Daily Times

One of the cruellest features of the present period of lull and social stagnation in the Indian subcontinent is how economic and social conditions are seen from the standpoint of the bosses with disregard for the pain and misery inflicted by this economic development on the heaving millions. The media and the dominant intelligentsia are singing the laurels of the growth of the economy of Gujarat and crediting Narindra Modi, the Hindu fundamentalist Chief Minister of the state, for this success. His anointment as its prime ministerial candidate by the Bharatia Janata Party (BJP) high command laid bare the dark reaction of the Indian right wing and bankruptcy of the so-called secular Indian politics and the state. The nationalist Indian bourgeoisie and the imperialist corporate strategists have come out openly in support of this religious bigot.

Most business houses in India and bourgeois economists have embraced Modi. The Economic Times in its September issue published the results of a poll of 100 Indian corporate leaders, 74 of whom would like to see Modi as the next prime-minister, compared to seven who opted for the possible Congress candidate, Rahul Gandhi. British economist and author Jim O’Neil wrote on his blog that Modi is “good on economics”, one of the things that “India desperately needs in a leader.” In August 2013, this financial analyst wrote in his weekly Greed & Fear that “the Indian stock market’s greatest hope is the emergence of Gujarat Chief Minister Narindra Modi as the BJP’s prime ministerial candidate.”

During his visit to China in November 2006, O’Neil studied the feasibility of the Special Economic Zones (SEZ) to be set up in Gujarat. In India, these SEZs are notoriously infamous as the Special Exploitation Zones. A month after his visit, the Chinese regime released 13 Indian diamond traders who had been jailed by the Customs authorities in Shenzhen, which Modi described as being the consequence of his diplomatic efforts and statesmanship.

In 2011, the Pakistani business tycoons were so overwhelmed by Modi’s business charisma, the Karachi Chamber of Commerce extended an invitation to him to visit Pakistan and address prominent business leaders. Some suggested Pakistan could follow the ‘Gujarat Model’. Modi’s golden harvest for Gujarati bosses and bitter pill for the working masses sucked in western imperialist nations. The UK refused to deal with Modi for a decade following the 2002 violence but lifted its diplomatic boycott in October 2012. Later, in March 2013, the European Union also ended its boycott, completing forgetting his active role in the massacre of over 2,000 innocent Muslims during the 2002 state-instigated massacre. The international bourgeoisie is justifying their somersault by saying that engaging with Modi was a separate issue from that of protecting human rights and those of women.

The general conditions of the masses in Gujarat itself are abysmal and Modi has been ferociously attacking the trade unions and the workers’ struggles. It is not an accident or sentimental reasons that Modi is so much of a darling for the bourgeois bosses in India and internationally. He had imposed severe conditions for the workers and carried out brutal neoliberal policies of privatisation, downsizing, liberalisation, restructuring and reductions in corporate tax with added benefits to the capitalists. In the Global Hunger index, Gujarat is in the bottom five states in India, and globally performs worse even than states like Haiti. 80 percent of children below four years and 60 percent of pregnant women are anaemic in Gujarat (a virtual anemia epidemic that Modi cynically laughs off as a case of ‘beauty conscious girls’ starving themselves!). The aggressive economic policies of imposing a brutal capitalist system that Modi is notorious for have been responsible for the deaths of thousands of children, women and the elderly from hunger and curable diseases. Modi becoming prime minister will further exasperate the terrible misery, disease, poverty, price hike and unemployment the Indian masses are currently going through.

The rise of Modi also indicates the desperation of the Indian ruling classes that are now using religion more than ever before to break class unity and are indifferent to the bloodshed the violence this religious hatred evokes. Modi is a diehard activist of the reactionary Hindu chauvinist Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sang that takes inspiration from Hitler, Mussolini and other fascists. It is the main force in the Hindu nationalist umbrella organization the BJP. It was actually the RSS that forced Modi’s anointment for the prime ministerial slot.

Already the Indian growth rate has less than halved and the rupee has depreciated to record lows. Inflation and the fall in the growth rate are already hurting the middle class. This petit bourgeoisie that was the bastion of fundamentalist reaction is now in severe turmoil and facing the brunt of this crisis. According to Business Insider, “As capital outflows continue, India is struggling to plug its widening current account gap (6.7 percent of GDP last year). This has become the worst economic crisis for the nation since 1991, when India’s government, faced with depleted foreign reserves, had to resort to asking the IMF for help. At the time, the country had secured a $ 2.2 billion loan, backed by 67 tons of gold reserves. To satisfy the IMF’s concerns about access to the collateral, the RBI had to airlift 47 tons of gold to be deposited offshore with the Bank of England and 20 tons of gold with UBS. While such action is unlikely this time around, if the crisis continues to escalate, Asia’s third largest economy will struggle to grow. Even though economists still do not expect a contraction, it is now a real possibility.”

The crisis afflicting the Indian economy exposes the fragile nature of Indian capitalism and its crisis. Its ruling classes have failed to create a modern nation state. To continue this system will require even more vicious attacks on the toiling masses. India has 20 percent of the world’s population and hosts more than 40 percent of its poverty. More than two thirds of its population is forced to live in absolute poverty. The designated poor for the Congress Party’s food handouts have been numbered at more than 810 million. If a despot like Modi is used to bulldoze this atrocious programme it will be a drastic provocation that could ignite a revolutionary inferno. The Indian proletariat has glorious traditions of revolutionary struggles. There have been massive strikes in recent months. Karl Marx once wrote, “Sometimes the whip of counter-revolution is necessary to make the revolution move forward.” Modi in power could prove to be just that whip.

The writer is the editor of Asian Marxist Review and International Secretary of Pakistan Trade Union Defence Campaign. He can be reached at ptudc@hotmail.com