RSP takes on govt over foreign experts

After the CPI's warning to the government to not to take it for granted and the CPI(M)'s stringent line on the inclusion of World Bank experts in the consultative groups of the Planning Commission, it is now the turn of the Revolutionary Socialist Party (RSP) to express dissatisfaction over the functioning of the United Progressive Alliance (UPA) government.

"The relations between the RSP and the UPA are bitter," Abani Roy, secretary of the RSP central committee, said. It had "almost become a practice" of the government to bypass the co-ordination mechanism with the Left and directly approach the Cabinet on policy decisions, he added.

Roy was referring to reports of a proposal before the Cabinet to hike the prices of grains sold under the public distribution system.

"This is not a government for the poor people," Roy said indicating that his party would oppose the decision if the report was true.

The CPI(M) also came out in support of the RSP on the issue. "These are the kind of decisions the prescriptions of the World Bank endorse," said SR Pillai, CPI(M) politburo member.

In response to Montek Singh Ahluwalia's latest defense of World Bank experts in the Planning Commission in a letter addressed to Roy on September 11, the RSP leader reiterated his party's objections to the move.

He has also written to Prime Minister Manmohan Singh, who is also the chairman of the commission, about the need to keep policy changes gradual so that local conditions were "not dictated by foreign agencies."

Citing the World Bank's role in the Sardar Sarovar Project and in power reforms in Orissa, which proved to be "disastrous", Roy said: "Those who lend money should be satisfied with timely repayment and not try to influence or tailor our policy-making."

In his letter to Roy, Ahluwalia had said the Planning Commission could not do justice to the mid-term appraisal of the 10th Plan if relied solely on the work of civil servants.

Roy like other Left leaders said the government had committed to following the common minimum programme and that it should keep its word in ameliorating the conditions of the rural poor.