THIRUVANANTHAPURAM: Coming down heavily on the NDA Government for allowing FDI in defence, aviation, retail sector and pharmaceutical industries, former CPM general secretary Prakash Karat said that opening the door to FDI in major sectors was not in the interest of the country and was harmful to the people.
''Modi government has announced FDI in major sectors, which is not going to benefit the country,'' said Karat, who was here to attend the state committee meet.
On 100 percent FDI in defence, he criticised it as a flawed idea. ''When introducing 100 per cent FDI in defence, Modi government claims to reduce the country's reliance on defence imports and enhance the country's capacity to produce defence equipment locally. But one thing is that none of the big foreign manufacturers would like to impart their technology to India,'' he said. Unless they are wiling to part with the technology, the country will not get advanced high technology defence equipment. ''We should develop our own indigenous defence capability,'' Karat said.
With respect to to FDI in retailing of food products, he said that it would affect the traders in the country. ''Walmart and Amazon have already shown interest in starting thier business in the country,'' he said. The BJP had opposed FDI in retail sector during the Congress government, he added.
In the pharmaceutical sector, Karat said that it was going to be a disaster with the multinationals going to impose their patented drugs on the people. He also stated taht the drug prices would increase at an alarming rate because of opening FDI in the drug sector.