It will jeopardise the livelihood of four crore domestic retailers
The United Progressive Alliance (UPA)’s decision to open Foreign Direct Investment (FDI) in multibrand retail could lead to loss of manufacturing jobs, retail sector growth and eventually leading to loss of food security, Bharatiya Janata Party leader Arun Jaitley said on Saturday.
Addressing members of his party here, he said that India’s purchasing power, with one sixth of the world’s population, was making the (international retail) companies to look at it as a big bazaar. The BJP had withstood pressure from the United States and European Union to open up retail sector for the FDI but “a submissive Prime Minister [Manmohan Singh] has agreed to it.”
“It is a decision for which India, at least, is not prepared today and I can’t understand the compulsion. Last November, the Prime Minister was willing to risk his government for it. I hope this government falls in this issue so that no one repeats the mistake,” Mr. Jaitley said.
By sourcing and selling cheap, international retail companies drive competition out and monopolise the market, he said. Citing the case of few developing nations such as Thailand, where 30 to 40 per cent of the retail trade was controlled by three to four companies, he said the FDI in retail here would jeopardise the livelihood of four crore domestic retailers in business. “A fractured market is always in public interest and not a monopolised market,” he said.
About 18 to 20 per cent of the workforce would be adversely affected as it depended on the domestic retail sector, he said, adding that international retail companies would not create any new job opportunities but would only displace the existing workforce.
Defending the BJP’s tactics of stalling Parliament, Mr. Jaitley contended that only because of this tactic that FIRs were filed, charge sheets were framed, arrests were made in the 2G spectrum scam.
Keywords: UPA-II, FDI in retail, UPA scams, BJP, mid-term polls
i am at a complete loss how so many jobs can be lost. the idea is to allow this in only 10L+ cities. As per census 2011 there are only 51 such cities. Out of these there are 12 cities in UP, 7 in Maharastra, 11 in TN, 7 in kerela and 9 in WB.If UP, WB and TN are clear, they do not want these to happen in their cities we hardly have any states where this is an issue except for AP and Maharashtra. 3 in Raj, 3 in MP, 3 in Gujarat, 2 in karnataka, 1 in Bihar do not really matter. It is WB and kerela which should embrace this and give consumers a choice. In Punjab we have 3 cities so let SAD experiment with this. Let some investment happen.Clearly job loss in Crores is misleading and a political motivated number from this Advani's portege.
To Mr S A Krishnan
Point by point:
1.Fist of all I don't know how you came to know that these people are
are BJP's vote bank. That may be the case at your place but how you
can generalize.
2.Since you are talking about the cutting the long supply chain, then
tell us, are these people in middle chain are some anti-India people
whose livelihood depend on this and we should remove them.
3.You are claiming of benefiting farmer by removing middlemen, as
there is only one agri-commodity in India which has no middlemen is
SUGARCANE. So according to your/govt's theory sugarcane farmers must
be affluent by now. But as we know, every year state govt intervene so
they at least get the MSP.
4.Your statement[This feature has happened in every country that
opened its doors to large retailers]. Now tell me New York is the most
industrialized city in the world, why there is no retail outlet of
Walmart inside the city.
Answer these then only support FDI and think is it the right time to
allow it ?
I am completely agreeing with the Mr Jaitley. In reality what is going to happen is we are allowing the foreigners to trade our goods.If the government is really concern about the farmers they can come up with new solution to reduce the gap between farmer and consumer which should be run by Indians not the money minded foreigners.They are not coming here to make us superpower.I strongly beveling this will be end up with what we face in 1498 Vasco da Gama era.
The problem is that Mr Jaitley is espousing the cause of small traders (who form the base for BJP). However he conveniently forgets that large stores will benefit the consumer; and since these organizations cut the long supply chain, the producers and farmers too will benefit. This feature has happened in every country that opened its doors to large retailers. Mr Jaitley obviously does not care for either the farmer or the consumer. In short, he is willing to sacrifice the majority of the population for the sole benefit of traders.
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