India should not imitate any country for SEZ : Govindacharya

New Delhi, July 11 (UNI) Former BJP leader K N Govindacharya today said that there was no need for India to imitate United States, China or any other country on the Special Economic Zones (SEZ), noting it should follow its own policies and agenda that suited the country and its people.

Addressing a seminar on SEZ problems organised by Bharatiya Janashakti Party of former Madhya Pradesh Chief Minister Uma Bharti, Mr Acharya, a long-time ideologue of the BJP, said the problems of each country was very different. ''India had 68 crore people depending on agricultural sector as against only 18 lakh farmers in United States and the policies of the two countries can never be common'', he noted.

''Even Brazil, a developing country, the land available for agriculture was huge compared to India. India can't frame policies for one or two billionaire families but to cater to the needs of 200,000 medium scale industrialists and the slogan should be 'sab ko bhojan sab ko kaam' (food for everybody and employment for all).

High growth in GDP was not a yardstick for the growth of the country and only a policy which can provide food and employment for all its people can stand the test of time,'' he added.

He said for Indian psyche, it was difficult to alienate the citizens from their lands by the nexus of politicians and bureaucrats who were ''looking for a cosy retirement life on foreign shores.'' The way the SEZs were proliferating in the country, they are showing every sign of becoming future East India Companies having their own territory and an Army to defend it. India and its people were resilient enough to fight such tendencies not just in the past but also in future, he claimed.

He said it was a dangerous trend in a democracy that the governments and people tended to look into the problems only when there was violence in places like Nandigram and Singur and also hit at BJP President Rajnath Singh for going to these places while ignoring similar such ventures in Rajasthan and Gujarat.

Former Haryana Chief Minister Om Prakash Chautala denounced the way Congress government in the state was eager to dispense off the 25,000 acres of land at a nominal cost to Reliance Group and recalled how 120 industries could be accmodated in just 600 acres of land. ''The government had provided several exemptions including stamp duty,'' he alleged.

Mrs Bharti, who presided over the meeting, said it was important to save the poor from the onslaught of foreign MNCs but also take cafe of India's own companies.

UNI