Coming down heavily on Chief Minister Sheila Dikshit’s public statement that Delhi would be the first state to implement FDI in multi-brand retail in the country, the BJP on Tuesday said the government’s decision would affect livelihood of crores of people.
On the first day of State Assembly session here, Leader of Opposition V K Malhotra said that in his capacity as the Leader of Opposition in the Rajya Sabha in 2002, Prime Minister Manmohan Singh had termed the FDI entry as anti-national.
“How can something that was anti-national in 2002 become good for the nation in 2012. Newspapers say Sonia Gandhi and Manmohan took the decision to allow FDI in retail. So, who is anti-national?” Malhotra charged.
On the lobbying charges, Malhotra said Bharti Walmart suspended its chief financial officer and other staff for corruption. Now it has surfaced that Walmart spent `125 crore to lobby for FDI entry into the country.
Even the European Parliament had said that large supermarkets were abusing the markets and causing unsustainable damage to the local industries and farmers. Farmers across Europe have been protesting against strong-arm tactics of the retail majors, Malhotra said.
Malhotra said Keith Vaz, a Labour Party MP in Britain, had warned India that allowing FDI would result in dominance of supermarkets. In Manhattan, local traders had protested against Walmart, demanding that the retail major should not open stores in the area.