“Listen to ‘Mann Ki Baat’ of Farmers Also”: Union Leaders Tell PM Modi 

At a press conference at the Singhu border, farmer union leaders said that agitators will keep sitting at the borders of Delhi until the Centre does not revoke the three farm laws.

Mohali: On the fifth day of the ‘Delhi Chalo’ march, farmers’ union leaders addressed the media at the Delhi-Haryana Singhu border for the second day today.

Among the leaders who addressed the press conference were Jagmohan Singh of the Bharatiya Kisan Union (Dakaunda), Yogendra Yadav of the Akhil Bharatiya Kisan Sangharsh Samiti (ABKSS), Gurnaam Singh Chaduni of the Bharatiya Kisan Union (Haryana Unit) and Shiv Kumar Kakaji of the Rashtriya Kisan Mahasangh (RKM).

All the leaders condemned Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s statements on the new farm laws made during his ‘Mann Ki Baat’ radio show this Sunday.

Invoking the teachings of Guru Nanak – Kirrt Karo, Naaam Japo, Vand Chaako, or work hard, say the name of  God and share with others – on his 551st birth anniversary, union leaders said that they have gathered here to protect the rights of Kirrtis, or workers, labourers and farmers.

Also read: Protesting Farmers Recall the Heroics of Guru Tegh Bahadur to Draw Inspiration

Jagmohan Singh of BKU (Dakaunda) said, “Prime Minister Modi addresses the nation with his ‘Mann Ki Baat’ every Sunday, we request him to listen to the ‘Mann ki Baat’ of the farmers’ as well.”

Singh added that until the Centre does not revoke the three farm laws, agitators will keep sitting at the borders of Delhi. Singh said that the Modi government’s decision to pass a Bill related to farmers without consulting farmers shows that the Modi-led regime is nothing but “a fascist state”.

Farmers light candles on the occasion of the birth anniversary of Guru Nanak Dev at the Singhu border on November 30, 2020. Photo: PTI/Shahbaz Khan

Yogendra Yadav, national president of the ABKSS, said that the farmers’ movement has proved the Centre wrong on many levels. “Farmers who are here today have exposed five lies and I will tell you what those lies are,” he  said.

“The Centre had said that the new farm bills will remove the so-called middlemen and so only the middlemen are protesting. But look around you and see who all are here. I won’t tell you, you find out for yourself if it is the peasantry or the middlemen,” Yadav said.

“The second lie that we have exposed,” Yadav added, “is that the poor farmer is a gullible breed and they don’t know what is good for them. Let me assure you that if you speak to even a child at this protest, they will tell you why they are here and what is wrong with the farm bills.”

Adding that “the Centre is busy painting the picture that this protest is a protest of only Punjab”, he said that while Punjab has led this fight, farmers and workers from UP, Haryana, Madhya Pradesh and Rajasthan were present too.

“See, Medha Patkar ji came here, Pratibha Shinde ji has come here (from Maharashtra), Shiv Kumar ji is amongst us from Madhya Pradesh, and Gurnam Chaduni is here from Haryana,” yadav said.

Alluding to the tweet of BJP’s IT cell chief Amit Malviya and Haryana chief minister Manohar Lal Khattar’s statement, Yadav said that those who were trying to malign the farmers’ movement by calling them ‘Khalistani’ are the real traitors.

Also read: At Least Three Deaths Reported During Farmers’ ‘Delhi Chalo’ Protest

Gurnam Singh Chaduni of the Haryana BKU unit said that the Haryana police has slapped three cases against him for rioting, arson and attempt to murder, which shows just how repressive the Haryana government is.

Chaduni said that the new farm laws aim to convert the peasantry of this country into economic slaves. He said that the pro-corporate nature of the new laws will make the rich even richer and the poor even poorer.

“If you calculate, then Ambani’s hourly income is higher than the debt of all farmers of this country combined,” Chaduni said.

Calling PM Modi a “legendary liar”, Shiv Kumar of the RKM said, “Prime Minister says that they have assured us a crop prices that are C2+50, whereas, farmers don’t even get minimum support price through which he/she lives. I have seen prime ministers lie but I have not seen a prime minister who is a legendary liar,” he said.

At the end of the press conference, members of two different transport associations showed solidarity with the farmers. They said that if the farm bills are not revoked then all transportation of New Delhi will be put on halt.

“All taxis, buses, trucks will be put on halt. We will go on strike and let nothing run in Delhi,” said a transporter from the stage.

Rajasthan: BJP Ally RLP Threatens To Quit NDA Over Central Farm Laws

“RLP is a constituent party of NDA, but its strength are farmers and soldiers,” said Rajasthan MP Hanuman Beniwal, chief of the Rashtriya Loktantrik Party.

Jaipur: With the Bhartiya Janta Party’s ally in Rajasthan Rashtriya Loktantrik Party (RLP) calling out the Union government over its controversial farm laws while simultaneously fighting solo in the ongoing panchayat elections in the state, fissures in the BJP-RLP alliance have been laid bare.

Hanuman Beniwal, the RLP supremo, is a well-known Jat leader from Rajasthan’s Khinvsar. Initially a member of the BJP, he left the party over differences with the then chief minister Vasundhara Raje. He then launched his own party ahead of the 2018 state assembly polls.

During the 2019 Lok Sabha polls, the RLP had entered into an alliance with the BJP in Rajasthan. However, after the elections, Beniwal, through his statements, has expressed his intention of severing ties with the National Democratic Alliance (NDA) for quite some time now.

Most recently, in a tweet on Monday, he said, “RLP is a constituent party of NDA, but its strength are farmers and soldiers. If [Modi government] will not take any quick action, then I might have to consider being NDA’s ally.”

He has told Rajasthan Tak that the alliance had been formed ahead of the 2019 Lok Sabha polls because the circumstances were such that his party couldn’t fight independently.

However, he added that the alliance had benefited the BJP more than the RLP. “Because of the BJP, we might have got 2-3 lakh votes, but our presence fetched BJP over 20 lakh votes,” he told Rajasthan Tak.

The RLP is contesting in 18 of the 21 districts undergoing panchayat elections in the state this year.

Beniwal says that the RLP is preparing the ground for the 2023 assembly elections in Rajasthan where it will overthrow either the BJP or the Congress party from being the top two parties in the state in terms of vote percentage.

Beniwal has a great appeal among the youth in the state, but his position as a ‘farmer’s son’ has always been under question. During the 2018 elections, Beniwal had refused to form alliance with the Left and the Aam Aadmi Party that were leading its campaign in the interest of the farmers.

Also read: Amid An Important Farmer Debate, Don’t Forget the Woes of India’s Landless Workers

Rajendra Bora, a senior journalist and political analyst in Rajasthan says that the RLP is only trying to stay relevant in the current scenario. “Beniwal has never been serious about farmers’ issue. Noticing that the protest has turned into a massive movement, he is just cashing in,” said Bora.

He also added that no third front in Rajasthan has survived due to lack of consistency over material issues. “Beniwal might claim that his party might emerge as the first successful third front in the state, but it is going to be a long struggle,” added Bora.

In contrast, another senior Jat leader in the state Rampal Jat has already marched towards Delhi three days ago along with more than 100 farmers and supporters.

Former BJP Jat leader from Rajasthan Rampal Jat marched towards Delhi along with hundreds of farmers on Saturday. Photo: Special arrangement

Jat, who is a former BJP leader and Kisan Mahapanchayat founder, has been quite vocal about his agenda of ‘Kisan Raj.’ He had quit the BJP over farmers’ issue in 2019 and joined the Aam Aadmi Party (AAP). He has now left the AAP as well and is working independently.

Speaking to The Wire, he said that the politically-conscious Jat community, which is primarily dependent on agriculture as its livelihood, has been trying to compel the Union government to implement the recommendations made by the Swaminathan Commission across India since a decade.

Talking about Beniwal, Jat said that the RLP leader is still trapped between the BJP and the Congress, and has thus not been able to make any firm decision on whether to support the farmers or not.

“He [Beniwal] has good relations with prime minister Narendra Modi and Amit Shah, so he might not want to risk that. He is still confused which is why he is only tweeting against the Centre, not joining the protest in Delhi,” Jat told The Wire.

Meanwhile, Balwan Singh Poonia, MLA from Rajasthan’s Bhadra, is also set to march towards Delhi along with hundreds of farmers on Wednesday.

Protesting Farmers Recall the Heroics of Guru Tegh Bahadur to Draw Inspiration

Farmers have slammed those projecting their agitation of having connections with the Khalistani movement, and reiterated that their movement is secular and inclusive.

Khanauri (Punjab): “This route is steeped in history, you know. It is the same route that Guru Tegh Bahadur, the ninth guru of the Sikhs took, while on his way to Delhi, where he attained martyrdom. And this is the route which we are taking too on our way to Delhi. Earlier, we were fighting against the Mughals. Today, it is the Modi government. We will rise up against every kind of oppression,” said 54-year-old Jagmeet Singh, a farmer from the Sangrur district of Punjab.

Jagmeet is one of the tens of thousands of farmers who are making their way to Delhi in order to protest the controversial farm laws passed by the Modi government in September.

The laws were passed with a view to open up the agricultural sector to free-market forces, with the government hoping that private sector investment will stimulate growth in the country’s agricultural sector. Farmers, however, have slammed the laws as being ‘pro-corporate’, and have alleged that private players will dominate the agricultural sector and push out farmers with small landholdings.

Farmers traveling to Delhi via National Highway 52 near town Khanauri are drawing inspiration and courage from Guru Tegh Bahadur’s martyrdom, as they exert pressure on the government to repeal three farm laws it has recently enacted.

“The way Guru Tegh Bahadur Ji arose as ‘Hind di Chadar’ and became a prominent voice for the oppressed, the same way, the people of Punjab are going to hold the Modi government answerable for its anti-farmer and anti-people policies. The guru came to the aid of Kashmiri Pandits by sacrificing his own life for them. This time too when the government repealed Article 370, Punjabis stood with our Kashmiri brothers and sisters,” said Beant Singh, a PhD scholar from Punjabi University, Patiala.

The protesting farmers and workers have also slammed the allegations of Khalistani allegiance, and have tried to highlight the secular nature and mass support which the protests have garnered.

Also read: At Least Three Deaths Reported During Farmers’ ‘Delhi Chalo’ Protest

Gurpreet Kaur, a leader of a farmers’ body in the Patiala district told The Wire that people from all faiths and castes are participating in the protests, with a large number of women playing an instrumental role in the protests.

“This fight of ours stems from desperation. We need to save our fields, our land, our food. We have already burnt effigies of Narendra Modi, Mukesh Ambani and Gautam Adani on Dussehra. It is now time to show the government the power of kisaan-mazdoor (farmer-worker) unity.”

Lachhman Singh Sewewala, general secretary of the Punjab Khet Mazdoor Union, echoed Gurpreet’s concerns. “This fight is for our very existence. The government has raised the issue of Coronavirus in order to try and derail the movement. In this backdrop, it is important to realise one thing. While COVID-19 does not kill all those infected, starvation kills whoever it affects. If we do not fight today, we will go hungry tomorrow,” he said.

Sewewala, however, struck a more positive note, as he claimed that these protests would show the country how to fight against oppressive regimes.

“The farmers are fighting not just for their own issues, but for issues which concern the nation. While on the one hand, we have demanded that the farm laws be repealed, on the other hand, we have also asked for all innocent students, leaders, journalists, academicians, and teachers who have been wrongfully incarcerated by the state, to be released as soon as possible.

The way Guru Tegh Bahadur ji emerged as a beacon of hope under the tyrannous rule of Aurangzeb, the people of Punjab will today lead the nation towards a more hopeful and brighter future,” he observed.

Fateh Veer Singh Guram is a student of journalism at AJK-MCRC, Jamia Millia Islamia.

Susmit Bose, the Bard Whose Songs Embody Protest and a Hope for a Better World

Forty-two years after its release, the urban folk singer’s debut album ‘Train to Calcutta’ – the first original English album to come out in India – was recently re-released digitally.

For the past five decades, Indian urban folk music has been synonymous with one name – Susmit Bose. Armed with a guitar and harmonica, Bose sang about the truths seen on the streets while his contemporaries played covers. And at 70, he is still going strong.

Bose was a familiar face for college students in the 1970s, when interest in pop and rock music was at its peak. But he went the folk route, like his heroes Pete Seeger and Bob Dylan. He wrote his own songs and recorded them too.

Susmit Bose. Photo: Dhruba Jyoti Dutta

His first EP ‘Winter Baby’, was released in 1971 and ‘Train to Calcutta’ (1978), was the first original English album to come out in India. Forty two years later, it was re-released digitally on November 1 as one half of the double album ‘Then & Now’, to commemorate his milestone birthday. The other half is a compilation of songs from his later albums.

Singing for change

“’Train to Calcutta’ was the first album which addressed social change for a better world,” says Bose, who was inspired to become an urban folk artiste after hearing Pete Seeger’s song ‘I Can See A New Day’ at school. Dylan’s unconventional songwriting had an enormous influence as well. “I was so caught up with the idea of change – a better vision and perspective, that I started writing my own songs. ”

These were first played to the crowds at the Cellar, a Delhi discotheque which held folk nights every Monday, where solo artistes sang covers. “During the performance, I would slip in my own songs without mentioning it. Some would notice and later, I would confess that it was my own. That’s how I got people interested in listening to my music,” said Bose.

Exploitation of the vulnerable, including children and protest songs were major themes he dealt with. The albums ‘Public Issue’ (2006) and ‘Be the Change’ (2007) talk about the division of the world and man on racial, economic and territorial grounds. The song ‘Dear Sir’ broaches the topic of discrimination against women while capitalism becomes the target in ‘The Economic Hit Man’.

‘Essentially Susmit Bose’ (2009) contained songs about the Babri Masjid demolition, female foeticide and activist Dr. Binayak Sen, whose imprisonment for allegedly helping Maoists affected him deeply.

Bose also became the first singer to render ‘Hum Honge Kamiyab’, the Hindi version of ‘We Shall Overcome’, for All India Radio, which became a cult anthem for protests. In 1990, American broadcasting company CBS approached Bose to make an album called ‘Man of Conscience’ in honour of anti-apartheid movement leader Nelson Mandela.

Initially, he had wanted to be a classical musician like his father Sunil Bose, but took to English music. Conflicts between the rebellious teenager and the parent resulted in Bose being thrown out of the house. He would spend nights sleeping on railway platforms and public places like Connaught Place.

Once in a while, he would flee to Kathmandu, a cultural hotspot on the hippie trail, to immerse himself in music, radical ideas and psychedelia amidst ‘empowered and enlightened’ thinkers.

“One day, I was singing Led Zeppelin’s ‘Stairway to Heaven’ on a broken guitar. Somebody came up to me and said it was incorrect. He took the guitar to play and was terrific! I was too stoned to even look at him. When he went away, my group asked me, ‘What were you and Jimmy talking about?’ It was Jimmy Page (Zeppelin’s guitarist),” said Bose, narrating an experience he had in the Himalayan city, to which he paid tribute through the song ‘Kathmandu’ in ‘Train to Calcutta’.

The 1978 album was thought to be lost for good. Bose himself had given away all the copies he had. Today, only a handful of record collectors have the vinyl, making it extremely valuable.

Jaimin Rajani, who made the film If Not For You about Calcutta’s fascination with Bob Dylan, tracked down several collectors but finally struck gold with Kalyan Kamal Roy, a mechanical engineer based in Kolkata. His impressive collection of 5,000 records included two copies of ‘Train to Calcutta’ in mint condition. Consequently, all 13 tracks were salvaged and cleaned. A lot of those songs are seeing the light of day for the first time and are now preserved forever. Rajani has produced ‘Then and Now’.

“I had found this record in a second-hand shop in the early ’80s. It was so incredible that when I come across a second copy a few years later, I bought that as well,” says Roy, revealing that he had to walk back home because he had spent all the money he had on the vinyl.

Also read: Neil Mukherjee’s New Bengali Album Continues His Fascination With Urban Lives

The album’s lyrical themes range from vignettes of city life and love songs to observations about human behaviour. The title track is about how a poor boy is ridiculed and thrown off the train as he has no ticket., The upbeat ‘Street Soliloquy’ talks of poverty and hunger faced by an unemployed man and his child. Also included are the anti-fascist Spanish song ‘Viva La Quinte Brigada’ and the album ender ‘Baul’, a Bengali folk song taught to Bose’s father by its writer, the revolutionary poet Kazi Nazrul Islam.

This song was only the beginning of Bose’s long association with the Bauls, nomadic minstrels from Bengal’s countryside. Ethnic folk instruments such as the percussive khamok can be heard on several of his albums while the worlds of urban folk and rural Bengal folk merged on ‘Song of the Eternal Universe’ (2008).

“The Bauls were famous all over the world but their language was not understood. So, the Ford Foundation supported me to bring out this album. I sang the thematic equivalent of the Bengali lyrics in English,” said Bose.

Are protest songs still relevant? “These songs are ageless,” Bose says emphatically, “But I wonder the real meaning resonates with today’s generations. A person may be a Dylan fan but perhaps may not imbibe the values the songs preach, which are antithetical to the consumerist good life. “

Protest songs will always be overshadowed by the mainstream, believes Bose. “For new guys doing this today, they aren’t many opportunities. Music has become far more ornamental and visual. Artistes have to be sexy. There is a lot of pretense. This is because music is a trade now,” he said.

But Bose is acutely aware of his role. “A folk singer isn’t out there to change the world. He just keeps the thought and ideology alive, so that people listen and there’s a chance of listening and possibly getting influenced,” he says.

Shaswata Kundu Chaudhuri is a freelance journalist based in Kolkata and interested in music.

Why This Is Not the Right Time to Allow Corporate Ownership in Indian Banks

Evidence shows that the potential benefits of permitting the entry of large corporate houses into the banking sector
are far outweighed by the potential costs.

On November 20, the Reserve Bank of India (RBI) released the report of the Internal Working Group (IWG) that reviewed the existing licensing and regulatory guidelines relating to ownership, control and corporate structure of private sector banks in India. The working group’s most significant but contentious recommendation is to allow large corporate and industrial houses to promote and run banks in India. “Large corporate/industrial houses may be permitted to promote banks only after necessary amendments to the Banking Regulation Act, 1949,” states the report.

Since the nationalisation of 14 large private banks in 1969, the RBI has not given licenses to large corporate and industrial houses for setting up banks. At present, there are 12 old and nine new private banks (established in the post-1991 period) with the majority of ownership held by individuals and financial entities.

Another important recommendation of the IWG is to allow conversion of large non-banking financial companies (NBFCs), including those owned by corporate houses, with assets of Rs 50,000 crore and above and 10 years of operations into full-fledged banks. If the RBI accepts this recommendation, it would lead to a backdoor entry of corporate-owned NBFCs into the banking space.

Headed by Prasanna Kumar Mohanty, the RBI had constituted a five-member IWG on June 12 to examine existing licensing and regulatory guidelines related to private sector banks within a larger context of meeting the credit demands of a growing economy; fostering greater competition in the domestic banking sector through the entry of new private players; and scaling up the presence of India’s banks in the world rankings.

A man checks his phone outside the Reserve Bank of India (RBI) headquarters in Mumbai, April 5, 2018. Photo: Reuters/Francis Mascarenhas/Files

What’s the urgency?

The RBI has conveyed a great sense of urgency throughout the process. Within a brief span of about four months, the IWG deliberated on these important policy issues having far-reaching ramifications on the stability of the banking system and submitted its report of 100 pages to the RBI on October 26. The central bank has offered less than two months to submit comments on the report. If previous RBI reports are any sign, the usual time-period involved between issuing committee reports and final guidelines is over two years. This time, however, the RBI appears to be in a big hurry to complete the process, raising some unsettling questions.

What is even more puzzling is that the IWG has endorsed this controversial recommendation despite overwhelming evidence to the contrary. In the report’s Annex 1, the IWG has also admitted that “all the experts it consulted except one ‘were of the opinion that large corporate/ industrial houses should not be allowed to promote a bank’.” Hence, it raises several questions: Why this recommendation was made by the IWG despite hard evidence and experts’ opinion against such a move? What’s the urgency? What is the right sequence of policy priorities for the RBI?

While several large domestic conglomerates stand to gain from securing a banking license given a very high rent-seeking potential, it is pertinent that the IWG’s recommendations must be widely debated before implementation and the arguments put forward by it must stand up to scrutiny. Otherwise succumbing to lobbying pressures from large corporate houses may derail the ongoing efforts to ring fence the banking sector from the build-up of bad loans, which could imperil the stability of the entire financial system in the long run.

Also read: Safest Way Is to Not Allow Corporates to Float Banks, but India Is Credit-Starved: SBI Ex-Chairman

Unlike the US, India follows a bank-based financial system with banking assets accounting for 75% of the total assets held by the financial system. The contribution of the banking sector is very vital for economic growth and poverty reduction strategies. Hence, too much is at stake, and there are better sources of mobilising capital to meet the funding needs of the Indian economy other than corporate houses.

The fewer arguments put forward by the IWG in support of permitting the entry of large corporate houses into the banking sector are unconvincing. Evidence shows that the potential benefits are much fewer in comparison with the potential costs. Before we get there, let’s first examine India’s experience of allowing corporate houses to run banks in the post-Independence era.

India’s experience with corporate-owned banks

Surprisingly, the IWG report does not examine India’s past experience with corporate-owned private banks for over two decades after independence. Before the nationalisation of banks in 1969, India’s banking system was in the hands of the private sector. Most of the privately-owned banks were in the form of joint-stock companies controlled by big industrial houses. For instance, the Tatas were the major shareholders of the Central Bank of India which was established in 1911. The Birla family, one of the leading corporate houses of India, controlled the United Commercial Bank.

In those times, connected lending practices were rampant in private banks. As promoters of private banks, corporate and industrial houses used to channel large sums of low-cost depositors’ money into their group companies. With many private banks pursuing imprudent lending, bank failures ballooned. During 1947-58, for instance, 361 banks of varying sizes failed in India. The failed banks were amalgamated or ceased to exist.

As I discussed elsewhere, private banks owned by industrial houses were operating predominantly in metros and urban areas. Much of their lending was concentrated in a few organised sectors of the economy and limited to big business houses and large industries. Whereas farmers, small entrepreneurs, artisans and self-employed were dependent on informal sources (mainly traditional moneylenders and relatives) to meet their credit requirements. The share of agriculture in total bank lending was a meagre 2.1% during 1951-67. Before the bank nationalisation, the limited outreach of banks coupled with a weak regulatory framework represented a classic case of market failure in the Indian banking sector.

Most analysts believe that politics mainly drove the decision to nationalise banks. No denying that the timing of the decision was influenced by political events, but one cannot overlook underlying economic reasons that motivated this bold step. The bank nationalisation took place against the backdrop of several private bank failures, neglect of social and development banking by private banks, severe droughts, food shortages, and high inflation.

With the initiation of the banking sector liberalisation in the early 1990s, the RBI’s policy towards the entry of large corporate houses in the banking space has been wavering largely because of political economy considerations. The RBI has so far not issued a banking license to corporate houses, even though the 2013 guidelines briefly allowed it. Of course, there are several NBFCs (such as Bajaj Finance, Tata Capital, and L&T Financial Holdings) promoted by large corporate groups but unlike banks, NBFCs are not allowed to accept demand deposits from public depositors and they are also not part of the payment and settlement system.

Globally too, regulators do not encourage the entry of large corporates into the banking sector mostly due to governance and financial stability concerns.

Customers stand outside the Punjab and Maharashtra Cooperative Bank at GTB Nagar in Mumbai, September 24, 2019. Photo: PTI

Risks far outweigh benefits

Historically, the RBI has maintained a cautious approach towards corporate ownership of banks. Apart from the inherent conflict of interest, the poor quality of corporate governance practices is another key reason why the RBI has not issued banking licenses to corporate houses. Based on its interactions with outside experts, the IWG also admits that “the prevailing corporate governance culture in corporate houses is not up to the international standard and it will be difficult to ring fence the non-financial activities of the promoters with that of the bank.”

Over the years, the potential risks associated with connected lending have increased manifold because of the quantum leap in size and complexities in corporate India. The pervasive use of front and shell companies makes it difficult to identify the actual owner of businesses. Opaque onshore and offshore ownership structures can easily circumvent any regulatory measures put in place by the RBI to curb connected lending within a corporate conglomerate.

As pointed out by V. Raghunathan, ‘circular banking’ is another potential risk posed by corporate-owned banks because of the widespread prevalence of cartels in corporate India. Under circular banking, a corporate-owned bank A would finance the projects of corporate-owned bank B, B would finance the projects of corporate-owned bank C, and C would finance the projects of A, hence completing the cycle.

In India, incidents of frauds and defaults are increasing at an alarming rate across the spectrum. Financial scandals have even occurred in some of India’s big corporate houses that have long prided themselves on being above-board. For instance, India’s biggest corporate accounting fraud came to light in 2009 at Satyam Computer Services, just five months after the company won the Golden Peacock Global Award for Excellence in Corporate Governance, instituted by the Institute of Directors (UK).

Further, corporate ownership of banks would further concentrate economic power in the hands of a few corporate and industrial houses. Increased economic concentration would have adverse effects on the domestic economy and politics. It would not only widen inequalities but would also lead to policy capture where special interests would shape public policies.

It is not that the RBI is incognizant of potential risks associated with large corporates owning banks. In fact, the IWG report also lists several such risks including misallocation of credit, conflicts of interest, extensive anti-competitive practices, risks relating to intra-group transactions, moral hazard risks, and the risk of contagion. But what is astonishing is that despite recognising such risks, the IWG still endorses the entry of large corporate houses in the banking space.

Also read: A Long Winding Road Towards the End of Lakshmi Vilas Bank

More competition, more fragility

Competition is often viewed as a necessary precondition for promoting efficiency and innovation in the banking sector. The IWG also envisages that the entry of corporate players would engender greater competition in the Indian banking sector. While one welcomes competition in the Indian banking industry, but excessive competition may prove counterproductive as it enhances the systemic risks by eroding market power and profit margin of banks. Fearing erosion of the franchise value because of increased competition, banks have a natural tendency to lend more money to risky businesses (e.g., real estate and capital markets).

Of late, there is a growing recognition in academic and policy circles that increased competition in the banking industry may be good for efficiency and innovation but bad for financial stability. The 2008 global financial crisis is a case in point. Maintaining a fine balance between efficiency levels of competition and financial stability remains a key challenge for bank regulators.

Moreover, it has been widely observed that excessive competition could drive banks to speed up the consolidation process to protect their market power, thereby creating complex, large financial conglomerates that are “too big and complex to fail”. The higher levels of concentration in the banking industry can have adverse ramifications for consumers, small and medium enterprises, and retail depositors. In a country like India with millions of poor and low-income people lacking access to affordable banking services, the RBI cannot overlook such ramifications.

The RBI is still behind the curve

Although the Indian banking system showed resilience during the 2008 global financial crisis, the liquidity risks, frauds, and malpractices witnessed recently in banks and NBFCs (from Punjab National Bank, Yes Bank, PMC Bank, ICICI Bank, Infrastructure Leasing and Financial Services to Dewan Housing Finance Corporation Limited) have brought to the fore the shortcomings in the RBI’s regulatory oversight.

People walk past a building of IL&FS (Infrastructure Leasing and Financial Services Ltd.). Credit: Reuters/Francis Mascarenhas

While the working group calls for a strong legal framework and scaling up the supervisory capacity before allowing corporate houses to promote banks, it is hard to dispute that the RBI’s existing supervisory mechanism is still behind the curve in ensuring real-time compliance and early detection of frauds.

At best, the RBI’s regulatory oversight efforts can be described as a work-in-progress. Only late last year, the RBI overhauled its internal functioning and created separate regulatory and supervisory cadre to address potential systemic risks arising out of the growing size and inter-connectedness of banks and NBFCs.

On regulatory matters, one should not miss the bigger issues. In India, the problem is not the dearth of strong banking regulations. The problem lies in their implementation. Well-intentioned banking regulations without the capacity to enforce them are meaningless, as observed during several banking scams. New regulations can be introduced quickly, but it takes time to build human and institutional capacity to strictly enforce them.

In case the RBI accepts the IWG’s recommendation to allow corporate ownership in banks, a question on everybody’s mind would be: Does the RBI have the capacity to track connected lending, circular banking, loans to front companies controlled by corporates, loans to suppliers and vendors of a corporate group, creation of fictitious loan accounts, “evergreening” of loans, and other fraudulent practices on a real-time basis? If the answer is yes, then why the RBI failed to detect so many frauds and could not respond quickly to troubles in the banking system needs explanation.

If the answer is no, then why further burden already overburdened RBI with the additional responsibility of regulating banks owned by large conglomerates with multiple lines of businesses. What if something goes wrong because of connected lending? In such a scenario, one cannot expect the RBI to scrutinise millions of financial transactions carried out within a large conglomerate and to establish a money trail. That is the responsibility of an investigating agency (not of the RBI), a point also acknowledged by the working group.

Lastly, regarding the IWG’s recommendation allowing large NBFCs to convert into full-fledged banks, the long-lasting solution lies in scaling up regulatory oversight of all NBFCs – big or small – given their distinct purpose and complementary role in the domestic banking system.

To conclude, there is no robust evidence to support the entry of large corporate and industrial houses into the Indian banking sector. The potential benefits do not outweigh the potential risks inherent in corporate ownership of banks. It is an idea whose time has not yet come.

Kavaljit Singh is director, Madhyam, a policy research think-tank, based in New Delhi. 

Amid An Important Farmer Debate, Don’t Forget the Woes of India’s Landless Workers

While landless farm workers and landless peasants outnumber land-owning farmers, the former are almost entirely absent in the policy and policy-debates on farming.

What is the most numerous segment of Indian society? Many people routinely believe that it is land-owning farmers. But no, the latest census data says that it is the rural landless who comprise the largest segment of our populace.

At present, the latest census data we have is for the year 2011. This says that a total of 263 million persons (26.3 crore) households are involved in farming activities. Out of this only 119 million persons are land-owning farmers while 144 million are landless workers and peasants. In other words, the number of landless farm workers and landless peasants is significantly higher than those of land-owning farmers. However the former are almost entirely absent in the policy and policy-debates on farming.

Further, the census data reveals that the increase of this largest segment of our population has been very rapid in recent times. In the previous census of 2001 only 107 million landless farm workers were counted, which means that within a decade their number increased by 37 million ( from 107 to 144 million) , a huge increase. Only a relatively small part of this could be due to family divisions and population increase. It is clear that a large number of small farmer (and to a lesser extent rural artisan) households moved towards landless farm worker status. This is a trend which is still continuing at a fast pace as small farmers and rural artisans face increasing livelihood problems.

At the same time, the increasing numbers who are getting counted as landless farm workers can hardly get enough employment in farm work in and around their own villages due to a number of factors. One factor is the decreased employment generation in farming due to the use of more machinery and weedicides etc. Secondly higher levels of alienation of landless Dalits from local elites also prevents them from seeking work in their own villages.

Hence those who get described frequently as landless farm workers are actually doing farm work in their own villages ( if and when available) but in addition, they also seek work in nearby mines, quarries, construction and industrial work, often leaving early in the morning and returning in night. Many others are perhaps trying to earn more income now from work as migrant labourers, working in distant farms, mines, brick-kilns and construction sites, leaving for long seasons of work and returning home for shorter periods.

Watch | ‘Farm Bills Are an Attempt to Wipe Out the Fortunes of Farmers’: P. Sainath

In the absence of any caring response from most governments, they have evolved their own coping mechanisms in recent decades, but all this got disrupted in the time of COVID-19.

As the number of rural landless have increased at a fast pace, the only significant national-level response during the last two decades has come in the form of MGNREGA (Mahatma Gandhi National Rural Employment Guarantee Act). While the UPA government deserves all credit for enacting this legislation and giving it an important place, the actual allocations made for the scheme were not adequate.

Once the NDA took over, initially the scheme was criticised at the highest level in the government. However, soon better sense prevailed and the scheme was retained while at the same time denying it adequate budget. The budget was increased to some significant extent only under the COVID-19 special package, but by then the need of returning workers for livelihood support had increased so much that even this increase proved very inadequate in checking growing rural distress, particularly among the landless.

farmers punjab

Photo: Reuters

The guarantee component was weakened at the last stages of passing the law. The guarantee exists in the provision that if the government cannot provide employment as per procedures stated in the legislation, it will give compensatory payment to those who demanded employment. This was diluted by adding that this is subject to government finances permitting this. Hence the legal aspect of the guarantee got weakened. This has in practice led to a situation in which this compensatory payment is not made in over 95% of the cases where it needs to be made.

While the scheme has been monitored more in terms of budget allocations and expenditures as seen in official records, its actual corruption-ridden implementation has further limited benefits to the poorest landless to such an extent that many of them have lost faith in this. At the same time where this has been implemented well, this has given a lot of real hope. So the scheme should stay and there should be a widespread campaign for strengthening and expanding this scheme, not just in terms of what gets shown on computer screens of officials, or on the smartphones of smart bureaucrats, but in terms of the ground reality.

However, it is clear that this scheme by itself cannot provide an adequate and reliable base for the livelihoods of growing numbers of highly vulnerable rural landless households. So for this, two additional measures are needed.

Also read: Centre’s Scheme to Convert Rural Haats into Agri Markets Remains Unutilised

The first measure is based on the concept of a minimum land holding for all rural households. This may be only a small holding but if supported by water and moisture conservation/minor irrigation and cultivated intensive in least-cost ways using agro-ecology approach, this can provide a reliable base of food security, good health and firm bonds with the village.

Now it is often stated that land is just now available for distribution among the poor, but we also see that huge land is always available for corporates and the entire government machinery helps in facilitating this. Again a lot of village land is also passing into the hands of urban rich people and moneylenders. It seems that in the present balance of power in India rural land is available for all except those who need this the most and deserve this the most (rural landless workers)!

The excuse of non-availability is given only when it is a question of finding land for the landless. So this excuse should not be accepted, the bluff should be called and the country should move in the direction of providing some land for the landless and a minimum land holding for all rural households.

Finally, small farmers should be helped in such ways that the process of land-alienation should be checked. During 2001-11 the number of land-owning farmers decreased from 127 million to 118 million. In other words, within a decade the number of farmers decreased by 8.6 million, or reduced by about 2,300 per day. Most of this land passed from the poor to the rich.

Also read: Allay Fears of Farmers: Newspaper Editorials Call on Centre to Engage in Dialogue

When I visited a village in Vidarbha some time back, I was immediately surrounded by land-selling middlemen who were full of offers for selling land in many parts of the village. Potential buyers were visiting from urban areas so regularly that I was also mistaken to be a potential buyer of land.

I subsequently learnt from my inquiries in the village that many impoverished and indebted peasants were forced to sell their land and very rich persons including politician in nearby areas were the main buyers.

So small farmers have to be strengthened to check land-alienation. Lowest cost, agro-ecology approach will help in this. The government should extend a strong helping hand to boost water conservation and minor irrigation in a big way while also supporting agro-ecology in other important ways. The government should procure this healthy food produced by agro-ecology by providing a very fair and encouraging price to hard-working farmers. Their already accumulated debts can also be phased out with government help.

This two-sided approach of helping the rural landless workers to become small farmers while also helping small farmers to avoid land alienation will help greatly to reduce rural poverty and resolve the farming crisis of India.

Bharat Dogra is a freelance journalist who has been involved with several social movements.

‘Mosul’ Rejects the Formulaic Approach to Present an Introspective Story

The movie presents the violent defeat of ISIS truthfully, but it is the poignant revelation at the climax that elevates the plot.

A war, from the outside, looks impersonal and absurd. Impersonal because it is fought between two groups – its victories and defeats are collective. Absurd because it involves monumental loss – loss of life, resources, conscience. Stripped to its essence, a war is a shootout between two strangers, in which both parties lose. Yet it’s lived by people – and fought for a cause – so it becomes both personal and meaningful. A new Netflix actioner, Mosul, tackles a familiar material – the ISIS-fuelled carnage in Iraq – but elevates it with a sobering coda.

Based on a 2017 New Yorker piece, Mosul is centred on ISIS’s retreat from the eponymous Iraqi city and a SWAT team’s final mission – one whose purpose isn’t revealed until the last few scenes. That elite police unit, Nineveh, has been instrumental in ISIS’s defeat in Iraq. The movie opens to a young cop, Kawa (Adam Bessa), battling ISIS militants in a tense shootout, which claims his uncle. He and his colleague are eventually rescued by the Nineveh officers. Major Jasem (Suhail Dabbach), heading the SWAT team, invites Kawa to join his troop. This war has suddenly become personal for Kawa, and he finds in Nineveh a purpose and an ally: exacting revenge.

Twenty-one-year-old Kawa is a smart narrative choice to propel the movie, for he, like the audience, is new to this world. He doesn’t know his team members; he has no idea about the big picture. Many events, as a result, seem random and chaotic, underlined by mind-numbing violence: bullets rain, bodies drop, grenades fly. And at the centre of it all is the constant question: What is the plan? Kawa doesn’t get an answer; neither do we.

As the Nineveh team moves from one house to the other, the story gathers steam. Distrust runs high in a place like Mosul; the veteran members don’t know Kawa: can they trust him? That uneasiness heightens when Kawa’s colleague, who was rescued by Nineveh, turns out to be a renegade. Mosul tells the story of a rescue team over the course of one afternoon. This day-in-the-life approach illuminates the combatants’ challenges – not getting killed tops their list – and captures the humanity wriggling in a dreadful land.

The Nineveh members, for instance, live their lives between shootouts. Taking a break for a few minutes whenever possible, they watch soap operas, listen to music, share cigarettes. These brief moments highlight the difference between their present and past: what they’re forced to become and what they were. More importantly, what they never would be. It’s a succinct comment on the nature of war: how, in one stroke, it erases all possibilities of time and identity.

And then, there are deaths. As the mission intensifies, the Nineveh team starts losing its members, one by one. Old and new friendships are destroyed in a few seconds, as if they never existed. Resources deplete, too, with disturbing urgency. Nineveh keeps losing its Humvees; bullets and weapons are in short supply. The mission starts resembling a leaking boat rowing furiously. Even when the squad finds an ally, in an Iranian Special Forces Colonel, solidarity is reduced to a compromise. They barter hookah for a rocket-propelled grenade, cartons of cigarettes for rifle cartridges. That exchange, however, is underpinned by an altercation, featuring nationalist pride, implying that even after ISIS’s exit, the country would continue to battle newer challenges.

Even though Mosul is a Hollywood production — directed by Matthew Michael Carnahan and produced by the Russo brothers — it steers away from the American saviour complex. The Nineveh SWAT team sees the American forces for what they’re: a destructive machine acting out of self-interest. Comprising Arab actors speaking Arabic, Mosul respects the place and its people, placing their self-determination at the centre of the story. A crucial detail that makes it credible and humane.

Mosul saves its most potent plot turn for the last – a choice that both benefits and harms the film. At the start, it builds intrigue; the audiences, along with Kawa, are looking for patterns and clues. But after a point, amid routines of attack and counterattack, the film starts to suffer from narrative stagnancy. But that doesn’t continue for long, as Mosul races to its finest segment: the poignant revelation.

Given the material and the genre, the film could have easily ended on an explosive note: disturbing bloodshed, adrenaline-pumping action, an eventual triumph. That is the formula; that is the dominant worldview. But the movie rejects that route, opting for a softer, introspective denouement. The most important victory, in the world of Mosul, has nothing to do with the enemy; it isn’t about destruction or transient present. It is about kinship and chains of solidarity; it is about building a future. In the bullet-ridden winds of ravaged Iraq, Mosul keeps the flickering flame of humanity alive.

At Least Three Deaths Reported During Farmers’ ‘Delhi Chalo’ Protest

Farmers’ organisations have demanded compensation and relief measures to the families of the deceased.

Mohali: At least three people have lost their lives during the farmers’ protest since November 26.

Dhanna Singh (45) from Mansa district in Punjab passed away near Mundhal in Bhiwani district, on the night of November 26, due to an overhead collision of his tractor with the truck full of sandbags. The truck of sandbags was used by the Haryana Police to block roads. In the same incident, two farmers who were riding the tractor with him were also injured.

The agitating farmer was a member of the Bharatiya Kisan Union (Dakaunda). After the passing away of Dhanna Singh, farmers demanded compensation of Rs 20 lakh, waiver of his loans and a government job for the next of kin.

According to media reports, Dhanna Singh had been very active in mobilising support for the protests against the farm laws. His body was sent back to his village and his fellow farmers continued to march to New Delhi.

Protesting farmers have told the media that the Haryana administration should be held responsible for the death of Singh, because the trucks and stones put on the roads caused an obstruction to his tractor.

On November 29, Janak Raj Aggarwal (55), died after the car he was resting in caught fire. A mechanic from Dhanula in Punjab, Aggarwal had accompanied the agitating farmers to provide his services to repair their tractors and trucks.

According to the Indian Express, the car caught fire at 12:30 am. Though the farmers tried to rescue him, they were unsuccessful. The Jhajjar police SP confirmed to the newspaper that no foul play was suspected and that Aggarwal died in his sleep after the car he was resting in caught fire.

Reportedly, Aggarwal had been helping farmers and volunteering for them since they had been agitating in Punjab. The Bharatiya Kisan Union (Ekta-Ugrahan), one of the largest agitating unions of Punjab, has made demands to both the Centre and the Punjab governments to waive his loans, a compensation of Rs 10 lakh and a job for the next of kin of the deceased.

A press release by BKU Ugrahan on the same day paid tribute to Aggarwal, calling him a “martyr” who died in the line of duty.

Also Read: Centre Agrees to Meet Protesting Farmers, This Time Without Conditions

On the night of November 29, another 55-year-old farmer Ghajjan Singh from Ludhiana, passed away at the Delhi border near Bahadurgarh. Fellow farmers told the press that he died due to a heart attack. According to the Indian Express, Singh had a land holding of 3 acres and had been part of the agitation against the Central laws since October.

Coldest November in Delhi in 71 Years: IMD

Delhi had last recorded a mean minimum temperature of 10.2 degrees Celsius in November 1949.

New Delhi: The month of November was the coldest in the national capital in 71 years, with the mean minimum temperature dropping to 10.2 degrees Celsius, according to the India Meteorological Department.

Delhi had recorded a mean minimum temperature of 10.2 degrees Celsius in November 1949.

The mean minimum temperature for November was 9.6 degrees Celsius in 1938; nine degrees Celsius in 1931 and 8.9 degrees Celsius in 1930, according to IMD data.

Normally, the mean minimum temperature for November is 12.9 degrees Celsius.

The mean minimum temperature was 15 degrees Celsius last year, 13.4 degrees Celsius in 2018 and 12.8 degrees Celsius in 2017 and 2016.

Delhi also braved four cold waves in November on the 3rd, 20th, 23rd and 24th, 2020.

Also read: Delhi Records Coldest November Morning in 17 Years as Cold Wave Swept Parts of City

For the plains, the IMD declares a cold wave when the minimum temperature is 10 degrees Celsius or below and is 4.5 notches less than normal for two consecutive days.

However, for small areas such as Delhi, a cold wave can be declared if the criteria is fulfilled even for a day, Kuldeep Srivastava, the head of the IMD’s regional forecasting centre, said.

On Monday, Delhi recorded a minimum of 6.9 degrees Celsius. This is the eight-day this month that the minimum temperature remained below 10 degrees Celsius.

On November 23, Delhi recorded a minimum of 6.3 degrees Celsius – its lowest minimum temperature in the month since November 2003, when the city recorded a minimum of 6.1 degrees Celsius, according to Srivastava.

The minimum temperature this month, barring on November 16, has remained 2-3 degree Celsius below normal in the absence of a cloud cover on most days, according to IMD officials.

Clouds trap some of the outgoing infrared radiation and radiate it back downward, warming the ground.

The month of October was the coldest in 58 years in the national capital.

The mean minimum temperature in October this year was 17.2 degrees Celsius, the lowest since 1962 when it was 16.9 degrees Celsius.

BJP Ally JDU Warns of Nationwide Chakka Jam Over Adivasi Religion Code

The protest is meant to push the Centre to approve the resolution passed by the Jharkhand assembly for the provision of a separate ‘Sarna Code’ for members of tribal communities.

New Delhi: The Jharkhand state chief of the Janta Dal (United) (JDU) Salkhan Murmu has said that if the Central government doesn’t approve the resolution passed in the state assembly in favour of a Sarna code, he will organise a nationwide chakka jam on December 6.

“It has been a longstanding demand of tribal communities across the country to be recognised as a separate religious group and now that a resolution has been passed in the state assembly, the Central government should accept it,” Murmu told The Wire.

On November 11, during a one-day special session of the state assembly, a resolution was passed for the provision of a separate ‘Sarna Code’ for members of tribal communities. The resolution was tabled by chief minister Hemant Soren leading to its unanimous passage by a voice vote in the assembly. If approved by the central government, the upcoming census in 2021 will have a separate column for the community, allowing members of these communities to identify themselves as belonging to a distinct religious community.

Notably, the JDU is an ally in the Bhartiya Janta Party (BJP)-led National Democratic Alliance (NDA) government at the Centre and contested the recently concluded Bihar assembly polls with the BJP. However, the party had contested the Jharkhand assembly polls separately last year. “We will be taking out a symbolic motorcycle rally in the state capital on Tuesday to press our demand,” said Murmu and added, “we are prepared for a long struggle and the party leadership is aware of it.”

When asked what the need was to organise a protest given his party was a part of the central government, the JDU state chief said, “As far as demands of the tribals are concerned there is not much difference between approach and attitude of Congress and the BJP. They don’t take tribals seriously and that’s why we need to do this,” Murmu told The Wire. He further said that it is also required because of their letter sent to the central government and BJP national leadership last month was yet to receive any positive response.

Also read: Why the Sarna Code Will Have a Long-Term Impact on Jharkhand’s Tribes

Murmu is also the national president of a tribal group, Adivasi Sengel Abhiyan (ASA), which is claims to have a presence in at least five states namely Jharkhand, West Bengal, Odisha, Assam and Bihar. Previously, he had written letters to the President of India, the Union home minister, national presidents of the BJP and the Congress, apart from chief ministers of the above-mentioned states and several others, demanding the urgent recognition of tribals as a distinct religious group.

“When the resolution has been already passed in the assembly unanimously then why don’t the Mahagatbandhan and NDA come together and fulfil the long-pending demand for a separate religion code for tribals,” he asked. According to the JDU state chief, the state government and other political parties of Jharkhand have to come together and they must continue protesting until the central government accepts the resolution. “Otherwise, it will meet the same fate as to what has happened with Lingayats in Karnataka,” he added.

In December 2018, the Central government had rejected the Karnataka government’s proposal seeking legal recognition for Lingayats as a distinct religion.

Former chief minister and BJP’s leader in the assembly Babulal Marandi said that the party was not against the demand. “We did not even oppose the resolution in the assembly but what one needs to understand is that there is a process for everything and we can’t surpass that,” Marandi told The Wire. When asked about Murmu’s protest he said, “this is his democratic right and he is free to do that. As far as the BJP is concerned, we are not opposing the demand.” On the question of the opposition of the Sarna Code by Hindutva organisations, Marandi said, “It is their decision. We have nothing to do with them”.

Ever since the resolution was passed in the assembly, several Hindutva organisations have opposed the move and have called it a big conspiracy by the Churches (Christian organisations). On Saturday, Akhil Bhartiya Sant Samiti wrote a letter to Prime Minister Narendra Modi to reject the resolution, alleging that it was an attempt to misguide tribals and lead them astray from the Sanatan Hindu religion. Claiming that the move was a threat to the nation’s integrity and sovereignty, the Samiti’s national general secretary Jeetendranand Saraswati said, “where ever in the country there is a decline of Hindu population there is an increase in separatism, terrorism and Urban Naxal activities.”

Meanwhile, the Jharkhand Mukti Morcha (JMM) spokesperson Supriyo Bhattacharya has said that a party delegation will meet the Lok Sabha speaker with a demand that a similar resolution be tabled and passed in the next session of the lower house. The working president of Jharkhand Congress Rajesh Thakur has also said that his party will pressurise the central government into implementing the Sarna Code.