Most politicians belong and relate to the
broad range of the middle-class FDI in retail will affect. The potential victims of the NIB are
the faceless, voiceless poor of the hinterland.
In
death, as in life, Bal Thackeray overshadowed all political agendas this
weekend. But, homage paid and eulogies sung, political parties are back to
playing their pressure games in the build-up to the Winter Session beginning on
November 22. The opposition has already dared the government to implement the
latter’s decision to allow FDI in retail and a no-confidence motion is
apparently in the works.
Consider
the concerns of the political parties that are opposed to FDI in retail. First,
investors with deep pockets will elbow domestic players, mostly small
retailers, out of business. Second, direct procurement will throw middlemen out
of the equation. Third, the price benefit of such eliminations will not reach
farmers. Fourth, the influx of cheap foreign products will harm the domestic
manufacturing sector.
So,
the opposition has threatened a cautiously smug government that yet another
Parliamentary session may just go down the drain unless the issue is put to
vote in the House. This shrill face-off has dominated media listings since
September and is now threatening to monopolise the news space for weeks to
come.
The
concerns of the opposition, of course, are no less real than the arguments of
the government. FDI in retail deserves a heated, loud debate. But so does the
National Investment Board (NIB) to be set up by the PMO in the next couple of
weeks. If you do not know much about this brainchild of the union finance
minister, it is because the NIB has not made news except briefly when a
“ministerial turf war broke out” over it. No
opposition leader has considered the NIB worth commenting on or protesting
against.
The
NIB was conceived by P Chidambaram as a super committee under his ministry to
ensure blanket clearances for projects involving investment of R1000 crore or
more. Following Environment minister Jayanthi Natarajan’s protestations that
the NIB’s mandate infringed on the powers of her ministry, it is now being set
up as a cabinet committee under the PMO. While a cabinet committee prevails
over individual ministries, it is unclear how it will override authorities such
as the
Forest Advisory Committee or National Board for Wildlife, constituted by Acts
of Parliament.
The
reforms machinery of the government is alarmed that 26 mega projects worth
nearly R1.25 lakh crore are stuck due to delayed or denied clearances and
shortage of coal. An investment report prepared by a private bank this April
quantified the investment grounded chiefly due to environmental roadblocks as
more than R 7 lakh crore. So, the PMO wants the Environment ministry to allow
coal mines to increase production by 25% and renew their licences without
asking for fresh green clearances or conducting public hearings.
Not
everyone in favour of FDI in retail, one assumes, is likely to back the idea of
doing away with environmental scrutiny or bulldozing landowners’ rights for
infrastructure development. But those who claim to be against the government on FDI have to be, by
the same logic, opposed to the NIB too. It is not difficult to see why.
If
FDI in retail leads to loss of livelihood, mass displacement of people for mega
projects backed by the NIB will inflict much more misery. Forget the human and
environmental costs for a moment, the massive loss caused to the economy by
plundering of grossly undervalued non-renewable resources such as minerals will
far outweigh the damage FDI can cause to the manufacturing sector.
If
it is about big money -- as the Left never tires of screaming -- further lining
its own pockets, remember that even the most optimist consultancy firms, such
as Tecnova, do not expect FDI of more than R11,000-17000 crore (USD 2-3
billion) in retail in the first two years. The NIB is about looking after
investment of lakhs of crores.
But
the constituencies, so to say, affected by mega projects are neither vocal nor
visible. Nobody quantifies the water guzzled by factories till the rivers and aquifers actually run dry. The decimation of
forests does not register till drought becomes routine. Few people, and
certainly fewer politicians, even understand what biodiversity is to factor its
loss. But let’s avoid the environmental rant for now.
As
the provider of blanket clearances to projects worth lakhs of crores, the NIB
will also claim thousands and lakhs of human victims across the vast hinterland
of India. These are people who have been fighting for and losing land,
livelihood and often lives over many centuries. Today, the sacrifice is in the
name of growth and reforms. So why doesn’t the opposition take up their fight
against the NIB while opposing FID in retail tooth and nail?
They
do not because even the human victims of the NIB are invisible. They are not
educated enough to be retailers in towns. They certainly don’t qualify for jobs
in the manufacturing sector. They do not even know the privileges of a
middleman because no agent ever bought any of their vegetables. Most of them
walk miles to the nearest market to sell so little that they can usually carry
it on their heads.
Unlike
the potential victims of FDI in retail, the proposed NIB’s casualties are not
middle-class, not even rural middle-class. They are the poor, mostly tribals,
whom few urban, educated Indians have ever met unless as tourists. They do have
votes but are easily taken for granted and cheaply bought off before elections.
In between, they are nowhere in the reckoning even when parties seek out
excuses for political posturing.
When
the principal opposition party that had promised FDI in retail in its 2004
election manifesto and the principal ruling party that had resisted the same
when in opposition opt for role reversals, they need a convenient theatre. The
broad range of the middle-class most politicians belong and relate to has
always been their best audience. For them, the NIB is somebody else’s problem.
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