Pune, Aug. 27 (PTI): If labour reforms turn workers into slaves, the Left will fight them, first-time MP Brinda Karat said in a lecture today.

“It seems, to be a worker in the era of liberalisation and globalisation is a crime. We are not opposed to FDI but to the conditions which it is being allowed to make, what with the unpleasant example of Posco and Enron being before us,” Karat said in her Jyantrao Tilak memorial lecture here.

A deliberate attempt is being made to show that non-reforms in labour laws are creating obstacles in attracting FDI, she said. “This is uncalled for.”

Quizzed by the audience about the Prime Minister’s praise of Bengal chief minister Buddhadeb Bhattacharjee, who is touring Singapore and Indonesia to woo FDI, Karat said she agreed with Manmohan Singh that “what is good for Bengal should be good for the rest of the country”.

“Yes, Bhattacharjee has set out on a glorious path. There is no privatisation of PSUs of the state which are making profits. FDI is welcome in the state but not at the cost of workers’ interests and 25 per cent of Bengal’s area has seen land reforms,” she said.

While Bhattacharjee is pro-reforms, the CPM’s central leadership is widely seen as taking the opposite view. Karat’s husband, Prakash, is the party’s general secretary.

Brinda, the first woman politburo member of the CPM, likened the women’s reservation bill to “an unborn child that has got stuck in the womb since 1996” but said she was confident it would succeed.

Congress president Sonia Gandhi had spoken out in support of the original bill, she said. “With a view to finding a consensus on it, the Centre extended the Parliament session by two days, but the BJP took a 180-degree turn on the issue on the ground that there is no unanimity over it, sabotaging it.”

“Now, we women from different organisations are meeting BJP president L.K. Advani tomorrow to discuss the bill,” Karat said.