CS Nov 2021 | Page 5

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Our Rulers and Ruling Classes are Compromising the

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Sovereignty of our Country before the Might of FDI

It was 50 years back that Com . T . Nagi Reddy through his famous court statement titled ‘ India Mortgaged ’ had warned about the impending evils of the foreign private capital ( FDI ) entering in to our country . He clearly and categorically explained that FDI is one of the major means of imperialist penetration . He proved that FDI is a continuous dream making the country eternally dependent . He has given examples of different forms of exploitation of FDI through various methods . He warned that as a ‘ sovereign ’ country we will not have control over foreign companies . He concluded that from all accounts , the Indian people are effectively being made in to drawers of water and hewers of wood in the interest of foreign companies .

But neither the rulers nor the ruling classes of our country have taken heed of these warnings . On the contrary the FDI has become the watch-word and talisman of our rulers and ruling classes . FDI is projected by them as the panacea for the economic development of our country which is suffering from the worst economic and social crises . From the leaders of the central government to the leaders of the state governments are wooing and inviting FDI , by offering abnormal tax concessions , regulatory reliefs and financial incentives .

This condition of dependency on FDI , for the development of our economy is creating shameful and insulting situation to the people of India in many forms with regards to the respect and honour of the sovereignty of our country declared by the constitution , which they cherish highly .

Our rulers and the ruling classes which are sub-servient to the imperialist transnational finance capital are stubbornly refusing to learn lessons from their humiliating experiences at the cost of the honour of the sovereignty of our country . They November - 2021 are shamelessly compromising the sovereignty of our country , before the insults hurled at us by the FDI .

The following are some instances how the FDI has undermined and disregarded the sovereignty of our country and how our rulers and ruling classes have bowed down before the might of foreign finance capital .

The Union Carbide Company of USA has created a worst ever industrial disaster killing thousands of people , disarming tens of thousands of people for generations and toxically polluted the ground water , lands and environments around Bhopal . But our rulers , its highly lauded Supreme Court and the government were unable to conduct even a trial against its CEO , Warren Anderson of UCC , or punish the company in accordance with our criminal law , unable to obtain just compensation from UCC and even unable to the UCC or its successor company , the Dow company to clean and remove toxic waste from the Bhopal UCC premises , and the toxically polluted environment in and around Bhopal and its surroundings .

Our rulers talk much about ‘ fighting against terrorism ’. However this posture of the rulers is nothing but deception . It is a well known fact that David Coleman Headley was the master-mind behind the ‘ terrorist attacks ’ on Bombay Taj and Trident hotels . Now he is in USA . Till date our rulers are unable to obtain extradition of Headley from USA , and conduct criminal trials for his culpability in our Indian courts and punish him according to law .

In 2012 , the mariners of the Egyptian ship Enrica Lexie , have deliberately killed fishermen of Kerala in the Indian sea waters of Kerala Coast by indiscriminately firing on them . Initially these mariners were arrested ; the Kerala Courts were conducting criminal trials against them . But the government and the Supreme Court intervened , and released the Egyptian killer mariners and sent them back to Egypt on the rule that they will join their family member for “ Christmas celebration ”! But they have not returned to face the trial . But the Supreme Court happily agreed to close the trial if the Italy paid a compensation of Rs . 10 crores to the family members of the killed fishermen as has been offered . The criminality of killing Indian citizens is let off .

Nokia cell phone manufacturing company at Sriperambudur of Tamil Nadu had evaded paying taxes to the government . When it was demanded to pay the evaded taxes it has closed its manufacturing unit in Tamil Nadu , throwing thousands of its workers jobless on the roads . But the ‘ sovereign ’ government could do nothing about it ; on the contrary it has allowed Nokia to conduct its business in India with impunity , with royal treatment .

The Vodafone has evaded paying capital gain tax to a tune of Rs . 2200 crores in 2007 . It refused to pay tax and went to courts . Finally it obtained a verdict from international arbitration court at Hague , in its favour .

The British firm Cairn Energy PLC had to pay tax on its gains when transferred the company to Vedanta in 2011 . But it had not paid the taxes . The income tax authorities claimed and demanded the payment of due taxes . The company appealed against the demand before income tax tribunal . The tribunal upheld the tax demand . Even then it refused to pay the tax . The government has confiscated its assets in the form of shares and dividends and holds them to Rs . 1,140 crores and kept with tax department . Cairn India approached the international arbitration tribunal at Hague and got an award that , it need not pay taxes as demanded , and India has to pay Cairn $ 1.2 billion in damages along with interest and legal costs . contd . in page 04 5