Andhra protesters oppose LPG

In Hyderabad, India 20 political leaders and demonstrators were arrested for defying police orders prohibiting demonstrations during Bank President James Wolfensohn’s arrival in November. The protesters gave the police the slip and took to the streets chanting slogans such as “World Bank down down” and “Wolfensohn go back”. Protesters accused the Andhra Pradesh Chief Minister of running the State at the behest of the World Bank: increasing tariffs and imposing taxes and scrapping welfare measures. The ‘LPG effect’ (liberalization, privatization and globalization) was crippling, they said.