The UDF and LDF in Kerala

The UDF and LDF in Kerala are equally to blame for emptying the state exchequer without a care.

The fiscal crisis that has beset Kerala brings to mind Lenin’s maxim, “Debauch the currency and destroy capitalism!” That, of course, was said at a time when Europe was governed by hereditary rulers.

Had he lived in our age Lenin is more likely to have cautioned us with, “Wreck the treasury and debauch democracy.”

The link between meaningful democracy and strong public finances may not be obvious but it is vital. The political class may try to explain away its culpability by making out that a fiscal crisis only reflects their efforts to improve the quality of life of the governed. But actually it reflects its patronage of vested interests, pursuit of competitive populism, attachment to pet projects or just plain incompetence at managing monies placed in their trust.
An element of all of these underlies the current fiscal crisis in Kerala, and it is not the first time that the State has found itself in one. Surely there is nothing generic to Kerala that it must live under a perpetual fiscal cloud. It is moral hazard in political practice alone that has led the State down this path.

Dispassionate approach

Fiscal constraints had existed even at the time of the formation of Kerala in the 1950s. In an interview with this author, VR Krishna Iyer, who had served in the historic communist ministry elected to govern in 1957, recalled that the government then had to make do with whatever little funds it could find. In retrospect, one is filled with admiration at how much the EMS Namboodiripad ministry managed to achieve with respect to public provisioning in the health and education sectors on so slender a resource base.
Both Namboodiripad and Achutha Menon who had followed him were devoid of sentimentality when it came to governance. They were conscious of being there to implement a democratic project and that they could ill afford to allow weak public finances to wreck it. Succeeding politicians in Kerala show no such awareness, which explains why the State finds itself in the present predicament. Governments claiming allegiance to ideologies of the left or the right have come and gone leaving only a mounting debt for future generations to repay. Kerala has been categorised as “debt stressed” by the Centre.

Pressure situation

Around Onam time this year, the Kerala government signalled that its finances were under severe pressure. Austerity was announced, a hold on appointments in the public sector was ordered and a hasty revision of the rates on public services was effected.
By then it was public knowledge that the government had sought, and received, an overdraft from the RBI. Next, the media reported that Plan spending was to be curtailed. The last is unsurprising in such a situation but it should be of concern in Kerala where public capital formation is particularly low already.

The Left Front, currently in the opposition, saw this as an opportunity to embarrass the United Front government, currently in power, by demanding a White Paper on the state of the public finances. The government has refused to issue one. This is an inappropriate response for two reasons. First, in a democracy, citizens have a right to know the exact state of the finances they have entrusted to their government. Second, the first thing that the UDF had done when it came to power in 2012 was to issue a White Paper on finances. In retrospect it becomes clear that this had been done with the express purpose of embarrassing their political rivals, who too had done nothing to improve the State’s finances.

The recurring fiscal crisis is a case of economics trumping politics. Historically, both the political fronts in the State indulge in cynical manoeuvres to remain in power. Little distinguishes the State’s political parties except their symbols at election time. An emptying treasury is the collateral damage.
The Malayali public understand this and have, for over three decades, voted out of office each of two fronts at the end of their term. Even if they are not aware that Kerala has the lowest tax-GDP share among the southern States, they can see that fiscal crisis does not periodically visit the neighbouring States.

Tipping the balance

Vested interests, competitive populism, pet projects and sheer incompetence as factors that have contributed to Kerala’s perennial fiscal crisis. Vested interests in Kerala contribute in two ways. There are commercial vested interests in agriculture, trade, real estate and education directly represented by specific political parties and a corporatised media.

This ensures the former concessions and low taxes, with implications for the fisc.
The other block of vested interests are the public sector employees, both managers and workers, extending to the general administration. This section happens to be paid without any reference to either their productivity or the financial condition of the government. To the extent that the general administration is overstaffed, it lowers overall productivity by getting in the way of efficiency.
On the other hand, the agencies responsible for public services are understaffed, and to the extent they provide producer services, this lowers output. When output is negatively affected it lowers public revenues as most taxes are levied ad valorem.

As for pet projects, while there are many, the most noteworthy being the new public universities. Over the past decade both the political fronts have gone on a spree opening single-subject universities. Even the kalaris of medieval Kerala were more diversified in their offering.
Apart from requiring that large tracts of land be acquired at market rates to house these projects, they merely add to the fixed cost being incurred by the existing public universities. The responsibility of Kerala’s political class in bringing about the present fiscal crisis is total. From the late seventies on there has been no serious initiative to grow the economy.

Fees and rates are raised reluctantly, if at all. An arrangement whereby the government indexes its payments to the inflation rate but is reluctant to index its receivables accordingly is unsustainable.
In a democracy it is the duty of those in public life to not only explain this to their constituencies but to do whatever it takes to ensure the robustness of the public finances. With the ongoing fiscal crisis Kerala’s political class has failed this test.

No place for Conversion in India

On 21 January 2011, upholding life penalty for Dara Singh and Mahendra Hembram in the murder of Australian missionary Graham Staines and his two minor sons on the night of Jan. 22nd/23rd 1999, the Supreme Court declared there was no justification for religious conversion in a “secular” nation as it amounted to interference in the religious beliefs of others through force, allurement or false premise that one religion is better than the other. The court released the remaining 11 accused of the charge of conspiracy mooted by the CBI. In a boost to the Hindu community, beleaguered by foreign-funded evangelists and human rights hounds, a Bench comprising Mr Justices P. Sathasivam and B.S. Chauhan noted that “conversion” violated the constitutional spirit of non-discrimination on grounds of religion and the co-existence of religions on the basis of “equal respect for all religions”. It is pertinent that though the burning alive of Staines and his two sons is spectacular and gruesome, the judges refused to classify it as “rarest of rare” cases, and observed, “…The intention was to teach a lesson to Graham Staines about his religious activities, namely, converting poor tribals to Christianity.” The judgment thus upheld that there was a powerful non-personal motive behind the murder of the Staines, and hence there was no convincing case for awarding the death penalty to Dara Singh and Mahendra Hembram. Then, following an orchestrated campaign of outrage by church organisations and Christian activists, as early as 25 Jan. itself, without notice to other parties in the dispute, the Supreme Court judges deleted critical paragraphs in their judgment, namely, - “It is undisputed that there is no justification for interfering in someone’s belief by way of use of force, provocation, conversion, incitement or upon a flawed premise that one religion is better than the other”

Jihadis Objected Hanuman Jayanti in Hyderabad

Rise of Slaughter in India

It may be hard to believe, but
"Independent" Hindu India now kills more animals than ever before!

Even more than the enslaved India under Christian British rule, or even the very
ruthless Moslem emperors . . .

More animals have been butchered
in the last decade than any previous decade in India's history!!

After independence, we have tried
to catch up with the industrialization of the 20^th century. For that
we needed foreign machinery, for which we needed foreign exchange, for which we
had to export many of our resources -- even the ones scarce to our poor masses
or important to our future generations. Most lately we have resorted to
exporting meat. The government has issued licenses to huge slaughterhouses with
an eye on the market in Arab countries. We have ignored that ours is a culture
of nonviolence and this business does not fit in it at all. This has raised a
big cry in the animal-loving community of Hindus and Jains. Here are some of
their thought-provoking views.

The first one is from "Jain Mitra,"
dated 15-Oct-98, pages 375-376. It describes "Alkabir," a major slaughterhouse
in Andhra Pradesh. Maneka Gandhi also has talked about this one, at our Chicago
Convention.

Killer Alkabir: Inhumane Tyrannies
on Helpless Animals

This mechanized slaughterhouse is
located 15 miles from Hyderabad, the capital city of Andhra Pradesh, on 300 acre
land. This efficient modern plant can process up to 10,000 animals a day.

The central and state governments
have issued licence for 'useless' 500 buffalos and 2000 sheep and goats, of
which 50% have been canceled by the supreme court; but who is counting all these
animals, and who is there to judge their 'uselessness?' There is no supervision
of that. That is why in reality, thousands of healthy animals are annihilated
there daily. This also is a murder of law.

Tyranny: Don't
think that these animals are killed easily and painlessly. Their agonies start
long before they are dead. They are brought to Alkabir in trucks, from far away
distances. For economy, 20-25 huge buffalos are stacked up in each truck. Nobody
cares to feed them food, or even water while in transit. They are packed so
tightly in the truck, that they are hurt by each other. By the time they arrive,
they are no more capable of standing on their own feet! They are moved with
force of whips . . .

They are brought into the final
ground, where at least a thousand animals are stored. This is their last open
air. They are kept here for four days, hungry and thirsty. Then their legs are
broken and eyes poked, so that a 'certificate' can be obtained about their
uselessness. The hunger and thirst of four days cause the hemoglobin to move
from blood in to fat. The meat with higher hemoglobin fetches better prices.

Now these animals are pushed into
washing showers. Extremely hot water (200 degrees!) is sprayed on them for five
minutes, to soften their skins, so they will be easy to remove. The animal
faints at this point, but it is not dead yet.

Now it is hung upside down with
one leg, on a chain-pulley conveyor. Then half of the neck is slit. This drains
the blood, but does not kill the animal. After death, the skin swells thick,
which sells for a poor price. But the skin of a live animal is still thin, which
has better economic value. On one side the blood is dripping from the neck, and
on the other side a hole is made in stomach, from which air is pumped inside.
This causes the body to swell, making it easier to peel the skin. After removing
the leather, the animal is cut into four pieces: head, legs, body, and tail. The
machines remove bones, and pack small pieces of meat into cans for shipping to
Alkabir's headquarters in Hyderabad. From there it is shipped to Mumbai for
exporting to its final destination.

Personnel? Most
of the people working here are Hindus. The Director, Subhash Sabarwal, is an NRI
in Dubai, and his brother, Satish Sabarwal, manages the plant. The other
principals are Ghulam Mohammed Sheikh (Dubai), Dilip Himmat Kothari, B.N. Raman,
etc. Even though the main workers on cutting machines are from Kerala and
Muslims from Mumbai, the administration, security, etc. consists mainly of
Hindus. There are several other equally large (or larger) plants in India, owned
and operated similarly by NRI's and Arab citizens in cooperation.

The people working here are paid
very handsomely. This is a big attraction. A monthly salary of Rs. 50,000 to
75,000 is common. At the site, there are many veterinarians, but their job is
not to save healthy lives. Their only concern is to see that the meat does not
carry any germs which may hurt the customers. In fact, there is a small army of
government veterinarians, whose job is to see that healthy and useful animals do
not get butchered. But these corrupt officials write false certificates
according to wishes of Alkabir.

You cannot easily enter Alkabir,
because outside people are not allowed in there. Even the local veterinarians
and police cannot go inside, so there is no question about the other local poor
people even coming close to its boundaries . . . Security is tightened at nights
with hunting dogs. Now the neighboring people do not even come close to it.

Depleting our Animal
Wealth?

Alkabir alone holds permits to
export 15,000 tonnes of meat a year. The other permit-holders are even bigger:
Frigorico Alanali (Aurangabad) has permits for 24,000 tonnes, Hind Industries (Aligadh)
has permits for 25,000 tonnes, and Alana Sons (Delhi, Andhra and Maharashtra)
have permits for 45,000 tonnes. These are just legal numbers. Illegal business
is even bigger. Alkabir, even though originally licensed only for export, now
sells meat in India too.

Besides all these authorized
establishments, there are many smaller unauthorized butcher houses. In addition,
animals are butchered on certain rituals too, by various religions, on certain
days, by millions. Again, let us make some estimates.

Right now, there are 36,000
slaughterhouses, of which 10 are highly automated, where daily 250,000 animals
are hacked. One estimate is that annually 300,000 tonnes of meat are eaten by
the flesh-eaters, for which 10 million cows-buffalos and 40 million sheep-goats
are killed. At this time the population of buffalos in the country is only 75
millions, and cows 200 millions. The situation of sheep-goats is even worse.
Their population is depleting the fastest. Alkabir alone is licensed to kill
600,000 a year, but Deonar (Mumbai) is licensed to kill 2,500,000 a year, in
addition to 120,000 cows and 60,000 buffalos. Calcutta located slaughterhouse
kills 1,200,000 cows and buffalos per year. These are just official numbers for
a few large facilities. There is no count for thousands of smaller unmechanized
facilities. But one thing is very clear: The sheep and goats will not survive
the next century. We may see the end of our animal wealth in early part of the
next century.

Strange - But True!!

• India is the only
  country in world that provides in its Constitution for mercy and care of the
  animals.

• According to its laws, only
  those animals can be slain, which are older than 16 years of age, and are
  useless. However, now meat of young healthy buffalos between 4 months and one
  year is allowed for exports.

• Meat of one cow/buffalo is
  worth Rs. 20,000. However, the same animal may produce, in its 18 years of
  life span, goods (milk, butter, and manure) worth Rs. 300,000. Thus, the
  country has to suffer a loss of Rs. 280,000 for each animal slaughtered.

• We get foreign exchange for
  meat. However, we also pay foreign exchange for chemical fertilizers, manure,
  urea, milk powders, etc. which cost several times the price of meats. Then why
  export meat?

• The government encourages
  certain businesses-industries with financial supports. The government has
  announced 100% supports for opening new slaughterhouses, and the agriculture
  department has already approved several slaughterhouses. The Indian meat
  fetches only 40% of international prices. Then what is the meaning of
  supporting this industry?

• The government argues that if
  we don't kill the animals, their population will go on increasing. However,
  according to the same statistics, the number of animals per capita is rapidly
  decreasing.

• The world trend is towards
  vegetarianism. The developed countries are learning the dangers of
  meat-eating. Britain has not opened any new slaughterhouse since 1980, whereas
  the Indian government is opening new slaughterhouses and modernizing the older
  ones.

• According to laws enacted to
  prevent cruelty to animals, it is considered a crime to treat any animal with
  cruelty (beating, over-burdening, inflicting pain, etc.). At the same time,
  however, butchering them is permitted! Does this make any sense?

• Central Food & Technological
  Research Institute (Mysore Government) has concocted a concentrated meat, with
  an objective to alleviate the shortage of 'quality' protein for masses. The
  government still thinks that meat provides superior proteins...

Message from Acharya Shree
Vidhyasagarji

Slaughterhouses don't kill
animals only; they also murder 'humanity.' The government of this Ahimsak
country, by murdering animals and selling its meat, is converting this
country's face forever. India has always been a country of playgrounds, farmers,
agriculture, and shepherds taking care of their animals with love; never a
country of butchers and butchery. Bloodbath is foreign to Indian culture.

The country can never prosper by
selling meat, wine, eggs, fish, etc. because there is gross violence involved in
all these businesses. The wealth produced by this violence, this bloodbath, will
bring many disorders of mind, and all the money will be spent in repairing these
disorders. So how will there be any real prosperity?

Industry of violence will spread
only violence in the country, not nonviolence. The government wants nonviolence,
but condones the violence! Can we establish nonviolence with violence? Today, we
need peace not cruelty, because we can not live without peace.

And, what kind of economic policy
is this, that we kill milk-producing animals to export their blood and meat to
other countries, and then import milk powder and manure from other countries?
Rulers of this nation need to change this 'economic' policy, because in reality
it is an 'uneconomical' policy.

The nation that used to export
gold, silver and diamonds, is now exporting bones, blood and meat. Our Bharat
will never thrive with wealth in this way. We need sanctuaries, not
slaughterhouses. It is so absurd that we kill our cows to feed foreigners, when
our own people don't get enough to eat, and we have to use artificial milk!
These artificial foods also bring their own killer diseases. We should provide
for pure and healthy food for our masses, and for that, we must save our cattle.

Freedom means giving right to
live to all lives. What kind of freedom have we achieved, in which we talk about
human rights, but define animals as 'useless' and annihilate them? Humans have
no right to attack other species and take their lives. Everyone has a born right
to live, and the death sentence is given only to those who have done big crimes.
But these animals are innocent. Those who have done no crime, why are they being
killed? There should be a penalty for this atrocity.

Religion is not ringing bells in
temples. Religion is compassion and kindness. Protect the animals that are being
packed in trucks for sending to slaughterhouses. Saving their lives is true
religion.

Our literature has always focused
on nonviolence, our culture has always professed nonviolence, then why is our
government now moving to violence? This butchery and bloodbath are a big shame
to our nation. We can never feel proud for such activities. There is no prestige
in such businesses. World peace can never be achieved on foundation of animal
massacre.

There was a time when we did not
even sell milk - we just gave it free. Where is that Bharat gone? Today we have
arrived at selling blood and flesh!