[Marxism] [India] CPI(ML) on Obama victory : UPA goverment's crisis management measures

[CPIML Liberation]

* **(Handout issued at press conference addressed by CPI(ML) General
Secretary  **Dipankar Bhattacharya in Kolkata on 6 November 2008)***

*On the victory of Barack Obama:*

CPI(ML) welcomes the overwhelming victory scored by Barack Obama in US
Presidential election. The US still has a huge baggage of racism and the
first ever election of an African-American as the President certainly marks
a welcome change for the internal milieu of the country. With Obama in, Bush
is finally out, and the end of the most notorious and hated American
presidency is bound to be greeted with great appreciation and relief all
over the world.

Obama's election campaign revolved almost singularly around the promise of
change, and the whole world will now join the American people to see what
kind of change Obama can really deliver as the 44th US President. The forces
of peace, justice and progress the world over demand an immediate end to the
war in Iraq and Afghanistan, withdrawal of US troops and termination of US
military bases and notorious detention centres and torture camps, and
reversal of the US policies that have triggered worldwide economic crisis
and environmental destruction.* *

*On the UPA Government's Crisis-Management Measures*

After belatedly and reluctantly acknowledging the financial and economic
crisis brewing in the country, the UPA government has chosen to intensify
the very policies that are responsible for the current crisis. The
large-scale flight of FII away from India has greatly exacerbated the
dramatic decline in the share market and the depreciation of the rupee with
its disastrous manifold implications. We demand that the government
immediately withdraws its decision to raise the FDI cap in insurance
industry to 49%. CPI(ML) will resist any attempt to further liberalise
India's financial sector and continue to fight for a complete reversal of
the policies of liberalisation, privatisation and globalisation that lie at
the root of the present crisis.