By IANS,
New Delhi : Terming as “lopsided and anti-people” the government’s move to allow Foreign Direct Investment (FDI) in multi-brand retail and ease norms in single-brand retail, the Bharatiya Janata Party Friday said it may move an adjournment motion on the issue in parliament.
BJP leader Murli Manohar Joshi said the decision was not in the “interest of country or the trader, the farmer or the country.”
He indicated that BJP-ruled states were not likely to follow the revised government norms on allowing multi-brand retail trading and said that “Congress ruled states should also refuse”.
“The government should leave this policy. What is the pressure on it? Why are you bringing problems of Europe and US in the country? We will strongly oppose it in parliament and if needed, bring an adjournment motion,” Joshi said.
He said foreign companies had an eye on the country’s retail trade which is likely to grow 10 times in the next 10 years.
Joshi said retail was the biggest employer after agriculture and a large number of jobs were being created in the unorgainsed sector.
“The government decision will lead to massive unemployment. Unemployment will grow while a few jobs will get shifted to malls,” he said.
Joshi said the government’s reasoning that greater foreign investment in retail will bring down prices for consumers had not proven true in many countries which had followed such a course. He said it was also wrong to say that farmers will get better prices.
“First they will give some incentives to hook the farmer and later determine prices by global benchmarks,” he said, adding that countries like Indonesia had seen agitations by farmers.
The BJP leader said big multi-brand chains were not answers to storage bottlenecks faced in agricultural operations and it was government’s duty to invest in agri-infrastructure.
“The government is responsible for infrastructure,” he said.
Alleging that the government was changing its policy under US pressure, Joshi said big multi-brand stores also create parking and environmental problems.
The United Progressive Alliance (UPA) government Thursday decided to allow Foreign Direct Investment (FDI) in multi-brand retail trading and liberalised policy in single-brand retail trading.