People's Democracy

V S Writes to PM on Indo-ASEAN FTA

Here we reproduce the text of the letter the Kerala chief minister V S Achuthanandan wrote to Dr Manmohan Singh, the prime minister, on August 12.

YOU may recollect that when I had met you on August 3, 2009, together with several ministerial colleagues from Kerala and members of parliament, to share with you our apprehensions over the proposed Indo-ASEAN Free Trade Agreement, you had promised that the details of the agreement would be made known to us by around August 7. Unfortunately, we still have not received any communications from the union commerce ministry giving us the details of the agreement.

Meanwhile, there are newspaper reports that the agreement is about to be signed shortly, which naturally creates much disquiet in the minds of the people of Kerala. May I request you to allay such disquiet by making available to us immediately the details of the agreement, and by ensuring that the signing of the agreement occurs only after the people of the state have got a chance to satisfy themselves that their vital interests are safeguarded under it?