The Hindu : Anti-farmer, pro-rich, says Left

Online edition of India's National Newspaper
Sunday, Mar 02, 2003

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National

Anti-farmer, pro-rich, says Left

By Our Special Correspondent

NEW DELHI MARCH.1. The Left parties have come out strongly against the Union budget proposals presented on Friday and expressed strong opposition to the "anti-people", "anti-farmer" and "pro-rich provisions". The Janata Dal-Secular too echoed similar views.

The CPI (M) politburo said the budget carried forward the "pro-imperialist agenda" of the Government and like the previous exercises it had been explicit in being pro-rich, providing major fiscal concessions to big business and the rich. "It does nothing to address the two most crucial problems of the Indian economy today, that is the crisis in agriculture (aggravated by severe drought and the collapse in employment".

The party said the budget has opened the way for the "de-Indianisation" of the banking sector and the privatisation of nationalised banks. The proposals offered nothing to the peasantry reeling under the impact of price-crashes.

"On the contrary, it actually raises the price of fertilisers at the very time when output prices have crashed", it said adding that the proposals also did not offer anything to the agricultural labourers whose employment opportunities and livelihood had come down according to the Economic Survey.

Even in the others sectors, the proposal of new health insurance would make the poor rely on private health services, while the employment scenario was likely to worsen as a result of the de-reservation of small-scale industry items and cut in custom duties, which would adversely impact on domestic production.

Conveying similar views, the CPI said even though the Finance Minister spelt out his priorities like poverty eradication and infrastructure development, the allocations were not in tune with the objectives.

"The Finance Minister clearly reflected the neo-liberal thinking of the Government when he defended privatisation as a necessity not only to augment capital receipts but alto to unleash productivity", the party Central Secretariat said.

Removal of reservation on 75 items in SSI would affect both exports and unemployment while reduction in interest rate on small savings and PPF would not only hit the people but also adversely affect resource mobilisation, it said. The party demanded that the hike in the price of Urea and other fertilisers must be rolled back.

The Left parties expressed concern over the fiscal deficit predicted in the budget. The CPI warned that with a huge revenue deficit, the economy was going to face the consequences of inflation.

The JD (S) president, H.D. Deve Gowda said that by giving a raw deal to the farm sector, the Vajpayee Government had proved that "it is anti-farmer".

He said even though the latest economic survey report showed a decline of 3.1 per cent in GDP in agriculture, the budget had not taken any steps to revive the agricultural economy. "There is not even an iota of mention about how to bail out the agricultural sector from the present crisis", he said in a statement.

At a time when the farmers and the common man were committing suicide due to debt burden and hunger, the NDA Government was giving concessions by reducing duties on luxury items like cars, air-conditioners, gold and diamonds.

"This only shows that the BJP is trying to appease the privileged class," he claimed.

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