Indore, Sep 16: Criticising the Congress-led UPA government for allowing Foreign Direct Investment in the retail sector, Communist Party of India (CPI) today alleged that the decision was taken under pressure from the US government and the multinational companies.
“The permission for FDI in retail was given under pressure from Obama and the MNCs as they have influenced the Prime Minister Manmohan Singh and his Cabinet,” CPI National Secretary S Sudhakar Reddy told reporters at the Indore Press Club.
It appears that Prime Minister Manmohan Singh is not answerable to the people of India but to the US, World Bank and International Monetary Fund, he said adding the decision has threatened employment of nearly two crore people.
The CPI leader also criticised the Centre for raising prices of diesel and limiting the quota of subsidised LPG cylinders and warned that “Congress-led UPA government will have to pay the price for these anti-people measures”.
About threat given by Trinamool Congress Chief Mamata Banerjee to the UPA over the issue, he said that earlier also she had issued such warnings and remarked that “there is match-fixing between Mamata and UPA”.
The CPI leader said that his party will take part in the bandh on September 20 to protest the recent measures announced by the government.
Referring to talks of forming the ‘Third Front', he said that the Left parties were not immediately ready for it and added that Samajwadi Party Chief Mulayam Singh Yadav had already stated that it would come into existence after the 2014 general elections.