Much is being made in the West of Indias growing economic liberalism It is being suggested that the country’s opening up to foreign capital has been motivated by the country’s democratic system. This thinking is fallacious. India’s so-called liberalism has a limited motive and a narrow scope one must recall the background to the steps taken by India on the economic front. Indian political enemy had drawn heavily upon the Soviet bureaucratic socialism. Since it was founded upon low-growth traditional capitalism India produced a strange mixture of capitalism and socialism. Politically India was influenced by the Soviet Union with the fall of the Soviet state the Indian ruling class has been panicky. It unceremoniously surrendered to the U.S. believing that the world had become unipolar after the collapse of the Soviet Union New Delhi talked of cooperation with the U.S.A in the sphere of defence and voted along with Washington on most issues in the U.N. The U.S. administration felt quietly satisfied that the country had discovered a new satellite. But soon the Indian ruling class was on its feet once again. It started improving relations with China on the one hand and Iran on the other -the counter-balance to the United States At the same time there were compulsions on account of balance of payments problems to foreign sources and the growing budgetary deficit at home. These problems were created by reckless militarization in over drawal of external loans.
Bureaucratic capitalism had choked the indigenous industry which was not competitive and was not producing enough to cope with the loan repayment problems.
It was this sudden mush of crisis that made India takes certain steps to increase exports. That was the extent of liberalization. These measures had nothing to do with India’s so-called democracy.
In any case India remains a sham democracy. There has been no Improvement in this sphere in recent years. On the other hand the country has been quietly slipping into a police state backed by draconian laws and a very strong standing army police and para-military forces. No wonder India figures prominently as a violator in every successive report on human rights by Amnesty International and other international human rights groups.
India’s jails are full with political detainees arrested under the fascist anti-terrorist law. The late number of such prisoners according to Indian media is more than 50,000_In most cases the detainees remain in jail for years without charge or trial. It is only recently that India’s highest court has ruled that detainees for more than one year and without specifically framed charges will have to be bailed out by courts most of these prisoners are either Sikhs or Muslims. Punjab alone has 14557 T.A.D.A. prisoners. Many Sikh prisoners are openly taken out
Of jails and shot dead by the police. No detainee escapes police torture in any case. Indias officially controlled media backs the police state to the hilt the more ruthless the police officer the higher his fating as a professional in the eyes of the Indian media. Thus the butcher of Punjab K. P. S. Gill is projected as a national hero by the Indian media Even a BJP leader Yashwant Sinha recently stated that Punjabis a police state and its chief K. P. 5. Gill is under no one’s control Punjab no doubt is a police State but Sin has assertion that its police chief is under no ones control is wrong. Gill is under the Indian prime ministers control and the police state are directed by Narasimha Rao and his officials. It is a pity that the U.S. administration has deliberately shut its ¢yes to the Indian reality and is parrot-like calling India a democracy and its economy as a show-piece of liberalization. Human Rights activists and leaders of public opinion will have to do a great deal to make the US. Authorities realize their Indian folly
Article extracted from this publication >> July 22, 1994
