People's Democracy

Delhi Witnesses Protest Rally Against WTO

ON August 26, under the banner of Indian People’s Campaign Against WTO, three former prime ministers, the Left parties with the CPI(M) flags fluttering all around, and a gamut of NGOs joined a protest march to parliament against the government of India’s “weak-kneed” posture at the WTO negotiations. The rally intended to press the government to take at Cancun a strong stand on issues affecting the country’s interests.

Factory workers from all over Delhi, kisans from neighbouring areas and a large number of women, youth and students rallied to say: No to WTO! While some posters cautioned against the sale of India, others termed the WTO as the “World Terrorist Organisation;” they said this is the way the WTO is actually functioning.

The rally from the Mandi House in New Delhi to Parliament Street saw a range of red banners of the CPI(M), CPI and some CPI(ML) groups along with a variety of NGOs, under the banner of Indian People’s Campaign Against WTO (IPCAWTO). The marchers included former prime ministers  V P Singh, H D Deve Gowda and I K Gujral, CPI(M) Polit Bureau member Sitaram Yechury, CITU general  secretary Dr M K Pandhe, Atul Kumar Anjan (CPI), Surendra Mohan, Dr Vandana Shiva, and Raghuvansh Prasad Singh (RJD), besides a number of artists, writers and scientists.

At the rally, speaker after speaker castigated the WTO, World Bank and IMF, and also the government’s capitulation before them. Dr Pandhe said workers are rising as never before and getting set for protest actions all over the country. Speakers also indicated about plans for protest on October 2.

The speakers welcomed the government of India’s recent move to evolve a united stand of developing countries in cooperation with countries like China, Brazil, South Africa, Mexico, Argentina, Thailand and others in the run-up to the Cancun ministerial meeting of WTO.

It will be noted that, at a press conference a day earlier, CPI(M) general secretary Harkishan Singh  Surjeet, V P Singh, I K Gujral and others had announced the protest programme and demands. They said: “The experience of two years after Doha meeting only reinforces the conclusion that the developed countries are continuing to use WTO as a powerful instrument to pursue their interests at the expense of developing countries. This is happening because countries like ours have virtually abandoned their role to resist the process and mobilise the support of other developing countries to the common cause. We must recognise and promote the solidarity of the South in WTO.”

They had further said: “We are happy that, though belated, a move has been started in the right direction. We urge that this move to rebuild the solidarity of South should not be confined to the single issue of agriculture. It should be extended to all other important issues, in particular to mobilise resistance to negotiations on the so-called Singapore issues of investment, competition policy, government procurement and trade facilitation.

“On the question of agriculture, we reiterate the clear stand that we had initiated in our statement of August 7-8, 2003.

“An unprecedented agrarian distress is being experienced in the country. Anti-peasant, anti-people policies of government have engendered the crisis. Exposure of Indian agriculture to the notoriously volatile and highly distorted global agriculture market is aggravating the crisis. The WTO perspective on agriculture and the so called international discipline that is evolving there on agriculture, are totally detrimental to the interest of the vast majority of our people consisting of small and marginal peasants, the agricultural workers, the rural and urban poor. In the circumstance, we insist that the government recognise the crisis situation in agriculture, put an end to its anti-people policies and, in particular, firmly reclaim and assert our unqualified right to impose quantitative restrictions on imports to promote the development of our agriculture and to safeguard the livelihood of seventy percent of our population.”

The leaders at the press conference had also said that according to press reports the common proposal formulated by developing countries including ours lays stress on the elimination of export subsidies and trade distorting domestic support by developed countries, and pleads for better access to their markets. But it falls short of the insistence on our right and freedom to impose quantitative restrictions to safeguard the livelihood and food security of our people and promote rural development. The leaders urged the government to pursue this important issue in Geneva and Cancun negotiations.

The rallyists reiterated that since the issue now being brought up in WTO negotiations fall within the concurrent list of our constitution, there should be full consultation with the state governments; no substantive move should be made without such consultation.

Above all, this involves fundamental questions such as employment, food security, safeguarding of the livelihood of an overwhelming majority of our people, the provision of basic services and infrastructure, and the federal spirit of our polity. So such negotiations must not be carried on without taking the parliament into confidence and also without the explicit approval of state governments.

Speakers said the legal dispensation for MNCs as is enjoyed by indigenous firms, is on the cards. This requires the developing countries to amend their laws in conformity with the interests of the MNCs, the speakers cautioned.

Referring to the Singapore issues, Raghuvansh Prasad Singh, Surendra Mohan and Left parties’ leaders maintained that proceedings in the name of clarifications and discussions on these issues in Geneva had already set in motion the process of converting the “explicit consensus decision” into negotiations at the WTO’s fifth ministerial meeting at Cancun in Mexico. 

As for agriculture, they said the US and EU countries have increased the farm subsidies instead of reducing them after the Doha meet, while the removal of quantitative restrictions had thrown open the Indian farm sector to the cheaper imports from developed countries. Now the US and EU are pressing India to lower the tariffs, our only tool to prevent the resource starved millions of farmers from unfair competition.

NGO leaders like environmentalist Vandana Shiva and Dr Devinder Sharma opposed the commodification of education and health. They said the government is inclined to negotiate on these under General Agreement on Trade in Services (GATS) in return for some concessions in these fields in order to earn foreign exchange.

The former prime ministers and other leaders were critical of the manner in which the centre is negotiating at the WTO through a team of officials from the commerce ministry. It is not taking into confidence the union agriculture ministry as well as the states, even though these issues are state subjects. Why the states were not consulted, they asked.

They demanded that the government should not allow negotiations on these new issues at the WTO. Nor should it offer areas like water, energy, health and education in the ongoing negotiations on services, but retain the country’s sovereign rights on them. 

India should re-impose quantitative restrictions as the developed countries are neither reducing the farm subsidy nor removing trade distorting export subsidy on farm products.

The general consensus at the rally was that since several issues are related to the food security and livelihood of our people, the government should take explicit approval from the states as part of its ratification on any decision pertaining to WTO. It should also be debated and passed by parliament, and not done in a hush-hush manner. (INN)