‘WTO guidelines not at par with fundamentals of Constitution’

Nagpur: The conditions set by World Trade Organization (WTO) do not give the government freedom to run the country on its own terms and therefore is not beneficial to the common man, said advocate Shrihari Aney on Tuesday.
“WTO sets rules and guidelines for smooth flow of international trade but these are not at par with the objective of governing our nation as laid down in the Constitution of India. Only countries like America, which are based on free trade, can benefit from it,” he said.

Aney was speaking on ‘WTO aani samvidhanatil kalyankari rajya’ organized as part of Shiv Jayanti Mahotsav by Jai Jawan Jai Kisan Organization at Sai Sabhagruh, Shankar Nagar. President Prashant Pawar, retired brigadier Sudhir Sawant, chartered accountant Vijaykumar Shinde and president of Janmanch Pramod Pandey were present.

Aney spoke on various points and clauses of WTO which deprive India of being a thriving republic. “According to the agricultural policies laid down by it, subsidies provided to farmers are to be gradually decreased.

“Although these policies are laid out for all countries impartially, it fails to notice that it will have an adverse effect on Indian farmers, it being an agriculture-centric nation. This, in turn, will have a huge impact on our economy,” said Aney.

He said international agencies cannot decide the methods of governing any nation. “If money comes with the control of foreign agencies, our nation has no say in the method by which it is spent,” he added.

“Accepting WTO guidelines in the recent Rio talks was a huge mistake on the part of the government as principles of free trade exploit fundamental constitutional values of Article 21. It also does not align with the idea of a sovereign or socialist nation. But I believe our country’s situation now is as worse as that of Britain during Brexit, and we have to adhere to these guidelines.”