CPI(M) assails claims on investment deals from PM's visits

Seeking to pick holes in BJP's claims that Prime Minister Narendra Modi's foreign visits would fetch new investments from abroad, CPI(M) today said actual investments that come from MoUs signed never crossed more than 10 per cent.
"You see we already had very bad experience from the number of MoUs signed and actual investments coming. It has never crossed more than 10 per cent...Never," CPI(M) General Secretary Sitaram Yechury told reporters here in reply to a question.
"So what will come out of all these agreements that the Prime Minister claims to have had, we have to wait and see and nothing normally comes out of that," he added.

Claiming that "we have lost a lot," he cited the Rafale defence deal and said "I think more has gone out of India than what has come in and that is not going to lead us to any better economic growth."
To another query related to investments and economic growth claimed by the Centre, he said "the BJP's investment logic itself was seriously flawed."
"Every investment produces something, what is produced has to be sold and profits have to be made and economy has to grow," he said and argued that there was no market for such produce."Where is the market?" he said.

People's purchasing power has fallen domestically and exports had fallen by more than one third, he alleged.

"So if you cannot sell products that is produced by new investments, how will there be any employment generation or growth... It cannot work."
Hitting out at BJP for abolition of wealth tax, cut in direct and corporate taxes, rise in indirect tax, he said "the only way our economy can grow is when the government stops giving this huge tax concesion to rich."
"Just collect your taxes and invest that to build infrastructure and then that investment will generate huge new employments and when they start spending salaries, the demand will grow and manufacturing will get impetus."

Attacking the BJP government, he said "there is a three-in-one attack on Indian people, which is on economic policies through communalism and authoritarian trend."
On "marks" for the saffron party which has completed a year in office at the Centre, he said "I can only mark those people who sit for exam, this government has not sat for any exam so far and so we cannot really (give) marks.