Wednesday, February 2 2005 20:46 Hrs (IST) - World Time -

New Delhi: Opposing Government decision to hike FDI (Foreign Direct Investment) cap in the telecom sector, Left parties today (Feb 2, 2005) said it was not clear as to whether all the security concerns raised by them had been considered while deciding on the issue.

The Left leaders said they would meet in New Delhi tomorrow to decide their plan of action on the issue.

Reacting sharply to the Cabinet decision to raise the FDI cap in telecom sector from 49 to 74 per cent, the four Left parties said they were not sure as to whether the Government had fully addressed the security implications of hiking FDI cap in telecom in making such a decision.

Asserting that the CPM (Communist Party of India-Marxist) would oppose the decision inside and outside Parliament as it was not in the national interests, the party's Polit Bureau member Sitaram Yechury said the Left leaders will meet tomorrow "to decide on how we should proceed on the issue".

Observing that the decision was taken when they were in the midst of parleys with the Government on the matter, Yechury said the argument that FDI was required to increase tele-density in the country was "untenable" as major private and public telecom players had already expanded tele-density without much reliance on FDI.