{"id":4566,"date":"2014-08-21T03:55:33","date_gmt":"2014-08-21T03:55:33","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.kashmir-today.net\/?p=4566"},"modified":"2014-08-21T03:55:33","modified_gmt":"2014-08-21T03:55:33","slug":"arundhati-explains-corporations-run-india","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/kashmir.watch\/?p=4566","title":{"rendered":"ARUNDHATI explains how corporations run India"},"content":{"rendered":"

And why they wanted Modi as prime minister<\/strong><\/p>\n

CHARLIE \u2011 SMITH<\/strong><\/p>\n

\u201cWealth has been concentrated in fewer and fewer hands,\u201d Roy tells the Georgia Straight by phone from New York. \u201cAnd these few corporations now run the country and, in some ways, run the political parties. They run the media.\u201d The Delhi-based novelist and non- fiction writer argues that this is hav- ing devastating consequences for hun- dreds of millions of the poorest people in India, not to mention the middle class. Roy spoke to the Straight in advance of a public lecture on Tuesday (April 1) at 8 p.m. at St. Andrew\u2019s\u2013Wesley Unit- ed Church at the corner of Burrard and Nelson streets. She says it will be her first visit to Vancouver. In recent years, she has researched how the richest Indian corporations\u2014 such as Reliance, Tata, Essar, and In- fosys\u2014are employing similar tactics as those of the U.S.-based Rockefeller and Ford foundations.<\/p>\n

She points out that the Rockefeller and Ford foundations have worked closely in the past with the State De- partment and Central Intelligence Agency to further U.S. government and corporate objectives. Now, she maintains that Indian companies are distributing money through charitable foundations as a means of controlling the public agen- da through what she calls \u201cperception management\u201d. This includes channelling funds to nongovernmental organizations, film and literary festivals, and universities. She acknowledges that the Tata Group has been doing this for decades,\u00a0 but says that more recently, other large corporations have begun copying this approach.<\/p>\n

Private money replaces public funding<\/strong><\/p>\n

According to her, the overall objective is to blunt criticism of neoliberal policies that promote inequality. \u201cSlowly, they decide the curricu- lum,\u201d Roy maintains. \u201cThey control the public imagination. As public money gets pulled out of health care and education and all of this, NGOs funded by these major financial cor- porations and other kinds of financial instruments move in, doing the work that missionaries used to do during colonialism\u2014giving the impression of being charitable organizations, but ac- tually preparing the world for the free markets of corporate capital.\u201d She was awarded the Booker Prize in 1997 for The God of Small Things.<\/p>\n

Since then, she has gone on to become one of India\u2019s leading social critics, railing against mining and power proj- ects that displace the poor. She\u2019s also written about poverty- stricken villagers in the Naxalite movement who are taking up arms across several Indian states to defend their traditional way of life. \u201cI\u2019m a great admirer of the wisdom and the courage that people in the re- sistance movement show,\u201d she says. \u201cAnd they are where my own under- standing comes from.\u201d One of her greatest concerns is how foundation-funded NGOs \u201cdefuse peo- ple\u2019s movements and\u2026vacuum politi- cal anger and send them down a blind alley\u201d. \u201cIt\u2019s very important to keep the op- pressed divided,\u201d she says. \u201cThat\u2019s the whole colonial game, and it\u2019s very easy in India because of the diversity.\u201d<\/p>\n

Roy writes a book on capitalism<\/strong><\/p>\n

In 2010, there was an attempt to lay a charge of sedition against her after she suggested that Kashmir is not integral to India\u2019s existence. This northern state has been at the centre of a long-running territorial dispute between India and Pakistan. \u201cThere\u2019s supposed to be some po- lice inquiry, which hasn\u2019t really hap- pened,\u201d Roy tells the Straight. \u201cThat\u2019s how it is in India. They\u2026hope that the idea of it hanging over your head is go- ing to work its magic, and you\u2019re going to be more cautious.\u201d Clearly, it\u2019s had little effect in silenc- ing her. In her upcoming new book Capitalism: A Ghost Story, Roy ex- plores how the 100 richest people in India ended up controlling a quarter of the country\u2019s gross-domestic product. The book is inspired by a lengthy 2012 article with the same title, which appeared in India\u2019s Outlook magazine.<\/p>\n

In the essay, she wrote that the \u201cghosts\u201d are the 250,000 debt-ridden farmers who\u2019ve committed suicide, as well as \u201c800 million who have been impoverished and dispossessed to make way for us\u201d. Many live on less than 40 Canadian cents per day. \u201cIn India, the 300 million of us who belong to the post-IMF \u2018reforms\u2019 mid- dle class\u2014the market\u2014live side by side with spirits of the nether world, the poltergeists of dead rivers, dry wells, bald mountains and denuded forests,\u201d Roy wrote. The essay examined how founda- tions rein in Indian feminist organiza- tions, nourish right-wing think tanks, and co-opt scholars from the commu- nity of Dalits, often referred to in the West as the \u201cuntouchables\u201d. For example, she pointed out that the Reliance Group\u2019s Observer Re- search Foundation has a stated goal of achieving consensus in favour of eco- nomic reforms. Roy noted that the ORF promotes \u201cstrategies to counter nuclear, biologi- cal and chemical threats\u201d. She also re- vealed that the ORF\u2019s partners include weapons makers Raytheon and Lock- heed Martin.<\/p>\n

Anna Hazare called a corporate mascot<\/strong><\/p>\n

In her interview with the Straight, Roy claims that the high-profileIndia Against Corruption campaign is an- other example of corporate meddling. According to Roy, the movement\u2019s leader, Anna Hazare, serves as a front for international capital to gain great- er access to India\u2019s resources by clear- ing away any local obstacles. With his white cap and traditional white Indian attire, Hazare has re- ceived global acclaim by acting as a modern-day Mahatma Gandhi, but Roy characterizes both of them as \u201cdeeply disturbing\u201d. She also describes Hazare as a \u201csort of mascot\u201d to his cor- porate backers. In her view, \u201ctransparency\u201d and \u201crule of law\u201d are code words for al- lowing corporations to supplant \u201clo- cal crony capital\u201d. This can be accom- plished by passing laws that advance corporate interests.<\/p>\n

She says it\u2019s not surprising that the most influential Indian capitalists would want to shift public attention to political corruption just as average In- dians were beginning to panic over the slowing Indian economy. In fact, Roy adds, this panic turned into rage as the middle class began to realize that \u201cgal- loping economic growth has frozen\u201d. \u201cFor the first time, the middle class- es were looking at corporations and realizing that they were a source of incredible corruption, whereas ear- lier, there was this adoration of them,\u201d she says. \u201cJust then, the India Against Corruption movement started. And the spotlight turned right back onto the favourite punching bag\u2014the poli- ticians\u2014and the corporations and the corporate media and everyone else jumped onto this, and gave them\u00a0 hour coverage.\u201d Her essay in Outlook pointed out that Hazare\u2019s high-profile allies, Ar- vind Kerjiwal and Kiran Bedi, both operate NGOs funded by U.S. founda- tions. \u201cUnlike the Occupy Wall Street movement in the US, the Hazare movement did not breathe a word against privatisation, corporate power or economic \u2018reforms\u2019,\u201d she wrote in Outlook.<\/p>\n

Narendra Modi seen as right-wing saviour<\/strong><\/p>\n

Meanwhile, Roy tells the Straight that corporate India backed Narendra Modi as the country\u2019s next prime minister because the ruling Congress party hasn\u2019t been sufficiently ruthless against the growing resistance move- ment. \u201cI think the coming elections are all about who is going to crank up the mil- itary assault on troublesome people,\u201d she predicted. In several states, armed rebels have prevented massive mining and infra- structure projects that would have dis- placed massive numbers of people. Many of these industrial develop- ments were the subject of memoranda of understanding signed in 2004. Modi, head of the Hindu national- ist BJP coalition, became infamous in 2002 when Muslims were mas- sacred in the Indian state of Gujarat, where he was the chief minister.<\/p>\n

The official death toll exceeded 1,000, though some say the figures are higher. Police reportedly stood by as Hin- du mobs went on a killing spree. Many years later, a senior police of- ficer alleged that Modi deliberately allowed the slaughter, though Modi has repeatedly denied this. The atrocities were so appalling that the American government re- fused to grant Modi a visitor\u2019s visa to travel to the United States. \u201cThe corporations are all backing Modi because they think that [Prime Minister] Manmohan [Singh] and the Congress government hasn\u2019t shown the nerve it requires to actually send in the army into places like Chhattis- garh and Orissa,\u201d Roy had said. She also labeled Modi as a politi- cian who\u2019s capable of \u201cmutating\u201d, de- pending on the circumstances. \u201cFrom being this openly sort of communal hatred-spewing saccharine person, he then put on the suit of a cor- porate man, and, you know, is now try- ing to play the role of the statesmen, which he\u2019s not managing to do really,\u201d Roy had said.<\/p>\n

Roy sees parallels between Congress and BJP<\/strong><\/p>\n

India\u2019s national politics are domi- nated by two parties, the Congress and the BJP. The Congress maintains a more sec- ular stance and is often favoured by those who want more accommodation for minorities, be they Muslim, Sikh, or Christian. In American terms, the Congress is the equivalent of the Dem- ocratic Party. The BJP is actually a coalition of right-wing parties and more force- fully advances the notion that India is a Hindu nation. It often calls for a harder line against Pakistan. In this regard, the BJP could be seen as the Republicans of India. But just as left-wing U.S. critics such as Ralph Nader and Noam Chomsky see little difference between the Dem- ocrats and Republicans in office, Roy says there is not a great deal distin- guishing the Congress from the BJP. \u201cI\u2019ve said quite often, the Congress has done by night what the BJP does by day,\u201d she declares.<\/p>\n

\u201cThere isn\u2019t any real difference in their economic pol- icy.\u201d Whereas senior BJP leaders encour- aged wholesale mob violence against Muslims in Gujarat, she notes that Congress leaders played a similar role in attacks on Sikhs in Delhi following the 1984 assassination of then\u2013prime minister Indira Gandhi. \u201cIt was genocidal violence and even today, nobody has been punished,\u201d Roy says. As a result, each party can accuse the other of fomenting communal vio- lence. In the meantime, there are no seri- ous efforts at reconciliation for the victims.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe guilty should be punished,\u201d she adds. \u201cEveryone knows who they are, but that will not happen. That is the thing about India. You may go to prison for assaulting a woman in a lift or killing one person, but if you are part of a massacre, then the chances of your not being punished are very high.\u201d However, she acknowledges that there is \u201csome difference\u201d in the two major parties\u2019 stated idea of India. The BJP, for example, is \u201cquite open about its belief in the Hindu India\u2026 where everybody else lives as, you know, second-class citizens\u201d. \u201cHindu is also a very big and baggy<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

And why they wanted Modi as prime minister CHARLIE \u2011 SMITH \u201cWealth has been concentrated in fewer and fewer hands,\u201d Roy tells the Georgia Straight by phone from New York. \u201cAnd these few corporations now run the country and, in some ways, run the political parties. They run the media.\u201d The Delhi-based novelist and non- […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":4567,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[3],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-4566","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-articles"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/kashmir.watch\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4566","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/kashmir.watch\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/kashmir.watch\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/kashmir.watch\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/kashmir.watch\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=4566"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/kashmir.watch\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4566\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/kashmir.watch\/index.php?rest_route=\/"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/kashmir.watch\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=4566"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/kashmir.watch\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=4566"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/kashmir.watch\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=4566"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}