Make In India' is Modi's offer for foreign companies to loot India: Yechury

Mangaluru, Nov 16: The neo-liberal economic policies of the BJP-led union government will allow the country's resources to be sold to foreign companies and allow the Indian market to open for imported subsidised agricultural and dairy products, which could spell doom for the farmers and widen the gap between the rich and the poor, said Rajya Sabha MP and CPI(M) politburo member Sitaram Yechury.

Delivering the inaugural address at the fourth conference of Bank Employees Federation of India (BEFI) – Karnataka at CBOO Centre, Kodialbail here on Saturday, he said that the union government wanted to implement liberal economic policies in the name of next-generation fiscal reforms, which would be against the employees of the public sector.

“The Make In India' policy being promoted by Prime Minister Narendra Modi, as opposed to Made In India' announced by him in his first Independence Day speech as the PM, is an open invitation for foreign companies to use our minerals, resources and cheap labour to maximise their profits. Although appears subtle, there is a difference between the two. Make In India' is merely a way of profit maximisation for foreign companies, he said.

He stressed the requirement for banking reforms to oppose the waiver of loans of corporate giants by the government.

Claiming that the current economic policies of the present government were no different from the ones proposed by the former government, the CPI(M) leader promised the bank employees to raise the issue of their wage settlements in the next session of the Parliament.

Mr Yechury accused the government of using communalism to divide the people along communal lines to further divide the rich and poor India. The use of hatred to divide the communities along with communal polarisation is designed to destroy the secular democratic character of India by posing a serious threat to the social unity of the country, he said, adding that it cannot be allowed succeed.

General secretary of Insurance Corporation Employees' Union (ICEU), Bangalore S K Geetha, CPI(M) state leader Vasant Achari, DYFI leader Muneer Katipalla, Sunil Kumar Bajal and others were present. BEFI state president K Srinivas Babu presided over the programme.

Prior to the conference, a procession was undertaken by BEFI members from Canara Bank, Balmatta Road to the venue of the conference.