CPM: We are opposed to anti-people reforms

In a counter to Prime Minister Manmohan Singh's remarks on Left parties' reservations against economic reforms, the CPI(M) today said it would oppose the reforms if they were anti-people.

"Yes, we will object if the country is in question. If the country's economic sovereignty is being destroyed, we will object. And that is why on every one of these things do not go into the trap of (the poser) are you pro-reform or anti-reform,' CPI(M) politburo member Sitaram Yechury said.

"There is nothing pro or anti reforms. The question is if the reform is pro-people, we are pro-reform. If the reform is anti-people, we are anti-reform," he said.

Yechury's remarks assume significance as they came a day after Singh had, in a pointed message to his Left allies, said in the Rajya Sabha that ambitious social sector development programmes could not be sustained without reforms, industrial growth and investment climate.

In an interview to Mckinsey Quarterly, a publication of the leading global management consultancy Mckinsey and Company, the Prime Minister today said there were limitation "for the time being" and "we do not have the broad-based consensus in our coalition for me to assert that I can move forward in a big way" for reforms in the labour market. "But I do recognise that we should take credible action," he added.

Pointing out that the Communist government in West Bengal appreciated the need for labour market flexibility and was moving in the areas of privatisation also, Singh said the Left parties had to be convinced that what was good for West Bengal was also good for the country.

"I have not given up hope. I have full confidence in the patriotism of our Left colleagues to believe that in the final analysis of what is good for India, they will also be on board," he added.

"We may be slow moving but if we build a consensus that would be far more durable than any other mechanism that I know of," the Prime Minister stated in the interview.

Referring to the Prime Minister's effusive praise of West Bengal Chief Minister Buddhadeb Bhattacharya's attempt to woo foreign direct investment (FDI), Yechury said if the United Progressive Alliance (UPA) government commended Bhattacharya, it should implement his policies of land reforms, empowering the landless and poor peasantry and other such policies.

He said there was "no difference" between Bhattacharya and the CPI(M) leadership and restated the party's stand that foreign direct investment must satisfy three conditions of boosting production, upgrading technology and expanding employment opportunities.

"All foreign direct investment in West Bengal adhere to these conditions. That is exactly what we want the UPA government to say as well. But they are not saying this,' he said.