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Ex-PM critical about NDA's economic policy

Former Prime Minister Chandra Sekhar has asserted that liberalisation policies pursued by the NDA government at the Centre will not do any good to the country and, instead, only strengthen the hands of multi-nationals.

Unless the government 'amended' its economic policies and adhered to the path of 'swadeshi', the country's unity and integrity would be at stake, he warned at a public meeting in Talcher, Orissa on Wednesday.

Criticising the divestment policy of the government, particularly selling of profit-making public sector undertakings like Balco to private companies, Sekhar said this was pulling the economy in a negative direction.

"The country had lost independence because of one East India Company. Now hundreds of multi-national companies are freely operating here taking advantage of the liberalisation policies as envisaged by the World Trade Organisation," he said.

He alleged that globalisation and liberalisation has given rise to social tensions and increased the gap between the 'haves' and the 'have-nots'.

The country has already fallen into a debt trap and the situation would become more critical in future, Sekhar said and urged the people to oppose the economic policies of the NDA government.

The former PM said liberalisation would not only fail to solve the unemployment problem, it would on the other hand lead to the ruin of the country's traditional agriculture system.

He said agriculture, horticulture, fisheries and aqua-culture should be kept out of the purview of WTO.

Supporting Orissa's demand for special category status, Sekhar said the condition of the people in the state was worse than that of Uttaranchal, which had recently been accorded the status of a special category state.

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