008 Where is India leading?

Late Jawaharlal Nehru, the first Prime Minister of India was a visionary. He launched India on the path of socialism which aimed at and partly succeeded in creating a sustainable public sector. The merit of Public Sector reaching commanding heights visualised by Nehru was, the social ownership of India's natural resources and means of production.

Mr. Manmohan Singh, the 2004-11 Prime Minister of India, garlanded Nehru's statue, on the 19th Nov. 2011 as a part of the ritual of Nehru's birthday celebration. It is a pathetic site to see the demon Singh paying tributes to the first PM.


REVERSE REVOLUTION IN INDIA
Mr. Manmohan Singh has the dubious distinction of reversing everything Nehru visualised and introduced, in the name of economic reforms, liberalisation, privatisation and globalisation (LPG). The demon Singh, instead of taking ahead Nehru's policies to the next higher level, stabbed them.

We, now have private monsters, in every activity in India, with glaring inequalities of income and wealth, disproportionate by any standards of reasonableness. E.g.: Antilia, the 27 floored house of Mr. Mukhesh Ambani, the scion of Dhirubhai Ambani. The 27 floored house was intended to be a dwelling of just Mukhesh Ambani, his wife Nita, three children and his mother. Total is, just six. We can now, compare this opulence and garish luxury with the slum dwellers of Mumbai, where 20,000 people can pack themselves in the same area, with the housing being too scarce and too expensive.


Another example. National Mineral Development Corporation was the mining organ of the Government of India. Some States have their own Mineral Development Corporations. Then how is it, that Mr. Gali Janardan Reddy and his Obulapuram Mining Company could make nearly $1 billion exporting iron ore? How is it that Rashtriya Ispat Nigam Limited, Visakhapatnam, a public Sector Steel Company is suffering from shortage of its raw material, the iron ore? The Governments are feeding the private sector tycoons and starving the Public Sector.

One more example. Nehru, J.R.D. Tata and other visionaries developed Air-India and Indian Airlines as a public sector entity which would cater both to forward regions like Maharashtra and backward regions like the North East. But what did Mr. Singh and his ilk do? They brought in a dozen private airlines with promises. The Private Airlines, by their recklessness not only became sick , but also made Air India sick. The Government, now, wants to sell Air-India. Where are the buyers? The Private Sector in the eyes of Mr. Singh's team, is supremely efficient. Then, how is it Kingfisher Airlines unable to pay its fuel bill? How is it, that its planes do not fly as per schedule? Had this taken place for the public sector Airline Air India, the industrialists and their crony media would have made hue and cry pin-pointing repeatedly the failures of public sector. Why don't they now speak about their own failures?

The Media, even now, trumpets Mr. Singh as the great emancipator of Indian Economy. He and his assistant-turned-boss Mr. Pranab Mukherjee repeatedly assert that they are going to launch the second phase of economic reforms. Mr. Mukherjee is very keen on disinvestment of public sector, by disposing off the shares held by the Government. This, they are going to do in profit making public sector undertaking, because the private sector industrialists will not buy the shares of loss-making public sector Undertakings unless they have lands which can be converted into real estate. Why nobody buys Air India? Why everybody wants ONGC or IOC?

Thus the economy is on the reverse gear, by selling shares in profitable Companies and holdng on to loss-making Companies.