People's Democracy

 ….And The PM Remained Silent

ON Thursday, September 4, the prime minister, Atal Behari Vajpayee, waxed eloquent about the distortions in international trade following the Doha round of WTO negotiations and about the sufferings these distortions have caused to the developing countries and their people. In contrast, however, he had maintained virtually absolute silence when the three former prime ministers met him on August 26 and urged him to ensure that his government took a firm position at the Cancun ministerial level meeting of the WTO. It was then apparent that he was not in a mood to give any firm commitment to his predecessors.

The three former prime ministers had met the prime minister following the August 26 anti-WTO rally at Delhi, along with other leaders of the rally. The rally, as reported in these columns earlier, had announced that the people would fight any repetition of the Doha experience which went contrary to the assurances given by the government at that time. It further announced that the organisers and participants of the rally were ready for an agitation on the issue.

When the representatives of the anti-WTO committee met the prime minister, they explained in detail the opinion of the rallyists. The prime minister reportedly said little but referred the issues to commerce minister Arun Jaitley who was present there.

Former prime minister V P Singh, who led the delegation, pointed out how WTO conditionalities have damaged our agriculture and how market economy is helping only to benefit the multinationals. He noted that the peasantry would be ruined the proposals before the Cancun WTO meeting were accepted. He asserted that unless the government of India re-imposed the quantitative restrictions it had removed earlier, Indian agriculture and industry would not get required protection.

H D Deve Gowda criticised the policy of the NDA government that is making our country servile to foreign powers. He demanded strengthening of the alliance with China, Brazil and other countries to resist the attempts of advanced countries.

Joining his two colleagues, I K Gujral noted that the promises given by the NDA government prior to the Doha meeting were not kept by it. This should not be repeated this time.

S P Shukla, convenor of the committee, said the WTO policies are adversely affecting common people’s livelihood. Even water is likely to be owned by multinationals. The investment proposals would hit hard the sovereignty of the country.

Environmentalist Vandana Shiva pointed out how advanced countries are, by excessive subsidies, declaring a price war against the farmers in developing countries while asking the latter to cut down subsidies. The government of India should not succumb to the pressure, she demanded.

CITU general secretary M K Pandhe noted that the NDA government has not made any review of the impact of WTO policies on the Indian economy and people. There is need to take corrective measures to overcome the damage caused by the acceptance of WTO conditionalities. After acceptance of globalisation, the government of India is vacillating about firmly opposing the Cancun proposals. No serious attempt has been made to evolve a national consensus on the WTO-related issues.

Atul Kumar Anjan of the CPI noted the sufferings of the peasantry in India due to the depredations by Monsanto that has sold seeds in India worth crores of rupees. He urged for a meeting of state agriculture ministers for consultation on the WTO-related issues.

The prime minister did not give any reply himself. Instead, he asked Arun Jaitley to react to the issues. Jaitley admitted “that the proposals before Cancun are detrimental to the interests of the developing countries and government of India in cooperation with other developing countries would oppose those proposals.”

The members of the delegation observed that Doha experience should not be repeated this time. They also noted the committee’s plan to organise a countrywide movement on the issues under consideration.

The PM gave the delegation a patient hearing while Jaitley did the talking. (INN)