Ravi Rai goes hammer and tongs against liberalisation

Patna, July 2 (UNI) Former Lok Sabha Speaker Rabi Rai today exhorted legislators to develop a 'sense of understanding' for identifying dangers of liberalisation and build a mass opinion against the present economic policies.

Inaugurating the concluding day function of two-day seminar on ''Role of Peoples Representatives in the poverty eradication and development of agriculture'' organised by Bihar branch of the Commonwealth Parliamentay Association here, Mr Rai said that the UPA government was implementing policy of liberalisation with all the thrust, unmindful of the fact that it was harming the interest of the country.

''I invite only one argument which could justify the liberalisation'', the former speaker said.

He said that farmers had committed suicides in the Vidarbha region of Maharashtra which embarked on the policy of liberalisation vigorously.

''Do you think that Bihar and Orissa would remain untouched by this?'' Mr Rai asked the legislators.

Noting that Bihar was number one in term of its participation in the freedom struggle and launching mass movements, Mr Rai said the peoples represensatives should take poverty as a challenge and ponder over why India was one of the poorest countries even after 50 years of Independence.

Returning to his attack on the present dispensation at the Centre, the former speaker deplored the fact that Prime Minister Manmohan Singh expressed his gratitude to the Britishers during his visit to Oxford University. It was simply a manifestation of the 'slave mentality', he added.

Mr Rai said the peoples representatives should be 'driven' by the principle of ''Marenge Nahi Par Manenge Bhi Nahi'' (I will not hurt but I will also not concede). He said that the famine-like situation always continued to prevail in one part of the country or another.

''What was the need for the latest hike in prices of petroleum?'', he asked advocating for launching peoples movement in a new way.

UNI DH SP DB1522