In an interactive session with a news channel and later in a press conference at Delhi, Sitaram Yechury, the General Secretary of CPI(M) said the effort and the initiative is to change the narrative of the political discourse for the ensuing Parliamentary elections from “Hindu-Musalman” to “Kisan-Naujawan”. While delving on the immanent and imminent need for the build-up of such a narrative, he said the last 4.5 years of Modi rule has completely exposed the hollowness of his promises and the threat that Modi’s politics of communalism poses.
There is a two-pronged attack on the people. On the one hand the economic hardships on the people continue to increase with neoliberal policies being aggressively pursued by Modi; on the other, attacks on the people’s unity have been abetted with the help of the state, on Dalits, Muslims and other minorities.
The farmers mobilisation in the recent period, be it the famous “long March” from Nashik to Mumbai on March 18, under the banner of Kisan Sabha or the recent mobilisations in Delhi in the months of September and November, have shown the rampant ire prevalent amongst the peasant masses. The manifestation of crisis in the peasantry continues to bring them in large number onto the streets.
Similarly, he pointed out the mobilisation of the youth in the country against rising unemployment. The big promise of providing two crore jobs every year is now never echoed by the BJP. Rather, making pakoras is the form of employment generation that Modi boasts of. This has exposed the BJP’s ineptitude when it comes to governance.
While pointing out the dismal performance of the Indian economy, Yechury said the Centre for Monitoring Indian Economy has rendered warning signals. The government, he said, now to meet the challenge is trying to play with the Reserve Bank of India (RBI). In case this government manages to destabilise the RBI — by allowing the Rs 3.6 lakh crore reserve money as dividend flows to the government — it will put our economy in a perilous position.
The target of fiscal deficit has already crossed its limit and now there is no money left with the government to even fulfil the already announced schemes. Hence the RBI is being targeted by a desperate BJP. Speaking on policies like GST and demonetisation, Yechury said the MSME sector was hit the hardest, with lakhs of people ending up jobless. The government boasts of an increasing the tax base but does not inform the country the percentage increase in tax revenues. Yechury emphatically claimed the overall tax revenue has decreased during the Modi rule.
While questioned on the alternative model of governance that in case a government supported by Left comes to office — how will it fund the pro-people schemes as there are no resources — Yechury responded that there is no dearth of resources. He ridiculed the Modi government for spending more than Rs 5,000 crore on propaganda through advertisements in the media, which could have easily been used for building infrastructure in the country. He laid the vision for an alternative model where emphasis would be on massive infrastructure development which will have a catapulting effect on development and job creation in the country. He pointed out had even 50 percent of the total NPAs, which has reached Rs 12 lakh crore, been mobilised, it would have helped the economy in a big way.
Commenting on who would be the leader of the front to defeat the BJP, he categorically stated that there is no all-India front. There are and will be several state level adjustments, fronts etc., with the intent to maximise the growth of anti-BJP/NDA forces so that the split in votes can be minimised. He brushed aside the idea of an all India front before the elections and gave the historic precedence of such fronts which were formed only after the elections. Such fronts developed in 1996 and 2004 which led to the formation of secular governments at the centre.
Speaking on the Rafale deal, he said the country and the Supreme Court have been hoodwinked by the BJP government. The contents of the affidavits do not misconstrue because of a typing error rather; it is the style in which the BJP functions. This is what needs to be exposed. He gave the 10 points charter of questions that needs to be answered on the entire Rafale issue. These questions point out at the necessity of the JPC on the deal. These are as:
- PM Modi announced the deal for 36 aircraft on April 10, 2015 whereas the defence minister headed-Defence Acquisition Council (DAC) only accepted that the IAF needed 36 Rafale [called AON or Acceptance of Necessity] on May 13, 2015. There is no official communication from the IAF or MoD about 36 Rafale before PM made the announcement. How was the decision announced even before the government accepted that IAF needed 36 Rafale jets?
- Why was NSA Ajit Doval negotiating the deal in Paris, as recorded in official documents, on 12 and 13 January 2016? Even defence minister Parrikar recorded that one of the inputs for not having a sovereign or a bank guarantee from France came from NSA. A negotiation process is sacrosanct and no one outside the negotiation team is allowed to interfere with it. Who allowed the NSA to violate and vitiate the process for such an important deal?
- Why did the government sign a deal with no sovereign or a bank guarantee? The letter of comfort from French PM has no real value and is not even referred to in the main text of the Inter Government Agreement (IGA) between the two countries. MoD and Law Ministry both wanted a sovereign guarantee. Even the clause for arbitration was under an agreement to which India is not a signatory, and as a winner of arbitration, India will have to get damages with private companies and not from French government. It means that it is not a government-to-government deal. Why was it signed then?
- All defence agreements in India have a ‘follow-on’ clause in which 50 per cent of the contracted quantity can be bought by India under same terms and conditions. It was there in 126 Rafale tender but is missing from 36 Rafale deal. Why was this agreed upon when India is likely to buy more Rafale or at least have an option to do so?
- The benchmark price [the final deal has to lower than this as per Defence Procurement Procedure (DPP)] to be used by the negotiation team was fixed by the designated MoD official as Euro 5.2 bn after calculations. Three members of negotiating team agreed with this benchmark price but four others in the team decided to fix it at Euro 8.2 bn. They said that this price was discovered based on the old bid for 126 Rafale but DPP is clear that price discovery can only happen if a contract has been signed and executed. There was no contract executed for 126 Rafale so there was no question of price discovery. But this price of Euro 8.2 bn was sanctioned by CCS headed by the PM himself, allowing for a higher rate. Why?
- Why was the DPP modified with post-facto effect in August 2015 so that Dassault did not have to tell the Indian government while signing the deal that Anil Ambani’s Reliance is its offset partner? This happened when negotiations were on and raises questions about government’s intentions.
- Eurofighter, which had qualified during the MMRCA trials in 2011 along with Rafale, had offered a 20 per cent discount to India over its bid price. Why did India not insist on a similar discount for Rafale or explore the option of going for Eurofighter instead?
- There were multiple objections made by three members of the Indian Negotiating Team about the Rafale deal but they were finally overruled by the CCS headed by PM. Each of those objections had a bearing on the price and integrity of the deal. They need to be brought out in the public for transparent decision-making. Why is the government hiding these serious written objections by top defence ministry officials?
- The deal for 36 Rafale was based on 2007 requirements of the IAF for 126 aircraft, called the Air Staff Qualitative Requirements (ASQR), when it was already 2015. Why was a new ASQR not issued to buy a better and more modern aircraft?
- When PM Modi announced the deal for 36 aircraft in April 2015, the Request for Proposal or RFP of 2007 for 126 aircraft was still alive. It hadn’t been withdrawn or cancelled yet [it was eventually cancelled in June 2015] Agreeing to another proposal from the same company, for the same item, subverts the spirit of the MoD’s very own DPP in effect since 2013. Who allowed this violation and why?
Yechury welcomed the decision of the Delhi High Court convicting Sajjan Kumar. While reiterating that all such rioters be brought to law, he said the principle of justice delayed is justice denied, which is evidently seen in both the 1984 and the 2002 riots. He quoted from the judgement which eloquently speaks about the dire need for bringing all such abetters of crime to the book: “The mass killings in Punjab, Delhi and elsewhere during the country’s partition remain a collective painful memory as in the killings of innocent Sikhs in November 1984. There has been a familiar pattern of mass killings in Mumbai in 1993, in Gujarat in 2002, in Kandhamal, Odisha in 2008, in Muzaffarnagar in UP in 2013 to name a few. Common to these mass crimes were the targeting of minorities and the attacks spearheaded by dominant political actors being facilitated by the law enforcement agencies”.
He said the judgement speaks volumes of the depth of the atrocities committed against the minorities in the country.
On being asked about the rightward shift even in the Congress and whether temples would be on the agenda for the CPI(M), he vehemently said that temples exist in the hearts of the individuals and there is no need to bring it into the political agenda. He added that the BJP intends to polarise the country on this issue whereas the Left and other forces will try to build an alternative narrative.
Highlighting the corruption present widely in the BJP he said there is a new method of legitimising corruption and that is through the electoral bonds. The identity of the giver is not revealed and the money can easily be taken by the party for helping and abetting crony capitalism in the country. It is because of this reason that of the total Rs 222 crore electoral bonds bought Rs 210 crore (95 per cent) has gone to the BJP whereas it has got just 31 percent of the total polled votes. This is legalising political corruption.
On being asked his role akin to that of HKS Surjeet in the contemporary politics, he humbly said there is no one who can step into the shoes of Surjeet who had a phenomenal journey of struggle and leading the independence movement. He added, however, the onerous task of building the unity of the people is all the more necessary in present times.
The author is a former deputy mayor of Shimla.
Also read: Testing Modi’s Claims About Development. The Results Won’t Shock You.