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Salute Association for Democratic Rights (APDR) on turning 50

Today we commemorate the 50^th birth anniversary of the Association for Protection of Democratic Rights (APDR) of West Bengal which is one of the oldest human rights organisations in India. A truly landmark day in the history of the civil liberties movement in India. Positive that today inspite of all ups and down it is shimmering it’s torch .

https://countercurrents.org/2022/06/salute-association-for-democratic-rights-apdr-on-turning-50/

by  Harsh Thakore

26/06/2022

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Sado-Monetarism

Sado-Monetarism  The Role of the Federal Reserve System in Keeping Wages Low https://monthlyreview.org/2012/04/01/sado-monetarism/
by Michael Perelman Neoclassical economists are concerned about the workers’ transactions with capital, but they care little about the workers themselves or their working conditions. Workers merely accept a wage bargain, go to work, and finally collect a wage.

The Federal Reserve serves the needs of the powerful. Its role is to protect capital against the interests of labor. In order to maintain labor discipline, the Federal Reserve Board is entrusted with the task of maintaining a level of unemployment high enough to keep workers fearful of losing their jobs. Workers’ acceptance of mediocre jobs at modest wages paid handsome dividends for business, creating more demand (through debt), while making workers even more fearful of losing their jobs. In addition, workers’ insecurity also meant that they were less likely to quit in search of better employment, allowing employers to avoid the costs of recruiting and retraining replacement workers. Perhaps best of all, employers could enjoy this bounty without having to call upon the Federal Reserve to slow down the economy.

https://www.levyinstitute.org/pubs/wp_511.pdf The Fed’s Real Reaction Function Monetary Policy, Inflation, Unemployment, Inequality—and Presidential Politics* by James K. Galbraith Olivier Giovannoni Ann J. Russo  August 2007  Does monetary policy influence inequality? More specifically, does information contained in the term structure of interest rates extend beyond inflation and unemployment to a measure of inequality in earnings? The answer is that it does.  

Agnipath Is A Marketing Trick In Which Job Destruction Is Being Sold As Job Creation https://thewire.in/government/agnipath-scheme-job-destruction-creation-modi-government   Even though the larger economic motives and social imperatives behind the Agnipath project have not been understood in its entirety by the larger public, the impact of the scheme which bars candidates above 21 years and renders 75% of recruits jobless after four years without pension benefits has triggered the anger of those who were desperately waiting for the call for recruitment. 

The Agnipath shock comes months after the Railway Recruitment Board changed its eligibility qualification, leaving lakhs of aspirants high and dry. With the agricultural and unorganised sectors, which provide employment to the stay-behinds, heavily hit by demonetisation, goods and services tax and later COVID-19 and Modi’s lockdowns, north Indian youth pinned all their hopes on army recruitment. But Agnipath has come as a bolt from the blue.

India is facing a great unemployment crisis and Modi has aggravated the problem with his disastrous economic policies and now his neoliberal recruitment policies.

Agnipath: One more disaster in the making

Agnipath: One more disaster in the making  https://www.cenfa.org/agnipath-one-more-disaster-in-the-making/ By Prasanna Mohanty | June 20, 2022

The Modi government is known for top-down, arbitrary policymaking sans consultation, evidence and democratic checks and balances. The “Agnipath” scheme is the latest on the list.

There was no discussion on it inside or outside the Parliament – more worrying when it has serious “transformative” consequences. Defence forces apparently accepted a political decision imposed on them without due process and not knowing what the consequences would be for the professionalism of armed forces, national security or other implications.

India went through such panic during the demonetisation of 2016, as well as the pandemic lockdown – both announced without consultations and due processes. Both caused immense avoidable pain to the people and economy.

The propensity to create man-made disasters should have been abjured after these two experiences, but the government seems immune to lessons.

 

Centre's Agnipath Scheme: A Test by Fire – Need for Reforms and Resolutions https://www.thequint.com/voices/opinion/agnipath-scheme-opinion-concerns-soldiers-recruitment-scheme

Maj Navdeep Singh  19 Jun 2022, I have never been against Short Service Engagement in the military, including at the jawan level, provided it is well-rounded and balances out individual aspirations and organisational requirements while synchronously maintaining regular permanent recruitment, even if on a gradually declining scale. ..I am conscious that a ballooning recurring pension bill somehow needs to be tamed for future benefit.. For the country's good, unpopular decisions need to be taken, but they should preferably be implemented delicately.

Alternatives to Save the Burden of Pensions on the Exchequer
Needless to state, it is not that there were no ingenious methods available to tame the pension bill. Easily, as a pilot project, or as a small percentage of recruitments, a Short Service Engagement of 5 years extendable (at the volition of the soldier) to 10 years could have been introduced on the NPS format.

It would have resulted in better financial protection under the NPS, payment of gratuity, grant of ex-serviceman status (and hence availability of existing ex-serviceman reservation), admissibility of proper disability pension in case of disability (which has already been extended by the government to civilian employees on NPS), family pension in case of death and a much more softer churn towards a new recruitment policy.

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