February 3, 2022
Jawhar Sircar speaks during the Motion of Thanks on the President’s Address
FULL TRANSCRIPT
Thank you Madam Chairperson.
This is my maiden speech, the first speech I am going to make in Parliament after a patient wait for six months.
Madam, Chairperson,
Thank you for the opportunity to speak before this august House. I celebrate the sixth month of my oath-taking. I have not spoken in six months. I hope you would be gracious enough to give me the time allotted for maiden speeches. We have heard a lot of ‘Modinama’ for the last couple of days in a manner that puts anyone to shame, anyone with a certain amount of self-respect. India today is at the crossroads as it has never been before. Indian history is going to be judged on what we do today and what we do for tomorrow. Our polity is shattered, our political framework has never been so threatened—the political framework created by those who fought for India’s freedom and not by those who ran away from India’s freedom struggle. Our society is fractured. Brother is against brother and it is now a credit to discredit someone else. Our economy is mauled. It has never gone through such a rough patch. I have worked for 41 years in government and I know that we have never gone through such a bad patch, not even in 1991. Much of the destruction of the economy is thanks to the deliberate policies that have not understood their mayday.
The first two problems that I would highlight are inequality or inequity and joblessness. For God’s sake, as the representative of the people of India, we need to understand that the printed word and flowery phrases do not mean much to those who go hungry, those who are without jobs and as we stand and talk today, 100 crore people are at a labour pause between [the ages of] 15 and 64. Between 15 and 64, the government has said there are 100 crore people [potential working population] and it is the government and CMIE and others who have admitted that only 40 pe rcent is the labour participation ratio. This means, in effect, 60 crore Indians have no job security. We need not quibble over the exact number of the unemployed, those who are without any jobs, whatsoever, forget security; it could be around six crore. The rate of unemployment has never reached such a devastating proportion as it has reached today. On the other hand, we see in this inequitable system an openly capitalist system that was ushered in by a certain person in 2014. Never before in the history of India have we seen such naked capitalism. We see somebody [somebody’s business worth], who flew him in a plane, has shot up from 14 billion USD to 41 billion USD. The bottom half of India has lost what it had and is now holding on to 13 per cent of the national wealth. Thirteen per cent of the national wealth is held by the bottom half of India while the top 10 per cent alone—their numbers are just a handful—have abrogated 22 per cent. We can go on about figures of poverty because poverty itself is open to definition. One reliable statistic says that about 15 crore Indians were lifted out of poverty in the 10 years from 2006. If we go by that figure, we have to see, along with that, that 14 crore have been pushed into poverty in the last two years. What a credit! Pushing then back into poverty. Joblessness I have already told you about.
Without an equitable economy, what does it matter if the Indian economy reaches Rs 3 trillion or Rs 30 trillion? Because all of it will be going into the pockets of a few while the others will go hungry. Hunger has already been mentioned. To give effect to this—in what I would say is a misconstrued gameplan—we find that privatisation has been given much more emphasis than ever before in Indian history. The disinvestment budget for 2021-22 is Rs 1.75 lakh crore. I wonder how much they have been able to get. But over and above this disinvestment, is giving it up for ever. The government has come up with a new ploy for the National Monetisation Pipeline (NMP). This NMP targets six lakh crore people over a period of five to six years and this year’s target is I think around Rs 88,000 crore.
Twenty categories of national assets—roads, freight corridors, railway lines, power (6 lakh crore watts of power), gas (8,000 kilometres of gas pipelines), 25 airports, and I can go on with the list—would be handed over for a lease period to those who may return them after extracting whatever is there in them. What guarantee do we have that after the so-called lease period we shall be getting back those goods in the state that we gave them, if at all we have to give them?
There are a large number of coal projects and we know who are the largest coal handlers in India. Again we come to the same question: For whose benefit are we going for massive privatisation? You have not put up any public assets. Who has authorised you to sell family silver? You have not earned it. These are developed from the earnings of the taxpayers and by visionary leaders, and you have now tasked yourself with selling them over to people friendly with you. When I use a term like that, let me give you an example. Six airports were privatised; the six were privatised to a friend, that is all I need to say. The procedures were tuned accordingly, as bureaucrats would say, and all six airports went to a person who has never handled an airport in his life; may have only travelled through an airport as a passenger. What happens if he puts on captive rates now?
The LIC is the crown jewel of India. It is worth around Rs 40 lakh crore. It has six lakh agents and employees. This LIC of Rs 40 lakh crore. You know what Rs 40 lakh crore means—a Budget is normally in the range of Rs 35 lakh crore. So the LIC, that has been built up as such a solid institution, is now being diluted in favour of American insurance companies, I am putting it bluntly.
Banks, over the last 12 years, have given us Rs 16,55,000 crore of profit, of operating profit; what you show as actual [profit] depends on what you need to or force them to deduct on account of NPAs. While the inflation rate is at 6 per cent, the fixed deposit rate is below 6 per cent, at 5.5 per cent, at 5 per cent, so you, that is, we, as a government, are actually stealing 1 per cent of the depositors’ money by eroding its value every year. Never before has this happened. I look upon two sectors to ensure that the next generation of Indians is better than what we are.
Education. The figure given by the Education Minister yesterday, in a reply to a question, says that five years ago, the Central Government’s contribution to education was 1.07 per cent of the GDP. The Education Minister’s reply is that Mr Modi’s government has brought it down this year to 0.9 per cent—it has come down even below the shameful 1 per cent. I understand that you do not understand education; it’s all right that you do not need to understand, you can plant degrees.
The States, the poor cash-strapped States have contributed 3.31 per cent of the GDP. Therefore, India’s total contribution of education to GDP comes to 4.30 [per cent], thanks to the States. But then I find that in this government the left hand does not know what the right hand is doing. The Economic Survey says, on page 352, that education’s percentage contribution to GDP is 2.8 per cent. The Education Minister said it is 4.3 per cent but page 352 of the Economic Survey says it is 2.8 per cent to 3.1 per cent. Bhaisaab, there is a lot of difference between 3.1 per cent of GDP and 4.3 per cent of GDP. Hazaro lakho karore ka fark hai. Education as a percentage of GDP, as I said, has been going down year after year and you are doing nothing about it. The [allocation for the] major scheme for higher education—I was checking and they have replied—known as RUSA, or Rashtriya Uchchatar Shiksha Abhiyan, has come down from Rs 1400 crore five years ago to Rs 165 crore this year. From 1400 crore to 165 crore, and this is just one example!
I move on to health. Health, whenever we talk about, India will never forget those devastating scenes of corpses of people being burnt on pavements or in parks. Corpses are being thrown into rivers to hide figures. The figures that the Government of India has given, and repeatedly given, of deaths is challenged by every country in the world, including Burkina Faso. Our statistics have no value whatsoever. We are beating China where credibility is concerned. So, we will not forget the massive deaths that happened despite all the drum-beating that you undertake now. Why did you not order for vaccines when they were being made in India? Why were you going around the world, as a ‘Vishwaguru’, as somebody, as a ‘pharmacy of the world’, when your own vaccine companies were moving from pillar to post in Delhi asking for a purchase policy? When they booked these vaccines for a foreign market, you clamped down upon them, and thankfully you did not declare them anti-nationals! But you got very late. Your late entry into the vaccine market caused an immense number of deaths for which India will never forgive you. On health, our total spend is just 1.2 per cent. It’s one of the most shameful things, so much so that we bow our heads in shame when we talk in international forums. It has gone up now from 1.2 to 1.8 per cent, though even 1.8 is no percentage. Brazil spends 9.2, Bhutan spends 2.5, Russia spends 5.3 and the advanced countries spend at least 5+.
Do not look only at ‘India Shining’ because you will face the same fate that the person who spoke of ‘India Shining’ got. Look back, look into ourselves, look into these factors, look into factors like health and education. You talk of Ayushman Bharat, you talk of insurance cover—as somebody said, all the money has gone to insurance company. So, look at a different picture and for that, you have to come to West Bengal. See the scheme that we have initiated, called Swasthya Sathi, and you will see that everyone possible has got a card and can walk into a private hospital free of cost because the Bengal government pays for them. Look, look at where things are working more positively instead of spending hours and hours in dividing alphabets to give fancy names to your schemes, with acronyms.
Look at the state of institutions, the public institutions that uphold democracy. TRAI, Telecom Regulatory Authority of India, that’s where the game started. Within a week of his coming, Mr Modi amended the TRAI Act so that the TRAI chairman could be his principal secretary, and the chairperson accepted it quite shamelessly. That is where the rot began. The subsequent chairmen of TRAI have facilitated the growth of one telecom empire and have devastated all other telecom companies, to the extent that the Government of India is forced to buy up the major share in one limping company.
Look at the Election Commission of India. I’ll not comment on the present commission, because we have not had sufficient interaction with it, but the previous commission consisted of a chief election commissioner who was an international shame. His partisanship is a matter that is listed in stone in Nirvachan Sadan. He tampered with everything in favour of the ruling party. To give another example of how elections were run, the central armed forces sent to Bengal outnumbered the Bengal police. Can you imagine that in Kerala or any other state, that the number of central armed forces sent are double that, are 150 per cent of your own forces? Are you trying to run a colonial state? But then the people gave their verdict. The people’s verdict must be remembered. VVPAT, the paper trail, was introduced and forced by the Supreme Court to be operationalised. That VVPAT is today undergoing a feet-dragging with the consent of one particular [former] chief justice, who has now switched on to the other side. Anyway, our humble submission is that when the 2024 election comes, please be bold enough to utilise the hundreds of crores that you have spent on VVPATs and let two results emanate, one from EVMs and the other from VVPATs. Why do they have to force you? Why do you have to hide? Us the VVPAT, use the paper trail. And, I challenge the Election Commission’s deputy commissioner, who lied before the Supreme Court that it takes five to six days to count paper trails. I have counted, I don’t know how many election results on paper; it does not take that long. Why do you lie and why do you connive with such lies? Election bonds, another institutionalised shame.
Look at the institutions that we talk about. Prasar Bharati, that I happened to serve during a difficult period. The last two years that I served, under this regime, is something that I leave for my biography, or something. It was one of the worst. Look at what they have done to the CBI and the ED, as instruments of political vendetta. The CBI and the ED were excellent professional services, let me tell you, for even those who were angry with them. Their professionalism is being destroyed by putting henchmen at the top and giving them extension after extension in collusion with legislation. The judiciary … <Chair interevenes> In honour of the Chair, I will wind up. Look at the CAG, look at the conduct of the CAG. The last two, under this regime, compromised to such an extent that the nation never came to know the cost of demonetisation, the nation never came to know the cost of the Rafale deal and what was proper and improper about them. One of them has got a Padma Bhushan for it, maybe the other should also be given one. The original mastermind, who actually fell the government in 2014, has procured more rewards than any gentleman would ever do.
In any case, I move on to the last major critical point—federal relations. Remember, the Indian federation and the Indian civilization came together in an act of unison voluntarily, through their own consensus. We have been ruled by a central authority for less than 500 years. The Mauryas ruled for 200 years, the Mughals’ effective rule was 120 years, the Britishers’ effective rule was 150 years. Seventy to 80 per cent of India was ruled for 500 years by central powers. Our civilization is at least 5,500 of recorded history and we have had 500 years or less of central authority rule, which means that for the remaining 5,000 years, Indians have come together as a civilization because they felt like it, because they felt it was conducive. Do not turn that into an instrument of hegemony.
Look at how the BSF’s jurisdiction has been extended without consulting the States, look at how economic grants for the States are being dealt with and look at the last blow, the Indian Administrative Service. The Indian Administrative Service shuttles between the Centre and the States. It is not the fault of officers that they don’t want to serve the Centre now. Ten years ago, 309 IAS officers served the Centre, today it should have been 409 against 309. But the number has come down to 223. Can’t you get the message, they don’t want to come and serve under you? You can’t use force now to draw them from the States and work under you. Force does not work anywhere and everywhere. Out of 6,500 posts, 1,500 are vacant. For god’s sake, you had seven-eight years to fill them up. Fill them up now, don’t hegemonise, don’t bully the State, don’t bully the State.
I come down to the last lap of my presentation on the President’s speech. The entire thing is being run on controls and arrogance, even Aadhaar. The linking of Aadhaar to Voter Card is another indication of this control-freak mentality. The Central Vista is another arrogant display of hubris. There was no need. Members, please go and see Rajpath. It was perfectly fine, but it has cost Rs 606 crore to redo the Rajpath and put up a few lamp shades and lamp posts, and visitors’ seats. What sort of nonsense is this? It’s just hubris. I don’t know, it would have been much better if you renamed Rajpath in somebody’s name. Six buildings will come up on two sides, six unimaginative buildings, six unaesthetic buildings will be coming up on the two sides of Rajpath as part of the grand plan of the Central Vista by shattering the National Museum, Vigyan Bhawan, National Archives of India, National Cultural Centre. Everything will be shattered so that six buildings can come up. I have served the central bureaucracy, Mr Modi, you have not served. I know there is no need for it because even if you bring them down for your Modinagar, there will still be people working outside.
The draconian extends now to snooping, and Pegasus is the greatest example of how his state has become a surveillance state. All evidence points to surveillance but the government does not have the guts to come out and say no. It sends governors with the same intention—of disturbing the constitutional mechanism, of only disturbing people, and the one that we have got is also … the less said the better.
As we celebrate 75 years of India’s independence, all Indians are bold. We remember with pride the Quit India Movement, that was led by Mahatma Gandhi, and which was opposed by those who are now monopolising its celebration. We remember those who went to jail, stayed 15 years in jail and are abused on a daily basis by those who never saw the insides of any jail. We are proud of our flag that was opposed in writing in the Organiser, the mouthpiece of the RSS, and this allegiance to the flag was brought in at gunpoint by Sardar Patel who jailed these people for one-and-a-half years; for one-and-a-half years they were in jail. And we are now told that they are now the monopolists of patriotism. This government is not worthy of further discussion because every act that it has undertaken is an act that spells out deep hubris, the tendency to homogenise a country that is necessarily heterogeneous. Indian civilization will thrive on its heterogeneity, not on any enforced homogeneity.
Thank you, Chair.
