March
9,
2004
Press
Release
In
the
run
up
to
the
2004
general
elections,
we
are
witnessing
the
most
unprecedented
and,
at
the
same
time,
outrageous
conduct
of
an
incumbent
government
in
misusing
public
money
to
disinform
the
people.
The
`Shining
India'
campaign
has
consumed
multi-hundred
crores
from
the
public
exchequer
to
present
a
one
sided
distorted
picture
of
the
Indian
reality.
In
`Shining
India',
a
tiny
miniscule
of
Indian
corporates
and
entities
in
the
share
market
`shine',
while
majority
of
the
teeming
millions
are
engulfed
in
abysmal
darkness.
Therefore,
we
from
the
Communist
Party
of
India
(Marxist)
have
decided
to
come
out
with
a
point
by
point
rebuttal
of
the
facts
dished
out
in
the
advertisements
under
the
`Shining
India'
campaign.
We
have
named
the
series
"Lies,
damned
lies
and
statistics"
to
indicate
the
magnitude
of
the
gigantic
statistical
fraud
that
the
NDA
government
has
perpetrated.
We
start
the
series
today
with
the
employment
sector
which
underlines
the
severest
crisis
facing
largest
sections
of
the
Indian
people.
The
manner
in
which
the
Planning
Commission
has
conducted
itself
is
unprecedented
and
completely
contrary
to
the
spirit
of
cooperative
federalism.
The
Planning
Commission
is
not
accountable
to
any
single
government
--
either
the
Union
or
the
state
--
but
to
their
collective
totality
--
the
National
Development
Council.
But,
this
time
around,
the
Planning
Commission
has
acted
in
the
most
brazenly
partisan
manner
to
participate
in
the
`Shining
India'
campaign
and
supplemented
the
efforts
of
the
NDA
government
in
reinforcing
the
myth
that
they
are
trying
to
weave
around
the
campaign.
The
Commission
has
particularly
used
completely
unreliable
data
so
much
so
as
they
have
never
ever
been
used
in
official
documentation
to
downplay
the
enormality
of
the
NDA
government's
failure
in
creating
"one
crore
additional
employment
every
year"
while
in
office.
We
believe
that
election
is
a
high
point
in
the
parliamentary
system.
And,
democracy
is
all
about
holding
the
incumbent
government
to
account
and
subject
its
record
of
performance
to
the
most
rigorous
scrutiny.
Through
the
present
series,
we
will
venture
to
do
exactly
this.
An
atmosphere
where
glamour
and
glitz
is
threatening
to
overshadow
the
plight
of
the
people
and
the
burning
problems
that
they
are
faced
with,
we
seek
to
unravel
the
truth,
distinguishing
the
myth
of
`Shining
India'
from
the
stark
Indian
reality.
Is
India
Really
Shining?
Lies,
Damned
Lies
and
Statistics
The
Hollow
Claims
of
the
NDA
The
NDA
promised
to
create
1
crore
jobs
per
year
during
the
last
Lok
Sabha
elections.
The
Planning
Commission
has
claimed
that
the
target
has
been
nearly
achieved
with
84
lakhs
employment
opportunities
created
on
an
average
per
year
between
1999-2000
and
2002-2003.
This
increase
in
employment
shown
by
the
Planning
Commission
is
based
upon
a
thin
sample
survey
(58th
NSS
round),
which
is
unreliable.
This
is
for
the
first
time
that
a
government
has
claimed
its
achievements
on
the
employment
front
on
the
basis
of
thin
sample
surveys
of
the
NSSO,
which
cannot
provide
a
correct
estimate
of
the
employment
situation
due
to
its
sample
bias.
Even
the
Economic
Survey
does
not
use
this
thin
sample
data.
The
last
large
sample
survey
of
the
NSSO
had
reported
a
rise
in
the
total
unemployment
rate
from
5.99
in
1993-94
to
7.32
in
1999-00.
The
use
of
misleading
statistics
points
to
the
fact
that
the
government
has
more
to
conceal
on
the
employment
front.
There
are
glaring
discrepancies
between
the
employment
estimates
of
the
thin
sample
survey
and
the
output
performance
of
the
economy.
For
instance
the
thin
sample
survey
shows
an
increase
in
employment
of
men
in
rural
India
during
July
to
December
2002
–
the
very
months
when
severe
drought
swept
across
the
country.
The
thin
sample
surveys,
which
show
an
annual
average
increase
in
employment
by
84
lakhs
from
1st
Jan
2000
to
1st
Oct
2002,
also
show
a
decline
in
employment
by
90
lakhs
between
1st
Jan
2002
and
1st
Oct
2002.
The
same
surveys
also
show
that
in
rural
India
the
number
of
employed
youth
(15-29
age
group)
per
1000
persons
has
come
down
from
741
to
738
for
males
and
from
400
to
334
for
females
between
the
period
1st
Jan
2002
to
1st
Oct
2002.
If
the
NDA
government
claims
that
the
figure
of
84
lakhs
for
average
annual
job
creation
is
correct,
it
has
to
explain
the
massive
fall
in
employment
between
1st
January
and
1st
October
2002.
The Hard Facts about the Employment Situation
Ministry
of
Labour
reports
a
total
decline
of
8.34
lakhs
jobs
in
the
organized
sector
between
1998
and
March
2002,
out
of
which
6.52
lakhs
jobs
were
lost
in
the
public
sector
alone.
This
implies
that
during
the
tenure
of
the
NDA
government
the
proportion
of
workers
in
the
unorganized
and
informal
sector
has
risen.
There
are
more
people
competing
for
low
paying
and
insecure
informal
sector
jobs
in
our
country
today
than
before
this
government
assumed
power.
Economic
Survey,
2002-03
shows
that
our
agricultural
sector,
which
gives
employment
to
more
than
56
per
cent
of
our
working
population,
has
experienced
reductions
in
output
in
two
out
of
the
four
years
between
1999-00
and
2002-03.
Moreover,
there
is
a
fall
in
the
employment
generation
capacity
of
agricultural
output
growth
after
the
mid-90s
as
suggested
by
the
NSS
estimates.
From
the
mid-1990s
onwards
a
one
percentage
point
growth
in
agricultural
output
resulted
in
about
0.13
percentage
point
growth
in
employment
as
against
0.4
percentage
point
growth
in
employment
experienced
during
the
late
1980s
and
early
1990s.
Rural
unemployment
therefore
must
have
gone
up
during
the
tenure
of
the
NDA
government.
Economic Survey, 2002-03 also shows a reduction in employment growth rate in the small-scale industries from 4.03 per cent in 1999-2000 to 3.55 percent in 2001-2002. With unemployment increasing in the most labour-intensive sectors of the economy, i.e. agriculture and small-scale industries, the claim of having nearly achieved the 1 crore jobs creation target seems farcical.
Fund
allocation
for
the
employment
generation
schemes
by
the
Central
government
has
experienced
a
reduction
in
absolute
terms
during
the
NDA
regime.
The
fund
utilization
rate
has
also
fallen
sharply.
Only
around
50%
of
the
job
creation
target
was
achieved
under
the
Sampurna
Grameen
Rozgar
Yojana
in
2001-02
and
2002-03.
Central
allocations
for
the
Swarnajayanti
Gram
Swarozgar
Yojona
(SGSY)
[data
source:
website
of
the
Ministry
of
Rural
Development]
and
Swarna
Jayanti
Sahari
Rozgar
Yojana
(SJSRY)
[data
source:
website
of
the
Ministry
of
Urban
Development
and
Poverty
Alleviation]
had
been
drastically
cut
by
Rs.
523.50
crores
and
Rs.
80.64
crores
respectively
between
1999-00
and
2001-02.
Cut
in
allocations
on
employment
generation
programmes
in
the
face
of
growing
unemployment
exposes
the
anti-development
character
of
the
NDA
government.
