CPI pats Govt on WTO, Karat continues anti-UPA tirade

Bardhan said he was ‘glad’ that India did not fall to this pressure. “This (US pressure) shows the dangers faced by the agriculture sector”, he added.

“We should be vigilant and stand together along with China, Brazil and other developing nations to resist these pressures”, he said.

The WTO talks at Geneva last week collapsed on the issue of giving safeguards to farmers in developing countries against surge in imports from developed countries. While India and China insisted on sufficient protection for their vulnerable farmers, the US was not ready for a deal.

Bardhan, however, hit out at the UPA government’s move to implement measurers like dilution of equity in banks, allowing foreign capital in banking sector and virtually privatising the insurance sector by handing over pension funds to the corporate houses like Reliance.

“Man-eaters of corporate houses have been let loose by the government”, he charged.

On the cut in quantum of rice supplied for the above poverty line (APL) category people in Kerala, he said this issue would be taken up with Union Agricultural Minister Sharad Pawar and ‘we will lead a delegation from Kerala to meet him’.

The Left parties will support the August 20 trade union strike call, he said.

However, CPM general secretary Prakash Karat emphatically said that his party will have no alliance with the Congress party in future.