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Why Manmohan Singh is so Adamant on FDI?
By siliconindia
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Thursday, 01 December 2011, 01:13 IST |
34 Comments
More than once Manmohan Singh has faced charges that he promotes American corporations and has great pleasure in promoting American interests in India. Back in 2008, Prime Minister Manmohan Singh had, without consulting the Indian Parliament or the public, promised the U.S. administration to purchase 10,000 MWe worth of LWRs from that country. Singh had also promised French President Nicholas Sarkozy to purchase French reactors, in return for his help to circumvent the Nuclear Suppliers Group's conditions. Without a liability law that lets the reactor manufacturers off the hook in case of a nuclear accident, these companies would not dare to do business with India.
Former chairman of the Atomic Energy Regulatory Board, A. Gopalakrishnan, said "We have two generations of top-class nuclear scientists and engineers who have been painstakingly trained; we have the technological and industrial capability; and we have abundant raw materials," he said. "All these will go to waste if we predominantly start relying on the import of the highly expensive U.S. and French reactors."
The PM and his government had repeatedly proved that national interests are of least concern to them. The low compensation agreed against the Bhopal tragedy with U.S. based Union Carbide by Rajiv Gandhi in the past. "To say we have anyway compromised India's national interest will be a travesty of facts," Singh said apparently addressing the Left parties which have alleged that the bill had been drafted to suit American companies.
He said he had gone through the files of the Atomic Energy Commission and found that lots of scientists had concluded that India needed nuclear energy. "We were not in power then. But we (UPA government) signed the Memorandum of Understanding (later). This will not in any way compromise India's interest," he added.
Raising their vote against FDI in retail of India is one of the world's biggest trade unions. The Switzerland-based UNI Global Union has called the Indian government's decision to allow foreign retail majors into the country a "sell out". The Union, which has around 20 million (2 crore) members, said it is "appalled" by the decision, particularly the lack of regulatory oversight, and will stand with the trade unions of India in their fight against the move.
UNI pointed out that Walmart has taken what it called an "extreme position" against allowing unions. "..in its home country.. not a single worker is represented by a union among its 1.6 million employees..," it said, "Walmart and many other global retailers have a poor track record in labour relations and protecting workers. India be warned!"
"The requirement that the multinationals would have to source 30 percent of sales from local small and medium sized companies is not enough and not backed up by independent monitoring of investment and procurement. The government has rejected independent monitoring in favour of self-certification which UNI says is a system open to abuse," it said.
UNI and its affiliates from around the world will continue to support opposition to the decision in India which has given a green light to the multinationals without proper consideration, it added.
A number of occasions, the Congress government is been under the scanner for foreign deals. What makes them so favorable? From Rajiv Gandhi to Manmohan Singh the legacy still continues with foreign corporations paving their into India through the Indian government. However, some of these deals have proven fruitful as the Indo-U.S. relationship has grown positively. But questions still lingers, why the Congress government so favorable to foreigners?
