Skip to main content

60% rural, 80% urban unorganised workers jobless, yet political mudslinging 'rampant'

Counterview Desk
In a statement, the NREGA Sangharsh Morcha, a network of civil society organizations seeking better living conditions for poorer sections, even as asking India’s political class to “stop political mudslinging”, begin providing relief and restore right to life to the vulnerable sections, has said that Union government has particularly “completely failed” to respond to the public health and economic crisis engulfing the country.
Endorsed by over 40 representatives of people’s organizations, they said, “The current situation has put the entire political systems in the country under the scanner. The ruling party at the Centre is busy in creating trouble for elected governments, working tirelessly to shut the opposition and form their own governments at the state level has made the whole political situation derisive and shameful.”
Regretting that Parliament and state assemblies are not being called to take stock of the situation, the Morcha statement said, they should be immediately be called to urgently “put priority to policies to deal with the present predicament related to health, employment, food and nutrition security and livelihoods at large.”

Text:

The nation is going through an unprecedented health and economic distress and the current pandemic has exposed our economic capacities, institutional arrangements as well as administrative abilities. The country is failing to deal with this pandemic which is having widespread implications on public health and the economy at large. We entered the pandemic with a failed health system and great economic slowdown.
The Periodic Labour Force Survey (PLFS) in 2017-18 had shown that the country’s unemployment rate stood at 6.1% which was the highest in the last 47 years. The authoritarian state completely ignored the public issues and pushed for regressive social divisions through majoritarian political moves . The broken political and administrative systems are now out in the open.
Independent researches suggest that 6 out of 10 workers in rural areas and 8 out of 10 workers from the unorganized sector in the urban areas have lost employment during the lockdown. More than 100 million people are still being excluded from the Public Distribution System (PDS) but these seem to be non priorities for our Political system.
The Union government has completely failed to respond to the crisis. Not only that the relief packages announced so far are inadequate and delayed but are impractical considering the depth and vastness of the problem. . Moreover, most of the numbers cited by the Government are incorrect and actual allocations are far less than what is projected. The first economic relief package announced worth Rs 1.7 lakh crore actually had a major share of it already accounted for in the budget presented in February 2020-21 and the second announcement of Rs 20 lakh crore too had very little fresh allocations.
The whole management of the pandemic and the economy thereafter has been unsatisfactory. The current situation has put the entire political systems in the country under the scanner. The ruling party at the Centre is busy in creating trouble for elected governments, working tirelessly to shut the opposition and form their own governments at the state level has made the whole political situation derisive and shameful.
While the whole drama of power hunger is led by the ruling party at the centre, states that are ruled by parties other than the ruling party at the centre are ought to follow it to safeguard their territories. In between this, the economic and social distress of the people is only increasing by each day. The political system of the country has failed us when we needed our politicians and bureaucrats the most.
The political drama in Madhya Pradesh, Rajasthan ,West Bengal and Bihar is only making us realize the priorities of the political parties in general and the union governments in specific. According to news reports several other states too have been going through political turmoil with the leaders engaging in unethical exchanges.
With the Covid-19 situation worsening in the country we have reached a stage where more than 50,000 people are getting infected by the virus each day in India. The fragile public health system has been exposed. 
The unilaterally imposed lockdown had already created panic among the people of the country with lakhs of migrant workers facing starvation and millions of others belonging to non-privileged socio-economic backgrounds going through a horrid time with major income cuts and rampant loss of employment. However, the political system remains untouched and unashamed by it’s terrible failure in the whole process.
Parliament remains non-functional, when it should be debating public issues and come out with adequate policies and financial allocations to help citizens tide over these testing times
Different states are facing natural disasters such as cyclones, heavy rainfall, floods which only add to the vulnerabilities. However, the priorities of the political establishment lies in toppling elected governments and futile political blame games. The whole situation and the indulgence of the political groups and leaders in this drama reflects upon the non-serious and callous attitude of our elected representatives. 
Dissent is being suppressed everywhere, using the pandemic as an excuse. Dissenters have been put under detention or arrest and their bail pleas are not heard since Courts are not regularly functioning and judicial processes are indefinitely delayed.
The bureaucrats are only following the diktats of their political masters. The role of the police and the administration at large in the whole process have disempowered the citizen further.
In such grave situation, there is also no respite from the so called fourth pillar of democracy - the media. Media houses themselves are involved in partisan coverage of the pandemic and the distress caused because of it.
The Parliament of India remains non-functional, when it should be debating public issues and come out with adequate policies and financial allocations to help citizens tide over these testing times.
The nation is experiencing a major crisis which can only be dealt by effective policies and smooth governance. However, what we see today is a great policy paralysis wherein central and state governments are issuing direction less guidelines and no major reformatory actions have been taken.
Moreover, the political turmoil and violence in different states and shameless political muscle flexing for gaining power and authority has left the common citizens in dismay. The political executives are doing a great disservice to the citizens of the country and remain non accountable for their actions and conduct.
Therefore, we the concerned citizens of this country and the members of the civil society, want to convey our collective anguish and disappointment on the political and administrative systems in the country.
We condemn the political inaction and the irresponsible behavior of the so-called leaders of the country. We strongly convey our mistrust on all the major political parties and political representatives for failing us and leaving us stranded in the middle of the crisis. We denounce the politics of power and fear played by major political parties in the country and we strongly disapprove of the politics of greed and the idea of the political system that is getting promoted through such dreadful political actions.
We appeal to the political fraternity to stop this obnoxious mudslinging at this time of distress and focus on the innumerous issues that citizens are facing.
We demand that all state assemblies and Parliament should call for special sessions and put the priority to policies to deal with the present predicament related to health, employment, food and nutrition security and livelihoods at large. The civil society and working people have been voicing their demands which should be fulfilled through immediate political actions.

Comments

TRENDING

Insider plot to kill Deendayal Upadhyay? What RSS pracharak Balraj Madhok said

By Shamsul Islam*  Balraj Madhok's died on May 2, 2016 ending an era of old guards of Hindutva politics. A senior RSS pracharak till his death was paid handsome tributes by the RSS leaders including PM Modi, himself a senior pracharak, for being a "stalwart leader of Jan Sangh. Balraj Madhok ji's ideological commitment was strong and clarity of thought immense. He was selflessly devoted to the nation and society. I had the good fortune of interacting with Balraj Madhok ji on many occasions". The RSS also issued a formal condolence message signed by the Supremo Mohan Bhagwat on behalf of all swayamsevaks, referring to his contribution of commitment to nation and society. He was a leading RSS pracharak on whom his organization relied for initiating prominent Hindutva projects. But today nobody in the RSS-BJP top hierarchy remembers/talks about Madhok as he was an insider chronicler of the immense degeneration which was spreading as an epidemic in the high echelons of th

Central pollution watchdog sees red in Union ministry labelling waste to energy green

By Chythenyen Devika Kulasekaran*  “Destructors”, “incinerators” and “waste-to-energy (WTE) incineration” all mean the same thing – indiscriminate burning of garbage! Having a history of about one and a half centuries, WTE incinerators have seen several reboots over the 19th, 20th and 21st centuries. 

First-of-its-kind? 'Eco-friendly, low cost' sewage treatment system installed in Gujarat

Counterview Desk Following the installation of the Unconventional Decentralized Multi-Stage Reactor (UDMSR) for sewage treatment, a note on what is claimed to be the  first-of-its-kind technology said, the treated sewage from this system “can be directly utilized for agricultural purposes”, even as proving to be a “saviour in the times of water crisis.”

A Hindu alternative to Valentine's Day? 'Shiv-Parvati was first love marriage in Universe'

By Rajiv Shah*   The other day, I was searching on Google a quote on Maha Shivratri which I wanted to send to someone, a confirmed Shiv Bhakt, quite close to me -- with an underlying message to act positively instead of being negative. On top of the search, I chanced upon an article in, imagine!, a Nashik Corporation site which offered me something very unusual. 

Indo-Bangla border: Farmers facing 'illegal obstacles' in harvesting, transporting yields

  Counterview Desk  In a representation to the chairperson, National Human Rights Commission, human rights defender Kirity Roy, who is secretary, Banglar Manabadhikar Suraksha Mancha (MASUM), has said that Border Security Force (BSF) personnel are creating "illegal obstacles" for farmers seeking to harvest their ripened yields and transport them to the market in village Jhaukuthi of Cooch Behar district.

Wasteland, a colonial legacy, being used to 'give away' vast tracts to Ratnagiri refinery

By Fouziya Tehzeeb* William D’Souza, a 55-year old farmer from Kuthethur, Mangalore, was busy mixing cattle feed when we arrived at his doorsteps. Around 25 km from the bustling city of Mangalore, Kuthethur is a lush green village with thick vegetation. On the way to William’s house the idyllic view gets blocked by the flares and smoke arising from the Mangalore Refinery and Petrochemicals Limited (MRPL).

'Flawed' argument: Gandhi had minimal role, naval mutinies alone led to Independence

Counterview Desk Reacting to a Counterview  story , "Rewiring history? Bose, not Gandhi, was real Father of Nation: British PM Attlee 'cited'" (January 26, 2016), an avid reader has forwarded  reaction  in the form of a  link , which carries the article "Did Atlee say Gandhi had minimal role in Independence? #FactCheck", published in the site satyagrahis.in. The satyagraha.in article seeks to debunk the view, reported in the Counterview story, taken by retired army officer GD Bakshi in his book, “Bose: An Indian Samurai”, which claims that Gandhiji had a minimal role to play in India's freedom struggle, and that it was Netaji who played the crucial role. We reproduce the satyagraha.in article here. Text: Nowadays it is said by many MK Gandhi critics that Clement Atlee made a statement in which he said Gandhi has ‘minimal’ role in India's independence and gave credit to naval mutinies and with this statement, they concluded the whole freedom struggle.

CAA disregards India's inclusive plural ethos, 'betrays' ideals of freedom struggle: PUCL

Counterview Desk    "Outraged" at the move of the Central government to implement the Citizenship Amendment Act, 2019 (CAA 2019) weeks before the election, the top rights group, People's Union for Civil Liberties (PUCL), has demanded that the law be repealed. 

Buddhist shrines were 'massively destroyed' by Brahmanical rulers: Historian DN Jha

Nalanda mahavihara By Our Representative Prominent historian DN Jha, an expert in India's ancient and medieval past, in his new book , "Against the Grain: Notes on Identity, Intolerance and History", in a sharp critique of "Hindutva ideologues", who look at the ancient period of Indian history as "a golden age marked by social harmony, devoid of any religious violence", has said, "Demolition and desecration of rival religious establishments, and the appropriation of their idols, was not uncommon in India before the advent of Islam".

Sections of BSF, BGB personnel 'directly or indirectly' involved in cross border smuggling

By Kirity Roy*  The Border Security Force (BSF) of India and the Border Guard Bangladesh (BGB) of Bangladesh met for 54th Director General level meeting at Dhaka, Bangladesh, on 5th to 9th March, 2024 to discuss on minimizing killings at border area, illegal intrusion, trafficking of drugs and other narcotics, smuggling of arms and ammunitions and other crimes at bordering areas. Further, the summit had an agenda to discuss on overall development in 150 yards area at both sides of the border and design an activity plan for the same.