Imperialist economy has been going through a protracted and deep economic crisis. To overcome that, imperialist powers have been intensifying exploitation of third world countries. Large corporations have been painting a rosy picture of their financial status and profits. They have been propagating that only through permitting them to do what they like the countries of third world can prosper. In our country, their apologists, hangers-on and drum beaters have been egging India to allow these MNCs to strengthen their control over all aspects of economy.

The successive govts. in India have done their bidding. But a dark cloud is gathering on the horizon for a pretty long time. BJP-RSS is directing India’s economic policies dictated by World Bank, IMF and WTO. So during the last three years BJP-RSS has completely surrendered to the gangster world capitalism which shamelessly keeps on insisting on globalization, privatization and total absence of any type of Govt. interference in economic arena. The result is amply transparent after 12 years of the implementation of this so-called ‘economic reform policies’ initiated by Congress.

The leader of world Capitalism, USA, is in utter mess and does not know where to hide its shattered ugly face. Every quarter it is advertised that US economy will recover a little bit in next quarter, but it has not happened during the last 2 years. Recession is now deep-rooted on US soil. US share market is in perennial doldrums. Unemployment is scaling higher and higher. In Japan recession is continuing uninterrupted during the last 12 long years. Unemployment is no longer a news item in either western developed world or in eastern and southeastern Asian countries. As it happens in such an abnormal economic situation, international auditing firms were amassing wealth by fraudulently window dressing the accounts of MNCs so that managements can earn huge capital gain by selling shares at artificially higher prices and after they leave, the companies bleed profusely. The result is that one after another multinational giant corporations led by Enron have queued up before US Bankruptcy courts.

On 28th December, 2000 Enron stock sold at over $84 a share, today Enron stock is delisted in the New York Stock Exchange and the stock is just worthless. Qwest was the fourth largest US Telephone Company, its stock crashed two years ago from $67 to just under $2; a drop of 97 percent. The SEC (the Securities and Exchange Commission) is currently examining its accounting procedures. Tyco International, one of the world’s largest conglomerates operating in over 80 countries with revenue of $36 billion, is charged with tax evasion. Six months back its share was sold for $60 a share. It is now worth $10 a share. Global crossing, which had a major role in the development of fibber optic cable networks, is under investigation by the SEC for fraudulent accounting. It has submitted for bankruptcy. Its share price was over $60 two and a half years ago, each share is now worth $ 0.06- a drop of 99.9 percent.

World markets and US stock markets have been shaken by the demise of WorldCom. It has been revealed that fraudulent accounting hid $3.8 billion in losses and it is rumoured that additional losses may be forthcoming. They regularly charged daily costs as capital expenditures and continuously showed losses as profits. Three years ago, WorldCom Stock traded at $64; today it is traded at $20, a drop of more than 69 percent. There are likely to be more revelations of corporate malfeasance and dishonesty.

Halliburton is interesting as it points to corporate corruption on a different level. A SEC probe is investigating Halliburton’s accounting practices on cost overrun on construction jobs. Dick Cheney, US Vice-President, was the CEO of Halliburton. He was in charge of these accounting procedures. A legal suit against Halliburton claims that deceptive accounting procedures led to overstatement of revenue amounting to $ 445 million in a three-year period during Mr. Cheney’s tenure as CEO. On 25th July 2000, the day after Mr. Bush selected Mr. Cheney as his Vice- Presidential running mate, Halliburton stock was sold for $42. Today it sells at $13.

Arthur Anderson, formerly one of the ‘big five’ international accounting firms, is today in disarray and probable dissolution. It was the accounting firm of Enron whose papers it destroyed before investigation started of WorldCom, Qwest and Halliburton. To be specific, on 22 June, 1990, Mr. Bush, the present President, was a Director and was on the audit committee of Harken Energy. Anderson was the accounting firm. Bush was able to sell 2,12,140 shares for $4 a share. Two months later on 20th August, Harken announced a loss of $23.2 million. On that day its share price dropped to $2.375 i.e. a loss of 40 percent. It closed the year at $1 a share. Bush Sr. was the President; Harken Energy allowed his son Bush Jr. who was also Director of the firm to borrow heavily from the company which was subsequently erased as his personal liability. In the present Mecca of World Capitalism dishonesty and obfuscation run rampant in many American boardrooms, including boardrooms in which the present President and Vice- President played prominent roles. ( Hulk Gutman—Corporate America Stinks, Sunday Statesman, 14.7.2002) Xerox Corporation was detected bribing Indian Govt. officials to sell their machines through Modi- Xerox, as it is illegal under US law. Thus in 21st Century, capitalism enriches only a few crooks, but destroys millions of innocent investors. We have tried to bring out some of the corrupt and ugly practices of Corporations registered on US soil, but there are also crooked corporations in Europe, Japan and elsewhere where gangster capitalism is functioning unopposed.

Regarding Indian Corporations less said the better. In a recent study of annual reports of 226 Indian corporations for 2000-2001, Crisil, a well-known rating agency, finds different methods of accounting adopted by various firms. Everyone claims that they are following the law. We still remember how many companies publish two sets of final accounts, one for the tax authorities disclosing much lower net profit if not loss and the other for shareholders and public showing huge profit resulting in higher quotation of share prices. Govt. pretends not to see them because management of such companies keeps the politicians and bureaucrats in good humour. So in India we are still in a jungle raj and what business leaders decide is the law and professional accountants have to get their fees and be happy.

SEBI, DCA, Company Law Board and Institute of Chartered Accountants are all paper tigers, they can’t compel any big corporation not to fudge their accounts and defraud shareholders, creditors and Govt. Everyone is in mad competition with others to cheat everyone and prosper, they know that free trade means they can do what they like and in India there is no punishment. What is required is every one has to be paid his share of the loot. Country suffers, it is no one’s headache. Modern business means sophisticated centres of big frauds and criminals. In developed countries public pressure is there, right to information is a legal right but here public is harassed if it is brought to light, example Tehelka.

II

On the economic situation less said the better. After the first and second generation of economic reforms, one can well imagine the pathetic conditions of producers of industrial products. Shops are full with unsold stock but there is hardly any customer. To reduce cost, World Bank suggested reduction in interest rate, Govt. expenditure and massive reduction in labour employed. Both lending and deposit rates of interest were drastically reduced by the Reserve Bank of India every year during last two and half years but even then cost of production and distribution has not gone down proportionately. In Japan interest rate is Zero for so many years, but recession is continuing during last 12 years! In India millions of retired middle class people depend on interest as the only source of income, because everyone doesn’t have pension benefits. They are finding it difficult to make both ends meet with declining income from interest even at the fag end of their lives. 

It is this Govt. which is entirely responsible for the bankruptcy of Unit Trust of India (UTI). This organisation collected maximum saving from millions of small investors. It has never occurred to Mr. Vajpayee that majority of the investors invested their life savings mainly because they were misled to believe all these years that it is a Govt. financial institution and their savings are secure and safe. It is ridiculous to send one Chairman to Jail; why not the Finance Minister and his secretary who monitored its functioning and knew every transaction of UTI in detail. They should also give company to Mr. Subramanium in jail. JPC draft reports on UTI and other financial scam (they say that the report stands withdrawn) during Mr. Vajpayee’s tenure is a political report to save the skin of criminal politicians, bureaucrats and businessmen. Look how M.P.s retained by business houses are fighting in public to save one or two particular business houses involved in scams! The C.M. of Tamil Nadu wanted to attend the President’s oath taking ceremony; her request was turned down but Ambanis were invited!

Mr. Vajpayee has asked a pseudo-journalist to collect money by selling Public Sector Undertakings. The talkative Disinvestment Minister is convinced that his pen will wash all the sins that Mr. Vajpayee's Govt. is committing by selling at throwaway prices PSUs to the private sector. He got the green signal from corrupt judiciary in this anti-national activity. Assuming he is selling at the best possible price, is there any monitoring committee of the Parliament which is supervising his Ministry’s decisions. Right to information will never be given unless the country is completely sold out. There is hardly any transparency in any deal. It looks peculiar that people sacrificed so much to build up these units since the days of British raj; here is an irresponsible Govt., which is always in scarcity of funds. It is handing over these units to friends and relations at the cheapest possible price and who knows against what considerations for the party and individual benefit! A majority in parliament is a temporary phenomenon, the nation reserves the right to know whether it was defrauded or not. To commit fraud is the only philosophy of present day business corporations both in India and abroad. Consultants, Chartered Accountants, valuers and so on are all purchasable commodity and are standing naked before the world public opinion in the so-called developed market economies in 21st Century. Mr. Shourie knows it very well even then he ‘emphatically’ quotes this or that certificate to justify his anti-people decisions of cheating the country. There should be immediately a proper regulatory body to oversee all the disinvestment transactions since 90s. He claims to collect around Rs 11000 crores by selling 14 PSUs during the last 2 years against Rs 18368 crores collected from 45 PSUs during 1992 to 1999. Parliament should appoint a committee to analyse his every transaction in detail and he should be made to explain them.

When Disinvestment Ministry is working overtime to sell best profit yielding PSUs, its contribution as dividend to Govt., which is not the only shareholder is improving day by day. During 1998-99, 1999-2000 and 2000-2001 Govt. received as dividend from 85 PSUs Rs 4894.6 crores, Rs 5437.48 crores and Rs 8259.86 crores respectively. During 2000-2001 PSUs paid Govt. around Rs 164068 crores in the form of dividend, interest and taxes. Oil PSUs paid substantially, now Mr. Vajpayee wants to sell their shares and enrich the MNCs.

Finance Ministry and the Regulator of Financial Institutions, Reserve Bank of India (RBI), have allowed massive loot of financial institutions. People with proper connections were granted loan from these financial institutions and RBI as regulator simply forgot to perform its legal duties. These private corporations are allowed to loot public money taken as loan with the clear intention not to return it.  Mr. Vajpayee and co. shows ignorance of this massive loot of the country. The new Finance Minister claims that around Rs 83000 crores are outstanding as loan due to financial institutions (Lok Sabha dated 23.7.02) and most of the debtors are well known leaders of CII, FICCI and ASSOCHAM. Rs 11000 crores which Mr. Shourie shows as his collection from handing over profit earning PSUs to the Indian Corporate sector may be purchased out of this loan taken from financial institutions. Since 21st of June, 2002 an ordinance is issued so that these financial institutions can show on paper that they tried to collect some debts, but corporations are surprised to see such notices to pay back loan. It was never an understanding between the debtor and the party in power. These corporations thought that they would continue with the old practice of either funding election expenses of all mainstream political parties and/or supplying election materials as was disclosed by Flex group which supplied election materials for ex- Finance Minister’s election. But repayment of loan taken from financial institutions is quite an unbelievable story for Indian corporate sector.  One need not forget that the present shape, size and colour of Indian corporate sector are mainly due to blessings of our criminal ruling politicians and bureaucrats. They became rich and richer by bribing politicians, their parties and bureaucrats. This is still going on; rather increasing at a very fast rate. What has happened to loan and guarantee given to Enron by 13 days’ Vajpayee’s Govt. before resigning in Lok Sabha? Which political party or leader will make good the loss? A new scandal has appeared in the press that Modi- Xerox company, in which US Xerox company was a major shareholder, was paying bribes to Govt. to sell its copiers. This is an offence under corporate law in US and enquiry has started there. Do we require any enquiry in India after Tehelka expose? We have Department of Company Affairs (DCA), Company Law Board, Vigilance Commission, CBI and so on and over all these we have an Institute of Chartered Accountants. All these organisations are existing on paper and they only get active when politicians have to take revenge on some honest person or organisation.

This is the biggest achievement of Vajpayee Govt.- that it created an instant consensus among the political parties that criminals should be allowed to contest elections and will be allowed to rule this country as lawmakers and ministers. Election Commission framed rules as directed by Supreme Court so that each voter knows beforehand a detailed background of each candidate he or she has to vote for. But Vajpayee Govt. thinks that criminals and only criminals should rule India.

If you add Rs 83000 crores bad debt of Financial Institutions with outstanding corporation and Income Tax of Rs 56431 crores as on 2000-2001 (CAG Report 2002), this is a huge amount of around Rs 140,000 crores. Mr. Jaswant Singh need not run here and there and ask Delhi University not to appoint regular teachers in the colleges in future, as Govt. does not have  funds for the social sector expenses. They are asking Govt. employees and others to accept VRS and remain at home. Since the days of so called economic reform we don’t remember how many workers have lost their regular jobs and now a new short cut of labour exploitation practice is introduced in India called ‘contract labour’ or in simple words ‘slave labour’. Permanent jobs are made absolutely casual in nature and contractors are brought in to exploit newly created unorganised labour. Labour Commission has submitted its report but failed to suggest how and when Indian labour force, both in urban and rural sectors, will gain some respectable opportunity to earn a decent human living, specially female labour. Two and half years back NDA promised additional job creation each year for around 10 million people, but in actual practice removed millions of workers from both organised and unorganised sectors to help implementation of anti national policies dictated by developed countries. Even then Bharatiya Mazdoor Sangh at this moment is the largest Trade Union in the country. It is a RSS front organisation. It is helping Vajpayee Govt. to implement its anti-labour policies. Number of registered unemployed is around 44-45 millions and National Labour Commission suggests that in next 10 years the figure may go up to 70 millions. Indian people are suffering. One of the main reasons is that till today there is no dearth of Mirjafars in our Trade Union movement.

III

CONCLUSION

Vajpayee Govt. has allowed big Corporations to loot public money running into around one lakh crores. Mututal Funds like UTI, which was considered safe, became sick due to wrong investment policies and losers are millions of small investors who kept their life’s savings there. Banks specially cooperative banks are no longer safe for public deposits. Senior Citizens who depend only on income from interest have lost all their income due to drastic reductions in the interest rate structure. Thus credibility of Vajpayee Govt. is at stake and it has to go.

WTO has become totally anti- India. It is ignoring all the anti-dumping regulations imposed by the developed countries on our export specially on steel. IMF and World Bank have destroyed totally the rich economy of Argentina, and till today Indian administration is continuously pampering such anti-people organisations. RSS has withdrawn its swadeshi brigade and Vajpayee Govt. is going out of the way to please EU and US. It depends on Indian people how they react to such anti-national policies.