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BJP fears loss of thousands of jobs

Special Correspondent

Centre must take steps to restore confidence: Javadekar

NEW DELHI: India may be somewhat insulated from the meltdown of the financial sector in the United States but the Bharatiya Janata Party believes that despite this thousands of jobs will be lost by Indians in India as a result of the global crisis.

“There will be some backlash here. India must keep a close watch on the situation and take steps to ensure that the ripple effect here is minimised,” BJP spokesperson Prakash Javadekar, who himself worked in the banking sector earlier, said here on Thursday.

He warned that the situation was “very serious”. In one week there had been an outflow of $6 billion from India leading to the depreciation of the rupee. Capital markets had already exhibited extreme nervousness.

The government must take steps to restore confidence, he said.

The BJP view was that India was “not completely cut off or insulated from the meltdown in the United States” and this could have an effect on the Indian economy – the rapid outflow of dollars had already taken place.

The immediate effect would also mean loss of thousands of jobs in Indian branches of American companies directly affected by the crisis as well as job losses in businesses that have clients in the United States.

Speaking on a different subject — terrorism — Mr. Javadekar charged the government with not having the political will or a strategy to deal with terrorism. He said the creation of a new Ministry for Internal Security, as has been suggested, would not solve any problem.

Asked about violence unleashed by the Bajrang Dal and the Vishwa Hindu Parishad in Orissa and more recently in Karnataka, Mr. Javadekar said: “We do not appreciate violence of any kind.”

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