VS terms Mani's document a bail plea for BJP

By Our Special Correspondent

THIRUVANANTHAPURAM, JAN. 21. The CPI(M) politburo member, Mr. V. S. Achuthanandan, has described the document on agriculture brought out by the Kerala Congress (M) as one intended to bail out the BJP Government which is persisting with the policy of import liberalisation despite its negative impact on the farm sector.

In a statement here today, Mr. Achuthanandan said the `Mani document' was nothing but an example of the "double-speak and deceit" that the KC(M) had been pursuing on the farm front. Mr. K. M. Mani may have forgotten the way he had praised the liberalisation policies initiated by the Congress Government in 1991, but the people of Kerala could not. Mr. Mani has now come out with the document only because of the enthusiastic response to the resistance movement unleashed by the Left parties in India, Mr. Achuthanandan said.

The CPI(M), he pointed out, had all along argued that the only way to save Indian agriculture was to raise import tariff. However, neither the Congress nor the BJP had tried to address such fundamental issues. What the Prime Minister, Mr. A. B. Vajpayee, did was to come out with a "hollow package" for Kerala. Now even Mr. Mani has been forced to endorse some of the apprehensions voiced by the CPI(M) and other Left parties about the way the U.S. was trying to capture markets in countries such as India through bodies like the IMF, WTO and World Bank.

Mr. Achuthanandan wondered how Mr. Mani could argue in the same breath that the conditions of WTO would hurt the interests of poor nations such as India and that India should accept the positive elements of the WTO regime. He also wanted to know why Mr. Mani and his party were not coming forward to campaign against the globalisation efforts of the Vajpayee Government. In his view, Mr. Mani's silence on the subject is on account of his eagerness to strike a deal with the BJP in the upcoming Assembly elections.

The CPI(M) leader termed as totally erroneous Mr. Mani's contention that the Kerala Government was also responsible for the crisis in the farm sector and that it had done nothing to resolve the crisis. The LDF Government in Kerala, he said, had done its best both to awaken the public conscience against the negative consequences of globalisation and to provide relief to the people within its limited capabilities. The farming community in Kerala would not forget the efforts made by the LDF Government to protect them from the torrential impact of globalisation. Mr. Mani's unwillingness to acknowledge these efforts was the result of "dirty political motives", he added.

Mr. Achuthanandan said Mr. Mani's understanding of the measures taken by China in the context of globalisation was grossly inadequate. While it was true that China was the recipient of the largest amount as foreign investment, the investment came not from developed nations but from overseas Chinese. This had helped China to fashion its development strategies without placing itself at the mercy of the rich nations. On the contrary, India has had to agree to very stiff terms while soliciting foreign investment. This had resulted in several Indian industries being thrown open to multinationals.

The CPI(M) politburo member wondered how Mr. Mani could claim that China had decided to join the WTO as it feared isolation. China had achieved 8-9 per cent growth during 1994-2000 even while remaining outside WTO. If it had decided to join the WTO, it was doing so on its terms and not on the terms of the rich nations. Similarly, Mr. Mani's contention that loss-making industrial units should be shut down was nothing short of an open endorsement of the BJP Government's policy of selling off shares of profit-making public sector units and privatisation of the banking, insurance and telecom sectors. Mr. Mani's document was thus nothing but an attempt to gloss over the ruinous policies initiated by the Congress Government and being pursued by the BJP regime. The people of Kerala would reject it with the contempt it deserved, Mr. Achuthanandan said.

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