BJP today vehemently opposed the Government’s decision to allow FDI in retail trade and charged the Government with taking the decision at the behest of “foreign pressure’’.
“FDI in retail is not the need of the country at this moment. As far as Walmart is concerned, they won’t come for charity. They are coming for profit. They want market.
Allowing FDI for infrastructure development is not true”, BJP spokesman Prakash Javadekar told a press conference here.
Allowing FDI in multi-brand retail will result in lot of unemployment and farmers will not be benefitted, he said demanding that the Government withdraw the decision.
Lashing out at the UPA Government for diesel price hike and a cap on the supply of LPG cylinders, Javadekar, who demanded immediate rollback of the prices, remarked “the Central Government, I think, has lost the nerve and they are now taking all anti-people decisions in one go’’.
“The decision to hike the prices of diesel, LPG and allowing FDI in retail trade and the slew of measures announced tell very clear story that they are in a hurry to finish their own agenda”, he said.
He accused the Centre of deciding on FDI “at the behest of foreign pressure” and added a similar measure in allowing FDI in single brand ten years ago has not led to flow of investments.
Javadekar pointed out that it was anticipated that $40 billion of investment will flow into the country when FDI was permitted in single brand, but not even $40 million came into the country.
The BJP leader said his party was not opposed to FDI per se, but opposed in retail trade. “We want FDI in technology and strategic sector”, he said.
He expressed doubts over the Centre’s claim that state governments are allowed to decide on permitting FDI in their states and said “India has bilateral investment treaty with 82 countries. You can’t restrict if FDI is allowed as the country is taken as a unit and not states.’’