The Polit Bureau of the CPI(M) strongly condemns the announcement by the Prime Minister easing the regulations for Foreign Direct Investments in our country.  15 areas, including single brand retail, banking, construction, media, airlines, defence, banking, plantations etc., are to be opened up for approval under the automatic route.  32 new investment points will now allow FDI automatically.  The cap for approval of foreign investments has been raised to Rs. 5,000 crore from the existing Rs. 3,000 crores. The increase in the FDI to 49 per cent for news channels and radio is particularly harmful as it will facilitate near complete control of the news media by foreign media monopolies.

All these decisions have been taken on the eve of the winter session of the Parliament.  Worse they have been taken even without the Cabinet approval.  This is a complete travesty of our system of parliamentary democracy.  The Polit Bureau of the CPI(M) condemns such unilateral decisions by the PM.

Clearly, these announcements have come on the eve of Prime Minister Modi’s yet another programme of foreign tours to London, G-20, Malaysia and Singapore.  PM Modi made these announcements with an aim to appease foreign capital.  Thus both India’s markets and resources are being opened up further for the maximization of profits for foreign capital.

This license to loot comes at a time when the majority of the Indian people continue to groan under newer economic burdens. Price rise of essential commodities continues unabated. The agrarian distress is deepening.  The increases in the minimum support prices are so meagre that they do not even cover the production costs.  This is accelerating the distress suicides of our farmers.

The Polit Bureau of the CPI(M) calls upon PM Modi and his government to focus attention on providing relief to the vast majority of our Indian people as promised during the 2014 election campaign.