New Delhi, Jan. 22: The Left, if it has its way, will not allow the Manmohan Singh government to raise the foreign direct investment limit in any sector ? telecom, insurance, civil aviation or even the print media.

Fresh trouble is brewing between the government and the Left, which supports it from outside, on raising the FDI cap in print media. The Centre wants to raise the limit to 49 per cent from the present 26 per cent. But the Left parties have said ?no? to the proposal.

A CPI delegation, led by general secretary A.B. Bardhan and including D. Raja, met Union home minister Shivraj Patil today and told him that their party is ?opposed to any FDI increase in print media?.

Patil, who heads a group of ministers? committee exploring FDI in print media, is seeking the opinion of all parties.

?News and views are not just like any other commodity. Media has the capacity to condition the minds of the people and influence their opinion,? the CPI said. ?We are opposing it from a nationalistic point of view,? Raja added.

?Any further increase in FDI will not be in the national interest in the present context of increasing corporatisation of the media and ownership passing into the hands of big corporate houses,? said the CPI.

The party also wants the Centre to bring a legislation to stop the publication of foreign journals like the International Herald Tribune in India. The Left parties had hoped that information and broadcasting minister Jaipal Reddy would take steps to this effect after the United Progressive Alliance came to power. ?Can you go to America and start publishing the Hindu?? asked Raja.

?We are also against increasing the volume of syndicated material from abroad,? he said. At present, the upper limit is 7.5 per cent of the total volume.

The issue of raising the FDI limit in print media goes back to the days of P.V. Narasimha Rao, when the Congress government had tried to push through the proposal.

The next government in power, headed by the United Front, had not brought back the issue on its agenda. The National Democratic Alliance regime tried to push through its proposal for raising FDI limit in print, but failed.

The Left has all through opposed the move, as it has opposed raising FDI in telecom and insurance. The UPA government has so far not been able to implement its FDI proposals in these two sectors.