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This is an archive article published on September 1, 2011
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Opinion UPA profligacy

The RSS claims the UPA government has “gifted away” Rs 9,003 crore of taxpayer money to foot the bills of European countries.

Manoj CG

Manoj C.G

September 1, 2011 01:23 AM IST First published on: Sep 1, 2011 at 01:23 AM IST

UPA profligacy

The RSS claims the UPA government has “gifted away” Rs 9,003 crore of taxpayer money to foot the bills of European countries. The context for this claim is India’s decision to contribute to the IMF’s emergency fund to bail out crisis-hit European Union economies.

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The editorial in RSS weekly Organiser says that the donation of such a huge amount “without batting an eyelid shows the arrogance of the UPA government,” at a time when the fiscal deficit is burgeoning and when money available for infrastructure and development programmes is dwindling.

According to the government’s own admission,70 per cent of India’s population is in need of food security,which means that millions in the country are starving,it argues. The government had sought Parliament’s consent for making the contribution at the beginning of August. It says the government “adopted a mean device” by including it as one of the items in the table of the supplementary demands of the general budget. “No case study,no debate,no explanation. Not one party or MP,including the leftists,raised any question,though the report appeared in a small section of the media,” it says.

It concludes that under Manmohan Singh,India has been at its profligate best,lending to countries like Afghanistan but not leveraging on that aid. In the case of contributions to the IMF,it says “some of the tax havens where black money from India has been stashed away are in Europe. India could well have used this occasion to bargain for the return of the booty,” but it did not,claims the editorial.

All for Anna

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The RSS journal Panchjanya sought to puncture claims that the Anna Hazare agitation did not have the support of the Muslim community. A full-page article in its latest issue says that these falsehoods were being deliberately spread by the Congress with the help of some friendly Muslim leaders and Urdu newspapers. It claims that these attempts to keep Muslims away from the movement did not succeed. “Thousands of Muslims carrying the national tricolour and shouting ‘Vande Mataram’ and ‘Bharat Mata ki Jai’ were seen in the Ramlila grounds. About 2000 Muslims from the Mewat region had reached the Ramlila grounds to participate in the movement,” the article says. The Panchjanya editorial talks of a “secular attack” on the Anna agitation from organisations claiming to represent scheduled castes and tribes,backwards and Muslims. It says the entire attempt,instigated by the “Sonia party”,was aimed at somehow weakening the anti-corruption agitation by creating controversies. Panchjanya also has a full-page article on the issue of favouritism allegedly having been shown to the Rajiv Gandhi Charitable Trust in the allotment of eight acres of land in Haryana.

Boosting factories

In the context of the government’s announcement of a national manufacturing policy,an Organiser article wonders whether these proposals will help factory output. It says the policy aims at creating a 100 million additional jobs and augmenting the share of manufacturing to 25 per cent of India’s GDP by 2025. It also wants to create national investment and manufacturing zones with world-class facilities. “The government’s emphasis on manufacturing has not come a day too soon. The Index of Industrial Production (IIP) has been showing a lot of volatility in recent times,” it says.

“Quite apart from the political crisis looming large,policy paralysis,and a hawkish Reserve Bank at home,there are the issues of fragile recovery in the developed world and uncertainty in the United States,the world’s biggest economy,” it observes.

However,the article says that the interventions required are obvious. The rates of indirect tax in India are among the highest in the world. In addition,states and local levels of government levy octroi or entry tax. “This is perhaps the most important issue for industry,but it cannot be addressed given the government’s precarious fiscal situation and its proclivity to launch more populist,revenue-guzzling schemes.”

Inadequate infrastructure,labour inflexibility,lack of skilled workforces and paucity of raw materials add to the problem,it says,and that policy-makers are not unaware of the measures that need to be taken. “A rational manufacturing policy can be simple,but for the distortions added by Congress-style politics,” it concludes.

Compiled by Manoj C.G.