Press Statement
The Polit Bureau of the Communist Party of India (Marxist) has issued the following statement:
Institute A Thorough Probe
Yet another giant American multinational corporation, faced with a giant scandal in the USA, has now revealed that its Indian subsidiary had bribed to the tune of Rs. 3.5 crore in the single year of 2000, to win government contracts.
Xerox Corporation and its Indian subsidiary Xerox Modi Corporation are thus guilty like many other multinational corporations of bribing their way through to secure control of both markets and profits in India. The by now infamous Enron had already admitted as having paid $ 20 million for such bribes. There are instances of how soft drink manufacturers like Coca-Cola and Pepsi are garnering precious water resources at ridiculous prices.
This Vajpayee government is patronising such brazen corruption and continues to take decisions to expand the area of operations of multinational corporations in India, which elsewhere in the world are notorious for such practices. The opening up of the Indian print media to MNCs is yet another instance.
The Polit Bureau of the CPI(M) demands that the investigations into the revelations made by Xerox must be thorough and not confined to narrow areas. The officials and political patrons and the bribe takers as well as the bribe givers must be punished.
It is imperative that the Indian parliament initiates a mechanism of high-level enquiry into such cases. It is ironical that such cases are reported and come to light only when legal steps against these companies are initiated in the United States of America. On the contrary, in India they are being given by the Vajpayee government, a red carpet treatment.