Independent Media Center
http://india.indymedia.org:8081Opposition Cautions Govt. on WTO Tuesday 06 Nov 2001
author: from NDTVhttp://india.indymedia.org/front.php3?article_id=243&group=webcast
Here is an article that appeared on Tuesday, 6th Nov, at ndtv.com
Tuesday, November 6, 2001 (New Delhi):
Just two days to go for the WTO's Doha round of trade negotiations and in India protests have already begun. Former prime ministers V P Singh and Dev Gowda along with leaders of other organisation parties like Mulayam Singh Yadav held a rally in the capital opposing India's participation at the WTO meeting in Doha later this week.
They warned the government against surrendering India's economic sovereignty to western powers. Addressing a largely-attended rally near Pragati Maidan, former Prime Ministers V P Singh and H D Deve Gowda charged the government with having already decided to agree to a launch of new round of negotiations at Qatar.
This is contrary to its stated position that the BJP-led NDA government stood for implementation of the decisions of the Uruguay Round of before launching a new round.
Thousands of peasants, landless labourers, youth, women and activists of trade unions and mass movements converged near Pragati Maidan to mount a coordinated challenge to the onslaught of the process of “globalisation, marketization and recolonisation ” spearheaded by the WTO.
The farmer organisations say India should boycott the meeting altogether especially since developed countries have failed to fulfill their promises of reducing subsidies to their farmers.
Once again V P Singh has given a battle call against the government, this time the enemy is WTO, along with the BJP government. Amidst all the rhetoric only one specific demand has been made that before going to Doha, developed nations should be made to fulfill earlier promises.
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