This November 2010, I'm voting for Barack Obama

This November 2010, I'm voting for Barack Obama





Yes, you've heard it right!

On Tuesday, November 2, 2010, I'm going to vote for Barack Obama even though he's not a candidate. Here's my small endorsement for him even though he's not running.

I'm going to vote for his politics and principles, which I believe have been major, positive departures from eight fascist years of Bush, Cheney and Rove, and eight neoliberal years of Clinton. I know Clinton is campaigning for centrist-Dem candidates (Boeing's Patty Murray and anti-immigrant Heath "Tancredo" Shuler included), and drawing big crowds. Good for him. But my vote is for Obama and not for Clinton.

Am I happy that Obama is still continuing the brutal Afghanistan war, and seeking help from Washington insiders and Wall Street operatives to resolve the disastrous economic crisis? No. I wish he'd completely moved away from them. When I worked for his victory in November, 2008, I voted for a peace candidate. When I campaigned hard for him, I did it to support his pro-working-people, futuristic politics. That's why I chose Obama and not Hillary. To me, Obama was future, and Hillary was past. Obama was progressive, and Hillary was status quo.

I know Obama's handicaps. But I'm still supporting him because I've seen things happening in these two years that I haven't seen in twenty five years -- since 1985 -- when I came to America waking up to the nightmare of Ronald Reagan. The nightmare continued. When Obama became the president, in spite of my deep reservation for the deeply-entrenched Republocrat system, I knew that I was able to breathe freely, for the first time ever, when nobody was going to choke me anymore.

I wrote and spoke in various forums about the urgency to build solidarity across the working-class spectrum -- the sane and moderate majority I call the Second Circle. After decades of working at the grassroots level, first with the right and then with the left, I've moved away from the divisive left-right boxed politics, because I believe that the divide is artificial and destructive for the ordinary working people and families. There are many more overlaps than differences across the working class. I shunned the far right. I shunned the far left. And I shunned the iron-walled, elite center.

In my opinion, Bush-Cheney-Rove-Rumsfeld-Sarah Palin-Glenn Beck-Tea Party is a dark, Jim Crow force that our young generation -- black, white and brown -- has rejected once and for all. In my opinion, the Clintons and their centrist cronies are symbols of an inaccessible, elite status quo that our young generation has decided not to return to. Even the Clinton remnants we've seen damaging the progressive, pro-ordinary-people Obama agenda have been bad enough; I'm glad Obama is slowly but surely doing away with them. With strong support from labor unions, grassroots constituencies and young people that made an impossible Obama presidency possible, in the coming years, a re-charged Obama administration will be able to do much more to get America moving -- up and not down, forward and not backward.

I'm sure of it.

Let's quickly highlight some of the measures Barack Obama has accomplished, against all odds. They are (1) overturning of Bush-era limits of accessibility on federal documents; (2) ending of Bush-era practice of circumventing established FDA rules for political reasons; (3) announcing intentions to close Guantanamo prison camp; (4) negotiating deal with Swiss Bank to permit U.S. government to gain access to records of tax evaders and criminals; (5) beginning of phased withdrawal of U.S. troops from Iraq; (6) authorizing the U.S. auto industry rescue plan; (7) authorizing the housing rescue plan and new FHA residential housing guarantees; (8) authorizing $787 billion economic stimulus package with one-third in tax cuts for working-class families; (9) authorizing the Cash for Clunkers program removing polluting cars; (10) extending unemployment benefits for millions of workers; (11) instituting enforcements for equal pay for women; and of course, (12) signing a historic health care reform bill.

And that's only a small, partial list.

Obviously, corporate media have not been truthful to tell the story clearly and candidly. They won't do it because of their vested interest in crony capitalism; moreover, American big media survive on Nielsen ratings that in turn thrive on keeping people fearful, and on edge -- whether it's war, terrorism, bird flu, stimulus package, or health care. Remember just two years ago, when we all knew McCain-Palin was a lost ticket, yet CNN, etc. kept turning in close poll predictions? And we're not even talking about the Foxy, Rushy filth.

We don't need big media to tell us the truth. We have our own knowledge. We have our own analysis. We may have lack of money and power, but we have no lack of intelligence and experience.

This November 2, 2010, I'm going to use some of that knowledge and insight. I ask you to make up your mind, come out and do the same. Too much is at stake -- for us and our children.

Support Obama. Endorse a pro-people politics. Reject profit and profiteers. Embrace the future. Reject the past.



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Courtesy: Obama accomplishment list from IBEW Local 3's newsletter Union World, October 22, 2010. Graph from Pew Center, 2009.

The Brave Chilean Miners

October 13, 2010

(revised October 14)




On reaching freedom, Mario Sepulveda, or “Super Mario” as a British newspaper dubbed him, lived up to his reputation with a jubilant display. All the thirty-three trapped miners in the Copiapo San Jose copper mine in Chile are now safely out. They're all rejoicing.


We are, too.


During the post-rescue press conference, Sepulveda gave a powerful statement. He said, “I met God. I met the devil. God won.” Despite his flair on-camera, Sepulveda went on to say he was not a showbiz icon.


He said, “I’d like you to treat me like I am, a miner.”


He then also said something the U.S. media completely excluded from their reports (I've checked the New York Times, CNN and Associated Press). However, Reuters and Euronews reported it. He said: "I think that this country has to understand once and for all that we have to change the way we work. The working world needs lots of changes. We, the miners, we won’t let it rest.”


Talking about changes, I'm sure, two of the things that were on his mind were the mining corporation's complete disregard for the labor union's repeated warnings and protests about the unsafe working conditions and possible danger; I'm sure he was also talking about the no-pay the thirty-three miners and their families went through during the 70-day nightmarish ordeal.


U.S. media excluded that discussion too in their usual "fair and objective journalism."


It's the strength of the workers that charged me the most. What courage, what resilience, what organization and optimism even against the most extreme adversities! Miracle? Sure, we all know that; we'd say the same thing if one of our family members had experienced the situation. But it's also much more than that. It's the fighting spirit of the working people. It's their solidarity.


We must not forget this chapter -- in my opinion, one of the most important episodes of human history. I'm glad and grateful I've been able to witness it in my lifetime. American homes for the first time in a long time got a glimpse of what workers' rights and solidarity are really all about, however difficult the circumstances have been. This episode unfolding in a distant corner of the world forced corporate media to tell the story to us all, as is, even though they did their best to censor some important points. It is now our role to fill people in with the missing information and analysis.


For the first time in a long time, ordinary workers and their families across the world felt strong and vindicated, because of the solidarity action of the Chilean miners.


"Chi-Chi-Chi...Le-Le-Le." Workers of the world, this is our time!


###

The Un-Common Wealth Games Begin

Incredible India, It Stinks

Homeless Indians sleeping on flyover renovated for the Games

Jim Yardley writes in New York Times today: As Global Games Begin, India Hopes for Chance to Save National Pride. Wrong title, Mr. Yardley. India doesn't hope to save national pride: it's the violent, corrupt and inefficient people on top who're trying to save their national power, with help from corporate media -- Indian and international. It's shameful.

This is a quick summary of the so-called Commonwealth Games, 2010. (1) Rounding up and jailing of poor people with their children off Delhi's streets; (2) massive corruption of the ruling Congress leaders who allegedly stole millions of dollars by doling out big corporate contracts with outrageously inflated prices; (3) major failing to meet important deadlines causing international derision; (4) paying 15-20 cents or less per hour (and working them 12-14 hours a day) to the thousands of workers, and falsely promising them housing, health care, child care, education, etc.; (5) creating an oppressive and unsafe work climate where at least 40 workers have died from on-the-job injuries, etc. while working on the Games sites; (6) organizers rampantly used child labor; (7) the govt. shut down schools, colleges and govt. offices for the games with no make-up time for lost studies or work -- unprecedented in modern world history; (8) major construction debacles including the road bridge collapse in Delhi last week; (9) historic number of international athletes pulling out of the games; (10) massive arrogance of the Congress govt, International Olympic Committee and Commonwealth Games executives who took millions of dollars, yet didn't deliver.

Other than some no-name, local, grassroots groups, international human rights bodies or the United Nations did not produce any audible screams against such rights and justice violations (bizarre, because the big-name groups in particular wouldn't miss any opportunity to raise hell on other politically expedient lapses in select places across the globe.)

The entire cost that has nothing to do with welfare of the ordinary people (totaling billions of dollars) has been and will be dumped on the broken backs of the average and poor Indian citizens who couldn't care less about the Games; their lives will not change a bit after the fiasco is all over. Mr. Yardley, you might challenge the status quo the Games' sponsor corporations and their trustee governments are perpetuating. That's the real problem big media need to address.

And we're not even talking about the painful and pathetic legacy of the Commonwealth hegemony. As if two hundred years of looting a once-prosperous country and leaving a torn, bloody, violent and impoverished three pieces of land with carefully chosen cronies weren't enough.

If anything, the British Queen and her administration owe a long-overdue apology with major reparation to the one billion-plus people they tyrannized in South Asia. That would be a real good start. Everything else falls short.

Second Circle: the Middle Majority of Working People

Updated on August 4, 2010







Second Circle: the Middle Majority of Working People



A Simple Spin Wheel Model to Build Alliance and Power across the Soft “Left and Right”



(Because the divide is artificial: sane working people have more in common than difference)


By Partha Banerjee



Short Description: There are more overlaps than divides among the moderate “left and right” working people. Creating broad-based alliance and synergy across this democracy, equality and justice spectrum is critical today.


Long Description: Working people who consider themselves moderate "left" or 'right" have more overlaps than differences. Below are a few examples -- the moderate working people feel similarly and strongly about the following:

1. Economic disparity and frustrations on social mobility: living wages, unpredictable workplace, loss of health care, education costs for children, loss of home and savings, and consequent psychological trauma and depression are major issues.

2. Feeling of being left out: not being a part of the election-time promises to be included in democratic processes.

3. Discontent on lack of peace, right, justice and human dignity issues: state repression, global warfare and poverty issues hit the average home.

4. Helplessness on destruction of the earth and environment: the BP disaster, Hurricane Katrina, Afghanistan and Iraq wars are examples.

5. Fast-worsening stability and security situation for the children: terrorism and violence are all-time high.

Can the poor, working man and woman strengthen themselves to a position of power? Can we empower the Middle Majority -- which I call the Second Circle -- driven by coalition building across the working class, political education, and will power, in a non-violent way? What are the obstacles?

I propose a simple "spin wheel" model to create cooperation and collaboration across the moderate left and right working class spectrum, eventually empowering the Second Circle middle majority, and through the process, disempowering the iron-walled elite center and separatist and violent far right and far left. I believe that with evolving action plans (including but not limited to elections), moderate working people will win and assume power.

The artificial left-right divide is deliberately created by the forces in power aided by corporate media; it's been detrimental for the working class people and families. It's time we go beyond the archaic box and come together.

Obama and FDR -- Revisiting American History (quickly)

Obama and FDR -- Revisiting American History (quickly)

March 27, 2010



Now, this is a serious historical discussion that should be done by serious historians. I'm not one of them. My little knowledge about American history and society comes from a twenty-five years of first-generation immigrant existence in this country, and that too, an existence of struggle, spending valuable time on unmemorable, mundane events. Still, as a student of political history as well as an unflappable cheerleader of human spirit, I find urge to chronicle history of this land where I spent half of my life, as it's been unfolding my way. Hope is, friends are gracious enough to forgive any possible impudence.

About Barack Obama, the man who made history. However much I want to support him (and I do, still) and however much time and energy I'd put in for an Obama victory, I'm skeptical about the way he's doing business. This is after I threw in all my support for this health care reform bill, irking my three and a half admirers worldwide.

This is a very important discussion, and I hope we continue it. Briefly, I just came back from an annual conference of my college where a paper was read about the Obama vision of "One America." The young, vibrant, erudite historian quoted many Obama speeches to show how he's been able to create a sense of race harmony and futuristic vision for America through his enviable eloquence. Sure, I love the Obama eloquence, but not sure if I'm totally sold on the liberal, centrist theme. If anything, I said during the questionnaire that Obama has said things that new-generation, educated or otherwise privileged Americans want to hear, without ever addressing the issue of class, corporatism or globalized, neo-colonization and economic-cultural enslavement a la Monsanto, Union Carbide, McDonald's, IBM, MTV or Hollywood. That's not the vision of One America that other leaders such as MLK or even FDR or Lincoln had stood for.

[Of course, young America has matured a bit (and their election of Obama over dark-age, divisive forces is greatly reassuring), but has it gotten the difference between a liberal, individualistic concept of glossed-over diversity and one from a grassroots, working America pov? Not sure at all. I'd ask the same question for the country where I spent the other half of my life: India.]

In fact, in this extreme economic downturn caused by corporate America and its crony Republocrats (the JoeLieb ilk), one might take a lesson or two from FDR and his New Deal: how he tried to take on the Wall Street criminals in 1930's and how his administration passed pro-people, pro-labor laws (Wagner, Norris-LaGuardia, WPA...), curtailing the power of corporate America and their massive deregulation and out-of-control profiteering -- shockingly similar chain of events that caused the 1929 stock market crash, mortgage and banking collapse and the subsequent Great Depression.

Obama, surrounded by some sinister characters, has failed to replicate FDR. The crony Republocrats would not let him do it; in fact, the health care reform that finally passed with a razon-thin, heart-stopping margin passed after many concessions and carrots to corporate lobbyists: insurance companies themselves are big beneficiaries. It's a far cry from any serious reform. Still, we have no choice but to take it because the alternative is horrific.

American working people, courtesy big media, do not understand the centrist, elitist, entrenched status-quo politics, other than what they read, hear or watch at their living rooms -- "analysis" thrown at them by self-styled experts and media celebrities. But they do understand history, they do remember FDR, and millions of Americans (some of whom I work with on a daily basis) understand the hypocrisy of the Obama government (not necessarily himself) to bail out with a $1.5 trillion historic reward the same people who should've been put behind bars. These are ordinary, hard-working, family Americans some of whom, with the lack of an honest political analysis -- again courtesy big media and corporations -- now throw their support behind the Tea Party thugs. We can certainly blast them for joining hands with bigots, but we cannot and must not criticize the reasons of their frustration; after all, countless are out of work while blessed bank bullies keep giving themselves big bonuses.

This is a critical time in history, and in a few months come November, we'll know whether health care reform would make or break Obama once and for all. It could be that we're going to see a repeat of the 1994 New Gingrich far right takeover of Congress, given how money keeps pouring in to Republocrats' election coffers.

Instead of perpetuating and falling victims of the so-called left-right divide that distorts history of the American people, we need to find overlaps between the moderate working class -- the so-called left of center and right of center vast majority that share many commonalities -- and build alliance so that we gradually assume power for ourselves and slowly disempower the extremists, and more importantly, the centrist JoeLieb power of status quo.

I call it my Second Circle model: the large, majority concentric ring of honest, sincere, yet powerless, vulnerable people taken advantage of by the center circle of power, as well as people targeted by an outermost circle of fringe, violent forces. I hope to talk more about this model in the coming days.

Here's a diagram of the model. We'll expand more.







Thanks for the opportunity to share my two cents. Much appreciate comments, and if it's any worth, a circulation.

In solidarity (and hope for a united future),

Partha

Brooklyn, New York

The Real Slumdog Story: India's Ghastly Commonwealth Cleanup

Courtesy: http://www.independent.co.uk/news/world/asia/all-aboard-delhis-beggar-express-1914922.html

(See more related links at the bottom of this post.)

I'm deeply troubled. Very deeply troubled.

An inconspicuous report in British paper Independent shows how the Delhi administration in India is sweeping up hundreds of thousands of poorest of the poor -- men, women and children -- from the city's streets and jailing them randomly. I heard they are doing it because of the upcoming Commonwealth Games in October when sports personalities, politicians, dignitaries and most importantly, corporate businesses will come to our once-colonized land and spend their royal time and money to celebrate another round of the so-called global fraternity. Oh yes, some of them will run, jump and play ball too.

And Indian middle class will cheer.

So, in order to make the city look clean, the streets beggar-free, and the country wear a First World image, Delhi and India governments have taken on an urgent mission, with a religious zeal, to pick up the countless, hapless, half-naked, starving Indians -- men, women and children -- and are indefinitely putting them in India's dreaded jails before they're shipped out to somewhere across the country. What will happen to these God-forsaken millions and their lives, livelihoods, social connections and dignities? I'm sure they'll let us know when the celebrities and business houses check out after the Games. Normally, in India, middle class don't query on social connections or education of street children.

We've seen such grotesque acts of violence in India many times over the past, particularly since India graduated from its mediocre non-alignment, "socialist" days to a glitzy-globalized "democracy" days. We've seen numerous, bloody communal riots, barbaric genocide of the poor in the name of religion and caste, and international terrorism. We've also seen a massive change of government with transition of power from a so-called right wing dark force to a so-called centrist liberal enlightened. The new leaders of India are not the zealots and bigots, but internationally known economists and academics, United Nations celebrities, and of course, the Gandhi Dynasty -- I'm sure they have certain qualifications too.

In 2002, when a barbaric carnage took place in Gandhi's state of Gujarat when thousands of poor Muslims were slaughtered by a bigoted chief minister and his bigoted administration, there was international uproar: the New York Times, BBC, CNN, PBS, NPR and all other big-name media organizations gave us the ignorant a thorough coverage and insider information on the ghastly violence. In 2008, when a group of Pakistan-based terrorists snuck in to the five-star Taj International in the Indian Wall Street city of Mumbai and killed hundreds of hotel residents, there was another series of media uproar; CNN provided unprecedented, round-the-clock, "ticker-tape" coverage of the terrorism. We were delighted to see the extent of responsibility corporate media displaying to unearth major events happening on the other side of the world.

I'll make it short. This time around, however, when another major act of violence is happening in the capital of West-blessed India, I see no outrage -- barring a few small news blips here and there -- either by the mighty human rights groups and their liberal followers, or by the mighty media that spent so much of their precious time and money to uncover Gujarat or Mumbai. I'm sad and disappointed, but not truly surprised.

The liberal outrage -- either of the international rights and justice groups or of corporate media -- is selective, and media keeps manufacturing peoples' consent for or against a social, political or economic event. If the Gujarat (or the 1992 Babri Mosque) carnage is ghastly (and they are), then the Delhi clean-up of the begging destitute is equally grotesque. In the former, poor people die immediately; in the latter, poor people die a slow but sure death because of police torture, forced displacement, starvation, hunger, poverty and depression. In case of the latter, women and children suffer the most. In both cases, the brutality leaves lifelong, negative impacts on the surviving children who'd spare no time to act back against the repressive system with their own acts of violence.

I hope ordinary people both in India and the West (and perhaps some conscientious media people) pick up on this new fascism of the India government, and force them to stop this state-sponsored violence and brutality.

Again, I'm deeply troubled -- to see the inaction and lack of outrage, especially of the elite liberal that screamed their lungs off before. You can't have a double standard to denounce hate.

Thank you for reading my quickly drafted note.

Partha Banerjee
Brooklyn, New York
March 14, 2010


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Post Script.

Prof. Noam Chomsky wrote back today: "Very ugly story. I saw it on a smaller scale in New Delhi in 70's, when I was there as a Nehru lecturer. At that time, in downtown Delhi (I think Connaught Square) there were about 50,000 people in tents or no protection at all. We drove by every day on the way to talks. One day, it was empty. I asked the driver what had happened, and he said, casually, that the city had to be cleaned up for some Asian fair. I asked what happened to the people. He said they were loaded into trucks and dumped somewhere in the countryside. All very casual. No one seemed to care. I saw the same in Barcelona before the Olympics, though there it was not on the same horrendous scale.

Noam

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Follow-up articles:

Commonwealth clean up targets Delhi’s beggars

Ratnabai Kale was picked up at the start of the drive in September, along with her daughter Aarti, 16, and her sister Shobha, 30. "They said, 'You're not going on that bus. Get on to this one.' I asked why; they said because we were beggars. I said, 'First of all, we're not beggars, we're honest labourers', But the police didn't listen,” she said. “They told us we'd be given a four-year sentence in jail if we didn't go along."

http://www.soschildrensvillages.org.uk/charity-news/commonwealth-clean-up-targets-delhi2019s-beggars

Have A Budget For Beggars

Delhi’s notoriously rough and inefficient mobile anti-begging squads are already in battle formation. (It is well known that to keep their jobs the squads habitually pick up anyone in rags, even though s/he may not be begging). In recent months these units have rounded up 224 alleged beggars, and locked up 124 of them in one of 12 homes for the destitute — all of which are bursting at their seams. A 13th home is being planned for transgenders and eunuchs. By April the beautifiers also expect to have a 24-hour toll-free Beggar Hotline in place — for the city that a survey last week pronounced as the country’s most livable.

http://www.tehelka.com/story_main44.asp?filename=Bu200310have_a.asp

Delhi to banish beggars ahead of Commonwealth Games

"Before the 2010 Commonwealth Games, we want to finish the problem of beggary from Delhi."

http://ibnlive.in.com/news/delhi-to-banish-beggars-ahead-of-commonwealth-games/100424-3.html

Govt to ask for NGO help in rehabilitating city's beggars

"With space for only 2,100 beggars in its homes, no rehabilitation plan in place"

http://timesofindia.indiatimes.com/city/delhi/Govt-to-ask-for-NGO-help-in-rehabilitating-citys-beggars/articleshow/5677900.cms


Related articles:

Delhi NGOs, Cops Lock Horns over Beggars

NGO representatives at the workshop said beggars were a distressed lot, compelled to migrate to this city from other states in search of a living. Said Sanjay Gupta, an activist with Childhood Enhancement through Training and Action (Chetna): "Begging is one of the responses of acute poverty. People are not born beggars and do not become so by taking alms, but are victims of lack of employment opportunities in rural and urban areas. "They are often incapable of working because of old age and physical handicap. Before beginning to solve this problem with strict anti-poverty laws, the government should modify its policies and schemes."

http://www.globalpolicy.org/component/content/article/176/32007.html

Please beggar off

(An Indian middle class response to the problem)

"Slumdog Millionaire was embarrassing enough for many people. But their discomfort on finding beggars tugging on foreigners’ sleeves, pleading non-Indians in beggar-English for money during the 15 days when the land that has an economy more powerful than Mother Teresa’s love plays host to an international sporting event will be acute. It’s one thing to cope with a harmless bed-wetting 30-year-old cousin and quite another if he comes out in his underwear while you’re hosting a party in your living room."

http://www.hindustantimes.com/Please-beggar-off/H1-Article1-515993.aspx


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India's IMF Budget

Note: I acknowledge a few sections used from online articles and blogs.


opinion
The Khaas Aadmi Budget
It’s time people got—or took—direct charge of budget-making

Partha Banerjee

http://www.outlookindia.com/printarticle.aspx?264559

In a euphoric moment, when the country was celebrating Sachin Tendulkar’s double century in ODIs, Pranab Mukherjee, finance minister and International Monetary Fund’s governor-designate for India, presented his budget. And we might say, “It’s not cricket!”

In a non-election, no-risk year, he announced the following important news for his fellow countrymen. (1) Rich Indians will get Rs 26,000 crore of tax break in 2010-11; (2) food subsidy for the poor will be decreased by Rs 424 crore; (3) fertiliser subsidy for low-income farmers will be pared by Rs 3,000 crore; and (4) real estate magnates and hotel owners will get huge tax concessions. Then, he announced even more important news. In an already high-inflation situation, petrol and diesel prices will be increased. Everyone knows what that would do to the urban/rural poor and lower middle class.

Major corporate media, following a new-found, ‘successful’ US model, praised the budget. They said that following the announcements, India’s stockmarkets jumped. “The market lapped it up and the Bombay Stock Exchange benchmark Sensex boomed,” a Financial Times article said. Big NRI businessmen too made positive statements.

But wait a minute. I’m an NRI too, living in the US for 25 years. I teach blue-collar American labourers coming back to get a college education. I see how corporations here are laying off these workers in thousands and yet getting themselves millions of dollars in bonuses using the Obama government’s bailout money. I see how American media is completely bypassing the suffering poor workers. And now I see how a section of Indian media houses is following the footsteps of their American mentors, and suppressing the real stories around this major, extremely skewed budget. I find it unbelievable that nobody is questioning and challenging the so-called democratic government of Pranab babu, Manmohan Singh and the Gandhi dynasty on how the 80 per cent poor—rural and urban—would now be able to find food or kerosene for their families, pay rent, or get healthcare for ageing parents. Does anybody really care?

Let’s look at the history of Indian budgets since the so-called post-Soviet, post-non-alignment, liberalisation days. Since then, the series of policy measures launched by the Indian government are part of the so-called structural adjustment programmes (SAP). Indian governments have since taken up the following IMF-World Bank-dictated measures to implement SAP: (a) Massive devaluation of rupee; (b) new industrial policy allowing more foreign investments, thereby destroying traditional Indian businesses; (c) rampant disinvestment of government equity in profitable public sector enterprises; (d) ‘reforms’ of the financial sector by allowing in private banks; (e) cuts in social spending to reduce fiscal deficit; (f) market-friendly approach and less government intervention; and (g) liberalisation of the banking system.

Twenty years ago, the World Bank secretly submitted the above SAP elements to the government; we now know that the group of senior officials in the finance ministry—all ex-World Bank/IMF employees—who were involved with this memorandum did not disclose it to the then PM, Chandra Shekhar. Have we heard about this from Pranab babu or his predecessors P. Chidambaram or Manmohan Singh?

Clearly, the focus of the new budget is to provide more help to the corporate sector and the rich, with an illusion that the new growth would percolate down to the downtrodden—what is called “trickle-down economics” in the US. It has now crashed the US economy, and it’s going to crash India and its vast middle class in the coming days.

If Indian leaders were not so indebted to Western institutions, they’d have come up with a people’s budget following the successful model of Brazil’s Lula De Silva: a transparent economic blueprint where ordinary people have open access to create and modify it based on their own national, regional or local needs.

In a truly democratic, transparent, people’s budget that India should have developed over the recurrent, five-year plans, we’d see serious investment in small-scale industry, agriculture, education, healthcare, land/water reform, training for unskilled workers, incentive for poor women’s entrepreneurial efforts and ‘Grameen’-type banking, development of a sustainable environment and sports for young Indians with tangible goals. On that list, we’d now definitely add disaster preparedness and evacuation strategies, given what we’ve just seen in Haiti and Chile. I shudder even to think of the extent of possible destruction in the event of a large earthquake in Calcutta, Delhi, Mumbai or Bangalore.

Pranab babu’s IMF budget has no clue on any of the above. Who can answer correctly? Soniaji, or maybe, the next media-predicted prime minister—Rahul Gandhi?

(Partha Banerjee is a New York-based human rights activist.)