Comrade Provash Ghosh, General Secretary of SUCI(C), has issued the following statement on 21 June on new FDI reforms:
The BJP government at the Centre has announced its decision to permit 100 per cent foreign investment in civil aviation and food processing sectors and relaxed norms in defence and pharmaceutical industries and single brand retail. The Government claimed that the decisions will make “India the most open economy in the world for FDI” and “now most of the sectors would be under automatic approval route”. These steps grant unbridled freedom to the multinationals to loot the country’s natural and human resources and labour power and squeeze the last drop of blood out of the common people. Apart from security concerns regarding FDI in defence, the economic fall-out of unrestricted FDI would be : draining of the country’s resources, widespread loss of livelihood of poor peasants, workers, and traders, curtailment of workers’ hard-earned rights and atrocious harsh conditions at work places. Ignoring all these the ruling capitalist class is granting unrestricted license to foreign capital with the sole intention of winning the goodwill and friendship of the imperialist powers led by USA, to multiply its military capability with their aid, to win a leverage for the Indian monopoly capital to invest in other countries, and to seek the imperialists’ support to establish itself as a regional superpower and fulfil its hegemonistic ambition in South and Southeast Asia. We appeal to the people to be conscious of this ulterior motive of the ruling class and urge them to build up powerful democratic mass movements for foiling the design of the Indian capitalist class to intensify ruthless exploitation of the toiling people in collusion with foreign capital and force the government to rescind their decision.
