Elections to the Lok Sabha are a
significant event in the political life of the country. For the
fifteenth time, the people of India are being called upon to elect a new
government.
In the sixty years of independence, the people of India have suffused
life into the democratic system by exercising their right to elect
representatives to parliament. Yet, the aspirations of the people remain
unfulfilled. The rich, urban and rural, have reaped the benefits of “development”,
while the vast majority has sunk further and further into poverty and
hunger. These elections are being held at a time of unprecedented global
economic crisis. The jobs and livelihood of millions of Indians are at
stake. Economic progress and the social well being of the people face
uncertain prospects. In the May 2004 elections, the people rejected the
BJP-led NDA combine, which had ruled the country for six years with
disastrous effects. The CPI(M) was committed to keeping the BJP and the
communal forces out of power. Accordingly, the CPI(M) and the Left
parties extended support to the Congress-led UPA coalition so that a
secular government could be formed at the Centre. This was done with the
understanding that the UPA government will implement its own Common
Minimum Programme (CMP).
The CPI(M) and the Left parties consistently worked to see that the UPA
government implemented the pro-people commitments made in the CMP.
Legislations such as the Rural Employment Guarantee Act and the Forest
Tribal Bill were adopted only due to the continuous pressure of the Left
. The CPI (M ) constantly demanded increased allocations in agriculture,
education and health in keeping with the promises in the CMP; it
demanded measures to curb the communal forces and strengthen the secular
principles; it emphasized the pursuit of an independent foreign policy.
However, the Congress -led government did not adhere to the
understanding of the CMP. It persisted in pushing through neo-liberal,
anti-people policies and violating the commitment for an independent
foreign policy.
The results are there for all to see:
Five years of the Congress-led UPA government have widened further the
divide in society. The rich have become super-rich while the poor have
been further impoverished.
Neo-liberal economic policies have resulted in distorted growth
accompanied by agrarian crisis, rising prices, unemployment and
depleting wages.
The forces of communalism have continued their divisive and violent
activities. Parallel to this is the terrorist violence which continues
to stalk the land.
The Manmohan Singh government betrayed its own Common Minimum Programme
to forge a strategic alliance with the United States to sign the unequal
Indo-US nuclear deal, thus undermining our independent foreign policy.
A minority government determined to push through neo-liberal policies
and a strategic alliance with the United States denigrated parliament
and displayed contempt for democratic procedures.
Tolerance of bribery and corruption and misuse of public institutions
became the hallmark of a regime hell bent on survival. For all its
supposed concern for the aam admi, the UPA government worked overtime to
pamper the super rich. The government flaunts a 8.6 per cent growth in
GDP for four consecutive years till 2008. What does this growth mean?
Till 2007, India recorded the fastest growth rate of billionaires in the
world. Four out of the ten richest people in the world are Indians.
We are a country with rich natural resources, skilled manpower and
scientific and technological prowess. Yet, predatory crony capitalism
has condemned us to be a society with some of the worst human
development indicators in the world:
- 230 million people are undernourished
- More than half of India’s women are anaemic
- 40 per cent of children under three years are underweight
- 2,19,000 habitations have no access to clean drinking water
- 39 per cent of adult population is illiterate
- 77 per cent of the population spends less than Rs. 20 a day
- The share of wages in the organised industrial sector is among
the lowest in the world
Under the Congress-UPA dispensation:
- The agrarian crisis continues. Suicides by farmers have not
abated.
- The public distribution system has been further enfeebled. The
BPL
category excludes large sections of the poor. 52 per cent of the
agricultural labour households are excluded from the PDS. Allocations
for the APL category have been drastically cut. The food policy is
callous and inhuman. Three crore tonnes of foodgrains lie in the godowns
but the government refuses to undo the cut in the allocations to the
states.
PRICE RISE
The people have suffered from continuous price rise of all essential
commodities. Even though the government claims the rate of inflation has
come down below 4 per cent, the prices of food items continue to rise at
above 10 per cent. When the international prices of oil dipped to $40 a
barrel, the government reduced the prices of aviation turbine fuel
eleven times between September 2008 and February 2009 to help out the
private airlines. But the prices of petrol and diesel was reduced only
twice during this period and cooking gas only once. The inability to
curb price rise and protect the people from the ravages of inflation has
been one of the biggest failures of the Congress-led government.
The Manmohan Singh government promoted policies favouring big business
and big corporates, both Indian and foreign. SEZs were designed to help
these interests grab large tracts of land and they were given a bonanza
of tax sops. The refusal to restore capital gains tax in the stock
market and stop the massive tax evasion through the Mauritius route is
meant to help Indian and foreign speculators to reap huge profits. The
backdoor entry of FDI in retail trade is jeopardising the livelihood of
lakhs of small shopkeepers and traders.
There has been rampant privatisation of health and education systems,
thus depriving the common people of health and education facilities.
Allowing FDI in real estate and encouragement of real estate speculation
has led to land grabbing and a massive increase in land prices in and
around urban areas. It has become impossible for the poor and the middle
classes to own a decent home.
The Congress -led government has promoted public -private partnerships
in various infrastructure projects whereby the public sector bears all
the costs and the private party reaps all the profits. The Hyderabad
Metro, now mired in the Satyam-Maytas scandal, is one such glaring
instance.
The rights of workers and employees have been curtailed. The EPF rate
of interest was reduced to 8.5 per cent. The government has promoted
contractualisation and casualisation of labour . Ignoring the
recommendations of the National Commission for Enterprises in the
Unorganised Sector and the Standing Committee on Labour, the government
passed an Act in parliament which makes a mockery of the rights and
protection for workers of the unorganised sector. The UPA government
went back on its commitment to implement one- third reservations for
women in the legislatures and parliament, as promised in the CMP. The
dependence on the Samajwadi Party after the Left’s withdrawal of
support sealed the fate of the women’s reservation bill.
The UPA government failed to implement the main recommendations of the
Justice Sachar Committee on the status of minorities. The key
suggestion, of working out a sub-plan for the Muslim minority, was
rejected by the Government.
During the last six months of the Congress-led government, the country
has experienced the adverse impact of the global economic crisis. The
government’s response has been both inadequate and wrong. The
fiscal stimulus packages announced by the government have been grossly
inadequate and mainly aimed at providing tax concessions to bail out big
corporates . Even such concessions have not been linked to any
conditionalities to protect the workers from lay-offs and retrenchment.
No measures have been undertaken so far to protect the peasantry from
price crashes and import competition. The Centre has ignored the plight
of the overseas migrant workers and not included them in the stimulus
package. The only way to come out of the crisis is by creating demand
and new jobs. This requires massive public investment in employment
generation , rural development , agriculture , social sectors and
infrastructure. This is exactly what the government has refused to
undertake.
The neoliberal policy framework is today discredited worldwide. The
Congress-led government, however, stubbornly clings to neoliberal
dogma.Even after the crisis unfolded, it liberalised financial flow even
further by lifting some restrictions on participatory notes and revising
FDI guidelines to facilitate backdoor entry of FDI in all sectors.
DANGER OF COMMUNALISM
The BJP-RSS combine and their many outfits have been fomenting communal
violence and targetting the minorities. In these last five years attacks
on Muslim minorities have taken place in Madhya Pradesh, Rajasthan,
Chhattisgarh, Gujarat, Karnataka, Maharashtra, Andhra Pradesh and Uttar
Pradesh. Kandhamal district in Orissa saw the worst violence against
Christians, with churches and houses being burnt and large scale attacks
on priests and nuns. In Karnataka, there were vicious attacks on
Christians in Mangalore, Davanagare and other places after the BJP
assumed office. Instead of taking action against the perpetrators of the
attacks, the BJP governments in Madhya Pradesh, Rajasthan and Karnataka
often arrested the victims of the violence.
Whether it is Gujarat under Narendra Modi, or Karnataka, or any of the
other BJP-ruled states, artistes have been intimidated, cultural
performances and films attacked, and writers threatened. The assault on
young women by gangs of Hindutva thugs in Mangalore and other places
display the symptoms of a fascist mentality.
The 2004 verdict against the BJP should have been utilised to act
firmly against all forms of communalism and their regressive activities.
The Congress-led government was unable to adopt a firm and consistent
stand against the depredations of the communal forces. Minorities are
being harassed and terrorised in various parts of the country. The
Centre should have cracked down on organisations like the Bajrang Dal
after the violence in Kandhamal and elsewhere in the country. But it did
not do so.
TERRORISM
During the last five years, the country experienced a spate of
terrorist attacks, starting with the October 2005 serial blasts in
Delhi. The Central Government failed to tackle the problems of terrorism
adequately. It should have revamped the intelligence system and ensured
better coordination between the intelligence and security agencies. It
required the horrific Mumbai attack to awaken the Government to the
defects in the intelligence and security systems. In the name of
combatting terrorism, there have been innumerable instances of the
police and security agencies indiscriminately rounding up innocent
Muslim youth, detaining then and torturing them. Such targetting of a
community only alienates the youth and provides a breeding ground for
extremism.
Terrorism has diverse origins in India. There is terrorist violence
involving some extremist elements from the Muslim community. In the
recent period terrorist attacks like in Malegaon and certain earlier
blasts in Maharashtra were perpetrated by extremist Hindutva elements.
In the North-East, terrorist attacks by ULFA and the other ethnic
chauvinist groups have taken place.
The CPI(M) has consistently advocated firm steps to tackle the
terrorist networks and elements irrespective of their source or origin.
As for the terrorist attacks emanating from Pakistan , India should
mobilise international opinion to mount pressure on the Pakistan
government to crack down on the terrorist and extremist outfits there.
MAOIST VIOLENCE
The self-styled Maoists are indulging in indiscriminate violence in
certain states, which they claim is revolutionary activity. Devoid of
any political platform except the use of the gun, the Maoists are
resorting to killings of their political opponents. While it is
necessary to curb such terrorist violence, it is equally important to
implement a programme of socio- economic development in the backward and
remote areas where these groups operate so that these anarchist elements
are isolated.
CURB REGIONAL CHAUVINISM
The growth of regional chauvinism and the attacks on people from other
states by parties like the MNS in Mumbai required a firm response.
However, neither the Congress-led state government, nor the Central
government displayed the political will to check the violence and bring
the culprits to justice. The CPI(M) strongly opposes all forms of
regional and ethnic chauvinism which targets people of other regions or
communities.
VIOLATION OF FEDERALISM
The Congress-led government has been insensitive to the rights of
states and failed to implement steps to devolve more powers and
resources to them. Despite the CMP commitment, the debts of states were
not substantially reduced nor was the share of the states in the
divisible pool of taxes enhanced.
The Inter-State Council was not activated, nor were Centrally sponsored
schemes transferred to states. The UPA government violated the CMP in
framing the terms of reference for the 13th Finance Commission and the
Commission on Centre-State relations.
The Congress-led government has sought to use Governors for its
partisan purposes. The attempt to dismiss the Uttar Pradesh state
government in December 2006 was a reminder that misuse of Article 356 by
the Congress party at the Centre is not a thing of the past. Neither the
Congress nor the BJP can promote the federal principle which needs to be
strengthened to democratise our system.
CORRUPTION
The ruling alliance vitiated the parliamentary democratic system by
large scale use of money, bribery and intimidation to purchase and
encourage defections from the opposition to win the vote of confidence
in July 2008. Earlier, in 1993, faced with a no-confidence motion, the
Narasimha Rao government had bribed opposition members of Parliament.
The Congress- led government, however, took this to new and sordid
heights. The government displayed complete contempt for Parliament by
extending the July 2008 special session till the end of December, and
doing away with the winter session altogether. Thus, the number of
Parliament sittings in 2008 were reduced to a mere 46. Misuse of public
institutions and investigative agencies was also the norm under this
government. The UPA government has presided over a massive telecom scam.
It first sold 2G licences to favoured companies. The companies then
divested their shares at huge profits. In the process, the exchequer
lost at least one lakh crore rupees. The government has refused to order
a probe into this massive scam.
The Satyam-Maytas scandal is a shocking example of how crony capitalism
is leading to institutionalised corruption. The patronage given to the
Satyam-Maytas combine by the Congress government in Andhra Pradesh
involves lucrative contracts and transfer of thousands of acres of land.
Special Economic Zones have become the instruments for large scale
transfer of land to corporates depriving the farmers and the rural poor
of their meagre landed assets.
STRATEGIC ALLIANCE WITH THE UNITED STATES
The biggest betrayal by the Manmohan Singh government was to forge a
strategic alliance with the United States of America and to resile from
the commitment to pursue an independent foreign policy.
- The Congress-led government signed a ten-year Defence Framework
Agreement with the US for military collaboration. This was done
secretly without any discussion or information given to the country.
- The Manmohan Singh government shamelessly lined up with the
United States to vote against Iran in the IAEA in order to get the
nuclear deal through the US Congress.
- In place of the CMP, the agenda of the Indo-US CEO Forum, which
recommended FDI in retail trade, insurance, banking, education,
etc., became the guiding light of the Manmohan Singh government.
- The Manmohan Singh government has pursued the US-Israel-India
axis, an idea mooted by the BJP-led government. It has entered into
deep security and military collaboration with Israel. Israel has
become the biggest supplier of weapons to India and the billions of
dollars spent by India helps Israel suppress the Palestinian people.
NUCLEAR DEAL
The Congress-led government signed the nuclear deal with the US with
conditions no self-respecting government should accept. The Hyde Act
passed by the United States Congress directed India to adopt a certain
course in foreign policy and set conditions for nuclear cooperation
which dovetailed India into security and military collaboration with the
US. The UPA government misleadingly raised the issue of shortage of
uranium, a lie nailed down by the recent report of the CAG. The Congress
is propagating that the nuclear deal will result in electricity being
provided to all villages and homes. This is a cruel joke when the cost
of electricity from an imported nuclear plant will be Rs. 8 per unit -
far out of the reach of the common people.
BREAK WITH UPA GOVERNMENT
The Left parties withdrew support from the UPA government on July 9,
2008 after the government decided to go ahead with the Indo-US nuclear
deal as part of its ongoing quest for a strategic alliance with the
United States. In December 2007, when the matter was debated in
parliament, itbecame clear that a majority of Members of Parliament were
not for the deal. The Manmohan Singh government concentrated its entire
energy to pursue the deal without caring for the people’s suffering
due to galloping price rise and the growing rural distress. The CPI(M)
and the left parties could not support a government which was so intent
on acting at the behest of the US agenda for India to the detriment of
an independent foreign policy and strategic autonomy.
ROLE OF CPI(M) AND LEFT VIS-À-VIS UPA GOVERNMENT
The CPI(M) and the Left acted as sentinels of the people’s
interests vis-à- vis the UPA government. At least two major
legislations - the NREGA and the Forest Tribal Rights Act - would not
have come about in the present form without the CPI(M)’s
intervention.
The Left parties made crucial interventions in NREGA legislation which
have proved to be of great benefit to the people. These include: (1) the
deletion of a clause which gave Government the right to terminate the
programme if it so wanted; (2) to ensure that it be made a universal
right for anyone who was willing to do manual work and not limited to
BPL families alone as suggested by the Government; (3) a special
provision to ensure that at least one-third of the beneficiaries are
women; and (4) to ensure more flexibility in the type of projects that
may be taken up through the introduction of a clause that gives State
Governments the scope to make suitable project proposals.
It was the sustained intervention by the Left and particularly the
CPI(M) that led to the enactment of the Scheduled Tribes and other
Forest Dwellers (Recognition of Forest Rights) Act. Here again without
the Party’s intervention, the Act in the present form would not
have been possible. The interventions by the CPI(M) and the Left
resulted in (1) change in the cut-off year from 1980 to December 2005;
(2) inclusion of other traditional forest dwelling communities as
beneficiaries; (3) increase of land ceiling from 2.5 hectares to 4
hectares; (4) inclusion of expanded rights to minor forest produce; (5)
expanded role of gram sabhas and panchayats; (6) right to development
projects in forest areas within a limited area; and (7) securing equal
rights of women.
Similarly, the CPI(M) intervened to modify the Patents Amendments Act
of 2005 to protect the interests of the country with regard to the
provision of less expensive generic drugs for the people. The Left did
not allow dilution of the Right to Information legislation. It is due to
the continuous pressure of the CPI(M) and the Left that there was
increased allocation for education even though it did not attain the 6
per cent of GDP mark promised in the CMP.
The role played by the CPI(M) and the Left in the past five years led
to the protection of financial sector from the ravages of speculative
finance capital.
- The Left protected the banking sector by not allowing the Banking
Regulation (Amendment) Act which would have facilitated the takeover
of Indian private banks by foreign banks.
- The Left defended the insurance sector by preventing any
legislation to increase FDI in the insurance sector from 26 to 49
per cent.
- Pensions of lakhs of government employees were protected by the
Left’s decision to oppose the Pension Fund Regulatory Act which
would have led to pension funds of government employees being
privatized and put in the stock market. The CPI(M) and the Left
firmly defended the public sector and national sovereignty.
- The integrity of the ‘navaratna’ PSUs was protected by
the Left which did not agree to the disinvestment of shares in BHEL.
- To protect the interests of lakhs of small shopkeepers and
traders, and workers employed by them, the Left opposed the opening
up of the retail trade to MNCs and prevented their full-fledged
entry.
- To protect the farmers’ interests, the Left did not support
the Seed Bill which could not be passed in the Parliament.
- To protect the integrity of the educational sector, the Left
stopped the passage of the Bill to allow foreign educational
institutions and universities to be set up in India.
- To protect the interests of the working class, the Left prevented
the introduction of anti-labour laws.
All through the four years when the CPI(M) and the Left supported
the government, the CPI (M ) worked assiduously to protect national
sovereignty and to prevent implementation of some of the worst aspects
of the neo-liberal policies which would have harmed the people’s
economic interests and livelihood.
BJP: A REGRESSIVE FORCE
The BJP seeks to pass off majority communalism as “nationalism”.
It extols the RSS vision of Hindu rashtra and passes it off as “cultural
nationalism”. The politics and practice of the BJP represents
distilled communalism that can only weaken national unity. The BJP has
come out against any efforts to ameliorate the conditions of the 150
million Muslims in the country as recommended in the Justice Sachar
Report by branding it as “minority appeasement”.
The BJP has provided political cover to the depredations of the Bajrang
Dal and the Vishwa Hindu Parishad against the Muslim and Christian
minorities whether in the Kandhamal district of Orissa or attacks in
Karnataka, Madhya Pradesh, Gujarat, Rajashtan and Chhattisgarh. The BJP
stand on terrorism is equally pernicious. It has no compunction in
ascribing all terrorist activities to the Muslim community. It refuses
to accept that terrorism has diverse sources. It has sought to protect
the accused in the Malegaon blasts case who are Hindutva extremists by
branding the ATS investigation as prosecution of “Hindu religious
figures”. The BJP’s double standards on terrorism stands fully
exposed. Throughout the five year period when it was in the opposition,
the BJP had nothing to offer except communalisation of the serious issue
of terrorism and minority baiting. The BJP harps on building the temple
at the site where the Babri Masjid stood in flagrant violation of the
law and the constitution.
The records of the BJP-run state governments makes it amply clear that
it is a party fully wedded to rightwing economic policies of
privatisation and a free market economy. Its governments have been
steeped in corruption. When in government at the Centre, the BJP took
several steps to cement a strategic alliance with the United States.
Today, there is no difference in the foreign policy postures of the BJP
and the Congress. The people of India cannot accept this regressive,
backward-looking party based on an obscurantist ideology to run the
Central government.
SUPPORT CPI(M)
The CPI(M)’s role in the past five years speaks for itself. It has
intervened consistently in Parliament and elsewhere to defend the
interests and the livelihoods of the people , protect national
sovereignty , curb communalism, ensure social justice and fight against
growing imperialist penetration.
Scores of members and supporters of the CPI(M) became martyrs by laying
down their lives for the cause of the working people, fighting communal
and divisive forces and in police firing.
The three Left-led governments of West Bengal, Kerala and Tripura have
shown that alternative policies can be implemented despite the
constraints of having a Central government pursuing neoliberal policies.
Over the years, West Bengal, Kerala and Tripura have implemented land
reforms and broken up large scale landlordism. They have
institutionalised and ensured the democratic functioning of the
three-tier panchayat system. Despite the limited resources and the
constraints that state governments work under, the Left-led governments
have protected the interests of the peasants and agricultural workers by
ensuring agricultural development and taken steps to promote industrial
development . The public distribution system which is under attack by
the Centre has not been dismantled. The rights of the working class and
other working sections are protected. All the three states have an
exemplary record in maintaining communal amity and upholding secular
values.
The CPI(M) sets out the alternative path for the country. This platform
is based on the following major components: (i) defence of secularism
and national unity; (ii) for a democratic transformation of agrarian
relations and land reforms; (iii) for a self-reliant economic system and
path of development which will develop the productive forces , maximise
employment and reduce economic and social disparities; (iv) for a
democratic and federal political system with necessary Constitutional
changes; (v) defence of the rights of the working people, their
livelihoods and social security; (vi) social justice, end to caste
discrimination and protection of rights of women, dalits, minorities and
tribal people; and (vii) for an anti-imperialist, independent foreign
policy.
FOR A NEW ALTERNATIVE
Five years of the Congress -led government have been a major
disappointment for the people and a let down of the mandate of the 2004
Lok Sabha elections. The Congress party is committed to the policies of
liberalisation and privatisation, which are today discredited in the
entire world. These policies have proved inimical to the interests of
the workers,peasants, agricultural workers, artisans, small
entrepreneurs, women, students and youth. A party which sees the future
of India tied to the coattails of the United States does not deserve to
run the government of our sovereign democratic republic.
The BJP represents the most reactionary force in the country. The six-
year rule from 1998 to 2004 was marked by the pursuit of pro-rich and
communal policies. BJP’s ideology is inimical to the concept of a
secular state. It wants to use the NDA as a cover for its Hindutva
politics. Through these five years, all it did as the major opposition
party was to raise various issues, including terrorism, from a communal
standpoint.It is necessary that both the Congress and the BJP are
defeated by the people in the forthcoming elections.
The country requires alternative policies. Pro-people economic
policies; provision of social equity; consistent secularism; genuine
federalism; and an independent foreign policy. The CPI(M) appeals to all
democratic and secular forces to support such alternative policies.
For this, an alternative political platform is required. The CPI(M)
will work for the creation of a non-Congress, non-BJP government which
will strengthen democracy, ensure equitable economic development and
social justice.
VOTE FOR THE CPI(M) STRENGTHEN LEFT AND
DEMOCRATIC FORCES FOR AN ALTERNATIVE SECULAR GOVERNMENT
Promote Secular Values
The CPI (M) stands for the separation of religion and politics and
necessary legislative measures to firm up this separation. Communal
violence should be dealt with firmly. Secular values should be promoted
by the State in all spheres. The CPI (M) will work towards:
- Enacting a comprehensive law against communal violence; ensuring
speedy justice and adequate compensation to the victims of communal
violence like the Gujarat pogrom of 2002 and for the implementation
of the Justice Sri Krishna Commission report
- Ensuring exemplary punishment for perpetrators of communal
violence regardless of their public or official position
- Purging all school textbooks of content reflecting communal bias
and prejudices
- Reining in organisations and institutions involved in spreading
communal hate and attacking minorities through appropriate legal
measures
- Enforcing the Protection of Places of Worship Act to prevent
raising of disputes on religious places
FOR ALTERNATIVE ECONOMIC POLICIES
Enhanced State Intervention In the light of the global economic crisis
and its adverse impact on India the CPI (M) stands for:
- Increasing annual Plan Expenditure amounting to 10% of India’s
current GDP (currently it is below 5%)
- Aggressive expansion by CPSUs utilizing their vast cash reserves
- Scrapping the Fiscal Responsibility and Budget Management Act and
raising borrowing limits of State Governments to enable higher
public expenditure ; Comprehensive debt relief for the State
Governments
Immediate Relief Measures
- Specific relief packages for affected sectors like textiles and
garments, gems and jewellery, leather, handicrafts, coir, cashew,
marine products, software and IT etc., aimed mainly at the small and
medium enterprises
- Moratorium on job cuts for workers; Labour laws to be duly
invoked to prevent retrenchments and lay offs; Enhancing social
security measures for workers
- Preventing wage and pay cuts for workers and employees; burden of
cost cutting to be borne by profit earners
- Extending the employment guarantee to urban areas
- Income tax relief for salaried employees, pensioners and senior
citizens
- Massive increase in public investment in agriculture and
irrigation; Protection against price crashes of crops through price
support and increased import tariffs
Resource Mobilisation
In order to mobilise resources to undertake the massive public spending
plans, the CPI (M) proposes steps to:
- Effectively tax speculative capital gains by restoring Long-Term
Capital Gains Tax and increasing Securities Transaction Tax
- Halt further tax concessions to corporates; Launch a drive to
unearth black money, especially those stashed in Swiss Banks and
other off- shore tax havens
- Increase wealth tax for the super rich; introduce inheritance
tax
- Plug the Mauritius route; Review Double Taxation Avoidance
Agreement with Mauritius and other countries
Financial Sector Regulation
In order to ensure strong regulation of the financial sector, maintain
predominant state control over finance and revival of development
finance, the CPI (M) stands for:
- Reversing moves towards Full Capital Account Convertibility
(Tarapore Committee recommendations); reimposing strict controls on
the outflow and inflow of finance capital
- Prohibiting Participatory Notes used by the Foreign
Institutional Ivestors (FIIs); discourage speculative finance
- Halting any further dilution of Government equity in public
sector banks; strengthening the public sector in banking and
insurance and ensuring strict adherence to priority sector lending
norms
- Scrapping the Banking Regulation (Amendment) Bill; preventing
takeover of Indian banks by foreign banks
- Scrapping the proposed legislation to increase FDI cap in the
insurance sector
- No privatisation of pension funds; No diversion of pension and
provident funds to stock market
Revival of Agriculture
In order to reverse the agrarian crisis, make agriculture remunerative
and ensure enhanced incomes of the peasantry, the CPI (M) proposes steps
to:
- Implement the pro-farmer recommendations of the National
Commission on Farmers
- Expand MSP coverage to more crops, including oil seeds, other
cash crops and traditional staples; Revive commodity boards to set
floor prices for commercial crops
- Ensure institutional credit to the agricultural sector at a
maximum 4% rate of interest
- Expand public investment in power supply in rural areas and stop
privatization of electricity; Ensure uninterrupted supply of power
to agriculture; Expand irrigation facilities
- Ensure provision of high quality inputs at affordable prices to
all cultivators through public production and marketing; repeal the
Seed Bill and introduce farmer-friendly seed legislation
- Repeal the model APMC Act which advocates contract farming; bring
farmer-friendly reforms in agricultural markets
- Scrap the Indo-US Knowledge Initiative in Agriculture and make
public all its records; Increase public investment and expand public
institutions for agricultural research and extension
- Reverse changes in the intellectual property regime that favour
big business; Ensure strict regulation of private agricultural
research with regard to protection of biodiversity
Food Security and Public Distribution System
To ensure food security the CPI (M) advocates:
- Reintroduction of the universal PDS and abandoning the targeted
PDS based on flawed poverty estimates; Provision of foodgrains at
subsidized rates in the PDS
- Expansion of the Antodaya scheme to cover wider sections of the
rural and urban poor; Special measures to include tribal communities
in Antodaya coverage
- Supplying 14 essential commodities including sugar, pulses and
edible oils under the PDS
- Reversing the cut in food grain allocations to the States under
the PDS and giving States their full quota of grain
- Strengthening the FCI and expanding of FCI godowns, particularly
in the Eastern and North Eastern regions; Curbing procurement of
foodgrains by private corporates and MNCs
Checking Price Rise of Essential Commodities
The CPI (M) considers the following steps as essential to check price
rise:
- Reduction of retail prices of petrol and diesel by cutting the
customs and excise duties on oil
- Banning futures trading in all agricultural commodities as per
the recommendations of the Parliamentary Standing Committee
- Taking stringent action against hoarding of essential
commodities; Strengthening the provisions of the Essential
Commodities Act to deal with hoarding and black-marketing
- Strengthening disclosure norms for private stocks of foodgrains
held in godowns and warehouses
Land Issues
The single most important step for rural transformation is the
implementation of land reforms. The CPI (M) stands for:
- Reversing the current thrust to dilute land-ceiling laws; Speedy
and comprehensive steps for implementing land reforms
- Takeover and distribution of all surplus land above ceiling and
handing over of cultivable wasteland to landless and poor peasant
households free of cost, with priority to SCs and STs; Joint pattas
to be distributed including equal right of women to the land
- Recording of tenancy and protection of the rights of tenants in
all States where this has not been done
- New Land Acquisition Act to protect the interests of land owners
and others dependent on land; Ensuring informed consent of those
affected; Prohibit land grab for real estate speculation; Enact
Rehabilitation and Resettlement Act to ensure adequate compensation
and rehabilitation for all affected
Industrial Development
Balanced growth of industry and agriculture is vital for employment
generation and economic development. For the Planned development of
industry, the CPI (M) stands for:
- Strengthening and expansion of the public sector in the core and
strategic areas by injecting fresh capital and technology; promoting
autonomy and efficiency in the public sector
- Complete halt to disinvestment and privatisation of profit-making
and potentially viable PSUs
- Encouragement to small and medium enterprises in labour
intensive sectors with adequate incentives, infrastructure support
and sufficient credit from banks
- Protection of traditional industries such as handloom, coir,
etc.; yarn to be provided at controlled rates for the weavers and
adequate facilities for the marketing of their goods
- Protection of domestic industry from indiscriminate lowering of
import duties and takeover of existing Indian companies by foreign
companies ; Encouragement to the private sector to invest in
manufacturing and services sectors; Incentives to the private sector
to be linked to job creation and R&D efforts
- Prohibition of FDI in Retail Trade; Regulation of domestic
corporate retailers through a licensing policy
- Reverse FDI guidelines to prevent backdoor entry of FDI; Foreign
capital to be channelled in areas based on need to build productive
capacities and acquire new technology
- Amending SEZ Act and Rules to do away with myriad tax concessions
and regulate land-use; Ensuring strict implementation of labour laws
in all SEZs
- Halting further liberalization and privatization of the mineral
sector; Prohibiting export of iron ore; Increasing royalty rates on
coal and other minerals Infrastructure
- Increasing public investment in infrastructure; Adequate Plan
outlays for power, communications, railways, roads, ports and
airports
- Reviewing energy and telecom policies in tune with the interests
of self-reliant national development; Review the Electricity Act
2003
- Reviewing of privatisation of infrastructure through PPP
- Emphasis on rural infrastructure; Increased outlays on rural
roads, electrification etc.
WTO and Trade Issues
The CPI (M) stands for:
- Protecting Indian interests and that of the developing countries
in the ongoing Doha Round of WTO; no further tariff cuts in
agriculture and industrial goods
- Restore measures to protect small and marginal peasants,
including quantitative restrictions
- Keep sectors like health, education, water resources, banking
and financial services out of GATS; Press for review of the TRIPS
agreement
- Review existing Free Trade Agreements (FTAs); Make public India’s
negotiating positions in the FTA negotiations with EU and EFTA
Strengthening Federalism
For a thorough restructuring of Centre-State relations the CPI (M)
stands for:
- Amending Articles 355 and 356 to prevent their misuse
- Governors to be appointed by the President from a list of three
eminent persons suggested by the Chief Minister of a State
- Devolving 50% of the total pool of collection of Central taxes
to the States; Raising States’ share of market borrowing to 50%
- Conditionalities imposed upon the States like the passage of FRBM
Act to be withdrawn; States to have a say in the composition and
terms of reference of the Finance Commissions
- Transferring Centrally Sponsored Schemes under the State subject
with funds to the States
- Constitutional amendment to make the decisions of the
Inter-State Council binding on the Union Government; National
Development Council to be granted Constitutional status; Planning
Commission to act as an executive wing of the NDC
- Setting a target minimum level of Local Self-Government
expenditure to GDP; funds devolved to the local bodies to be routed
through the State Governments Jammu & Kashmir
- A political solution to the Kashmir problem based on maximum
autonomy for the State based on the full scope of Article 370 of the
Constitution; autonomous set-up to be created with the regions of
Jammu, Kashmir and Ladakh being given regional autonomy
- Strong steps to be taken to prevent excesses by security forces
against innocent people
- Ensure economic development of the State, focusing particularly
on generating employment for the youth and reconstructing the
damaged infrastructure
North-East
- The North East to be declared a priority region for development;
Developing physical infrastructure and special employment schemes
for the youth; Border fencing to be completed expeditiously
- Protecting and expanding the administrative and financial powers
under the Sixth Schedule; protection of the identity of the various
ethnic groups and nationalities
Against Terrorism
The CPI (M) stands for:
- Revamping the intelligence machinery and enhanced coordination
between security and intelligence agencies
- The Federal Investigating Agency functioning without violating
the federal structure and ensuring association of State Governments
for investigation within a particular State
- Modernisation of the Police forces • Strengthening of the
coastal security system
- Amending the Unlawful Activities (Prevention) Act to remove
draconian provisions like detention without bail for 180 days, three
years imprisonment for withholding information, etc.
TOWARDS AN INDEPENDENT FOREIGN POLICY
Foreign Policy
CPI (M) will work for:
- An independent and non-aligned foreign policy, which defends
India from imperialist pressures; Initiatives for South-South
cooperation and reviving the Non-Aligned Movement on a new basis
- Promoting multipolarity in international relations; strengthen
BRICS (Brazil, Russia, India, China and South Africa) cooperation,
improve relations with China and expand trilateral cooperation
between Russia, India and China
- Opposing US military interventions; distancing from US-sponsored
“war on terror”
- Strengthening multilateral forums like the UN to deal with all
disputes between countries; democratizing the Security Council and
the UN structure
- Amending the Constitution to make legislative sanction mandatory
for any international treaty
- Promoting people to people relations between India and Pakistan;
Resuming Indo-Pak dialogue at a suitable time
- Diplomatic and political efforts to protect the lives of Tamil
people in the war zone in Sri Lanka; Working for an immediate
political settlement based on autonomy for the Tamil speaking areas
within the framework of a united Sri Lanka
- Giving special attention to promote SAARC cooperation and
improving relations with all neighbouring countries in South Asia;
coordinate efforts with South Asian countries to combat terrorism
and religious extremism • Building close ties with West Asian
countries; pursue Iran-Pakistan- India gas pipeline resisting US
pressure
- Extending support to the Palestinian cause; severing military and
security ties with Israel
- Pursuing the Look East policy; strengthen economic cooperation
with South East and East Asian countries Security Matters
- Reviewing and reworking the 123 Agreement with the US for civil
nuclear cooperation to remove the harmful clauses; Pursuing self-
reliance in civilian nuclear energy based on domestic uranium and
thorium reserves
- Pursuing universal nuclear disarmament through the UN; Providing
parliamentary sanction for moratorium on testing; Striving for a de-
nuclearised environment in South Asia; Seeking removal of nuclear
weapons from the US military base in Diego Garcia in the Indian
Ocean.
- Abrogating the Defence Framework Agreement with the US and
cessation of Indo-US joint military exercise
- Promoting the policy of no foreign military bases in South Asia
- Creating a national security apparatus, which will work within
the framework of the parliamentary democratic system
FOR PEOPLES’ RIGHTS, SECURITY OF LIVELIHOODS AND SOCIAL
JUSTICE
Working Class
- Revising the minimum wage rate for workers based on the 15th ILC
norms; Revising the price indices
- Ensuring strictest implementation of all labour laws including
the law on inter state migrant workers; discouraging
contractualisation and casualisation of work
- Improving the legislation on Unorganized Sector Workers and
implement the recommendations of the Standing Committee on Labour in
this regard; Special social security measures for migrant workers
and plantation workers
- Ensuring recognition of trade unions through secret ballot and
protection of trade union rights; Adopting an effective scheme for
workers’ participation in management in both public and private
sector • Ensuring equal remuneration for women workers in all
areas of work; adopting social security measures for working women
including maternity benefits, pension and health insurance for women
workers in the unorganized sector including home based workers
- Adopting steps to prevent sexual harassment of women workers at
work place and enacting legislation based on the Vishakha judgement
- Providing job and social security for anganwadi workers, rural
health workers and mid -day meal workers by recognizing them as
Government employees
- Setting up special welfare board for fish workers and providing
them identity cards and social security schemes; Banning foreign
trawlers and destructive fishing practices by big trawlers;
Scrapping the draft Coastal Management Zone notification
Right to Strike
- Safeguarding the right to organize, collective bargaining and the
right to strike for all workers, including government employees;
Enacting legislation to annul the Supreme Court judgment prohibiting
strikes
- Ratifying the ILO Convention 151, which accords government
employees the rights, which other citizens enjoy, subject to their
administrative responsibilities
Peasantry
- Ensuring stable and remunerative crop prices
- Protecting the peasantry from falling world prices by increasing
import tariffs • Ensuring comprehensive loan waiver for
distressed peasants covering both institutional and private debt
owed to money-lenders
- Providing comprehensive insurance to all farmers for crop and
cattle, with subsidies for small and marginal farmers
- Promoting and strengthening co-operatives for water use, input
purchase, crop storage, output marketing and dairy Agricultural
Workers
- Increasing minimum wages for agricultural workers; Ensuring
equal wages for women agricultural workers
- Enacting a separate and comprehensive legislation for
agricultural workers to ensure minimum wages, the right to bargain
collectively and measures of social security such as pensions ,
accident compensation etc. with central funding
- Redistributing land to agricultural workers, free of cost;
Providing homestead land to all rural households; Constructing rural
dwellings for all rural workers
Women
- Enacting the Women’s Reservation Bill to ensure one -third
reservation for women in the legislatures
- Enacting a comprehensive law against sexual violence including
against children; Legally recognize joint rights in matrimonial
property; Separate law against honour killings; Law against acid
attacks and special measures to ensure help for acid attack victims
- Reversing the dilution of clauses in crimes against women made
through recent amendments to the Cr pc
- Providing credit at 4% interest rate to Self-Help Groups;
Providing training and assistance to SHGs to market their products
- Ensuring equal rights for women of all communities; Making
registration of marriages compulsory
- Undertaking as a National Mission the eradication of dowry and
female foeticide
- Increasing allocation of resources for women in central budget;
Special employment schemes and pensions for widows ; Priority in
Government schemes for female headed families
Children
- Universalizing the ICDS to cover all children in the 0 to 6 years
age group; stopping privatization of the ICDS
- Providing nutritious meals to children in the anganwadis;
Ensuring universal immunization
- Implementing the Child Labour Prohibition Act effectively;
Ensuring rehabilitation of rescued child labourers
Dalits
- Ensuring stringent action against untouchability and atrocities
against Scheduled Castes
- Increasing allocations under the Special component Plan;
Launching a comprehensive National Programme of Minor Irrigation for
all un- irrigated lands of dalits and adivasis
- Extending reservation to dalit Christians and dalit Muslims
- Enacting legislation to provide reservation in the private
sector
- Filling all the backlogs in reserved seats and posts and in
promotions for SCs with special recruitment drive; Scrapping the
Scheduled Castes (Reservation in Posts and Services) Amendment Bill
• Initiating special measures, like increasing scholarships and
hostel facilities, to curb the school dropout rate among SCs
- Ensuring total liberation and full rehabilitation for scavengers
(safai karamcharis) and bonded labourers; Regularisation of contract
labour in safai services
Adivasis
- Filling all vacancies for ST reserved posts in all Government
services; Extending reservation in the private sector
- Protecting land rights of adivasis and restoring land illegally
alienated from them
- Implementing the Scheduled Tribes and Other Traditional Forest
Dwellers (Recognition of Forest Rights) Act 2006, in full; Amending
the Act to include traditional forest dwellers on a more reasonable
definition • Providing autonomy for tribal compact areas
wherever necessary by coverage under the Fifth or Sixth Schedule;
Extending the democratic panchayat system to the fifth and sixth
schedule areas
- Ensuring recognition and development of tribal languages and
scripts; Kokbarak to be included in the eighth schedule of the
Constitution
- Expanding PDS, drinking water facilities, health centres,
schools and hostels in the tribal areas
OBCs
- Ensuring proper implementation of 27% OBC reservation in Central
educational institutions; Extending OBC reservation to all private
educational institutions
- Strengthening the National Commission for Backward Classes
- Simplifying procedures for issuing OBC certificates
Minorities
- Forming an Equal Opportunity Commission with adequate powers to
redress discrimination against minorities
- Formulating a sub-plan for the Muslim minorities on the lines of
the tribal sub -plan in order to implement Sachar Committee
recommendations; Special initiatives in the sphere of employment,
education and health to be undertaken targeting districts where the
Muslim population is concentrated
- Making public the Ranganath Mishra Commission report and ensure
full public debate; As an immediate measure all OBC Muslims which
form the vast majority of the Muslim community to be included in the
OBC quota with specific State wise allocations
- Earmarking 15% of priority sector lending by banks for the
Muslims; subsidised credit to be ensured for the self-employed
Muslim youth
- Special emphasis to be laid on the education of Muslim girls;
scholarships and hostel facilities should be substantially increased
for Muslim girl students
- Promoting the teaching of Urdu in schools; Publishing good
quality textbooks in Urdu and filling vacancies of Urdu teaching
posts
Senior Citizens
- Upgrading pensions of all categories of pensioners in consonance
with the cost of living; one-rank one-pension for ex-servicemen
- Building a network of old-age homes/day care centres with State
support
- Introducing differential and higher interest rate for senior
citizens in all deposits and savings schemes
Differently Abled People
- Strengthening of the Persons with Disabilities Act
- Properly implementing reservations provided for persons with
disabilities in public sector employment , poverty alleviation
programmes and education
- All buildings, public places, transport, information and other
avenues to be fully accessible and barrier free to people with
disabilities
- Ensuring free provision of aids and equipments for differently
abled people by the Government
Youth
- A national youth policy to be adopted which comprehensively deals
with issues of special concern to youth
- Providing a network of sports and cultural facilities for youth
in all parts of the country
- Restructuring the Nehru Yuva Kendra to promote India’s
cultural diversity and national unity
FOR PEOPLES’ WELFARE
Employment Guarantee
- The employment guarantee to be extended to cover all adults and
for as many days as demanded; Employment guarantee to be extended to
the urban areas through the enactment of legislation
- The list of permissible works under the NREGA to be expanded to
include all activities that improve the quality of life in rural
areas
- Minimum wages should be ensured through fair and objective
Schedule of Rates; Part of wages to be paid in subsidised foodgrains
Education
- Public expenditure on education to be 6% of GDP
- Enacting the Right to Education Bill; Central Government to
assume the major part of the financial commitment for its
implementation
- Expanding secondary education to arrest dropouts; Improve
quality of education and infrastructure in SSA schools
- Enacting legislation to regulate fees, admissions and curricula
in private educational institutions
- No FDI in higher education; Scrapping the Foreign Education
Providers’ Bill
- Formulating progressive and democratic curriculum and syllabi at
all levels of education that recognizes India’s social and
cultural diversity
- Revising pay scales for elementary school teachers; Regularizing
informal employment in teaching
- Ensuring democratic rights of students, teachers and non-teaching
staff in all educational institutions; Students’ union
elections to be made mandatory in all higher educational
institutions
Health
- Public expenditure on health to be raised to 5% of GDP
- Strengthening and expanding the public health system to guarantee
the delivery of all basic health services; Reversing the trend of
privatization of healthcare through PPPs
- Ensuring regular supply of all essential medicines through the
public health system; All essential drugs to be brought under price
control; Hazardous formulations of medicines to be weeded out from
the market
- Reviving the public sector in the production of essential drugs
and vaccines
- Prohibiting indiscriminate clinical trials by big pharma
companies; Strict control and regulations for clinical trials
Urban Issues
- Promoting planned urbanization; increasing public investment in
urban infrastructure ; Ensuring modern and affordable public
transport and Mass Transit Systems
- Ensuring affordable basic services like drinking water,
sanitation, transportation, ration shops, health facilities,
schools, etc., for the urban poor
- Halting demolition of slums; Ensuring in situ development of
slums with facilities
- Expanding public provisioning of housing, especially for the
socio- economically weaker sections ; Curbing unbridled real estate
development catering to the affluent classes
Environment
- Making the Environmental Impact Assessments (EIA) process
transparent , accountable and independent of vested interests ;
Reviewing the EIA Notification, 2009
- Undertaking steps to control emission of greenhouse gases
through energy efficient technologies and effective regulation;
Promoting solar and other non-conventional energy sources
- Increasing central allocations for Natural Calamity Relief Fund;
States to have more powers in tackling natural calamities and
disasters
- Checking pollution of rivers and other water bodies through
effective regulation
- Implementing the Coastal Zone Regulation Act and the Wetlands
Regulatory Authority in ways as to promote long-term interests of
the people and of the environment
Water Resources
- A National Water Policy to be formulated to enhance water
availability for domestic use, irrigation and industry; Provision of
potable drinking water to all habitations to be accorded priority
- Curbing privatization and commercialization of water resources;
Tackling depletion of ground water through greater regulation
Science and Technology
- Enhancing public funding of indigenous research in science and
technology to promote self-reliance; Decentralization in funding for
R&D; Fundamental research in the sciences to be accorded
priority
- Promoting free software and other such new technologies, which
are free from monopoly ownership through copyrights or patents; “knowledge
commons” should be promoted across disciplines, like
biotechnology and drug discovery
- Scrapping the Public Funded R&D Bill, that seeks to allow
patenting of products that are developed through public funded
laboratories
- Revamping the functioning of the Patent offices to ensure strict
adherence to the Indian Patent Act; Stop training and orientation of
Indian Patent office personnel by the US and European Patent offices
Culture and Media
- All national languages listed in the Eighth Schedule of the
Constitution to be equally encouraged and developed
- Promoting secular, progressive and democratic culture; attacks
on cultural personalities and productions by the communal forces to
be firmly dealt with
- Curbing glorification of violence and commodification of women
and sex
- Strengthening the Prasar Bharati Corporation to make it a
genuine public broadcasting service for TV and radio; States to have
a say in the programmes aired by the public broadcasting service
- Prohibiting cross-media ownership to prevent monopolies;
Reversing the entry of FDI in the print and electronic media
- Setting up of a Media Council which can act as an independent
regulatory authority for the media
FOR INSTITUTIONAL REFORMS
Fighting Corruption
- Enacting the Lok Pal Bill to stop corruption at high places
including the Prime Minister, Members of Parliament and the
Judiciary
- Suitable legislative changes to be brought to empower regulators
and investigating agencies to thoroughly probe corporate crimes
- Strengthen the Right to Information Act
Judicial Reforms
- A National Judicial Commission to be constituted as an
independent Constitutional body comprising of representatives from
judiciary, executive, legislature and bar for appointment, transfer
and dismissal of judges and to ensure judicial accountability
- Reforming the judicial system to provide speedy relief at
affordable cost to the common people; Filling up vacancies in the
judiciary
- Suitable amendment in the definition of criminal contempt to be
made in order to prevent its misuse in suppressing dissent
- Public declaration of their assets by the Judges to be made
mandatory Reform of the Election Commission
- Members of the EC to be appointed by the President on the advice
of a committee consisting of the Prime Minister, the Leader of the
Opposition and Chief Justice of Supreme Court
- The Election Commissioners must be legally debarred from
enjoying any office after their retirement either under the
Government or as a Governor or MP
- The Representation of the People Act needs to be amended to
specify the jurisdiction of election observers
- Constitutional amendment to specify EC’s jurisdiction vis-à-vis
law and order in order to avoid conflict with elected State
Governments
Electoral Reforms
- Proportional representation with partial list system
- Effective steps to prohibit persons with criminal background
from contesting elections
- State funding in the form of material for recognized political
parties
- Prohibition of corporate funding to political parties
