Swadeshi Jagran Manch, a constituent of the Sangh Parivar, on Friday lambasted the Bharatiya Janata Party-led National Democratic Alliance government for failing to fulfill the aspirations of nationalist forces on economic and other fronts.
SJM All-India convenor P Murlidhar Rao, who spoke at the inaugural session of the three-day long national conference that began in Hyderabad, said, "This government cannot satisfy us unless employment and self-reliance become central issues of reforms. Globalisation without Swadeshi spirit and self-reliance is not acceptable to us."
He charged the NDA government with attempting to destroy the national assets in the name of disinvesting in the oil majors.
Naming Planning Commission member K N Singh and Montek Singh Ahluwalia, Rao said that the policy-making domain of the country has passed into the hands of bureaucrats who are former employees of the World Bank.
"These officials do not have any stake in the country's national interests. They are working to promote the interests of the foreign powers," he alleged.
Coming down heavily on the disinvestment policy pursued by the NDA government, he said it sorely lacked transparency. "We are also strongly opposed to divestment in the oil sector since it is a strategic sector and the country cannot afford to hand over the control of this important sector to outsiders.
He added, "Oil companies do not belong to bureaucracy or some ministers in the government. Everybody --- each one of us --- has invested money into this sector and we have every right to know what is being done to them."
Meanwhile, the Asian Social Forum, who also inaugurated a conference on identical theme of opposing globalisation, termed the SJM as advocates of chauvinistic nationalism to which they were opposed.
The SJM, on the other hand, dubbed the ASF as a "front for the forces of globalisation.
ASF spokesperson Prabir Purkayastha said while the forum was against corporate globalisation and not against international movements, the SJM was trying to replace the imperialistic globalisation with Indian imperialism. "They [SJM] are telling the world that you cannot globalise but we can," he said.
"SJM wants to fight culturally but submit economically. They are trying to define India in a very narrow-minded way by saying that only a certain community can live in India. But our thinking is not exclusive and we want all the people to be part of this struggle," Prabir said.
He described the response to ASF as overwhelming and said that the organisers were expecting around 7,500 participants, already 11,500 delegates had registered.
The ASF organised two main conferences on 'Securing Social Rights in the context of globalisation' and 'Peace and Security' on the second day of its ongoing conclave.
