CHENNAI, Dec 16: Hitting out at Prime Minister Manmohan Singh on FDI saying that it was not the opposition parties who were ignorant but the Congree-led UPA Government at the Centre to the situation in India, the BJP today said it would launch a nationwide campaign to explain to the people the ill affects of introducing it in India’s retail sector.
Addressing a news conference at the party headquarters ‘Kamalalayanm’ here, BJP MP and former national President Venkaiah Naidu said after the Parliament session ends on December 20, the party would explain to the people the alleged disastrous condequences that will follow the entry of FDI in retail and ‘the dubious manner the Congress and alies had ealt the issue, forced to vote for it but ideologically opposed to it.’
“The party’s core committee is working out the details of the campaign. We will also project this as a major issue in our campaigning for the next Lok Sabha polls whenver the elections come,” Mr Naidu said.
He pointed out that the Prime Minister himself was adopting double standards on FDI having opposed it stronlgy as an economist when the BJP-led NDA governemnt was in power claiming that it would only add to unemployment.
Now his own major allies DMK, SP and BSP were opposing it and the UPA had won the vote on FDI only technically with only 253 votes for while the simple majority required was 272 in Lok Sabha voting, he claimed.
“The worst part of Prime Minister’s statement of ignorance was that his own party in Kerala saying that FDI would not be allowed in the state. Chief Minister Oommen Chndy had asserted this even last night,” Nr Naidu hit out.
Claiming that FDI in retail sector will throw four crore retail traders in the country out on the roads and Chinese goods would be dumped in India’s domestic market, Mr Venkaiah alleged ‘whoever comes to invest would gradually create a cartel and dictate terms in the domestic market.’
Farmers would also be harmed no end, he added.
Attacking the Prime Minister further, he alleged ‘your (UPA’s) outside ally, the Samajwadi Party says FDI in retail is an invitation to another East India Company and hence they will not implement it in Uttar Pradesh.’
Another ally BSP extending outside support to UPA has said on the floor of the House that mere suspension of FDI was not enough but complete rollback of the decision was required, he pointed out, adding that all this is on record in Parliament and this was not just his claim.
He also pointed out that the DMK, a key constituent of the uPA government, had participated in the ‘Bharat Bandh’ led by the opposition against FDI but voted for it.
The claim that this was to thwart the communal forces- BJP from returning to power was absurd and people would not believe it, he said. (UNI)
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