Left parties slam Centre over FDI, demand rollback

The Left Front on Monday slammed the Narendra Modi government for allowing 100 per cent Foreign Direct Investment (FDI) in a number of sectors, including defence and insurance, and demanded its rollback.

The Delhi state committees of seven Left parties - Communist Party of India-Marxist (CPI-M), Forward Block, Communist Party of India (CPI), Revolutionary Socialist Party (RSP), Communist Party of India - Marxist-Leninist (CPI-ML), Socialist Unity Centre of India (SUCI) and Communist Ghadar Party of India (CGPI) -- held a protest against FDI here.

Addressing the gathering, CPI-M leader Brinda Karat said that allowing 100 per cent FDI in different sectors, including defence, was by no means "rashtarvaad" (nationalism).

"This is not nationalism, this is multinational company-ism," she said, stressing that allowing FDI would only benefit the big MNCs and ruin the domestic industry and workers.

"When BJP was in opposition, it opposed 100 per cent FDI, now they are for it. We condemn it as it is anti-public measure," Karat said.

Earlier, CPI leader Amarjeet Kaur alleged that the BJP-led central government was bent on destroying the public sector units.

"They want to kill the public sector enterprises and want to replace them with private players," she said.

Kaur said that allowing 100 percent FDI would kill the micro and medium scale enterprises in India and would render millions of people jobless.

"What is the need for FDI in sectors like dairy and animal husbandry? Do they want people earning their livelihoods in rural areas through dairy and animal husbandry rendered jobless?" Kaur said.

--IANS

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