By NNN-PTI,
New Delhi : The Left parties today accused the UPA government of working to demolish the economy’s strong fundamentals through acts like approving an insurance bill that seeks to raise foreign direct investment cap in the sector to 49 per cent from 26 per cent now.
“Ever since the Left parties withdrew support, the Congress-led UPA is moving more and more rightwards. Despite the global financial crisis and its impact on India, the Prime Minister and the Finance Minister are determined to implement right-wing neoliberal economic policies,” CPI National Secretary D Raja told PTI here.
He said the Prime Minister and the Finance Minister have claimed in Parliament that the impact of the global financial crisis had not impacted the Indian economy due to its strong fundamentals.
“The strong fundamentals are due to our public sector banks and insurance companies. But the Finance Minister is destroying and demolishing the strong fundamentals by opening up the insurance sector to FDI,” Raja said.
The CPI-M, the largest among the Left parties, said the increase in FDI cap would lead to the outflow of Indian people’s savings to lubricate speculative profits.
It maintained that the Left had not allowed the UPA to take this decision for the past four years.
Raja said it was the same Congress party which had “shamelessly collaborated” with the BJP during the NDA rule to get a bill, which raised the FDI cap to 26 per cent, passed.
The Union Cabinet last night approved the much-awaited legislation and said it would be tabled in the Parliament in December. However, the Bill is unlikely to be passed by this Parliament due to lack of time, Finance Minister P Chidambaram said.