Left to raise economic issues with UPA

In their next co-ordination committee meeting with the Government on October 11 or 12, the Left parties will once again be concentrating on economic issues.

Left leaders said that they would ask the government to reassess the foreign trade policy in the context of their reservations to measures of import liberalisation announced in the policy.

The Left has been opposed to import liberalisation in the purchase of second hand machinery contending that this will lead to dumping. The other major area of contention is the lifting of restrictions on the import of seeds, bulbs, tubers, pulses and oil seeds.

The Left fears that this will affect indigenous production, unless safe guards are put in place. The other argument the Left parties have been making is that the experience of BT cotton has shown that removing all import restrictions may backfire.

Other than the foreign trade policy, the Left will also bring up its opposition to the scrapping of Press Note 18, the law which requires a foreign company already having a JV in India to get permission of its Indian partner before setting up another JV or a wholly owned subsidiary.

The Left's opposition to the scrapping Press Note 18, senior leaders admitted, was a 'policy position.

"Just because a particular law is not being implemented in the right earnest, doesn't mean we should scrap it," a senior Left leader said reacting to the fact that Press Note 18 had become less effective, having been diluted over the years.

The Left's move back to toeing the economic line on its difference with the Government is part of its overall strategy to tackle the Government.

In its last meeting with the Government on august 25, the message was clearly to move away from the Economic to the political. In this context, the situation in the North East and in the Jammu Kashmir were discussed.

This time too the situation in the North East and Jammu and Kashmir will come up. On the Northeast, the Left has been critical of the Centre for being complacent on the issue. It wants the Centre to make a co-ordinated effort, talking to the State governments and also the militant organisations to curb the incidence of violence in the state.

However, included now it's criticism is the BJP which the Left sees being instrumental in creating an political instability in the North-east by encouraging a culture of defection.