RSS and VHP ran a campaign against what they said was a ploy used by Mus-lims to seduce Hindu girls, make them believe that they were in love, get married and convert them to Islam. As a term, ‘love jihad’ was first heard in the northern districts of Kerala, and is now the Sangh shorthand for an alleged Muslim plot to convert

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young Hindu girls to Islam by having Muslim boys entrap them in love affairs. Hindu right-wing groups have also claimed that Muslim boys are financially rewarded for the conversions.Shanthakaka, the head of Rashtra Sevika Samiti, the women’s wing of the RSS, in an earlier interview said, “Muslim boys are encouraged to elope with our girls. The money they are paid to elope and marry a Hindu girl depends on the caste of the girl. The remuneration for Rajput girls is Rs 1 lakh ($1,635) and for Brahmin girls is Rs 2 lakhs ($3,270).”

Timeline:

June 2014: A youth from Pune, Mohsin Sadiq Sheikh was killed by the Hindu Rashtra Sena because of a controversial Face-book post to which Sheikh wasn’t even related. Supporters of the Shiv Sena, Bharatiya Janata Patry and the Hindu Rashtra Senahad taken to street to violently protest against the Facebook post.

July 2014: BJP leader in Telangana K Laxman called India’s tennis player a ‘non-local’ and ‘daughter-in-law’ of Pakistan.

July 2014: Shiv Sena MP Rajan Vichare force fed a Muslim catering contractor and broke his Ramzan fast as a punishment for the poor quality of food served at Maharashtra Sadan New Delhi. July 2014: Deputy chief minister of Goa Francis D’souza said, “India is a Hindu country. It is Hindustan. All Indians in Hindustan are Hindus, including I — I am a Christian Hindu.”

September 13, 2014: Curfew imposed in Khanpur town district, where an irate mob attacked a police outpost and set ablaze a bus after an idol was found damaged in a religious place.

October 2014: Lalit Maheshwari, the head of the VHP’s Muzaffarnagar unit, earlier said “Once BJP comes to power, they will push towards a law to stop inter-caste and inter-religious marriages.”

December 2014: Muslim youth in Agra converted to Hinduism.

January, 15 2015: Communal fight in Pachora, Hindu – Women youth passed comments on each other and three Muslim youth were badly injured. However, tension flared up again this morning and a fresh clash occurred between members of both the communities. A mosque was also ransacked by some youths and there were incidents of stone-pelting by both the groups. They also set afire four motorbikes, two cars and a tempo.

February 2015: Mohan Bhagwat’s comments on Mother Teresa: “Mother Teresa’s service would have been good. But it used to have one objective, to convert the person, who was being served, into a Christian.”

February 2015: The government decided that around 7000 Hindu refugees from Pakistan would be granted citizenship and the first camp for it was set up in Barmer in Rajasthan.

February 2015: Baba Ramdev’s comments: “But, it is also my hope that like for Yoga, the Modi government would also do the needful to promote Vedas,” He also added, “We should endeavour to build a Vedic India and ultimately a Vedic world for ben-efit of all mankind. We want modernity with spirituality.” Ramdev also referred to spiritual guru Maharishi Mahesh Yogi’s move to introduce a currency ‘Raam’ named after the Hindu deity and said it has been accepted by several countries though “India has still not recognised it”.

February 2015: Attack on Shireen Dalvi, the editor of the Mumbai edition of the Urdu daily, Awadhnama. She published a Charlie Hebdo cartoon on the front page of her paper in the context of a story. As expected, there was furore and outrage – much of it not reported because it took place in Urdu language. Since then multiple police cases have been filed, the Mumbai edition of the paper has been shut, and Dalvi is on the run, escaping the multitude of FIRs filed against her.

February 2015: AIB Roast incident.

January 2015: Pravin Togadia and Jugal Kishore’s hate speech at a VHP camp. At least 150 tribal Christians on Wednesday “pledged to follow Hinduism” at the VHP programme

April 2015: Drinking milk from non-Indian cows ‘could make children turn to crime’ – Shankar Lal, leading RSS figure. By con-trast, the Jersey cow, has “devil in the milk, poisonous particles”, he said.

April 2015: Talking about infiltration of Bangladeshi immigrants, Praveen Togadia demanded that all infiltrators should be pushed back to their native country. He claimed that they were a threat to national security.

April 2015: Claiming that the majority community was not safe in their own country, VHP International president Praveen Togadia on Monday defended ‘Ghar Wapsi’ aimed at re-converting members of other religious groups into Hinduism and said such events will continue in future too.

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May 2015: A Muslim candidate was denied a job with a Mumbai – based diamond export company. While his two friends were called in for an interview the next day, Zeeshan got an email that read: “Thanks for your application. We regret to inform you that we hire only non-Muslim candidates.”

May, 2015: “Those who want to eat beef, should go to Pakistan”, says Mukhtar Akhbar Naqvi.

May 2015: BJP minority leader Asma Khan Pathan is spreading fake quotes about Rabindranath Tagore, “rape destroys the chastity of a woman and she loses her honor. She must be burnt alive for the sake of Sati-hood – Gurudev Rabindranath Tagore.”

May 2015: Speaking to media persons in Haridwar, Sakshi Maharaj said, “Rahul Gandhi eats beef and goes to the holy shrine without purifying himself, the earthquake was bound to happen.”

May 2015: Vishwa Hindu Parishad (VHP) wants white water rafting in the Ganga, one of Uttarakhand’s most popular sports ac-tivity banned as it gives rise to “obscene activities” on riverbanks. They alleged that young people of both sexes come to these rafting camps, “mingle, drink and indulge in objectionable activities on the banks of the holy river, where sadhus and sants gather to meditate”.

May 2015: There were riots in Faridabad over the construction of a mosque in that area. A group of men allegedly tried to stop the construction but the workers said they had court orders. This led to a clash and a tractor and a tilling machine were set ablaze by a mob.

May 2015: Eight persons were injured following a communal clash in Himmatnagar town of Sabarkantha district over a trivial issue late Tuesday night.

The skirmish occurred in the Parbda locality of Himmatnagar when some people objected to a youth Anand Chauhan from smoking at a pan store. An angry Chauhan left the place and returned with his supporters carrying pipes and sharp weapons and bricks. The other group was also equipped with weapons and bricks which was used during the clash.

May 2015: Nine persons suffered minor injuries when groups of two communities clashed in Setranji Wad locality of Begam-pura area on Sunday afternoon.

Police said that some scuffle over playing cricket led to stone-pelting by mobs from both communities. The ball hit a person from another community and let this to the fight.

May 2015: A 25-year-old woman in Mumbai has alleged that she was asked to vacate a flat because she is a Muslim.

References:

1. http://www.yourarticlelibrary.com/society/problems-of-communalism-in-india-essay/4091/2. http://www.firstpost.com/politics/ghar-wapsi-to-beef-ban-how-life-has-changed-since-modi-became-prime-minis-ter-2244780.html3. http://communalism.blogspot.in/2015/05/namo-way-marry-progress-with-hindutva.html4. http://communalism.blogspot.in/2015/05/namo-way-marry-progress-with-hindutva.html5. http://www.firstpost.com/politics/ghar-wapsi-to-beef-ban-how-life-has-changed-since-modi-became-prime-minis-ter-2244780.html6. http://www.americanbazaaronline.com/2015/05/22/hindu-catholic-interfaith-conference-to-be-held-in-virginia-on-may-23/7. http://www.firstpost.com/politics/ghar-wapsi-to-beef-ban-how-life-has-changed-since-modi-became-prime-minis-ter-2244780.html8. http://organiser.org//Encyc/2015/5/23/Report---Citizenship-to-Bangladeshi-Hindus%EF%BB%BF.aspx9. http://www.firstpost.com/politics/ghar-wapsi-to-beef-ban-how-life-has-changed-since-modi-became-prime-minis-ter-2244780.html10. http://www.openthemagazine.com/article/nation/love-jihad11. http://www.aljazeera.com/indepth/features/2014/10/jihad-war-romance-india-20141014923212607.html12. http://www.dnaindia.com/india/report-curfew-imposed-after-tension-in-bundi-in-rajasthan-over-damage-of-idol-201839213. http://www.aljazeera.com/indepth/features/2014/10/jihad-war-romance-india-20141014923212607.html14. http://www.dnaindia.com/india/report-agra-religious-conversion-row-under-attack-government-suggests-anti-conver-sion-laws-204314515. http://www.dnaindia.com/india/report-six-including-three-cops-injured-in-communal-clash-in-jalgaon-205275316. http://www.dnaindia.com/india/report-government-not-spending-money-for-promotion-of-vedas-baba-ramdev-206322017. http://www.dnaindia.com/analysis/column-the-truly-offensive-2058245

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18. http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/worldnews/asia/india/11561612/Drinking-milk-from-non-Indian-cows-could-make-children-turn-to-19. http://zeenews.india.com/news/india/ghar-wapsi-will-continue-praveen-togadia_1586001.html20. http://zeenews.india.com/news/india/detention-of-vhp-activists-is-anti-hindu-act-praveen-togadia_1573864.html21. http://zeenews.india.com/news/india/ghar-wapsi-will-continue-praveen-togadia_1586001.html22. http://www.firstpost.com/india/company-denies-job-muslim-graduate-corporator-mumbai-holds-secu-lar-job-fair-2260274.html23. http://thenortheasttoday.com/vhp-leader-links-nepal-earthquake-to-beef-eating/24. http://timesofindia.indiatimes.com/india/Rafting-in-Ganga-promotes-obscene-activities-VHP-says-wants-it-banned/arti-cleshow/47437432.cms25. http://timesofindia.indiatimes.com/city/delhi/Tension-prevails-in-riot-hit-Faridabad-police-deployed/article-show/47436222.cms26. http://timesofindia.indiatimes.com/city/rajkot/Eight-injured-in-Himmatnagar-communal-clash/articleshow/47366105.cms27. http://timesofindia.indiatimes.com/city/surat/9-injured-in-communal-clash-in-Begampura/articleshow/47324937.cms28. http://www.hindustantimes.com/mumbai/muslim-woman-alleges-being-thrown-out-of-mumbai-flat-because-of-her-re-ligion/article1-1351720.aspx

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Judicial Reforms >>

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Demerits of the system of nominations

The procedure for the appointment of two “eminent persons” who will serve in the NJAC does not provide any process or criteria to evaluate their eminence. It is completely left to the committee comprising the prime minister, leader of opposi-tion and the CJI to determine their qualifications. Article 14 of the Constitution provides for equality and non-arbitrariness in decision-making. A process that fails to provide any criteria for evaluation of eminence violates the fundamental right of protection against arbitrary action.

Need for the Independence of the Jury

In our country, the judiciary is in a unique position, as it is directly involved in not only adjudication of disputes but also in examining the legal and constitutional validity of powers exercised and actions taken by the government as well as the legis-lature. Moreover, the government is also the largest litigator in courts. Though very little exists by way of expert studies on the subject in India, the estimates behind the National Litigation Policy (NLP) that was proposed in 2010 stated that over 70 per cent of the three crore cases pending in various courts in India had the government involved in them as a litigating party. Under these circumstances, the need for maintaining the independence of judiciary from the legislature and executive is paramount. The institutional integrity of the CJI will be undermined when this office is expected to be involved in a selection committee process with the prime minster and the leader of opposition. Institutional integrity of the CJI is inextricably linked to the independence of judiciary as an institution. It is not possible to ensure independence of judiciary, if the institutional integrity is affected through a deliberative selection process involving potentially the need for negotiating the judicial space with the legislature and the executive.

rief of amendment

In April 2014, the NDA Government on Monday finally notified the Ninety-Ninth Constitutional (Amendment) Act and the Na-tional Judicial Appointments Commission Act, thus ending the over two-decade-old collegium system of appointing judges of Supreme Court and High Courts. Under the new law, a six-member panel – National Judicial Appointments Commission (NJAC) – headed by the Chief Justice of India and including two senior-most Supreme Court judges, the Union Minister of Law and Justice and two “eminent persons” nominated by a committee comprising the Prime Minister, CJI and Leader of Opposi-tion in the Lok Sabha or leader of the largest opposition party in the Lok Sabha, will select judges of the apex court and high courts.

B

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Veto Powers and delay in appointment

Another cause for concern is the recognition of veto powers of two members of the NJAC. It is rather surprising that a demo-cratic constitutional framework will have a legislative provision, which expressly sanctions the veto power to two members of the NJAC. This power allows for a wide scope for misuse and an arbitrary approach to decision-making within the NJAC. There is no criterion on the basis of which the veto powers could be exercised. There could be a constitutional crisis in which any two members by exercising veto powers could ensure that no process of appointment of judges will take place.Democratic governance requires democratic processes to be institutionalized in the appointment procedures. The veto pow-ers will undermine any effort to create a fair and transparent process for the selection of judges. The Congress objected to the amendment on the ground that it could give the executive an upper hand in the appointment of judges to the SC and HCs, and compromise judiciary’s independence.

Unanswered questions

The current bill also doesn’t answer a lot of pertinent questions. It doesn’t even remotely talk anything about “transparency” and “accountability”. Where is the clause that tells us about the “criteria” on which Judges will be evaluated? How do we know that Mr X who is elevated to the Supreme Court is a man of integrity, has excellent grip on law, has delivered judgements im-partially without being influenced by any kind of pressure? How do we know when NJAC posts a vacancy and who all applied for the post? How can we find out their bona fides? How do we know if the best judge was elevated? What will be the pay scale of these people? How do we know that the NJAC members will not appoint their own near and dear ones in Judiciary? What are the terms and conditions of service?

These and other questions have gone unanswered in the hasty passing of the NJAC Bill by the present government. Though the collegium system certainly needs to be revised, the answer does not lie in establishing the NJAC without answering such questions of importance.

References

1. http://indianexpress.com/article/india/india-others/end-of-collegium-system-govt-notifies-new-law-on-judges-appoint-ment/2. http://articles.economictimes.indiatimes.com/2015-05-03/news/61768151_1_cji-njac-act-national-judicial-appoint-ments-commission3. http://articles.economictimes.indiatimes.com/2015-05-03/news/61768151_1_cji-njac-act-national-judicial-appoint-ments-commission4. http://articles.economictimes.indiatimes.com/2015-05-03/news/61768151_1_cji-njac-act-national-judicial-appoint-ments-commission4. http://articles.economictimes.indiatimes.com/2015-05-03/news/61768151_1_cji-njac-act-national-judicial-appoint-ments-commission5. http://timesofindia.indiatimes.com/india/Lok-Sabha-passes-judges-appointment-bill-with-key-amendment/article-show/40213703.cms6. http://www.thenewsminute.com/news_sections/1157#sthash.uHLC5tXw.dpuf7. http://clpr.org.in/wp-content/uploads/2014/02/JAC-Working-Paper.pdf

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Concluding Remarks What the foregoing reports reveal is a systematic attempt in the last year by our current government to undo the gains in respect of health, social welfare, environment, communal harmony, and agriculture as well as protecting the rights of minori-ties, women, children, and workers. These rights have been won through a long-drawn out struggle of the people. Overall, the thrust of these policy changes/measures is to undermine the mandate of the Indian Constitution for social justice and demo-cratic accountability. The reports show that the government over the past year has evidently been pro-corporate, pro-majori-ty, anti-minority, anti-common man, anti-labour and communal in essence, they show that these disturbing trends will clearly intensify in years to come under the current regime. Despite this, there is a perceptible and increasing resistance to most of these policies and programs, including our own efforts over the past week. It is imperative, now more than ever, to continue to work together towards the common vision of a secular, democratic and just society.

We thus call for civil society to wake up to the bitter truth of “Ache Din”

All India Central Council of Trade Unions (AICCTU)All India Trade Union Congress (AITUC) All India United Trade Union Centre (AIUTUC)Altenrative Law Forum (ALF)Centre of Indian Trade Unions (CITU)Equitable Tourism Options (EQUATIONS)FedinaGarment and Textile Workers Union (GATWU)Garment Labour Union (GLU)GreenpeaceKaranataka Domestic Workers UnionKarnataka Jana ShaktiKarnataka Janarogya Chaluvali (KJC)Karnataka Komu Souharda Vedike (KKSV)Karnataka Rajya Mahila Dourjanya Virodhi OkkootaKarnataka Sexual Minorities ForumMaraaNational Alliance of Peoples Movements - Karnataka(NAPM- K)OndedeOther MediaParadigm ShiftPeoples Democratic Forum (PDF)Peoples Union for Civil Liberties (PUCL)PraxisSamvaadaSangamaSwaraj SanghataneSouth India Cell for Human Rights Monitoring (SICHREM)Stree Jagriti SamitiVimochana

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