Life Imprisonment for Democracy: Corporate Loot of Resources and the Muzzling of Dissent

AISA’s National Campaign Against Corruption and State Repression: January 11th – January 19th 2011!!

A new year has begun. The year that has gone by was marked by a spate of scams across the country, and governments of all hues now stand implicated of complicity in spearheading loot of public resources. The year also saw brutal crackdowns on people’s movements across the country, a continuation of state-sponsored military campaigns like Salwa Judum and Operation Green Hunt, and a massive intensification of state repression in India’s mineral-rich belts, in Kashmir, Telangana and elsewhere. And at the end of 2010, a doctor who has spent his entire life working amongst the poor and raising his voice against state repression was sentenced in the court of law to life imprisonment for ‘sedition’.

The Commonwealth Games hosted by India saw massive levels of corruption and were used as an opportunity by the Delhi government to implement anti-people, anti-poor policies. The 2G spectrum scam came into the limelight, highlighting the complicity of even the Prime Minister of the country in aiding and abetting the scam. And shamefully, Kapil Sibal, the new Telecom Minister is now busy rubbishing the various reports which reveal the massive scale of corruption, and claiming that the public exchequer has not suffered any loss. In Karnataka, the Bellary brothers (who have showed time and again that they control the BJP government in the state) continued to flout a host of legislations as they made mind-boggling profits from mining iron ore. The state governments in Maharashtra, Karnataka, Tamil Nadu and elsewhere presided over massive land scams.

We are one decade into the new century, and have witnessed almost two decades of the neo-liberal regime. Neo-liberal economic policies and globalization were sold in name of increasing ‘efficiency’ and reducing corruption prevalent in the notorious ‘quota-permit raj’. However, it is now abundantly clear that the neo-liberal regime has not led to any decline in the menace of corruption. Quite to the contrary. All-pervasive liberalization and globalization have thrown the floodgates of corruption wider open, bolstering the black economy and further degrading the quality of politics in India.

And in between all these scams, conversations between a corporate lobbyist (Niira Radia) and well-known media persons and politicians revealed the nexus between ruling class political parties (from both the UPA and the NDA), the corporate media and business houses. A nexus that is presiding over the loot of our national resources – whether it is land, minerals, oil or water – and which is denying most Indians the right to a decent life and livelihood. Today, we have a bizarre situation where policy makers and politicians who are supposed to represent the common people of the country routinely shape policy to suit corporate interests, and where reporters act as spokespersons for corporate houses.

Life Imprisonment for Democracy

As corruption and loot of public resources increase to unprecedented levels, the democratic space available to the common people – to dissent and to protest state policies – is also rapidly shrinking. Today, thousands of dissenting voices have been locked up in jails under draconian laws like Unlawful Activities Prevention Act (UAPA), Armed Forces Special Powers Act (AFSPA) and Chhattisgarh Special Public Safety Act (CSPSA), or have simply ‘disappeared’. In campuses too, administrations are trying their level best to clamp down on organized student mobilizations by muzzling dissenting voices.

We live in bizarre times when defending the rights of the poor and the oppressed is branded as ‘sedition’. Binayak Sen, a well-known doctor and human rights activist is now in prison for life for indulging in ‘seditious’ activities, convicted by a so-called ‘trial’ in the court of law – a trial that was nothing but a farce in the name of justice. Today, it has become ‘sedition’ to ask why millions of people are starving, why our children suffer from rampant and pervasive malnutrition, why our youth are unemployed, why the poor are being driven out of their lands and homes by the state to make way for corporations and why funds and resources meant for common people are being used to bolster the profits of super-rich corporations. On the other hand, when governments unleash brutal military campaigns on people’s movements against scuttling of constitutional rights, or when private corporations take over control and ownership of public resources, this is termed as ‘national’ interest! What we are facing is indeed the specter of the life imprisonment of democracy.

At a time when politicians, bureaucrats, corporations, media houses and the judiciary collude to aid and abet rampant corruption, shield the real perpetrators and muzzle the dissenting voices, it is the duty of the students and youth of the country to strengthen the nation-wide movement against corporate loot. What is at stake is the very idea of a genuinely democratic country, an equitable and just society, where everyone has the right to live a life of dignity. What is at stake is our right to education, to employment, to a decent means of livelihood. Can we remain silent spectators when funds and resources meant for us are used to swell the profits of the likes of Tata, Birla and Ambani? The money lost due to the 2G Spectrum alone could have funded education FOR ALL for the next five years! Can we afford to remain silent when the powers-that-be try to deny us the very right to speak and dissent?

AISA appeals to the student community to join in a nation-wide movement against this corporate sponsored loot. It is time we say a resounding NO to rampant corruption, NO to loot of our national resources.