Aam Aadmi Party (AAP) leader Arvind Kejriwal on Saturday demanded a referendum on foreign direct investment (FDI) in retail.
“We all know how politicians behaved inside Parliament during the debate on FDI in retail. The issue should be brought under a referendum. The issue was not even debated properly,” he said here on Saturday.
Mr. Kejriwal was here to address one of the plenary sessions on the ‘Future of Clean Politics in India,’ organised during the PAN-IIT conference.
“The Central government was able to win votes in both the Rajya Sabha and the Lok Sabha two days back on the issue of FDI in retail because it used the Central Bureau of Investigation to force some of the politicians to vote accordingly,” the social activist-turned-politician alleged.
He said:
“I don’t understand how FDI can help our farmers. The Central government is trying to justify its action by claiming that FDI will eliminate middlemen and that would help farmers but the fact is, the companies will act as middlemen, so farmers and common people will suffer more.
“The government is claiming that Walmart will build cold-storage units for the benefit of farmers, but can we believe their claims — the government itself failed to do so in the last 65 years so how can foreign companies do that in a few years. I don’t think that Walmart is coming to India for social work.”
On West Bengal politics he said: “People in the State can decide if they are experiencing any change or not after the new government took charge.”
Describing his party’s role, he said: “We stepped into politics to empower the ‘common man.’ We will create an environment so that people with good intentions will participate in politics, which is the only way to clean up the mess in politics.”
Politics used to be a noble profession during the Freedom movement. Now the culture had changed. People were using it with bad . “Politics is social service. So it’s the intent and the people that make politics bad or good. We are trying to change the present scenario.”
The AAP had 30 teams to study issues such terrorism, poverty and industries and the plan was draft a document that would be released in March 2013 to address them in a detailed manner, he said.
You are 100% correct Mr. Kejriwal. By greasing the palms of the government, Walmart is entering India and soon it will bully it's way into the Indian market and sell foreign goods and make money. It will import even fruits and vegetables from China and other countries. Reason is high cost of production in India due to corruption-friendly government policies.
“The government is also saying that Walmart and others will also set
up cold storages. If the government could not do this for the last 65
years, is it right to believe that foreign companies will come and do
this in a few years,”
Government can't and shouldn't take effort in setting up cold storage
or anything that can't be done by free markets for that matter. Such
things should left to the free markets which can do it efficiently.
Mr. Kejriwal is trying to bring back the Socialist policies of
independent India's first 5 decades. We have all seen how it has
driven India to almost bankruptcy in 1991. The licence raj and
innumerable regulations were the reason why corruption and crony
capitalism grew in India. Should we tread that path again?
Walmart has been accused of poor treatment of labour and sells poor goods goods mostly from from China. This will certainly put an end to small farmers and small businesses.
On the other hand "Fair Trade" is used by "TESCO" and " the Sainsbury" supermarkets of the United Kingdom where employees are treated well and they sell quality goods.
Mr. Kejriwal, it is easy to say things like government has not done this for 65 years
or it is rubbish that middle man will be eliminated. You are an intellectual who
speaks with facts and figures.
I am a farmer and I can tell you first hand how the "middle" man took advantage of the cashew nuts we had harvested. The middle man agreed to a price and when we delivered in the truck he refused to take it, saying the market had changed. We were left holding the cashew nuts without a buyer. The seeds were drying up and losing weight. I had to finally sell it for a huge loss. of course the middle man benefitted.
Why are Indians worried about allowing FDI in any sector? Indians are hugely
successful running large corporations outside of India. Walmart model for India may be fine tuned to be different from how they procure in the US or China.
The farmers get the short hand all the time. Let us give this a shot and we have nothing to loose.
Do not jump into things that you don't know
I personally feel that the points given by Mr. Kejriwal is right because I as a citizen of India don't find any benefit from this move taken by the government on FDI.The points are also baseless as pointed by Mr. Kejriwal that it will help farmers and other businessmen.How can Walmart help farmers? by fixing the price of their produce to minimum? or by selling the things at higher prices than which are available at cheaper rates in market (when bought in wholesale)??? I don't find any point which can say yes! this is the point and yes this must be passed!
Correctly said that if govt can not setup cold storage for 65 years, why private companies would do?!! In this country cold storage is virtual impossible with power shortage.
Congress is allowing EDI-retail under corrupt deals with the US private companies.
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