The Hindu : Front Page : Take firm stand against funding agencies, Medha tells Left parties

Online edition of India's National Newspaper
Monday, Jan 30, 2006

Front Page

Front Page

Take firm stand against funding agencies, Medha tells Left parties

Staff Reporter

IN SERIOUS DISCUSSION: Environmental activist Medha Patkar and Isabin Abdul Karim, State coordinator of the National Alliance of People's Movements, at a convention in Kottayam on Sunday.

KOTTAYAM: Environmental activist Medha Patkar has asked Left parties to take a firm position against the machinations of the World Trade Organisation (WTO), International Monitory Fund (IMF), World Bank and Asian Development Bank (ADB) whose funding programmes ``are aimed at changing our priorities and culture.''

Addressing a public meeting here on Sunday, Ms. Patkar stressed the need to turn to `desi' alternatives wherever possible and pointed out that political and administrative establishments were part and parcel of the globalisation drive. "We may not be able to change it overnight, but it is time to take a stand in favour of `desi' alternatives in our country," she said and added that the Left parties should take the lead in this.

The Left, she said, had made its position clear on issues like the privatisation of BHEL and modernisation of airports with private participation. "Now they should take a position on the issue of ADB funding for municipalities and other issues," she said. She called upon the people to support those segments within the Left that were against the globalisation process.

Ms. Patkar said local struggles against exploitation could no longer be seen as micro-level agitations. "They are part of the larger struggle against encroachment on the sovereignty of the nation and the freedom to take decision on our own terms," she said. She urged people not to give in to the propaganda that `there is no alternative' to the prescriptions of the WTO, World Bank, IMF, ADB and other multilateral and bilateral lending agencies. Foreign investment is no more of the kind that the nation had received in the early years after independence when foreign funding was used to enhance India's mixed economy. Today, the funding agencies are here with their own agenda of privatisation and maximisation of profit.

By pumping money into India in the name of Urban Renewal Mission or River Linking Projects, they are trying to privatise land and water.

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