People's Democracy

COMMENT

 Free Power Or Free For All Against The Left!

THE stand of the CPI(M) regarding provision of free power to farmers has been distorted by the right-wing media. After the prime minister stated in Himachal Pradesh that the policy of giving free power is not advisable, CPI(M) general secretary Prakash Karat was asked a question next day, at a press conference in Chandigarh, about the party’s stand on the issue. He answered that the CPI(M) had not advocated giving free power to all farmers and that we have never given free electricity to all farmers where the party is running governments.

In this context, he pointed out that free power was being given in some states including some Congress run states. Now they want to withdraw it. Karat then demanded that while doing so, this should not be done in a way that adversely affects the poor and small farmers. After having given free power, now if a government seeks to withdraw this facility, it should keep the interests of the small and marginal farmers in view. Karat further pointed out, in the context of the Punjab chief minister’s statement about considering the supply of free electricity, that it is not possible to do so and also accept the Electricity Act of 2003 which advocates privatisation of distribution of power.

It is these remarks which have been distorted by newspapers like The Economic Times, which projected these remarks as opposition to the prime minister’s suggestion. Such reports were then picked up by another right-wing paper, The Indian Express, to editorialise on its pet theme that the Left wants to susbsidise the rich farmers through free electricity. The editorial goes to the extent of saying this: “In this, as with others, the intellectual bankruptcy of the Left is starkly visible.”  It is due to the prescriptions of such editorial writers and their mentors such as Arun Shourie, that we had had the monumental hoax of Enron’s Dabhol thrust on us. It is none other than Dr Manmohan Singh who confessed in the mid-nineties that relying on private investment for power sector expansion proved to be ill-judged.

All this is nothing but raising a bogey to indulge in their favourite pastime of Left-bashing. Why the CPI(M) has not advocated free power to farmers in general, is because it does not want to subsidise the landlords and rural rich. It is the parties which advocate the liberalisation policies, so much favoured by The Economic Times and The Indian Express, who have been adopting such policies in Maharashtra, Tamilnadu,  Andhra Pradesh etc.  Having made populist promises during the elections, these state governments find it difficult to sustain such a policy, especially when they are at the same time seeking to privatise the power sector in line with the central policy. What the CPI(M) is telling them is:  after harming agriculture through wrong policies and causing serious agrarian distress, when you want to withdraw free power, you have to exempt the small and poorer sections of the peasantry. So a graded policy on power tariffs should be adopted. (INN)