Gandhi and Ambedkar, when strongly espousing their views on the
political economy would be dubbed left wing loonies today - P Sainath
21.09.2014
Catch P Sainath in
conversation with Teesta Setalvad in Communalism Combat’s Second Interview, only
on HILLELE TV
Rural affairs editor of the Hindu until July 31, 2014 and
well acclaimed for his book, ‘Everybody Loves a Good Drought’, P Sainath speaks
to activist and journalist Teesta Setalvad on the massive corporate subsidies
to India Inc in each year’s budget even as India as a country becomes tight
fisted about feeding, clothing and immunizing its poor. A skewed ethic among India’s ruling elite combined with the
shrinking space within a media that is today representative of a combination of
business interests that in turn dominates electoral politics forces strong,
independent voices of dissent to seek an alternative. Where and how the
alternate will emerge is the creative challenge before all of us, explains
Sainath.
This Interview is available in over 14 individual parts and
will be also available in a complete format soon. Facets from this
conversation:-
Corporate subsidies: The high corporate subsidies of Rs
571,000 crores exempted in the 2013-2014 budget are a steady and disturbing
trend. It is included as annexure to the annual budget and rarely discussed in
the media especially by hard rightwing economists who keep writing on ‘wasteful
subsidies.’ These direct subsidies to a
hugely pampered sector include direct corporate income tax that amounts to Rs
71,000 crores which is twice the amount that India is putting into the MNREGA
(rural employment guarantee scheme) this year. (Sainath to Setalvad)
Even if one excludes the Rs 40,000
crore foregone on personal income tax, within the overall subsidy -- since that write-off benefits a wider group of
people -- the write-offs are shocking and include customs duty exemptions for
gold and diamond jewellery that total a staggering Rs 46,000 crores! The amount
we’ve written off for corporate big business since 2005-06 is well over Rs.
36.5 lakh crores. This Rs 36.5 lakh crores, Sainath explains, could fund MNREGS
for around 105 years, at present levels. You could, in fact, run the MNREGS on
that sum, across the working lives of two generations of such labourers. The
current allocation for the rural employment guarantee scheme is around Rs
34,000 crore. As for the public distribution system [PDS], the amount could fund
it for 31 years, says Sainath, adding, that, current allocation is Rs. 1,15,000
crores. The amount written off in 2013-14 shows an increase of 132 per cent
compared to the same concessions in 2005-06. Corporate karza maafi is a growth industry,
and an efficient one.
This interview is the second of the series of audio-visual
interviews, launched on 6.9.2014 available for viewing on the internet on the
joint You Tube video channel by Communalism Combat (www.sabrang.com)
and www.hillele.org.
Working Journalists
Act: Reminding us
that the detailed work undertaken by India’s independent Press Commissions
foresaw this danger and threat, P Sainath urges that the movement for
implementation of secure jobs for journalists (Working Journalists law) that
has been subverted by the Contract system be undertaken. Just as the gains of
the organized labour movement (barely 7 per cent of the workforce is in the
organized sector, 93 per cent work in sub-human conditions in the unorganized
sector) are sought to be snatched away so another 7 per cent of our population
becomes vulnerable and pliant, working journalists though driven by ideals are
being forced into composed compliance by contractual employment that makes them
completely vulnerable. (Sainath to Setalvad)
PARI [People’s Archive
for Rural India]: Announcing
the launch of this unique project that will bring us in print, audio and video
form, the everyday stories of ordinary
Indians, Sainath explains how he and his team hope to bring in all India’s
780 plus languages and dialects, bring the urban to the internet surfing Indian
and show how the labours of the ordinary working Indian and his and her immense
contribution is visibilised so we see our cities and growth as built on that
immense everyday toil.
Watch and
Listen at
P. Sainath
Corporate Subsidies
Part I
P.
Sainath on Ruling Elite
Part II
P.
Sainath on Convergance of Media, Business and Politics
Part III
P.
Sainath on Corporate Media
Part IV
P.
Sainath on Media’s Private Treaties
Part V
P.Sainath
on 2014 Elections
Part VI
P.Sainath on Media Alternatives
Part VII
P.Sainath
on the Idealist Journalist
P.Sainath
on Paid News
Part IX
P.Sainath
on Contract Journalism
Part X
P.Sainath on
Public Action and the Media
Part XI
P.Sainath
on New Project [PARI-People’s Archive for Rural India]
Part XII
P.Sainath
on the Hard Economic Rightwing
Part XIII
P.Sainath
on the Internet and the Media
Part XIV
(Hillele Combat Bureau)
