“History repeats itself, first as tragedy, then as farce”, said Karl Marx. It is unlikely he had the farce that took place in New Delhi recently in mind.
On30th June 2017, history repeated itself as farce, as the Indian Union’s incumbent BJP government presented its ‘revolutionary’ step — the Goods and Services Tax or GST.
This GST replaces state and central taxes on most goods and services by “one tax” that will be divided between centre and state and whose rate cannot be changed by individual states.
The tragedy that led to this farce happened when a perfectly autonomous set of nations with a good degree of mutual cooperation was made into a super-centralized system called the Indian Union.
The GST that ends the autonomous power of individual states to change tax rates in their realm is a natural corollary of the process that started in August 1947. Much like how the partition in 1947 changed the world, the Indian Union will not be the same again after the GST.
It effectively destroys what was left of a federal structure in a constitutional system that in spirit wants to destroy all sources of power except Delhi. This precedent was set in 1757 when the British chose Mir Jafar to lead
Bengal, while they themselves got revenue powers. That is when the natives realised that power lies where the money is.
This is true today. By capturing nearly all elastic sources of revenue from the states, the New Delhi of 2017 shows it has learned well from the New Delhi of 1947 and Calcutta of 1757.
At the GST’s final hurrah at Delhi, the pomp was in vain. Much of the opposition was absent. Trinamool led the charge by announcing the boycott first. The Left Front, which rarely aligns with the Trinamool also joined. So did many others.
There was no consensus, however much Arun Jaitley wants to claim there was. From concealing crucial data from state finance ministers to blackmailing states by threatening to bring the GST as a money bill, this government has tried every parliamentary and administrative trick.
The Union Finance Minister Arun Jaitley switched from English to Hindi in his speech, thus underlining the brazen Hindi supremacist ideology of his party and government. This switch was hardly a consensus building measure in a federal union where a majority have non-Hindi mother tongues.
The GST is a nail in the coffin of federalism and a huge victory for the Anglo-Hindi corporate kleptocracy that has now aligned with Hindi-Hindu-Hindustan in a marriage of mutual convenience.
The GST will further destroy the few methods left to the states to generate revenue independent of the centre. The long-range design is clear — to homogenise the whole subcontinent for the benefit of big money and its wishes.
The GST that ends the autonomous power of individual states to change tax rates in their realm is a natural corollary of the process that started in August 1947. Much like how the Partition in 1947 changed the world, the Indian Union will not be the same again after the GST
From stupendous public investments in ‘world-class’ NCR to dedicated corridors that will rip across people and their livelihood, the force that hates states rights, human rights, and environmental rights but singularly upholds the ‘right’ to choose from a larger array of consumer goods, points to something called ‘aspiration’ as a liberating force.
This force loves individuals and hates families, loves bands of shoppers and hates consumer right collectives, loves eco-tourism and hates environmental clearances. In the end, this era belongs to those who can smoothen the transfer and investment of big capital — wherever, whenever — and destroy all impedance on the way.
These impedances, known in the subcontinent as jal-jangal-jibika-jomi-jonmobhumi — human rights, family ties, tribal homelands, rights of states and federalism — are holding back GDP numbers. Remove them and New Delhi will shoot to the stratosphere and will pull up the rest to the clouds.
But those who want to stick to their ground, peoples whose lives, dreams and economies are not out of this world but evolve on the land of their ancestors, speed-breakers are their only hope.
Surrender by the states on the question of GST is tantamount to betrayal. The Indian Union is, after all, a federal union of diverse people with diverse aspirations, identities and markets.
Markets are for the people and not the other way round. The illusion of free movement of goods is a cover for the free and unhindered extraction of profit from places with weak manufacturing bases.
In this game, forces bigger than the Congress (I) and the BJP put together have a stake in pushing the states to the wall. ‘National interest’ always brings the ‘national’ parties together. The people and federalism be damned.
The writer is a brain scientist and commentator based in Bengal
Published in Daily Times, July 5th , 2017.