BREWING PROTESTS/DEATH OF PROTESTS?

BREWING PROTESTS/DEATH OF PROTESTS?

The linking-up of the state finances and governance in Kerala with the ADB has been challenged by various sections of the society such as trade unions, socially concerned scholars, activists, students, indigenous people, women’s groups and environmentalists. On 1 May 2002, a few democratic groups together launched the ADB-Quit Kerala Campaign. With the state already steeped in debts, any further loan, they said, would only put the economic position of the state in greater jeopardy. Moreover, once the ADB were to gain a foothold in the state through its ‘common policy matrix’, it was feared that the financial, social and, to a certain extent, political structure of Kerala would change, altogether reversing the social development model the state had thus far been proud of. More importantly, it was pointed out that the entry of multilateral financial institutions like the ADB into traditionally grown democratic institutions in the state would ultimately erode the political self-respect of the majority of the people of Kerala, to the effect of further marginalizing the poor; the MGP and the reforms that it entailed would prove to be too great a burden for them to shoulder. A day before the democratically organized ADB-Quit Kerala Campaign was launched, a few radical youths, calling themselves ‘Porattam’ (the Fight, a Maoist outfit) ransacked the ADB state office in the capital city of Thiruvananthapuram, damaging office files and equipment.

The Campaign, joined by fresh groups of feminists, environmentalists, and scholars chose novel ways to register its protest such as the ‘sathya- graha chain’. Though the Campaign drew to a halt for a few days, the individuals involved kept up their protests in unprecedented ways: a dalit activist bound himself in chains in front of the secretariat, with his little son to help him. But the most novel protest probably came from the fem- inist groups of Kerala. They exposed the ADB as an agent of democratic violation and the ADB contract as more than a simple economic contract. Breaking all norms, they claimed the night for their own, painting and danc- ing all night long to express their anger and discontent. A ‘democratic hartal’ was also called for by the Campaign on 1 November – the day of state formation – only those individuals who felt themselves compelled to join were expected to participate. In the initial phase of the Campaign, the Left opposition too had come out in public against the ADB loan. For instance, as the resistance to the ADB package mounted the LDF leader declared that the LDF would not repay the loan were they to come to power: though a distinct political option, the statement failed to have the

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RAMAN: KERALA MODEL UNDER PRESSURE?

desired effect on the public of Kerala, but it did help heighten awareness of the ‘other side’ of the ADB package. But when the Left did come to power as recently as in May 2006, not only did it go back on its earlier stance, but it actually catalysed the full implementation of the ADB package as we have explored above. When the two dominant factions of the Kerala CPIM traded claims and counterclaims regarding certain ‘anti-people clauses’ including the question of the metering of public taps in the conditional- ities, the ADB officials themselves made it clear in January 2007 that no change has been made in the loan agreement it had signed with the Kerala government in December 2006, nor was any such change possible. 18

Though there was a revival of resistance against municipal govern- ments/city corporations accepting the ADB loan, again from outside the institutionalized Left domains, it did not gain much ground due to the divi- sions in the opposition parties in the state. The recent mass demonstration by thousands of farmers, students and non-governmental organizations (Tadem, 2003) against the ADB, which took place in Chiang Mai, Thailand in May 2000 during the ADB’s thirty-third annual conference firmly un- derscores the unpopularity enjoyed by the bank in various south Asian countries. This cannot be seen as anything but a continuation of similar protests against the World Bank and the IMF in other parts of the world (Bello, 2002a; Routledge, 2003). Though the ADB Annual Governors’ Meet- ing was held in Hyderabad, India, in May 2006 amid much protest, the overall functioning of the ADB continues unhindered.