Equating the Bharatiya Janata Party’s “Gujarat model” of development to the “Big Lie” mantra of Nazi propaganda, the Communist Party of India (Marxist) on Monday said “Modinomics” was based on “sweetheart deals” with the corporate sector and exploitation of the workers.
Details of the alleged corporate deals and low wages to industrial and agricultural workers have been spelt out in two booklets brought out by the CPI(M) challenging the Gujarat model and Chief Minister Narendra Modi’s claim of Gujarat being riot-free since 2002.
Releasing the booklets here, CPI(M) politburo member Brinda Karat said Mr. Modi’s claims were nothing short of a “maha jhoot” (big lie) aimed at covering up facts that “speak louder than boasts.”
With the party’s Gujarat secretary Arun Mehta by her side, Ms. Karat said the “Modi model” was based on cheap labour. “It is based on low wages, low monthly consumer expenditures in both urban and rural areas. It is a cruel model built on the blood and sweat of workers. While Gujarat boasts of industrial and agricultural development, the growth rates have left untouched the earnings of workers.”
Using National Sample Survey Organisation data, the booklet, ‘No to the Gujarat Model’, points out that in expenditure rankings of 17 major States, Gujarat slid from fourth position in 2000 to eighth in 2012 in rural areas, and from seventh to ninth in urban areas.
Citing the Annual Survey of Industries 2010-11, she said: “Despite being one of the most industrialised States, Gujarat’s factory workers get about 30 to 40 per cent less wages than States like Jharkhand and Maharashtra.”
As for Mr. Modi’s promise of addressing unemployment, the CPI(M) flagged joblessness in Gujarat to show that the leader has no magic wand. “In Gujarat, jobs are growing at a slower pace than the rest of the country and as far as women are concerned, jobs are declining.”
