It is important to
understand that while breaking up monopolies is perceived as anti-market and an
imposition of the regulatory state, it can just as easily prove a boon to the
corporate Establishment.
Breaking up a
nationalised public-private monopoly is a means of extending privatisation.
Union contracts are negated and can be dismantled. It's yet another application
of divide and conquer.
Like the breakup of
Standard Oil in the United States, the highest echelon of stockholders actually
benefitted from the break-up. A diversified portfolio and the ability to own
slightly larger portions of individual companies actually generated even
greater dividends.
I don't know enough
about the Indian stock market but if they run their stock Initial Public
Offerings (IPO's) like Wall Street, then a segmented Coal India affords a
tremendous opportunity to generate money on an even greater and multiplied
scale than the 2010 IPO. Through a quick-turn of stocks, literally millions can
be made in just a few hours on opening day. It's money from nothing, the magic
of finance capital.
Modi is shaking up
India. Its economy is astir as he's sought to implement currency reforms, break
cycles of corruption and implement Neo-liberal and market friendly economics.
He's the darling of the West and has embraced US foreign policy vis-à-vis China
and Central Asia. And yet, Modi's party the BJP is also flirting with fascism
in the form of Hindutva ideology. Already Christians are suffering at the hands
of both the Indian Establishment and the RSS paramilitaries employed by Modi's
affiliates.
As I've mentioned
elsewhere, Christians in the United States are quite literally cashing in on
the dividend-fruits of Indian investment, making money via the government and
system that is leading to the persecution of their brethren.
Further reading:
Something else to consider in all of this is that coal miners across the world have traditionally allied themselves with far-left political movements and India is no exception. Given the inhuman working conditions to which Indians are expected to be accustomed (regardless of how they truly feel about them), strikes are a common occurrence in that country and those on the right have viewed them as significant impediments to economic progress. By dismantling the state monopoly, I think one of the policy goals of the BJP is to neutralize and ineffectualize this opposition.
ReplyDeleteWhat's ironic is that this is happening in a third-world country to which American companies outsource in order to reduce labor expenditures but that's for another discussion.
Also for another discussion is that if they're keen on meeting a rising demand for energy, nuclear power is truly the way to go. It's cleaner and more efficient and its workers aren't subject to the barbaric conditions one finds in coal pits.