Headlines
Government trying to muzzle dissent: Activists
New Delhi, May 20
Civil society activists on
Wednesday accused the government of showing disregard for rights-based
legislation like the MGNREGA and trying to muzzle dissent.
"The
hallmark of the present government was to "brook no dissent, silence all
civil society organizations that have even the mildest difference of
opinion with the government and wherever possible adopt the highly
undemocratic route of ordinance and not be accountable even to
parliament," activist Aruna Roy of 'Jan Awaz' told the media here.
She
pointed out that all the rights that civil society had fought hard for
over two decades such as the Right to Information were "being undermined
in the most blatant manner and we are seeing a return to the days when
the Official Secrets Act was used to justify lack of transparency and
accountability".
The non-appointment of the chief information
officer, Roy said was inexplicable and was tantamount to showing utter
disregard for the rule of law.
Prabhat Patnaik of the Jawahar Lal
Nehru University said it was clear that all the explanation that the
government is giving about the increase in state share of taxation from
32 percent to 42 percent is completely misleading as the total transfer
of central budget to states had been significantly reduced from 6.1
percent to 5.8 percent of GDP.
"This reduction of fund transfer
to the states is going to prove extremely deleterious for all states but
more so for the poorer states like Uttarakhand, Bihar and Orissa and
with the introduction of GST the autonomy of the states to raise their
own resources and levy taxes would be further curtailed," he said.
Announcing
a series of events to highlight failures of Modi government on
completion of its one year, Nikhil Dey, of the Mazdoor Kisan
Sashaktikaran Sangathan (MKSS) emphasized that all "people's campaign
and struggles are going to collectively raise the demands for justice,
democracy, accountability and sustainable egalitarian development for
all".