{"id":281473,"date":"2016-11-28T16:59:30","date_gmt":"2016-11-28T15:59:30","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/rinf.com\/alt-news\/?p=281473"},"modified":"2016-11-30T01:23:57","modified_gmt":"2016-11-30T00:23:57","slug":"neoliberal-capitalism-ever-done-india","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/rinf.com\/alt-news\/editorials\/neoliberal-capitalism-ever-done-india\/","title":{"rendered":"What Has Neoliberal Capitalism Ever Done for India?"},"content":{"rendered":"

Colin Todhunter<\/em><\/p>\n

When India ushered in neoliberal economic reforms during the early 1990s, the promise was job creation, inclusive growth and prosperity for all. But, some 25 years later, what we have seen is almost 400,000 farmers committing suicide, one of the greatest levels of inequality out of all \u2018emerging\u2019 economies, a trend towards jobless \u2018growth\u2019, an accelerating and massive illegal outflow of wealth by the rich, and, as if that were not enough, now we have the sequestration of ordinary people\u2019s money under the euphemism \u2018demonetization\u2019.<\/p>\n

Data from the Multi-dimensional Poverty Index<\/a> indicates that 20 years ago,\u00a0<\/strong>India\u00a0<\/strong>had the second-best social indicators among the six South Asian countries (India,\u00a0<\/strong>Pakistan,\u00a0<\/strong>Bangladesh,\u00a0<\/strong>Sri Lanka,\u00a0<\/strong>Nepal\u00a0and\u00a0<\/strong>Bhutan), but now it has the second worst position, ahead only of\u00a0<\/strong>Pakistan. Bangladesh has less than half of India\u2019s per-capita GDP but has infant and child mortality rates lower than that of India.<\/p>\n

The neoliberal model of development has moreover arguably seen the poverty alleviation rate in\u00a0India\u00a0remain around the same as it was back \u00a0pre-independent India<\/a>, while the ratio between the top and bottom ten percent of the population has\u00a0doubled<\/a>\u00a0since 1991. According to the Organisation for Co-operation and Economic Development, this doubling of income inequality has made\u00a0India\u00a0one of the worst performers in the category of emerging economies.<\/p>\n

Neoliberalism in India has been underpinned by<\/a> unconstitutional land takeovers and population displacement, with the state using military and para-military forces in the process alongside the suspension of various democratic rights and the wide scale abuse of human rights. For supporters of cronyism, cartels and the monopolization of markets by private interests, which to all extents and purposes is what neoliberalism thrives on in India (and elsewhere), there have been untold opportunities for well-placed individuals to make an under-the-table fast buck from various infrastructure projects and privatisation sell offs.<\/p>\n

But PM Modi interprets all of this in a different way, which comes as little surprise, given harsh\u00a0the reality<\/a>\u00a0\u2013 not the media misrepresentations \u2013 of what he \u2018achieved\u2019 in Gujarat as Chief Minister. He recently stated that India is now one of the most business-friendly countries in the world. The code for being \u2018business friendly\u2019 translates into a willingness by the government to facilitate much of what is outlined above, while reducing taxes and tariffs and allowing the acquisition of public assets via privatisation as well as instituting policy frameworks that work to the advantage of foreign corporations.<\/p>\n

In agriculture, for instance, we are seeing the displacement of a pre-existing productive system. Small and medium-sized enterprises are obliged to produce for global entities, state enterprises are being run down or (semi)privatised and independent agricultural producers are impoverished. The tragedy is that model that is intended to supplant the existing one is based on Cargill\/Monsanto\u2019s environment- and livelihood-destroying business models for corporate profit which have become synonymous with the \u2018national interest\u2019.<\/p>\n

Unfortunately, people like Aruna Rodrigues and Vandana Shiva and certain NGOs who criticise this and offer credible alternatives are regarded by elements of the state as either working against the interest of the nation or colluding with \u2018foreign interests\u2019 \u2013 when the reality is that the state is doing exactly that!<\/p>\n

Seeds, mountains, water, forests and biodiversity are being sold off. The farmers and tribals are being sold out. And the more that gets sold off, the more who get sold out, the greater the amount of cash and credit goes into corporate accounts and the easier it is for the misinformed to swallow the lie of \u2018growth\u2019. As the state abdicates it redistributive role and facilitates the World Bank\u2019s agenda<\/a>, India\u00a0is suddenly labelled capitalism\u2019s \u2018economic miracle\u2019.<\/p>\n

The opening up of India to foreign capital is supported by rhetoric about increasing efficiency, job creation and boosting growth. According to the neoliberal ideologues, foreign investment is good for jobs and good for business. But just how many jobs actually get created is another matter, as is the amount of jobs destroyed in the first place to pave the way for the entry of foreign corporations.<\/p>\n

For example, Cargill sets up a food or seed processing plant that employs a few hundred people, but what about the\u00a0agricultural jobs<\/a>\u00a0that were deliberately eradicated in the first place or the\u00a0village-level processors<\/a>\u00a0who were cynically put out of business so Cargill could gain a financially lucrative foothold? Hundreds of millions of livelihoods are in danger as foreign corporations and capital smells massive profits on the back of the World Bank-backed commercialisation of rural India.<\/p>\n

India\u2019s much-lauded economic growth in recent times has been built on\u00a0consumer and corporate debt<\/a>. Corporate subsidies and (real estate) investment bubbles have given the impression of economic prosperity. And it is merely an \u2018impression\u2019. For instance, consider the amount of\u00a0tax breaks and handouts given<\/a>\u00a0to the corporate sector and what little it has achieved in return in terms of jobs or exports. And consider too the massive amount of corporate debt\u00a0written off by state-owned banks<\/a>, while farmers kill themselves en masse because of debt, partly due to Monsanto\u2019s capture of the cotton sector and partly because of economic liberalisation and increasing exposure to rigged markets courtesy of the WTO.<\/p>\n

And so to the latest heist – \u2018demonetization\u2019. According to\u00a0Binu Mathew<\/a>, banks in India were facing a liquidity crisis and parts of the debt-inflated economy were in danger of imploding.\u00a0In this respect, Modi\u2019s\u00a0outlawing of almost 90% of India’s cash notes overnight is basically a bail-out\/windfall for the corporate elites\/real estate speculators.<\/p>\n

This tactic neatly removed the danger of creating inflation by merely printing money. You can forget about Western-style bank bailouts and subsequent \u2018austerity\u2019, the Indian government decided to\u00a0sequester the public’s money<\/a>\u00a0directly in an attempt to keep the neoliberal crony capitalism ponzi scheme on course.<\/p>\n

As Mathew says:<\/p>\n

\u201cThe banks\u00a0will lend out the money \u2018confiscated from you\u2019. Who will benefit? Not the poor farmers who are committing by their thousands every month. Not the children who are dying of malnutrition in several parts of the country. Not the small manufacturers who are struggling to keep up their businesses? Who will benefit? The crony capitalists that props up the Modi regime. This demonetization is the biggest crony capitalist neo-liberalist coup that has ever taken place in India. Never doubt it, India will have to pay a heavy price for it.\u201d<\/p>\n

As in the US, the undermining of a productive economic base – in India\u2019s case, a failure to boost industrial manufacturing performance and jobs and pumping up the economy with credit, while at the same time dismantling its greatest asset \u2013 the agrarian base – can only lead to a dead-end.\u00a0Courtesy of its compliant politicians, India has hitched a ride aboard the wholly corrupt neoliberal bandwagon to nowhere.<\/p>\n

Colin Todhunter is an independent writer<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Colin Todhunter When India ushered in neoliberal economic reforms during the early 1990s, the promise was job creation, inclusive growth and prosperity for all. But, some 25 years later, what we have seen is almost 400,000 farmers committing suicide, one of the greatest levels of inequality out of all \u2018emerging\u2019 economies, a trend towards jobless […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1214,"featured_media":281475,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[461],"tags":[],"class_list":{"0":"post-281473","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-editorials"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/rinf.com\/alt-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/281473","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/rinf.com\/alt-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/rinf.com\/alt-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/rinf.com\/alt-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1214"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/rinf.com\/alt-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=281473"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/rinf.com\/alt-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/281473\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/rinf.com\/alt-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/281475"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/rinf.com\/alt-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=281473"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/rinf.com\/alt-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=281473"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/rinf.com\/alt-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=281473"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}