Left Objects To Cii Chiefs Statement On Raids

Datta had yesterday said that the countrys image abroad was suffering due to raids on various companies and there was an orchestrated campaign by the authorities to tarnish the image of industry even before any guilt was established. Left leaders termed his arguement as absurd and said that what Datta wanted was a licence for corporate houses to loot with impunity. This, they said, would be thoroughly resisted.

CPI national secretary Atul Kumar Anjaan asked: How is it possible that on the one hand corporate houses will loot the public exchequer and at the same time they will conceal all the facts from the invetigating agencies?

Responding to Dattas view that the government must take corrective steps to arrest the malaise set in by verious factors, including harassment of industry, Anjaan said that if taking corrective measures means changing the course of the law, then it is not done.

Datta had said that industry wanted a clear leadership and trust in industry. Ajaan responded trenchantly, asking how they could be trusted when various acts of ommission and commission were being committed by industrial houses.

Exhorting the government to take tough measures to arrest all the malpratices by corporate houses, he said government agencies must take effective action against all. No one is above the law and the UF government will not tolerate any such practice.

Transparency in public life demands that all corporate houses indulging in tax evasion should be brought to book, come what may, Anjaan added.

CPI(M) politbureau member S Ramachandran Pillai added that accountability and transparency should be thoroughly maintained and any suggestion to the contrary should be firmly resisted. How can the government stop cracking down on industries if they are found gulity according to the law of the land, he asked. Left leaders asked the various chambers of industries to come out with proposals to check malpractices by corporate houses and deisist from making such statement.