Don't succumb to Donald Trump's agenda: CPM to Govt

On a day Donald Trump landed in India, the CPI(M) on Monday urged the Narendra Modi government not to "succumb to the unilateral agenda" of the US President, saying his "singular intention" is to "further prise open" Indian economy to boost the American corporate interest and thus help his re-election bid.

Urging the Modi government to "heed the voice of the people" and "resist US pressures", the CPI(M) Polit Bureau said Trump was targeting India's agriculture, health and other sectors.

"The Polit Bureau calls upon the BJP government to resist such US pressures which undermine India’s economy and security concerns. India, under this BJP government, is being reduced to the status of a subordinate ally of US imperialism which is against the interests of India and its independent stature in the world. The Polit Bureau of the CPI(M) hails the protest this visit of US President Trump. The BJP government must heed this voice of the people and not succumb to US pressures," it said.

It also said unilateral reclassification of India, as a developed country, will result in the withdrawal of provisions for the special and differential treatment necessary for flexible commitments and longer implementation periods.

"The pressure exerted by several military and security agreements and the insistence to implement them to secure US strategic interests and promote its weapon sales are detrimental to India’s sovereign interests and security concerns," the CPI(M) warned.

It said the US agenda will "most adversely affect the interests" of Indian farmers and in particular the dairy and poultry sectors.

While the US allows its agribusiness to "distort prices to out-compete local farmers" in the developing countries with a subsidy of a whopping USD 867 billion, a statement said, 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.

In the health sector, the CPI(M) warned that the US now demands that India, which is a critical producer of affordable generic medicines, must remove the compulsory licensing for the benefit of mega US pharmaceutical corporations.

The party also wanted the government to be aware of the US corporates' "equally invasive" agenda on e-commerce, as it is trying to "cajole" India to sign the digital trade regime at WTO that would allow US companies to increase their control over the economy and the political process and facilitate free cross border data flows without compensation.

Keeping Trump's rejection of climate change, the CPI(M) said the government has to resist this climate unilateralism and build resistance to force the US to accept its responsibility as the biggest historical emitter of Green House gases.

"With India suffering major pollution and climate change-related challenges, the US has unilaterally backed out of the Paris agreement on United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change and refusing to compensate and finance the climate change mitigation fund," it reminded.