Open Forum
New
Delhi, 5 August 2014
World
Bank Comes Calling
SECRET
AGENDA: SELLING NATIONAL ASSETS?
By Chanchal
Chauhan
“India does not need dollars; it
needs ideas, knowledge and expertise rather than dollars as there is a need to
focus on developing a base of skilled people keeping the future in mind,” Prime
Minister Modi told World Bank Group President Jim Yong Kim when he met him late
last month. Even as Kim said the World Bank would the provide USD 15-18 billion
credit to India
over the next 3 years and would review quota reform next year.
Concurring with Modi, Kim averred
the WB would increase its financial assistance to support job-oriented skills
and infrastructure development in India. The Group President also
hinted that the Prime Minister had set-up some goals for the bank which it
would make efforts to achieve.
Alongside, Kim applauded the
Government’s growth rates targets. The Bank President welcomed the $100 b Development
Bank founded by BRICS nations and hoped it would fund infrastructure projects
in developing nations, a reflection of BRICS growing importance in the world
economy. Adding, the WB was ready to provide technical assistance.
So far so good. But the moot point:
Was this visit a courtesy call? Did it have a deeper meaning? Why did the WB
President come calling post Modi’s return from the BRICS summit in Fortaleza, Brazil?
Did it have something to do with the BRICS Development Bank?
Importantly, it is no secret that Washington where the WB
is headquartered is the world’s international finance capital and maintains its
hegemony over developed and developing nations. Indeed, Group President Kim represents
interests of forces which dictate all our policy decisions under the slogan of
liberalisation and globalisation.
Until Modi, these forces had their “own
men”, Manmohan Singh, Montek Singh Ahluwalia and Reserve Bank Governor Raghuram Rajan to implement its neo-liberal
economic policies in India which resulted in wide-spread miseries and
pauperisation of masses. Presently, only Rajan is left following the
Congress-led UPA defeat in the general elections.
True, the NDA-II regime too is
implementing the same neo-liberal policies dictated by Washington more faithfully than its
predecessor, yet the World Bank cannot rely on a raw Prime Minister and Finance
Minister for economic affairs as it did on its erstwhile team of men. In fact,
the Bank is forcing the NDA-II leadership to appoint its economists in all banks
on the pattern of the RBI headed by “its man” Rajan.
Notably, Modi appears inclined to follow
the world’s economic masters and in the near future in all likelihood the WB’s
faithful would be appointed in all banks to serve the international finance
capital’s interests. Notwithstanding, these new appointments on a high salary
would result in heavy financial burden which ultimately would be borne by the
poor masses.
Besides, the new bosses might facilitate
the disinvestment process in nationalised banks to allow national and
international private capital to reap huge profits at the cost of millions of small
investors’.
Undoubtedly, Modi’s assertion that India needs “ideas,
knowledge and expertise rather than dollars” seems to communicate the World
Bank hidden agenda whereby the Prime Minister perhaps has committed to implement
as a good servant of the international finance capital. Otherwise, what is the
need of asking the World Bank to supply personnel? As there is no dearth of Indian economists at
various universities who are better equipped with pro-people economic ideas,
knowledge and expertise than those who would be imported from the World Bank as
the UPA did in the past?
Another aspect of the Modi-Kim meeting
and why the WB Group President rushed to New Delhi might have disturbed international
finance capital’s hegemonic forces and created fear that the BRICS Bank could eat
into the World Bank and IMF’s hegemony. Given India’s
vulnerability it could be pressurised to invest indirectly World Bank finance
in the BRICS Bank to neutralise China’s
bigger investment plan.
Consequently, the Development Bank
through India could accept the
World Bank’s finance capital as India’s
share, thereby indirectly keeping its hegemony in the BRICS Bank. Undeniably, the
international finance capital is like an omnipresent force which can reach any
corner of the globe for profits. India
will obsequiously like to be used by these forces to checkmate China’s dominance
over the new Bank.
Alas, it would be unfortunate, if
the move of BRICS partners to thwart manoeuvres of imperialist nations fails at
the hands of India
by allowing entry of international finance capital into the new Bank by proxy.
Strangely, the print and electronic media
observed silence on this crucial issue. Recall, monopolies have flourished on
international debt since Independence
which have forced political vanguards to go with a begging bowl to Uncle Sam along-with
the-then Soviet block and reaped huge profits. Hence, the foreign debt created
wealth for big monopoly houses which was paid with interest by the aam aadmi.
Earlier, the imperialist block under
America’s leadership exercised not only controlled our economy but post the World
Bank and IMF’s creation, these twin centres of international finance capital
spread their wings over world economy. Further, our monopoly houses also
aligned themselves with these new forces and now rule the country through their
obedient political bosses over the common people.
In sum, the neo-liberal policies of
internal finance capital are forcing the Prime Minister and Finance Minister to
allow FDI in insurance and banking sectors along-with reforming labour laws thereby
weakening organised workers bargaining power. It remains to be seen if the
NDAII sells valuable assets to national and international private monopolies. As
it might play havoc with India’s
economic well-being. Arguably, isn’t our
intellectual community duty-bound to expose this game of privatisation and
globalisation? ------ INFA
(Copyright,
India News and Feature Alliance)
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