Policy is
for serving the interests of the ruling classes
Policy of
any Government has to serve the overall interests of the ruling classes whom
that government represents. The Government of India is the representative of
the Indian ruling classes-the capitalists and landlords lead by the big
capitalists. The fact that the Government is elected by the people in the
parliamentary democracy does not change this reality. This is because the parties elected to rule
the country are the parties of the capitalists and land lords in their
essential nature. Whether it is the
Congress or BJP or some other regional parties who are the partners of the
coalition in power at the centre like RJD, TMC, SP, Akali Dal, National
Conference, DMK, ADMK, TDP, JD, BJD etc, all of them are the representatives of
the capitalist and landlord classes. Only the Left Parties are not the
representatives of the capitalist and land lord classes. But they are not in power
on their own at the centre.
Therefore
to understand why the policies are changing in the telecom sector which is a
part of the industrial sector, we have to understand the changes in the
industrial policies as a whole, which are brought to serve the changed
requirements of the ruling classes. Prior to independence the ruling class was
British imperialists. Nobody has any doubt about the fact that in the colonial
period the British imperialists who ruled our country framed the policies to
serve their purpose. Let us see how the industrial policy has been changed in
the course of time after independence to suit the requirements of the ruling
classes of independent India, the capitalists and landlords lead by the big
capitalists.
The
Bombay Plan(1944)
The top
capitalists in India at that time, J.R.D.Tata, G.D.Birla, Dalal, Shroff, Sri
Ram and others met in Bombay, prepared a plan and published it in 1944. It was
the plan meant for the development of Indian economy after attaining
independence. This plan was called as Bombay Plan. The main principles in this
plan were:
(a)
The Government should protect the domestic industry
from foreign competition and intervene and regulate the development of the
industries.
(b)
The Government should resort to deficit financing (by
printing notes if necessary to meet the gap between the expenditure and the
income of the government) and with the money collected from the people by taxes
and with the notes printed to meet the deficit, should build the industries in
the strategic sectors and help in strengthening the capitalists and their
allies the landlords.
Thus the
dominant classes in the Indian society at that time who were leading the
struggle for independence through their political party the Congress, have
decided that after independence, the Government should, (a) establish and run industries in strategic
sectors and develop the infrastructure even by resorting to deficit financing,
and (b) intervene to see that the imports from foreign
countries were not encouraged and therefore should be taxed heavily, so that
the domestic industry would survive.
This was their requirement at that time, since
they were not strong enough to compete with the developed foreign
capitalist countries like America; England etc. and they were not having enough
capital with them to invest in heavy industries and infra structure development.
Hence they wanted the government to develop the heavy industry and infrastructure
with the money collected from the people and with deficit financing. With the
capital at their disposal at that time, they wanted to invest mainly in the
consumer goods manufacturing industries which would give them immediate
returns.
The
Industrial Policy Resolution 1948 and related development in telecom sector
Immediately
after independence, the Government announced the Industrial Policy Resolution
in 1948. This resolution was almost according to the plan given by the Tatas
and Birlas etc. It decided
that the manufacturing of arms and ammunition, atomic energy, railways, coal,
iron, steel, ship building, aircraft manufacturing, telephone and telegraph and
wireless, minerals and ores will be operated by government and the private
companies in these sectors will be taken over by the Government.
Accordingly
the telecom services were under the Government and part of the P&T
Department at that time. The private telecom companies were abolished and the
services brought under the purview of P&T department. In line with this
policy, ITI (Indian Telephone Industries) was established in 1948 to
manufacture telecom equipment. It was the first PSU in India.
The
Industrial Policy Resolution 1956 and the related developments in the telecom
sector
In
continuation of the 1948 policy, the government’s role in the economy was
further increased. It widened the scope of the public sector, and included
chemicals, fertilisers, heavy machinery, drugs, transport etc under the purview
of the public sector. Therefore the
manufacture of telecom equipment and the installation and operation of telecom
services both continued under the Government department.
The
Industrial Policy Statement 1973 and the related developments in telecom sector
By
utilising the public sector for their benefit, the Indian capitalists increased
their capital to a considerable extent. They decided that they could invest in
some strategic industries. Therefore the Industrial Policy Statement 1973
identified some high priority industries where investment from large industrial
houses and foreign companies would be permitted. These industries were of the
sectors not reserved for public sector. Since the telecom sector was reserved
for public sector, no private investment was allowed in it.
The
Industrial Policy Statement of 1980 and the related developments in telecom
sector
The
big capitalists in India developed further, amassed huge wealth and wanted to
enter in more and more sectors and also wanted to take the help of foreign
capitalists and foreign technology. They wanted to export their products to
other countries and for this, the quality and the efficiency of the industrial
production had to be increased. Hence the Industrial Policy Statement of 1980
focussed attention on the need for promoting competition in the domestic
market, technological up gradation and modernisation. It laid the foundation
for the increasingly competitive export base and encouraging foreign investment
in high technology areas.
Due
to this change in the policy, for the first time, private manufacture of
customer premises equipment was allowed in telecom sector in 1984. The P&T
Department was bifurcated in 1985 and telecom services were brought under the
Department of Telecommunications. In 1986 MTNL was formed by bringing the
telephone services in Delhi and Mumbai under its purview. The international
telephony was brought under the purview of another PSU, VSNL. In 1989, the
Telecom Commission was formed. All these developments indicated the increasing
importance given to the telecommunications by the capitalist class in India.
The
Industrial Policy Statement 1991 and the related developments in the telecom
sector
The
Indian ruling classes started to move towards integration with world economy for
their further development, since 1980s and this lead to a big increase in the
import bill and foreign exchange crisis. In 1991, it compelled the
P.V.Narasimha Rao Government to take loan from IMF and to accept its conditions
for opening up the economy. It was not only due to the pressure from IMF. The
Indian big capitalists themselves have been increasing the integration of their
business with the foreign monopolies. Hence they had the requirement to enter
in several sectors reserved for the public sector, in collaboration with the
foreign capitalists. They also decided to go for joint ventures with the
foreign corporates to do business in other countries. All these
requirements of the big capitalists coupled with the foreign exchange crisis
and the consequent IMF loan with conditionality resulted in the announcement of
the New Economic Policy of 1991, which was the starting point of the
liberalisation, privatisation and globalisation policies in a big way in India.
The
Industrial Policy Statement of 1991 was a part of this New Economic Policy.
Entry of private sector in areas reserved so far for public sector, opening of
all manufacturing activity to competition, dismantling the regulatory system,
development of stock market, allowing foreign investment, import of foreign technology etc were announced in this policy.
This
New Economic Policy resulted in drastic changes in the telecom policy. In 1991,
the telecom equipment manufacture was de-licensed. In July 1992 the value added
services like cellular mobile services, electronic mail etc were opened to
private sector and in 1992 the bids were invited for licenses for cellular
services. In metro cities the cellular service were started by private
operators. These private companies were nothing but the combination of Indian
and foreign big capitalists. In 1994, the National Telecom Policy was announced
allowing private sector participation in landline services also. In 1995
tenders were invited for cellular operations in all circles, besides the 4
metros. In 1999, the New Telecom Policy was announced to give more concessions
to the private operators and to announce the corporatisation of the telecom
services under DoT. On 1-10-2000, BSNL was formed in view of this policy
decision. The subsequent developments resulted in the gradual downfall of
BSNL’s financial condition resulting in losses during the last 2 years and
still big loss in 2011-12 also. Now, in this year 2012, the Government is going
to announce National Telecom Policy 2011 (2012, since yet to be announced) and
naturally as evident from the above history, this new policy also is meant for
the further benefits to the private operators and for the demolition of the
PSUs BSNL, MTNL, ITI etc. This development on the basis of globalisation
policies lead to the demolition of self reliance in telecom sector and almost
90% of the amount spent for procuring the equipment utilised for expanding the
telecom services was to paid the foreign equipment manufacturing companies and the
net works of the private telecom operators are now installed, maintained and
operated by the foreign telecom companies.
Therefore
unless we understand and oppose these policies and propose alternative policy
in their place, and compel the government to agree for such alternative policies,
it will not be possible to save BSNL and telecom sector. Since these telecom
policies are part of the overall economic policies of the ruling classes,
unless the overall economic policies are changed, the telecom policies alone
cannot be changed, though we may get some concessions with the struggle in our
sector. Therefore the struggle for changing the economic policies of the
Government has to be strengthened to save BSNL and telecom sector.
----P.Asokababu
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కామెంట్ను పోస్ట్ చేయండి