Q: How do you read the present political scenario in the country? Congress is taking credit for the Food security Bill. Do you think it's going to help them in upcoming general elections?
Brinda karat: I leave that for you to decide. But the point that I would like to make is that the tragedy of Indian politics today is that on substantive issues the main opposition party the BJP is completely on the same page as the UPA. Look at the speeches of PM and Arun Jaitely in the parliament when they were discussing the economy. What was it? It was “ tu-tu, main-main”. But what was it about economics? They were both saying the same language from reforms, foreign capital, opening up FDI to getting more investment.
In fact, Arun jaitley went even further than Congress in saying that if you help poor, it's populism. So they are both corporate parties. Their faces may be different, their party banner may be different, but essentially what is the difference in programme between Congress and BJP.
And I think that is the most critical thing in the current situation today as far as the economy is concerned that both sides of the so called political divide is actually not a divide at all on fundamentals.
And the fundamental approach that both of them take is that it is videshi punji (foreign capital) which is going to save India and I think that is absolutely a tragedy for Indian politics and that's why the importance of an alternative platform for advance is very critical.
Q: What is your take on Rupee touching a historic low against US Dollar ?
Brinda karat: It's a structural issue. Look, you follow policies which are not based on fundamentals of Indian economy but on attracting foreign capital. Your entire political and economic framework today is geared not on strengthening domestic fundamentals. You want to open up all the sectors on which the Indian economy rests.
Today you want to open up the entire public sector which is the one area which is saving your economy by saving it from volatility of global markets. You want to sell it off. You want to sell it off at low prices to foreign capital. You are inviting them by saying that we'll further reduce the price. This entire approach to appease corporate and foreign capital as the basis for driving the economy of India is fundamentally flawed. It is only if you have the government taking responsibility for injecting new money into agriculture, infrastructure, and creation of jobs which is going to expand the Indian market and strengthen the manufacturing sector.
What is this entire whole gold crisis? Last year in the budget, you removed gold import duty and you told people to buy as much as they can. People bought as much they could. You have allowed, in a sense, to take up so much of your foreign exchange.
