Left slams bid to blame Food Bill for rupee, market crash

NEW DELHI: Left Parties have alleged that some corporate houses were trying to wrongly blame the Food Security Bill for the depreciation of rupee and crash in the stock market. India's problems lies in ending subsidies for the rich and using these resources to build infrastructure for job creation, they added.

“This would generate a sharp increase in jobs, The consequent expenditures by the people would enlarge aggregate domestic demand, providing the impetus for growth of manufacturing and industry, said the editorial in People's Democracy, CPM’s mouthpiece.

On the crash of rupee and market, it said, “the anticipation of a higher fiscal deficit, we are told, has frightened international financial investors (FIIs) who are exiting Indian markets leading to the rupee's fall-...Currencies of other developing countries too had taken a hit, with the South African rand falling by nearly 23% – more than India's.

Surely, this cannot be attributed to India's Food Security Bill!” It said the rich and India Inc were refraining from investing in production as their output can't be sold abroad due to the global economic crisis or in the Indian market due to falling purchasing power.

“Under these circumstances, the rich need avenues to park their surpluses. They are doing this by purchasing gold, real estate and forex.” CPI general secretary Sudhakar Reddy said, “Corporate houses want to believe that the Food Security Bill has a bearing on the downfall of the rupee. The downfall of rupee has been taking place over three months. Feeding the poor is the responsibility of the nation and it is a patriotic act. And the nation means the people, not corporates.”