Hyderabad: Global data suggests that 60% of the people who fell into poverty after 1990 are from India.
After that year, it was the first time ever that India had added 75 million poor to its population, observed the Political Economist Parakala Prabhakar.
Prabhakar is known for his strong critical views of the current Union government in which his wife Nirmala Sitharaman is serving as Minister for Finance. He emphasised the need for ‘public scrutiny’ citing indicators like 25% of the global malnourished are from India.
Expressing concern over the way how the economics have impacted the countryside, he explained that this was the first time that the scheme of Mahatma Gandhi National Rural Employment Guarantee Act 2005 (MGNREGA) was receiving maximum number of applications. “About three to four crore have left agriculture and are now applying for coolie work. The companies selling FMGC goods to villages are worried as there is no purchasing power left (in rural India),” he said during the talk ‘Decoding our Republic’s Crisis’ on Saturday organised by Media Education Foundation India (MEFI) in City. The session was presided over by K Sreenivas Reddy, Foundation’s chairman.
This was not the first time Prabhakar spoke against the Union government’s policies. After his recent book launch The Crooked Timber of New India: Essays on a Republic in Crisis he became more vocal and wishes that the citizenry will straighten the ‘Crooked Timber’ by engaging in healthy debate.
From Secular to Hindu India
Discussing elaborately on the political situation, he blamed all the political parties for ‘indifference’ shown to the rising intolerance of ‘others’ in the country. He recalled there was a time when BJP set the discourse drawing lines between parties ‘secular’ and ‘pseudo secular’. The discourse has completely changed. Now it is between Hindu and Secular Hindu. In the latest discourse it is either ‘I am Hindu, not like them’ (Muslims) or ‘I am Secular Hindu, not like them’. Out of ‘personal interests’ people are supporting this influential section which claims that the country belongs only to Hindus and others have no place to live and if you want to live you must be submissive. They are not concerned with the long struggle India faced before independence and they are not concerned about the constitution and debates in the background which shaped it. All the political parties are to be blamed,” he felt.
Muslims are no part
While referring to the representation of Muslims in Union Ministry, Lok Sabha, Rajya Sabha, Assemblies in BJP ruled States and tickets given to them during elections including latest Karnataka, Prabhakar felt that the BJP was clearly sending a message that Muslims were not needed. “I don’t need you and you are not part of the scheme of things. I can win even without you and in spite of you. The minority group with 15% to 20% does not have a place in the country’s political, parliamentary, economic framework. This is the impunity where it is being felt that none can oppose this. The worrying factor is that there is growing receptivity for it amongst the educated,” he explained
Advani’s ‘untouchability’ formula
While referring to calls of genocide by law makers and complete economic boycott of community, he blamed on the political parties for their failure to comprehend the risks of befriending BJP for opposing Congress, when the saffron party was new. “L K Advani used to say that there should not be any untouchability and we are also like you. The parties shared a single platform and there was either anti-Congress or pro-Congress. Today there is a shift (either anti-BJP or pro-BJP), which is a massive transformation in Indian politics. They (parties) thought there was no threat to democracy and remained in slumber between one election and another,” he felt.
Political parties cannot bring change
According to Prabhakar, the ‘ideology of divisiveness’ should be tackled carefully by citizenry and with commitment may take decades to drive out. “Without knowing the depth of this challenge one cannot face it. It is not possible by political parties,” he added.
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