Bjp Has Ditched Swadeshi, Says Chidambaram

The BJP has shed its pre-poll public postures and is following policies which it had criticised when the Congress and the United Front were adopting them, TMC parliamentary party leader and former finance minister P Chidambaram said yesterday.

The recently announced modified Exim policy only proved that the BJP had accepted trade policies pursued by the earlier governments and had ditched its swadeshi talks, Chidambaram said. The TMC requests the BJP to disown its outdated pronouncements made during the poll campaign and adopt economic reform policies put in place by the Congress and UF, he said.

Chidambaram said the global economic order was moving towards elimination of quantitative restrictions (QRs) and nations were increasingly controlling their trade matrices through prudential custom duty norms. The Congress and the UF had embraced this to sharpen traditional export strengths and improve the countrys global competitiveness.

 

However, the BJP and its allies had criticised the exim policies adopted during 1991-98 and created an impression that they would usher in a novel policy, if they came to power, he said.

When the earlier governments were pursuing liberalisation and globalisation in line with global trends, the BJP criticised those policies on the ground that they would impair domestic economy, Chidambaram said.

He said the new Exim policy incorporated some welcome changes but was essentially a continuation of the earlier policy.

In Thiruvananthapuram yesterday, Kerala Chief Minister E K Nayanar flayed the new Exim policy and called upon all political parties to take a united stand against the new policy which, he said, would have a overall deleterious effect, particularly on Kerala.

Making a statement on the issue in the state assembly, Nayanar maintained that the Exim policy was a result of pressures from a handful of big industrialists.

The house later decided to have a discussion on the policy and its implications on the state on April 21. Nayanar said putting 340 items on OGL would deal a blow to farmers and those working in the field of marine products. He recalled his meeting with Prime Minister Vajpayee on April 12 when he had appraised him of the need for taking a number of steps to save rubber and other cash crops from the crisis they were facing. Nayanar said he had also submitted a memorandum to Vajpayee and it was unfortunate that immediately after his meeting with the Prime Minister, the Centre should come out with a new policy.