FDI in Retail

Polit Bureau Communique

The Polit Bureau decided that the Party would organize all India jathas to project a national alternative. The Left platform on food, land and house sites, employment, education, health and the fight against corruption will be propagated. Jathas led by all-India leaders will cover the whole country in March 2013 and they will culminate in a mass rally at Delhi. The details of these jathas will be finalized at the Central Committee meeting to be held in Kolkata in January 2013.

Resolutely Oppose Notification on FDI in Retail

That the government is bent upon promoting FDI in retail at the cost of domestic interests is clear from the dilution of the conditions set for FDI in single-brand retail. Earlier, the rule was that for FDI above 51 per cent in single brand retail, there was a mandatory sourcing of at least 30 per cent of the value of products sold from Indian “small industries/village and cottage industries”. Now this has been diluted. It is stated that instead of mandatory sourcing it is “preferably” from small and medium enterprises etc. Further, the definition of small industries has also been done away with.

Massive Response to Protest Day

The widespread support for the hartal manifested the anger of the people against the anti-people measures taken by the UPA government. The Polit Bureau of the CPI(M) demands of the Manmohan Singh government that it cancel the FDI in retail, the disinvestment of public sector shares, rollback the price hike of diesel and restriction on gas cylinders. The struggle against these anti-people measures should be intensified in the coming days. 

Obama's Remarks Objectionable

The Polit Bureau of the CPI(M) objects to the remarks made by President Obama that India open the doors to Wal-Mart for retail trade and other American investments in India. The statement by Obama is a brazen attempt to pressurize the UPA government to adopt such steps as opening multibrand retail to FDI.

C.C. Communique

The Political Resolution has called for fighting the neo-liberal policies of the UPA government and mobilizing various sections of the working people who are affected by these policies adversely. This is a central task. The Resolution calls for continuing the struggle to isolate the communal forces and to thwart the designs of the Hindutva brigade. The Party will work to defeat the Congress and the BJP.

Unitedly Resist FDI In Retail

The MNC retailers and foreign governments have been pressurizing the Centre for opening up this sector since long. It was the opposition from the Left Parties, which had prevented the UPA-I government from taking this move. The UPA-II government has now fully succumbed to those pressures from vested interests.