It seems that the UPA-II Government has become an organisation to implement whatever is demanded by the imperialists led by the US. The latter put pressure on allowing FDI in retail and it was given first for single retail and then for multiple retail despite protest from the traders, opposition parties and even allies of UPA, disregarding the interests of the crores of people in the country. It was done when the Parliament was not in session.

Now the second instalment of anti-people reforms have been decided by the Cabinet, again when the Parliament is not in session.  Cabinet has  yesterday ( 04-10-2012) decided to increase the FDI from 26% to 49% in Insurance sector and introduce FDI in Pension sector, also to 49%, though not specifically mentioned.

There is no necessity for allowing or increasing FDI in both the sectors. The first is intended to help the private insurance companies to mope up money and also to kill the LIC and General Insurance companies, which are performing excellently and giving the best service to the customers. Despite entries of many private companies these PSUs have kept their market share to a very high position. The government is getting high dividend, taxes etc from these PSUs. Now the government wants to cut them for the benefit of the private companies. The present position will also result in better customer service since private companies are only interested in profit-making and not on social security to the customers.

The central/state government employees, PSU employees and other workers who are getting pension have been continuously fighting against the anti-worker PFRDA Bill which has reduced the statutory pension in to contributory pension. Instead of getting half the salary as pension, the Ne w Pension Scheme (NPS) and Employees Pension Scheme (EPS) implemented for the Central/state government employees and PSU employees respectively have resulted in the pension reduced to a pittance of even less than Rs.1000 for the majority of the retirees. The Parliament march organised in last November has shown the anger of the workers against the PFRDA and their determination to fight the same.

The UPA II government could not pass both the Insurance Bill and PFRDA Bill in the Parliament so far. But now the cabinet has taken the decision while the Parliament is not in session. This completely against the democratic process. The workers and the people have to organise and fight and defeat these anti-people measures.