Heed the voice of people and resist US pressures: CPI (M)

Kolkata: The Polit Bureau of the CPI(M) calls upon the Modi government not to succumb to the unilateral agenda of US President, Donald Trump on his visit to India. The singular intention of the US administration is to further prise open Indian economy to boost the US corporate interest and thus help the reelection bid of Trump.

The US agenda will most adversely affect the interests of the Indian farmers, our agriculture and in particular the dairy and poultry sectors. USA allows its agribusiness to distort prices to outcompete local farmers in the developing countries with a subsidy of a whopping $ 867 billion.

Trump wants India to now remove the tariff barrier which serves as a policy tool to protect the Indian farmers, food procurement for people's food security and minimum support price to our farmers. This will destroy Indian agriculture and the livelihood of crores of our people.

Trump is also targeting India's health care sector which, at present, is a critical producer of affordable generic medicines. USA now demands that India must remove the compulsory licensing for the benefit of mega US pharmaceutical corporations.

The US corporate agenda on e-commerce is equally invasive which is trying to cajole India to sign the digital trade regime at WTO which would allow US big-tech to increase their control over the economy and the political process and facilitate free cross border data flows without compensation.

At the same time, the Indian government must insist on US restrictive policy on HIB visas which is adversely affecting Indian IT industry.