Citizens’ Research Collective on SEZ

Panaji, January 13, 2008: The general secretary of the Communist Party of India, Mr A B Bardhan is not in favour of people opposing the industries in the state as he feels that the teachers, engineers, skilled and unskilled labourers require industry for survival but he extended support to the demand for de-notification of Special Economic Zones in Goa.

He said the ghost of SEZ is still haunting Goa and also questioned as to how much land is required to set up an industry? He alleged that big industries want to grab the land. He said this is a conspiracy to acquire land. He asked Goans not to celebrate the government stand on SEZs as their victory. Instead, he advised them to keep fighting till all the three notified SEZs are also shown the door. He assured that the CPI would continue to fight against SEZs. He said this government has become a ‘tamasha’ and politicians jump from one party to another. They do not have a specific reply when asked to which party they belong, he said.

Referring to the Indo-US nuclear deal, he said that it is unnecessary for India to go in for signing nuclear deal with the United States to enhance its nuclear energy production from the existing 3 per cent to 7 per cent in the next 10 years. Speaking on the occasion of XIV Goa CPI conference at Porvorim, this morning, Mr Bardhan said that the Left was also against certain specific clauses in the IAEA safeguards that were tantamount to surrendering the sovereignty and dignity of India to the United States.

“Left parties are not against India having nuclear energy for civilian use but against spending crores of rupees in the name of the nuclear deal with US for importing reactors and uranium only to enhance mere 4 to 5 per cent of its production capabilities,” the CPI leader said. Instead, India should invest in exploiting the abundantly available

alternative energy resources like wind, coal, waves and solar to enhance its energy generation capacities to meet the growing demands besides enhancing its own indigenous nuclear programmes. “At any cost, we should not surrender our sovereignty, which we attained by long fight against foreign forces,” Mr Bardhan added.

He said that the CPI is against mid-term polls to Lok Sabha and added that Left parties are not trying to topple the United Progressive Alliance government at the Centre on the issue of Indo-US nuclear deal issue. The veteran CPI leader said that the early polls to Lok Sabha are not in the interest of the nation. Let the elections take place whenever they are due in April/May next year. There is no need to impose elections right now on the nation and Left is against it,” Mr Bardhan said.

Mr Bardhan called upon all Left, democratic and secular forces to unite and oust the “communal forces,” which were trying to grab power in the states. “The socialist and democratic forces should unite to defeat the designs of the Bharatiya Janata Party, which wants to capture power in other states following its success in Gujarat and Himachal Pradesh,” he said. The electoral reverses that the Congress has suffered in the

recent elections does not mean that it is a “BJP wave,” that is enveloping the states. The country can progress under the leadership of secular forces, but not under the leadership of sectarian forces, he said.

He appealed to the Goans and particularly the CPI party workers to work and fight towards bringing socialist ideology in the state and added that capitalists have not solved the nation’s problems for years together. He advised the government to offer a platform to the Goan ladies to succeed.

Source: The Navhind Times