Are the Left parties angry that the government has done away with the Planning Commissions consultative committees?
We are upset. It is not a good practice. First of all, you set up consultative committees for the apex policy-making organisation in the country. And when one issue comes up, dissolving the committees was not the solution. That is not the way governmental decisions should be taken. We want to know why the committees were dissolved. The decision to dismantle the committees defies logic and reason. The government says the committees were dismantled because the Left parties demanded the ouster of the foreign representatives on them. Yes, that is what we precisely demanded. Our demand was for the betterment of the economy and for the nation. First of all, we are eager to know why representatives of the World Bank, the Asian Development Bank [ Get Quote ] and companies like McKinsey and the Boston Consultant Group were appointed on the plan panels. Do you think we do not have enough consultants in India to give shape to policy matters? We sternly opposed the foreign experts in the committee
