There was always stern opposition to these policies of self reliant economic model since 1950s itself when these policies were debated in Parliament. Those opposing these policies were Bharatiya Jan Sangh Party, (the earlier avtar of BJP) a section from within the Congress, some other conservative forces whereas the Communist Party and the trade union movement stood in favour of the country's sovereignty over natural and national resources for development of our country. It is also a fact that the contribution of the working masses and the peasantry did not translate into the substantial gains in their lives as desired due to inequitable distribution of wealth which their labour was producing, as it got accumulated in few hands.

On the one hand, India was achieving new heights in various fields including engineering, production, exploration, atomic and nuclear science, space science etc, simultaneously the movement for equal opportunity in the field of education, training, jobs, workplace safety, decent wages and social security was also growing stronger achieving several of the labour rights, legal entitlements and benefits. The neo liberal economic model in 1991 became a turning point in favour of the free market economic forces to push back the agenda of right to equality of opportunities in all walks of life and justice to all.

The resistance movement to the neo liberal agenda dictated by IMF- World Bank and WTO developed steadily in which trade unions played vital role.

Not to go in the details of events and turns in the last three decades, one needs to look at the situation where the country has landed with the very forces in full command of governance who are out and out with this agenda of international finance capital and the corporates of Indian and foreign brand to capture markets, businesses, natural resources and the Public sector enterprises and assets, in turn taking away the rights of working class and its unions through labour reforms and codification of labour laws, the policies to corporatise agricultural land in favour of monopoly corporates to pauperise farmers and agricultural labour.

There is no sector left untouched in the public sector or government departments by this Modi rule which is not in their radar of sale, as clear in the pronouncement of the finance minister, be it profit making or non-profit making, strategic or non strategic all inclusive. From railways, the rail platforms, airports, port and dock, energy sector-oil, gas and electricity, steel, coal, copper, telecom, postal departments, defence, finance sector-banks and insurance, atomic energy, space science etc all are under attack by this regime. The ruling party and their Sangh Parivar had no role in freedom movement of our country, neither they were in support of self reliant economic model in nation building in post independent India, rather they were always the proponents and propagandists for the free market forces who have no qualms about the basic human rights of the people. The dictum is to socialize the losses and maximise the profits of private corporates and cartels.

What is in store for common man?

In case of price rise of essential commodities, the situation is going out of hand for common masses with increase in prices of petrol from Rs 62 to 112, diesel from Rs 55 to 200, LPG cylinder from Rs 414 to 834, daal from Rs 60-70 to 190-220, milk from Rs 30 to 60, platform ticket Rs 5 to 50, railway travel tickets raised to 1/2 to double price. With raise in petrol, diesel, gas prices the transport charges are rising with cumulative effect on the prices of almost all commodities.

If we look at the employment/job and livelihood situation the scenario is worrisome. Unemployment rate was already at 7.4 percent, highest in 45 years in 2019 which rose to 8.1 percent in March 2020 in pre Covid pandemic situation. The situation of recession deepened due to demonetisation and faulty way of GST imposition, further got worsened with the complete and sudden lock down in March 2020 which brought almost 45 crore working people out of livelihood. More than 20 crore migrant workers within states and to other states put in extreme difficulty without transportation. Out of 84 crore who were to be covered as per government data under food security, from the government’s own admission, more than 10 crore could not have access due to no connectivity of ration card with Aadhaar card.

About those migrants stranded in various states during the unthoughtful severe lockdown during first wave of Covid-19, the ground studies showed that 94 percent told they did not get rations, 78 percent told they did not get cooked food and 74 percent told that they were left with less than Rupees 300 only when they were compelled to walk several hundreds of miles in absence of public transport.

After the opening up/unlocking, the unemployment rate rose to almost 27 percent. In April of 2020, one lakh seventy thousand people were losing jobs every hour.

The Medium, Small and Micro Enterprises (MSMEs) according to the studies of Manufacturers Association were in pretty bad shape by the time opening happened. Out of 6.3 crore MSMEs, only 34 percent could restart, about 33 percent were permanently dead, another 33 percent were likely to start by end of 2020 or in the first quarter of 2021. After second wave the situation has further deteriorated.

Wage related jobs are again lost in this June-July by more than 80 lakh. This is apart from the statistics from CMIE which put the data in second wave that the wage workers who lost jobs were about 3 crores. The job losses among youth was proportionately more. At present the percentage of those among the unemployed between the age group of 15 to 25 years has scaled to 54 percent. It is not only detrimental to their lives but is a national loss.

The government package announced during first wave and then in the second wave was to the advantage of the corporates, their demands of tax relaxations were met, it has been brought down from 35 percent in last two decades progressively to 20 percent at present. In this regime itself it is brought down from 30 percent to 20 percent. Whereas some big looters of money were allowed to run away with people's money taken as loans from public sector banks, and other looters are being extended olive branch to adjust their loot through legal roots of insolvency. Modi period of rule till now has recorded almost 8.3 lakh crores of loot out of the declared as NPAs being written off from the bank registers. Whereas the government refused the demand of the joint platform of Central Trade Unions to give Rs 7,500 cash to poor, lower and middle income groups who do not pay income tax returns, or to increase days of work and wages for MGNREGA, rather cess was introduced on common people on several counts. The budget sanction of Rs. 20,000 crores for expenditure on central vista a favourite project of PM was announced immediately after severe lockdown was declared.

The impact on children has been very adverse. As per ILO and UNESCO about 4.9 crore more children will be pushed in child labour condition, the digital divide has already shown its impact. The children loosing on studies and re- entering labour market. Only ten percent households are covered with internet and vast majority of people amongst lower income group and poor sections cannot afford smart phones, so online education was not possible for them. As per data available 70 percent children in child labour come from rural India, 20 percent in service and 10 percent in industry. About 28 percent are between the age 5 to 11 years and 35 percent are between 12 to 14 years.

Women are worst victims, losing more percentage of jobs/livelihood situations and increase in domestic violence. Child marriage instances also increased during Covid period. In the joining back after the opening up of Economy started, their percentage is much less. The employers feel that the kind of work they were doing could wait and they need not employ them at the restarting of businesses.

Situation of Inequality is worsening in the country. According to International Labour organization (ILO) 40 crore Indians will be poorer than pre- Pandemic period. Almost 35 percent males and 50 percent females could not rejoin jobs. Incomes of poor families further went down, Wage gaps are rising, Wage cuts, lower benefits than previous times becoming common practice from the employers’ side. Lockdown wages denied and retrenchments continue. On the other hand, during March 2020 to March 2021, Mukesh Ambani increased his wealth by 128 percent and Adani raised his wealth by 480 percent. The billionaires increased from 100 to 140 in the same period. The wealth of these billionaires increased by 12.97 lakh crores. at a time when people were dying due to lack of oxygen, no ventilators or beds or medicines. Twenty Four corporate houses in health sector were earning Rupees 500 crore a day. On the top of it now Modi government is busy giving profits to businesses on vaccination, even when this is widely known that the vaccination was always free during all previous governments of India. This amount if spent on MGNREGA it would be sufficient for about ten years of budget for this scheme. The studies show that one percent of population at the top is owning 70 percent wealth. The Farm Laws and Labour Laws if implemented, the gaps and inequalities would further rise.

But Modi government is adamant to pursue its agenda which is against common people and against the Nation as such. Anybody in opposition to these policies is dubbed as anti-national and various institutions are being misused to stifle their voice by booking them under various laws. It is not only CBI, NIA, UAPA, Sedition Law, NSA, ED being put is use to put people behind bars, but now a draconian law namely Essential Defence Services Bill is adopted in the Parliament to further take away the right of trade unions for collective bargaining including right to strike.. (IPA Service)