By AKHIL BANSAL : Indian trade unions have called a strike on February 20 and 21st. The onslaught of capitalism and the sheer negligence of government towards working class prompts this action, still seems quite mild as compared to the ‘atrocities’ by capitalists and the conniving state. Wages are dwindling as the percentage of total spending by companies, profits have grown exponentially, casualisation of labour force is going on unabated with even government participating in it through employing unregularised workers, such as ASHAs, AWWs and ANMs, of course government is a good learner of bad practices from the private sector, subsidies for poor people are trampled upon, while at the same time revenue foregone to industry is to the tune of 5 lakh crores, now that can solve the much hyped issue of twin deficits. And most importantly, government projects itself as if it is bound to protecting the interests of just a small elite class, both Indian and foreigners and at the same time indifferent and oblivious to 1.2 billion. This is the root of the problem, unabated, unregulated and predatory capitalism. But even after all this, many workers are just taking the strike called by unions as a holiday, seems foolish!
Now the question arises as to why more than 1 billion people are not able to do anything to stop their exploitation??
The answers are surprisingly quite simple and distressing. People are divided on many lines, religious, caste, linguistic, et cetera and capitalism has a ‘symbiotic relationship’ with these divisions, it fosters upon it and strengthens these divisions. Secondly, people are highly unaware and illiterate plus their innocence allows their anger to be hijacked in different directions, like blaming other community for their grievances from state without making them aware of the real culprit. Further, our so called fourth estate of governance, the media seems to be inextricably enmeshed in the elites with very little concern for people, the mute reaction to this strike by media vindicates my point. Furthermore, the power of capital and the constant fear it is able to generate in government about it leaving the country, with even our Finance Minister virtually begging them to be here is in stark contrast to the muted, divided, unrepresented anger of the public, hence no fear.
But sorry capitalists, this situation will not go on forever, you are ‘supporting and strengthening’ Marxist ideology at your own peril. The youth in India is disillusioned due to low job prospects, neck-breaking competition and no and underutilization of talent which may have dire consequences for our nation, Naxalism is just one example of what future can behold for us, with this prospect further amplifying because of the so called ‘demographic dividend’ here, seems to me like more youths taking up arms against the state is something is not done urgently, therefore in the next decade or so. Divisions can exacerbate and extreme polarization of masses can be expected with groups representing different communities killing each other, you may refer to the example of North-East. And most depressingly, people having lost their faith in democracy itself and are either indifferent to it or working against it. One may say that I am exaggerating the situation too much, well let me tell you, if this goes on, therefore the appeasement of capital, state actively conniving and aiding the primitive acculmulation of capital and throwing away the resources in capitalists kitty and along side neglecting the people, this day is not too far.
It seems now that our government has redefined the meaning of democracy from ‘one person one vote’ to ‘one dollar one vote’ and the unabashed display of this ‘new democracy’ can certainly ruin us socio-economically. So, for checking this people need to made aware, need to be taught what is happening with them, how can they get their rights which they have got enshrined in the social contract through the Constitution of India. For this to happen, attitudinal change is required first among those who understand this situation and who can contribute effectively, who can tell the public what is happening around them, so that atleast many people don’t treat this important strike day as just another holiday, as this can be a part of a larger trade union movement which has the signs of flourishing in the present context of general deprivation and disenchantment.