After asking the government to identify the security concerns that have seen Chinese firms lose out to others in key projects, the CPI(M) plans to suggest to the government the need to change rules that have stood since 1962 but are now, according to the party, working against Chinese firms.

The key point will be changes to the visa rules that now allow Chinese nationals to be in India for three months. The party’s decision to take up the issue with the government follows earlier meetings with Sun Yuxi, the Chinese ambassador to India, who told CPI(M) leaders that while Indians were given two years’ visa which could be renewed during their stay in China, there was no such reciprocity for Chinese businessmen.

The issue has assumed a new urgency ahead of Chinese President Hu Jintao’s visit in November. “We want a level-playing field. The new policies of liberalisation have opened up the economy and there is declared cooperation on economic ties with China. But the ground reality is there are restrictions that were imposed in 1962. There is a mismatch between the two. That has to be corrected,” said CPI(M) politburo member Sitaram Yechury, who is the party’s parliamentary party leader. The CPI(M), having accepted FDI and foreign capital as necessary in a global environment —Leftist governments in West Bengal and Kerala are unabashedly courting foreign capital—feels that the Chinese are being discriminated against while other foreign companies are being awarded important infrastructure projects even though they may not be strictly satisfying all security concerns. In the light of the Chinese being struck off the list of bidders for the Vizhinjam Deep Water International Transshipment Terminal in Kerala for security reasons, CPI(M) general secretary Prakash Karat said he wanted the government to explain why Chinese firms were being “persistently discriminated against”.

Karat told The Indian Express that the issues concerning the Chinese firms would be taken up soon, though not at the next UPA-Left coordination meeting slated for October 4. The Vizhinjam case is only one of the many that have upset the CPI(M).

CPI(M) MP Tapan Sen, who wrote to the Prime Minister after the Airports Authority of India rejected Chinese company Shenzen Cimac Tianda Airport Support Ltd’s bid for supplying and commissioning aerobridges, said the security issue was being used as a bogey to edge out the Chinese and prevent them from competing.

Chinese were able to keep low costs compared to European companies which made them competitive. “The general perception is that the Left is taking up the issue (of Chinese companies being dropped from key projects) because China is a Socialist country.

But we believe that in each of these cases, the matter has been handled in a totally non-transparent manner. In every case, the government exchequer is also the biggest loser because the Chinese are the lowest bidders,” said Sen referring to the aerobridges contract where the other offer was from a Spanish company that bid more than two times the Chinese.

In Left-ruled West Bengal, the story is different. The Chinese company Dong Fang was favoured over BHEL for a power plant in Sagardighi and for adding capacity to a plant in Durgapur.

That decision came even though the BHEL union is affiliated to CPI(M)’s trade union wing CITU. But, the Left Front government defended the decision saying the Chinese were the lowest bidders.