Surjeet unhappy with UPA govt's stand on FDI

Although over the last two days, there has been intensive contact between the top leadership of the United Progressive Alliance (UPA) government and the Left parties on the issue of foreign direct investment (FDI), the party organ of the CPI(M), People's Democracy, does not seem to be editorially convinced that the government will revisit the hike in FDI caps.

In a signed article in the latest issue of the magazine, CPI(M) general secretary Harkishan Singh Surjeet writes, two days after his meeting with Prime Minister Manmohan Singh, that "we of the Left have serious apprehensions regarding these (FDI) proposals and will see to it that these proposals are rolled back".

Finance Minister P Chidambaram has indicated that he will have an open mind on revisiting the turnover tax, but has not hinted that any rollback on other elements of his Budget speech might be imminent.

Following Surjeet's meeting, party leaders Sitaram Yechuri and Prakash Karat called on Chidambaram. The article and editorial does not appear to reflect any "softening" on the part of the Left as a result of these meetings, though editorially, the party says it will not bring the government down on these issues.

But the article and the editorial does seem to rule out tranquil coexistence between the UPA and its most important allies. The editorial, in fact, adds to the list of Left grievances, the proposal to increase caps on the foreign institutional investment (FII).

"These will only make India more vulnerable to the control of foreign capital and work to the detriment of the Indian people," the editorial warns.

The Left appears to be furious at the fait accompli that Chidambaram has handed the UPA and its allies and the Surjeet article makes caustic observations about "PC Sahib's sermonising".

It also makes a point about the Prime Minister's latest appointee in the government, Montek Singh Ahluwalia, who is quoted as having praised the IMF-World Bank.

"That the (FDI) move aims to appease the indigenous bourgeoisie and the World Bank-IMF, which are acting like barking dogs of imperialism, is not in doubt," the article concludes.

"The way Planning Commission deputy chairman Ahluwalia praised the World Bank in an interview does not leave doubt about it," he said.

The Left senses that in order to get parliamentary approval for the IRDA Act amendment, the Congress could turn to the BJP for help.

The article says: "But a far more important point is that if the Congress is really thinking of taking the BJP's help in getting the insurance FDI move through, it would be only betraying the trust of the masses who gave their mandate to the UPA in order to rid the country of the BJP-NDA misrule."

The article says while "it is certain" that the "Left is not going to bring this government down," it does not mean that the Left can be taken for granted.

But it warns that it was "retrograde economic policies" that caused the defeat of the PV Narasimha Rao government, of the United Front government and, in conjunction with the communal drive, of the BJP-led government," Surjeet says.