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| Naidu brings in the Colonisers - again |
Nineteen years ago, he became Chief Minister of
Andhra Pradesh and spent 9 years on the job. But he made a mess of it
because he believed blindly in what the foreign management experts
told him. In the process, he nearly sent the state to economic ruin.
Four months ago, Naidu once more took over as
Chief Minister of a truncated Andhra Pradesh. And he is taking
exactly the same steps as he did 15 years ago. He has hired McKinsey
as his economic advisor. They are preparing a 'vision' document to
liberally develop the state. State assets and resources are being
prepared to be given to private corporations. Millions of farmers may
lost their land and forced to migrate.
Between 1995 and 2004, when he was Chief Minister,
Naidu listened and learnt less from Indians and more from western
experts. He became the West's favourite Indian. Bill Clinton and Tony
Blair both visited him in Hyderabad. Time magazine named him South
Asian of the Year, and the British government and the World Bank
chased Andhra Pradesh with grants and loans.
Typically, the Indian media and elite imitated
what the western governments and media portrayed, and sang the same
praises. They could not think for themselves; they still don't.
But the fact is that the western powers loved
Naidu because he did what he was told. He was anxious to please them,
and he had little idea of the reality of Indian socio-economics. In
short, Mr Naidu surrendered the power that people bestowed in him.
He estimated that as long as he gave the global powers what they
wanted, he would receive the money and stature which count for so
much in politics. So instead of devising his own Indian programme, he
handed the job to the US consultancy company McKinsey.
McKinsey’s prepared a scheme for him, called
“Vision 2020″. It is a document of deceit whose summary says one
thing and whose contents quite another.1 It begins, for
example, by insisting that education and healthcare must be made
available to everyone. Only later do you discover that the state’s
hospitals and universities are to be privatised
and funded by “user charges”.2 It verbally
encourages small businesses, but reveals much later in the text that
it intends to “eliminate” the laws which defend them3 --
what the state needs, the report says, is to replace small investors,
who “lack motivation”, with “large corporations”. 4
It claims it will “generate employment” in the countryside, which
to me means a bustling rural industry, but no, what the report
insists on doing is to throw over 2 crore rural people from their
land.5
Such a massive setup to rob the state; but Naidu
believed these modern 'experts', and agreed to the plan – of
privatisation, deregulation and a shrinking social responsibility of
the state. I don't know if he was aware, but McKinsey’s crooked
vision was not confined to his government. Once he had implemented
these policies, Andhra Pradesh “should seize opportunities to lead
other states in such reform, becoming, in the process, the benchmark
state,” says the “Vision 2020” report.6
And now, in 2014, Chandrababu Naidu becomes Chief
Minister again, and in the first 100 days, what are his major
actions? He has hired the same McKinsey again as his economic
advisor. McKinsey is again preparing the details of a similar
document – this time to be called 'Vision 2029'. They are again
talking about a massive sell-off of the state's resources to private
corporations. Only this time, they want to do things faster, with their pet weapons cleverly named as reform,
deregulation, privatizaiton, and a new one,
securitization.
All this is no secret. Naidu actually reintroduced
McKinsey quite brazenly both in the state assembly as well as to the
media, but I wonder if any journalist present reminded him of the
past horror of their partnership. Naidu also announced a plethora of
'Vision 2029' projects – building cities, airports, seaports, IT
parks, etc., none of which is needed by the people, but which will
enrich private corporations, who will get land and assured business
of over 23 lakh crore rupees (383 billion dollars).9 And
how will Naidu pay for all this, since the present budget is not even
self-sufficient? Through a 'securitization plan' of mortgaging state
assets and by 'land pooling' through acqusition and conversion of
farmlands – both to benefit private corporations. This is the
beginning of the stench of the McKinsey plan.
But this time, it is not just foreign vultures who
are hovering over the state. In the last 14 years of weak leadership,
political corruption and financial profligacy, the Indian state has
been steadily weakened and taken hold of bybuccaneer capitalists and banks and corporations. Today's vultures therefore include
even Indian corporate honchos who have formed a 'dream team' to
assist Naidu in implementing his plan.10
Why does Mr Naidu not suspect the shady western
'experts' is a question that remains unanswered. But he does not have
to go far to know the history of people like McKinsey's - the
self-incrimination is in the earlier “Vision 2020” report itself,
where McKinsey put 11 glowing references to the Chile experiment of
the 1980s in South America. In a coup funded by the CIA, General
Pinochet took over the country and handed the economic management of
the nation to a foreign group of neoliberal economists known as the
Chicago Boys. They privatised social provision, tore up the laws
protecting workers and the environment, and handed the economy to
multinational (mostly US) companies. The result was a bonanza for big
business, and a staggering increase in debt, unemployment,
homelessness and malnutrition for the people of Chile.
Chile's economy was destroyed, and that plan was
conceived and funded by the United States government. And who funded
the McKinsey document for Andhra Pradesh? Surely, Naidu may have
known. In July 2001 the British government finally admitted to their
parliament that, despite numerous official denials, Britain was
actually funding Vision 2020.7 Tony Blair’s government
had financed Andhra Pradesh's economic misadventure and pushed for
massive privatisation with the intention of enriching private British
corporations. They wanted to do a Chile to Andhra Pradesh.
The British government also acknowledged that it
paid for and actually ran Naidu's “implementation secretariat” in
Hyderabad so as to push the privatisation programme. Guess who they
sent to run it - the far-right business lobby group, the Adam Smith
Institute.8 The money for all this came out of Britain’s
foreign aid budget.
Fortunately for Andhra Pradesh, Naidu could not
implement that foreign-funded conspiracy; the people of the state
voted him out in 2004. Respected British columnist George Monbiot
wrote in The Guardian then, that: “We can’t yet vote Tony Blair
out of office in Britain, but in Andhra Pradesh they have done the
job on our behalf.”
In 1995, Mr Naidu's party won the assembly
elections on the promise of ridding Andhra Pradesh of the liquor
mafia and to have an alcohol-free state. But his advisors – foreign
'experts' and Indian bureaucrats and economists – scared him by
saying the state will go bankrupt. Imagine, they actually said that
to keep hospitals and schools going, the state needs tax from sale of
liquor. Naidu believed them, he withdrew his election promise, he
forgot the people of Andhra Pradesh, he started speaking IT language
and blindly followed the foreigners.
In 2014, Naidu's party has won elections on the
promise of serving the farmer and reducing his debt burden. But his
'experts' and economists are now saying this is not feasible. Naidu
is already distancing himself from the farmer, he is talking the
language of “smart city” and “IT hubs”; he has once again
caught the tail of a foreign master.
Deja Vu? Only partly. The last time, Naidu was
thrown out by the people who sensed the foolishness of his
western-sponsored antics. If that happens again, before he
does damage to the state, then that will be deja vu. Even then, so
what? The state would have lost another five years, the people would
still be crying out for a humane, just, social-economic system.
I would like to end on a positive note. If, what
if, Naidu were to suddenly discover the truth of all that is being
pointed out? It can happen, because I believe that truth is bursting
as potential in every human being. In that case, may I suggest to Mr
Naidu:
1. Manufacturing is real economic activity; do not
rely on service sector and finance-sector based growth.
2. Aim for thousands of small manufacturing units
spread over thousands of villages; do not go for mega-industries run
by a handful of corporations.
3. Please remember that Bharat was for centuries a
'udyog-pradhan desh', with a non-centralised local manufacturing
which gave us the highest share of global trade, without trying to
be competitive.
4. Strengthen agriculture by getting farmers out
of debt permanently; not by loan waivers, but by a system of organic
farming which needs no loans and gives more nutritious crops. Give
the farmer better remuneration so that the rural unemployed will
think of going back to farming or cottage industry rather than coming
to cities.
5. Needless to say, do not build new cities. Shift
the secretariat to your village.
5. Aim for 'zero fiscal deficit'. Not after ten
years, start now.
6. All of the above is simple, doable, achievable,
and will also be laudable and may make you chief minister a third
time. Andhra Pradesh is rich not only in land, minerals, metals,
etc., which is all your 'experts' can see, but it is rich in wise
people who can make this alternate vison possible. If I were you, I would start with a visit to Kala Ashram, Adilabad, and meet Shri Ravindra Sharma. Best wishes..
-- -- -- --
References:
[The story of the 1995-2004 period and details of
McKinsey's funding by the British government has been meticulously
researched by Guardian columnist George Monbiot, and I have liberally
taken those paragraphs from his blog report.]
1. Vision 2020 is no more available at the
reorganised official Andhra Pradesh website. But a copy is stored at:
https://www.scribd.com/doc/33166412/Andhra-Pradesh-Vision-2020-full-document
2. Vision 2020, Page 96.
3. Vision 2020, page 42.
4. Vision 2020, page 195.
5. Vision 2020, page 170. This is worded as
follows: “However, agriculture's share of employment will actually
reduce, from the current 70 per cent [of the population of 76
million] to 40-45 per cent”.
6. Vision 2020, page 333.
7. Clare Short, 20th July 2001. Parliamentary
answer to Alan Simpson MP. Hansard Column 475W.
8. Government of Andhra Pradesh, 2002. Strategy
Paper on Public Sector Reform and Privatisation of State Owned
Enterprises.
9. Times of Oman:
http://www.timesofoman.com/News/40278/Article-Andhra-CM’s-‘Vision-2029’-set-to-cost-Rs22%2095-trillion
10. India Today:
htp://indiatoday.intoday.in/story/n.-chandrababu-naidu-andhra-pradesh-telangana/1/382414.html