Economic Highlights
New Delhi, 25 April 2015
RSS Economic Path
GOING BACK TO BASICS
By Shivaji Sarkar
The country may be in for a change
in its economic pattern. The RSS is making an effort to transform the economy,
junking Manmohanomics and taking the Indian economy back to basics. The
villages and the farmer are its focus. It is keen on creating a new economy
based on self-reliant villages, key to the country itself being self reliant in
all respects, including water harvesting and power generation and low prices.
The form view is that farmland has
to be protected and farming be based on organic system. The new economy wants
to thus refocus on protecting farmland and stop commercialization of land that
benefits the land sharks and large business houses. Without protecting land
resources and developing village economy, the country’s progress would be
lopsided. It also promotes cattle rearing particularly cows to increase milk
production and less dependence on imported milk powder as Amul and Mother Dairy
both are now doing.
The new economy has been given the
name of Gram Sankul Yojana (GSY) and was launched at Farah, Mathura, the birthplace of its ideologue and
former president of Bharatiya Jan Sangh, precursor to BJP, Late Deendayal
Upadhyay, who gave the concept of integral humanism. The concept paper quotes
Upadhyay saying, “Decentralised agro-industrial society can be the backbone of
our economy”.
Transforming the system would have
the support of many other likeminded organizations - Ramakrishna Mission,
Patanjali Pith, Gayatri Parivar and Sarvodaya Samaj. Experts from different
fields including many from foreign universities, IITs and IIMs are associated
with the programme. Its national coordinator Dr Mahesh Sharma is an IIT
alumnus.
It is believed that a massive
capital intensive economy like Manmahonomics would never be able to provide
jobs to all. An economic model away from reality could neither be successful
nor make the nation strong. Importantly, the proponents of Gram Sankul are not
opposed to liberalism. That is the bedrock of Upadhyay’s concept. But the way it
has been done to empower only the big operators is unacceptable. Manmohanomics
has harmed the Indian economy, devastated its rural base, damaged its water
resources and merely created cheap labour for the industry, is a firm view.
The new concept also doesn’t accept
agriculture GDP figure, as in villages number of services and goods are still
not monetized. They work on the basis of personal cooperation on the concept of
exchangeable economy. These cannot be represented in terms of GDP figures. As
such it believes that farm GDP is much more than about 14 to 16 per cent that
statisticians enumerate. It calls for a new prism to assess the strength of
rural economy.
The India Rural Development Report
(IRDR) 2013 surprisingly supports many of the contentions. It says that
commercialisation of agriculture has helped some big farmers but ignored the
small holders. Additionally, it states that rural people away from farms manage
to get only casual jobs. Further, rural development is more on paper and that
the village folk have not gained owing to prolonged negligence of the farm
sector.
The RSS also believes that
Manmahanomics has ignored rural development, agriculture and needs of the over
75 crore people, 54 to 58 per cent of population, dependent on agriculture. It
is not concerned about the penury of the villagers. The massive migration from
villages because of lack of opportunities leading to creation of urban ghettos
and poor quality of life has to change, the thinker and innovator of the GSY,
economist Prof Bajranglal Gupta states. The IRDR surprisingly on many counts
supports this contention.
The GSY aim is to create an economy
that would be sustainable and provide gainful employment. Each Sankul would be
a cluster of 8 to 10 self-sufficient villages, which would be almost complete
in catering to its own needs from food grain to any other need through a chain
of linked up industries. It could buy such needs that it would not be producing
from any other Sankul, clusters. RSS Sahkaryavah Bahiayaaji Joshi says that for
long villages meant dilapidated structures with little facility. The villages
should be as smart as cities in terms of facilities.
India does not accept centralization of economy. India is
culturally, physically and every way diverse and accepts diversity. “We can see
this in agriculture to literature”. Thus, there could not be a monoculture the
way soyabean introduction from foreign sources have created. Mustard or any
other oilseed could be expelled at home but not soyabean. These kinds of
practices strengthened centralization and eroded diversity. This has caused a
number of problems including price volatility. The new farming would not be
just wheat or rice centric but would also produce pulses, oilseeds and other
needs that are in short supply making the country free from imports.
Rural development is the system for
strengthening decentralization. Gram sankul would create all needs in villages.
“Why do you need to have a soap manufactured by large producers? You would have
to ensure that production cost remains in check. That is possible with local
manufacturing”. This would be the key to checking migration, states Bhaiyyaji.
The Sankul would have eight-fold
path, says Gupta, considered the prime mover of the new economy. The eight
points of self-sufficiency are water; energy; cow-based organic farming; village industry - gramodyog; gainful 365-day
employment; education steeped in cultural value and Swasthya – health –
preventive health system. It begins with the end to use of chemical pesticides
and fertilizers. “You cannot monetize it. But if you do it would be in
trillions of rupees”, says Gupta
It will harness alternative energy
–solar, water, wind - in a massive way to end dependence of villages on grids
that are known for poor quality and high prices. The clusters thus would have
uninterrupted power supply. Similarly, the health system would stress on
preventive and quality aspects at local level. The IRDR also lays stress on
harnessing natural resources as also its preservation.
In some areas like Vankhedi in
Chhattisgarh, parts of Maharashtra, Gonda in
UP, Chitrakoot in MP, the experiment has started yielding results. Presently,
these are being strengthened to support and sustain the new ventures.
The new concept, the national
coordinator says, is not in conflict with the overall Government policy. It is
only to supplement the efforts in a better way. A better managed village with
rich farmland and local industry would usher in a better economy.
It is a difficult task but it is
being promoted as a beginning to change and transformation. It aims at reducing
the rich-poor gap, if not eliminate it. The small beginning is intended for a
massive policy change. ---INFA
(Copyright, India News and Feature Alliance)
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