December 6, 2023
Jawhar Sircar’s speech in the Rajya Sabha during the Short Duration Discussion on the Economic Situation in the Country
Sir, Mr. Jethmalani, before me, has described statistics. There is a fourth category that I would like to bring to your attention. Sir, I modify it, but to the extent that I would like my friends in the House on both sides to be aware of the realities. They keep talking about GDP growth I would not contest it because it is too complicated for many to understand. But what does GDP growth mean where I am concerned and you are concerned that is per capita GDP, per person GDP. The GDP of Ambani and GDP of Adani does not matter to me. We just had the G-20 meeting and there we made a calculation that the US has 63000 dollars by way of their per capita GDP, Australia has 61000 dollars, Indonesia has 4000 dollars plus per person and India is the lowest, I repeat India is lowest among the group that has just 2085 dollars per GDP. So, look at realism, do not go in for bravado and bragging. When you talk of GDP, you must remember that you are taking the wealth of the upper five per cent to inflate your figures. I have just given the example of how the upper crust has increased its wealth. The Ambani wealth was Rs. 1.6 lakh crores in 2014, I repeat Rs. 1.6 lakh crores in 2014. It is Rs. 8.6 lakh crores today, five times more. Please show me an Indian who has grown his income in the last nine years by five times before you make further statements. Adani’s went up from Rs. 1.2 lakh crores, this is more phenomenal, but, I will not get into the details. From Rs. 1.2 lakh crores, they have gone up to Rs. 6 lakh crores plus which is again another five times growth. No Indian has ever grown to this growth during the last nine years. So, don’t take credit for enriching the oligarch, don’t take credit for enriching and fattening the capitalist class and then say, ‘we grew as a whole’. Now look at your reality. World Bank’s unemployment figures, I am quoting from the World Bank because most Indians and foreigners have given up on Indian statistics. It is so punctuated with untruth. The World Bank’s 2022 unemployment rate it shows that in India there is 23.2 per cent unemployment. Compare it with Pakistan, a failed state, Pakistan is 11 per cent, less than half; compare it with Bangladesh, once upon a time a basket case, Bangladesh is 13 per cent and we are 23 per cent. Bhutan is 14.9 per cent. So, where are the realities that you are drum drumming about GDP and becoming the fourth biggest and the third biggest in the world? Come to reality. We have the annual survey of industries pointing out that we are steadily moving towards contractual labour. We are turning a rightful, respectful wage earner into a product that is at the mercy of employer so far as labour timing and everything is concerned. I come to the labour participation ratio. The labour participation ratio – the Labour Minister was here, but does not seem to be unduly interested — the LFPR in India is one of the worst in the world. I repeat at the cost of perjury, one of the worst in the world. 42 to 45 per cent was the participation of labour. That means the vast majority was outside the network of labour. Mercifully, it has gone up to 50 per cent now. 50 per cent! But look at the other countries; Nepal 83 per cent. Nepal is able to provide labour force participation of 83 per cent; again, Bangladesh, twice more, China 60 per cent. What are we talking about? This much, of course, relates to the female labour participation ratio, where I repeat the figure, India is only 20.5 per cent, Nepal 83 per cent, Bangladesh 30 plus per cent, China 60 per cent and even Sri Lanka that was on the verge of collapse, they have a female labour participation of one-and-a-half times of ours. When it comes to male and female combined, we have been 42 and 45 per cent during the entire regime of the last nine years. I repeat 42 to 45 per cent, one of the lowest in the world. It has just gone up to 50 per cent. We look at gender gap. Jebi already mentioned about the gender gap. I repeat that compare the gender gap of India at 28 per cent with double that in Bangladesh. She also mentioned about the rising debt. I repeat debt is increasing at a phenomenal rate as we are binding future generations, your grandsons, your sons, my sons and my grandsons to a debt that we are not entitled to. One more minute, Sir. Debt ratio has come to almost 90 per cent. Sir, just one last word, one last word on defaulters, on banks, just one word; we were coming around to the banks, defaults of the banks and there yesterday’s figures, that is why I am giving it to the House, is 14.5 lakh crores of rupees have been written off. Dr. Karad is sitting there. He insists that writing off means nothing, but I insist that writing off is actually the legitimization of the destruction of your funds, my funds kept with the banks. The corporate sector. I will give the calculations. Thanks to the cooperation, thanks to the transparent reply given by Dr. Karad and others, the corporate sector alone has liquated ten lakh crores rupees in nine years. Sir, Rs. 10 lakh crores have gone down the drain to save the corporate sector! Whereas, NREGA – hon. Minister is sitting somewhere here who alone has.
