Janhastakshep: PRESS RELEASE

Janhastakshep: A campaign against Fascist Designs, Delhi

PRESS RELEASE

          Justice( Retired )  Rajinder Sachhar termed the policy of “governance”  of the present NDA government as not only anti-people and extra constitution but also are in violation of the UN human rights provision, in his address to a public meeting Against the Land Acquisition Ordinance 2014: The development of dispossession organized by Janhastakshep on 4March 2015 at Gandhi Peace Foundation, New Delhi 110002. Pointing to the horrible fraud plaid against the people in the name of the development, he cited the example of SEZs, involving huge quantum of the land grab. He told the audience with the documentary evidences that these privileged zones exempt from government regulations have not met even 3% of the projected export. Various speakers reminded the audience of the imminent dangers of the Ordinance (now bill) that would lead to unprecedented dispossession of millions of farmers, craftsmen, artisans and Adivasis..  The present crisis of capitalism is caused by the surplus of capital seeking profitable investment in places where raw material and labor are cheap and a convenient government that may use coercive apparatuses of state to facilitate them in grabbing peoples’ land, water, jungle, mineral and other resources. The cause of the present economic crisis of capital is Surplus global capital that seeks favorable sectors of risk-free investment. The Real Estate is considered to be one the safest and most beneficial sectors of the investment. Subsidizing the crony corporate capitalism from the exchequer and the policy of the development by dispossession of the vast population would further aggravate the crisis, posing serious threat to the planet and its inhabitants. The noted social scientist, Aditya Nigam exposed the fraudulent designs of the government and demonstrated that the government was not even market friendly as it does not allow the farmers the option of selling or not selling their land on their terms, as the is the law of the market. It is not market friendly but business friendly and is bent upon forcibly grabbing their land by law and other coercive apparatuses of the state. He aptly answered the oft repeated apologetic question of alternatives by suggesting 4 alternative models of development in which people are partners of the development and not only the victim. The senior Supreme Court advocate, Dr. Ashok Panda, in his dissection of the legal aspects of the proposed bill and incisively described the dangers to food security and arbitrary displacement. Dilip Mandal, writer and the senior journalist talked about the pressure of World Bank aiming at urbanizing the rural India and the pressure of the imperialist agro-business lobby behind the hurry of the government. Summing up the proceedings, the chair person of the meeting, former secretary in Government of India, Dr. KB Saxena, in his presidential speech explained how the developments leading to the passage of the Land Acquisition Act 2013 was the consequence of protracted anti-displacement movements. The Act passed unanimously in the parliament, contained some provisions that provided the farmers some protection from the arbitrary dispossession. Those provisions have been shown the door in the proposed bill. He agreed with the noted Hindi poet and former BBC correspondent Pankaj Singh, who in his speech talked about   World Bank agenda of urbanization of 40% rural population to facilitate the agribusiness corporate giants, like MONSATO et al. Prof. N. Bhattacharya also criticized the bill as anti people citing the example of the POSCO impatient for disposing the bittle growing well to-do farmers for the monopoly profit of the South Korean steel company, in his thanks giving speech.

Ish Mishra

Convener