Unity of traders, merchants, farmers, students - IndiaFDIWatch

[IFP.E...@googlemail.com]

Dear Dharmendra,
It was very good meeting you in Delhi and knowing your broad based
vision for India FDI Watch. - http://www.indiafdiwatch.org
I applaud you and all your colleagues for the wonderful work you are
engaged in, and the clarity of your political vision regarding the
fallouts of large scale investments in unregulated Indian food sector
where consumer and producer interests merge at many levels.
I would like to summarize our discussions :
India FDI Watch is a broad based coalition for an alliance of retail
traders / hawkers / kirana merchants / farmers / students that is
based on grassroot mobilization and broad based political support
without the exclusive hijacking by any particular group which we
foresee as likely to be among the groups of communities likely to be
comprehensively kicked in the stomach - in the next 5 years - by a
common grouping together of political forces that favour
1. Monopoly driven global / national capital globalization and
subsequent major investments in Indian food sector - wholesale, retail
as well as food processing in the form of agribusiness initiatives of
capital houses based in India and abroad. These will be clubbed as "
value adding investments in Indian rural and food economy" by those
favouring such agribusiness interests.
2. A consolidation of food chain in the 1.2 billion Indian food
market - "a so-called conglomeration of economic interests with
strategic ideology of - from farm to fork retail strategy", supposedly
meant to cut out the middle players from the food chain and deliver
packaged farm produce to an increasingly surplus assured urban
population of Incredible India.
3. Dismantling of Indian food security policies and direct farmer food
procurement interventions by government - that were set in place by
the Congress government of Mrs Indira Gandhi in response to the pre
Green Revolution ship to mouth food economy and situation of this
democratic country.
4. Dismantling of the entire Green Revolution infrastructure and risk
cushioning that was provided to Indian farmers under Congress regime
by a new liberal regime that is bent on accelerating inroads into
rural hinterland of monopoly capital from global and national sources.
5. Absence of regulatory environment for finance players in food
sector, capping investments in food sector and the exit policy of
Indian central and state governments from agriculture, which makes
small players at all levels of food chain value addition - vulnerable
against the big players who have been making massive investments in
back end systems for food wholesale and retail in last few years. 6.
This is complemented by the deliberate refusal / go-slow of key
players in coalition government to frame the terms of reference for a
regulatory framework and watchdogs for retail players in the Indian
food sector or otherwise engage in open discussion on the political
implications of large scale unregulated investments in Indian food
sector designed to promote monopolies by the first movers.
Regards,
Nagarjuna
Editor - Indian Food Policy - www.foodpolicy.in
World Food Policy - www.worldfoodpolicy.org