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CPI(M) for consensus on SEZs

C. Gouridasan Nair

Polit Bureau refers SEZ issue back to State unit

Prakash Karat announced the Polit Bureau decision in New Delhi.

THIRUVANANTHAPURAM: The Polit Bureau of the Communist Party of India (Marxist) has referred the Special Economic Zone (SEZ) issue back to the party’s State leadership and the Left Democratic Front (LDF) with the suggestion that a consensus be evolved within the ruling alliance at the State level.

Although the details of the Polit Bureau decision, announced by party general secretary Prakash Karat, are yet to be known, it implies that the matter will have to be discussed within the party at the State level once again and more importantly, within the LDF State committee.

A collective decision will have to be arrived at on questions such as whether the SEZs should be multi-product or product-specific, whether the government should have at least a marginal equity holding in the zones and, if so, to what level, and on the steps to be taken to ensure that they do not become enclaves free from labour laws. The CPI(M) State unit is united in its view that the State must have SEZs, but there is no consensus on their inevitability for industrial development. Chief Minister V.S. Achuthanandan has his own views on many questions relating to SEZs.

The CPI is inclined to the position that SEZs should not be seen as inevitable, but the party is yet to discuss the issue at the level of its State executive committee.

Going by what CPI insiders say, though the party has so far come out only on issues relating to labour rights within SEZs, it is likely to take a stand on the size of SEZs and their product character. In the absence of a clear stand on the issue, CPI representatives had blocked discussion on the subject in the Cabinet three times.

The CPI State executive is slated to meet here on September 18 to take up the report of a three-member committee on the subject with the objective of arriving at a considered position on the SEZ question.

Although the RSP had initially taken a stand critical of the SEZ proposal, it later diluted its position and said it would endorse the proposals. That leaves just the CPI(M) and the CPI as the two parties which would have to do the homework on the subject before the LDF State committee meets here on September 29.

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