Denying the charge that it opposes at the national level what it unabashedly practices in West Bengal, the Communist Party of India-Marxist on Sunday said it welcomes foreign capital into India if certain conditions are met.
"It is wrong to say we are opposing at the Centre what we are practicing in the West Bengal," senior Politburo member Sitaram Yechury said on Saturday.
He said being business-friendly (what the CPM claims the Bengal government is) is not the same as being neo-liberal (what the party claims the UPA government is.
"We are all for foreign capital when the following conditions are satisfied:
1. The foreign capital must add to the existing productive capacities in the country.
2. It should upgrade the existing Indian technology and
3. Enlarge employment opportunities," he said.
Claiming that the Centre's neo-liberal policies were the direct cause for price rise, Yechury said the main cause for the situation is speculative trading and the presence of essential commodities in the futures market.
"The UPA government is not interested in reversing the decision taken by the BJP-led NDA government in 2003 to permit futures trading in agricultural commodities, which enabled speculators to enter the commodity futures market and influence the prices of essential commodities," he said, urging the government to remove commodities from the futures market.
The party also laid down four steps to check price rise:
1. Strengthening the public distribution system by universalizing it and restoring the cut in food grain allocations to the states under the PDS. Also, include 15 essential commodities including pulses, edible oil and sugar in the PDS.
2. Ban futures trading in 25 agricultural commodities as proposed by the parliamentary standing committee on food consumer affairs and public distribution.
3. Cut customs and excise duties on oil and reduce the retail prices of petrol and diesel.
4. Take stringent action against hoarding.
"The increase of petrol and diesel prices for the eight time in the UPA rule has had a cascading effect on the price rise," Yechury said.
He also said the party is planning to hold a massive nationwide protest against price rise in April.
"After April 15, we will launch a nationwide protest in consultation with other parties," Yechury said.
On the second day of its 19th Congress, the party also discussed Centre-state relations and demanded more autonomy to the states.
In the administrative sphere, Yechury said, there have been no safeguards against the abuse of Article 365.
"There is also a new and alarming tendency to misinterpret the provisions of Article 355 by the Centre and unilaterally sending armed forces to the states. On the other hand, whenever the states have requested for the assistance of central forces, there has been undue delay," he said.
Nothing has been done about the demand that the governor be appointed from a list of three eminent persons suggested by the chief minister, he said.
"There is in fact a need to reconsider the need for the post of governor at all," Yechury said.
On the nuclear deal, he said the UPA-Left coordination committee will meet at the end of April when the Centre is expected to give the text of the draft agreement prepared to be presented to the board of directors of the International Atomic Energy Agency.Asked what will happen if the government goes ahead and places the draft before the IAEA, Yechury said: "That amounts to initializing the deal, after which things will be on autopilot. It will be up to the US to go the Nuclear Suppliers Group and the US Congress to decide on the deal. So, if the government wants to take such a measure, it must think if the risk associated with it."
