People's Democracy

AIKS Warns Against Further Import Liberalisation

THE All India Kisan Sabha (AIKS) has expressed deep concern over the reported drive towards further liberalisation of agricultural imports into India by bringing down import duties on wheat and rice and allowing 49 per cent foreign direct investment (FDI) in retail trade of food grains and other agricultural commodities.

According to the AIKS statement issued by its general secretary K Varadha Rajan from New Delhi on September 10, the Planning Commission’s recommendations in this regard are actually meant to further strengthen foreign monopoly control on Indian agriculture and legalise hoarding in the name of promoting decontrol. These recommendations are found in the commission’s report titled Excess Food Stocks, PDS & Procurement Policy.

The AIKS has been agitating against the lifting of quantitative restrictions on import of 1429 items, whereby Indian agriculture was thrown open to uneven competition from the developed countries. Moreover, the BJP-led NDA government has been moving further in the direction of making our agriculture subservient to the multinational corporations’ needs and demands. The AIKS has warned that any further liberalisation of import norms will fleece the farmers, while free foreign trade in agricultural goods will endanger our food security.

The AIKS statement also opined that the Planning Commission’s recommendations are a brazen intervention against the federal polity of the country. For, they seek to tie the hands of the constituent states by asking them to amend the state acts on agricultural production and marketing and to eliminate all taxes in this sector.

To the AIKS, handing the trade in foodgrains over to the multinationals, while nearly 280 million Indians go to bed hungry every night, is an onslaught on the people of India. The AIKS said it is determined to fight any move in this direction. It urged the central government not to take this drive any further, and urged upon all peasant organisations and other patriotic forces in the country to resist such anti-people moves. (INN)