{"id":6232,"date":"2018-09-13T14:07:54","date_gmt":"2018-09-13T14:07:54","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/newsdayzambia.com\/?p=6232"},"modified":"2018-09-13T14:08:07","modified_gmt":"2018-09-13T14:08:07","slug":"indian-left-parties-organise-nationwide-shutdown-over-crumbling-economy","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"http:\/\/newsdayzambia.com\/?p=6232","title":{"rendered":"Indian Left parties organise nationwide shutdown over crumbling economy"},"content":{"rendered":"

The impact of soaring petrol and diesel prices on the poor, corruption in defence deals and the loot of the economy by corporates\u00a0<\/strong>wereamong the issues highlighted<\/strong><\/p>\n

By\u00a0V. Arun Kumar<\/a><\/p>\n

Many parts of India, on Monday, came to a complete standstill, as Left parties and other opposition parties called for a \u2018Bharat Bandh\u2019 \u2013 a nationwide shutdown over increasing economic burdens on the working class.<\/p>\n

From early morning, activists from various Left parties and mass organizations took out processions against the skyrocketing fuel prices, which have crippled the livelihood of people across the country.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe all must protest in the strongest manner to force this callous Narendra Modi government to reduce fuel prices by cutting excise duty drastically,\u201d said Sitaram Yechury, general secretary of the Communist Party of India (Marxist), speaking to Newsclick. Yechury and D. Raja of the Communist Party of India were taken into custody by the Delhi police over the protests. In many areas, trains were stopped and roadways were blocked. The police attempted to thwart the protesters by taking them into custody.<\/p>\n

In the western state of Gujarat, central committee member of CPI(M) Arun Mehta, along with 50 other activists, was arrested.<\/p>\n

People took out processions on bullock carts to protest the soaring prices of petrol and diesel, which have touched INR 80 and INR 72 per litre. \u00a0Though the rising fuel prices are associated with the surge in global oil prices and the weakening of the rupee against the dollar, the aggressive neoliberal policies adopted by the Indian government have exacerbated the impact of these on the working class.<\/p>\n

Protesters called the government headed by the far-right wing prime minister Narendra Modi as \u2018stooges of corporate and elites\u2019 and demanded its resignation.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe exponentially rising prices of petroleum products is having a crippling effect on the livelihood of crores of Indians.\u00a0 The farmers, already groaning under mounting agrarian distress, see their production costs further escalated,\u201d noted a statement by the Communist Party of India (Marxist), Communist Party of India (Marxist-Leninist) Liberation and Communist Party of India, along with other left parties on September 6. The centrist party, Indian National Congress, later extended its support to the shutdown.<\/p>\n

\u201cThis price rise has a cascading all-round inflationary impact,\u201d the statement further noted.<\/p>\n

It is interesting to note that in India, which is primarily an oil-consuming country, a major component of the fuel prices is the taxes imposed by the state.<\/p>\n

The shutdown also focused on the \u2018Rafale scam\u2019, which is related to the purchase of 36 multi-role fighter aircraft from France at an estimated price of INR \u00a058,000 crore or 7.8 billion euros. Though the Indian government has refused to divulge the exact cost of the fighter, it is estimated that the price is three times higher than what was proposed during the first negotiation which took place in 2012. Furthermore, the deal between Rafale\u2019s manufacturer, Dassault Group, and India-based Anil Ambani\u2019s Reliance Group, considered close to the ruling establishment, has led to serious allegations of crony capitalism. It is alleged that Ambani\u2019s Reliance Defence venture received the around\u00a070% of the Rafale offset<\/a>\u00a0contact despite having no prior experience in manufacturing defence equipment or assets. The offset clause of the Rafale deal between France and India places an obligation on the manufacturer that 50% of the cost of the deal has to be spent in India.<\/p>\n

Another major economic crisis that India is facing involves a large number of corporate non-performing assets (NPAs), which are loan defaulters. Since the government under Modi came to power in 2014, there has been a rise in the number of large corporate loan defaulters, such as Indian businessmen Vijay Mallya and Nirav Modi, who managed to run away to foreign countries. Both Mallya and Modi are close to the establishment in India. According to information available, the government has waived off loans of nearly INR 4 lakh crores taken by corporates during the last four years.<\/p>\n

This month, India also saw two other massive people\u2019s mobilizations against the far-right Indian government and its policies. On September 5, more than two lakh workers and farmers marched to the Indian parliament against the anti-people, pro-corporate and religious sectarian policies of the government. On September 4, around 10,000 women, defying heavy rain, marched in New Delhi against the rising violence against women, hatred, hunger and unemployment. The protesters denounced the members of the ruling Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) for extending support to those who committed crimes against women.\/Peoples<\/strong>\u00a0Dispatch<\/strong><\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

The impact of soaring petrol and diesel prices on the poor, corruption in defence deals and the loot of the economy by corporates\u00a0wereamong the issues highlighted By\u00a0V. Arun Kumar Many parts of India, on Monday, came to a complete standstill, as Left parties and other opposition parties called for a \u2018Bharat Bandh\u2019 \u2013 a nationwide […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":[],"categories":[2],"tags":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"http:\/\/newsdayzambia.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/6232"}],"collection":[{"href":"http:\/\/newsdayzambia.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"http:\/\/newsdayzambia.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/newsdayzambia.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/3"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/newsdayzambia.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=6232"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"http:\/\/newsdayzambia.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/6232\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":6234,"href":"http:\/\/newsdayzambia.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/6232\/revisions\/6234"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"http:\/\/newsdayzambia.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=6232"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/newsdayzambia.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=6232"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/newsdayzambia.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=6232"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}