[Reader-list] Fwd: [YSC] A SELL-OUT TO THE POWERFUL_* *History repeats itself*

[Ram Prasad Sharma]

Hi,

Received this mail through a friend. Please do read it.

Ram








-------- Original Message --------
Subject: AN OFFERING
Date: Mon, 17 Aug 2009 03:42:34 +0000
From: Sudhir Vombatkere <sgvombatkere at hotmail.com<sgvombatkere%40hotmail.com>
>
References: <SNT120-W4056DE57A4CA681F3D75E1C10F0 at phx.gbl<SNT120-W4056DE57A4CA681F3D75E1C10F0%40phx.gbl>>

<SNT120-W53F2F8965E5F773C0D934CC10F0 at phx.gbl<SNT120-W53F2F8965E5F773C0D934CC10F0%40phx.gbl>>

<3d223ae20908161142u55a7d80bic6de9919223fffef at mail.gmail.com<3d223ae20908161142u55a7d80bic6de9919223fffef%40mail.gmail.com>
>

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Friends,

Today is 17th August, and 22nd August is just a few days away. On
22nd August, it will be 170 years since the British East India
Company was granted land at Madras ... and thereby history was made!

I offer the article below as history repeating itself. I have
offered it to the mainstream (corporate) media but they will not
touch it ... understandably!!

If you like it and also see fit, do forward (Bcc: if you please,
like this e-mail) it to your friends.

Cheers!

Sudhir Vombatkere

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*_A SELL-OUT TO THE POWERFUL_*

*History repeats itself*

By

Sudhir Vombatkere**

*_Introduction_*

Special Economic Zones (SEZs) are not a new concept, but
the scale, speed and socio-economic ambience in which these are
being created are entirely new. Since enactment of the SEZ Act 2005,
300 SEZs are functional and 560 more approved.

While reading about the foundation of Madras (now Chennai) in 1639,
and the manner in which the British received a /firmaan/ from the
local ruler for grant of land and trading concessions, its
similarity with the creation of SEZs raised a feeling of déjà vu.

*_Special Economic Zones_*

Government’s proposal for SEZs aims to accelerate
economic development by promoting export of goods and services,
attracting foreign direct investment (Rs.1,000 crores was expected
within end-2007) and creating employment (500,000 jobs), through
providing investors preferential treatment in terms of facilities
and taxes. SEZs are de-regulated areas within which special
concessions are provided to industrial or commercial corporations so
that they may flourish unhindered by the laws, rules and regulations
that apply in the rest of the country, which are obviously construed
as limiting corporate profits. The concessions are provided by the
Special Economic Zones Act, 2005. Presumably corporations have had a
hand in suggesting and drafting the legislation.

Exemptions from 21 Central Acts concerning cesses, taxes and duties
for products like rubber, oil, tobacco, sugar, tea, salt, mica,
coffee, and modifications to the Income-Tax Act and amendments to
the Insurance, Banking Regulation and Stamp Acts within SEZs,
provide the concessions and simplify procedures to enhance
competitiveness and create the necessary “climate” for profits. The
concessions concern land, labour and rates of taxes, customs duties,
etc., which may be reduced or exempted altogether.

SEZs are favoured with water and electric power at subsidized rates.
Workers cannot form trade unions for collective bargaining for fair
wages and better working conditions, and are open to exploitation in
“sweat shops”, corporations thereby maximizing profits. Also, the
inapplicability of environmental laws within SEZs further enhances
corporate profits by “saving” expenditure on environmental protection.

*_Land_*

Government acquires land for SEZs to the extent required
by the corporation that comes up with a proposal for investment.
Land is acquired (under Land Acquisition Act, 1894) from private
owners and compensation is paid at rates determined by government.
Government may provide the land to the corporation at a rate higher
than cost of acquisition, and gain revenue at the cost of the
farmer. Or it may be sold at a subsidized rate (as in the case of
the chemical SEZ at Nandigram in West Bengal), in which case the
exchequer pays the difference. Whichever method is adopted, the
corporation gains and the farmer or the public lose.

*_Economic independence_*

>From ancient times, high authority in any society
(chieftain, king, emperor) promulgated edicts favouring particular
powerful persons by bestowing property and/or power on them at the
pleasure of the ruler, with the /quid pro quo/ of that beneficiary
paying tributes to the ruler by extracting taxes from the peasantry.
In Moghul times, this was called a “/firmaan/”. In a modern
democracy, governments pass laws, empowering the administrative
machinery to execute tasks and projects.

The Constitution of India mandates separation of powers
of the executive, legislature and judiciary so that checks and
balances are possible, and no one arm of the Constitution can gain
undemocratic dominance. But contrarily, the SEZ Act actually
integrates the powers of the executive, the elected institutions and
the judiciary, in a government-appointed Development Commissioner,
who is a bureaucrat, and/or the Developer, who is a business person
(a corporate body is also a “person”) providing the investment.
Being exempted from the burden of laws that apply elsewhere in
India, a SEZ is effectively separate from the Indian State in the
form of a corporate colony. In this sense, the SEZ Act is not unlike
a “/firmaan/” of the Government of India, providing corporate
economic independence.

*_An August day in 1639_*

On August 22, 1639, Captain Francis Day of the British
East India Company secured a piece of land at the fishing village of
Madraspatam that was later called Madras through a /firmaan/ granted
by “*/Domela Vintatedro Nague/*” (Damerla Venkatadri Nayak), in
command at Chandragiri under the Vijayanagar kingdom. The land was
used to construct Fort St.George that became a seat of power for
expansion of British trade, the political power arising from which
resulted in India becoming a British colony.

>From the choice of words in the /firmaan/ that gave
trading rights and concessions to the English, it appears that Day
drafted the document. From the Madras Tercentenary Commemoration
Volume, it appears that, besides wanting commerce to flourish in his
territory, the Nayak wanted to utilize English ships to import
horses from Persia, and also have a place of refuge from hostile
neighbours in a contingency. It was the Nayak's /firmaan/ that led
to construction of Fort St.George for the purpose of “*/peaceful
prosecution of commerce from a place of safety/*”. The Volume goes
on to state that in order to encourage the English to conduct their
trade, “*/they were given the privilege of bringing the goods and
sending them out customs free, and of providing themselves with
supplies for themselves and their sea-going ships duty free from the
country/*” [1,2].

*_Snapshots of the /firmaan/_*

The Nayak granted land and permission to build the fort
according to the needs and design of the British based upon Day's
“*/great hopes by reason of our promises often made unto him/*”,
thereby indicating that Day already had considerable influence over
the Nayak because of favours that the British had done, or some gold
that was paid to the Nayak. The Nayak goes on to agree to advance
the cost of construction on the understanding that the British would
repay the cost when they took possession of the fort. Later, “*/to
make more full expression of our affection to the English nation/*”,
the Nayak sanctions to the British, “*/full power and authority to
govern and dispose of the Government of Madraspatam for the term and
space of two years/*”, and goes on to offer them trade concessions.

Out-doing himself in his generosity, the Nayak grants
that “*/whatsoever provisions the English shall buy in my Country,
either for their fort or ships, they shall not be liable to pay any
custom or duties for the same/*”, and that “*/whatsoever goods or
merchandise the English Company shall either import or export
.../*”, shall*/ /“/... for ever after, be custom free./*”. In
relation to other traders, the English obtain most-favoured-nation
status in the /firmaan/ when he grants that for any goods which the
English may bring to or through the Nayak’s country, the English
“*/shall pay half the duties that other merchants pay, whether they
buy or sell the said commodities either in my Dominions or in those
of any other Nague whatsoever./*” The Nayak gives even further scope
to the British to set up their own economic system, saying, “*/the
said English Company shall perpetually enjoy the privileges of
mintage without paying any dues or duties whatsoever/*/”./

The Nayak guaranteed the quality and honesty of the
merchants or craftsmen whom the English may employ, and in the event
that such persons “*/fail in their performance/*”, the Nayak would
“*/make good to the English all such sums of money as shall remain
on their accounts, or else deliver them their persons, if they shall
be found in any part of my territories/*”. Thus, the Nayak
underwrites losses that the English may incur due to his citizens’
non-performance and, abjectly surrendering his right to rule over
his own subjects, even hands over defaulters to the English.

*_Conclusion_*

* *There is an uncanny similarity between the SEZ Act
2005 in granting land, concessions and privileges to corporations
for SEZs, with the /firmaan/ granted by the local ruler to the
British on August 22^nd , 1639, for land and concessions to
establish a trading post in Madras.

Starting with a foothold in 1639 taken from a small-time ruler on
the east coast, feudal India came under control of the British East
India Company following the 1757 Battle of Plassey, and went on to
get added as the Jewel in the British Crown in 1857. Analogously,
independent India started with EPZs in the 1970s and came under
economic control of international financial institutions starting
with economic reforms of the New Economic Policy of 1991. Now with
SEZs being established by the dozen and growing corporate influence
(even corporate control) at the highest levels of central and state
governments, India is well on its way to becoming a banana republic.
This is being speeded up by the neoliberal economic bent of national
and regional political parties and the entry of corporate captains
into national and state elected bodies.

(1,445 words of text)

*_References_*

1. “The Hindu”, August 22^nd , 2008, p.24, “Chennai's founding, 369
years ago today”.

2. Madras Tercentenary Commemoration Volume, pp.43-47.

__________________________________________________________

**Maj Gen S.G.Vombatkere retired as the Additional Director General
Discipline & Vigilance in Army HQ, New Delhi, in 1996 after 35 years
in the Indian Army. He holds a PhD degree in Structural Dynamics
from I.I.T., Madras, and the President of India awarded him Visishta
Seva Medal in 1993 for distinguished service rendered in Ladakh.
Since retirement, he is engaged in voluntary work with Mysore
Grahakara Parishat, and is a member of National Alliance of People’s
Movements (NAPM) and People’s Movement of Civil Liberties (PUCL). He
coordinates and lectures a Course on Science, Technology and
Sustainable Development for undergraduate students of University of
Iowa, USA, and two universities of Canada, who spend a semester at
Mysore as part of their Studies Abroad in South India.

_Contact details_:

Maj Gen S.G.Vombatkere (Retd) // 475, 7^th Main Road // Vijayanagar
1^st Stage // Mysore – 570017

Tel:0821-2515187; E-mail: sgvombatkere at hotmail.com<sgvombatkere%40hotmail.com>
<mailto:sgvombatkere at hotmail.com <sgvombatkere%40hotmail.com>>

__________________________________________________________

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