The CPI(M) had nothing against foreign investment, he said, if it contributed to India's needs and priorities, creating jobs and productivity. But if Coke came in and bought Parle, without adding a single job but taking home the profits, his party was against it.
Yechury and former RBI Governor S Venkitaramanan spoke forcefully in defence of the public sector. They argued that, if a state power board was instructed to provide power to farmers at 25 paise when its cost was around Rs 2, it could not then be blamed for inefficiency and losses.
They pointed out that there were many offers to buy the National Textile Mills in Mumbai, with the intention of closing the mills and developing the land. It does not help the nation develop productivity if you want to make a fast buck on the land, said Yechury.
Speaking at a round table on political trends during the Euromoney conference, Venkatara- manan said many private sector firms were also inefficient and in the red, although their promoters lived opulent lifestyles.
Answering the point that it was public money that went under when a public sector unit did badly, he said private units largely spent the public's funds from banks and other financial institutions.
Yechury added that 74.8 per cent of the private sector's funding came from public sector financial institutions.
Answering questions about the need for the public sector to be in certain manufacture and service sectors, Yechury pointed out that the government had entered sectors like steel manufacture when foreign capital from the west was refused.
He conceded that there was an argument for the public sector to withdraw from certain areas now that the private sector had matured, but said that those were decisions the government had to take, considering its priorities.
Venkitaramanan added that no private company could or would invest the money that would be required to build the Bhakra-Nangal dam, without which India would not have achieved food self-sufficiency.
