Badal, deputy air contrasting views
Wednesday, 26/09/2012
http://paper.hindustantimes.com/epaper/viewer.aspx
CHANDIGARH: Amid the raging debate on whether P unjab should allow foreign direct investment (FDI) in the retail sector, the top brass of the ruling Shiromani Akali Dal (SAD) didn’t exactly speak with one voice on the issue on Tuesday.
Opposing FDI, chief minister Parkash Singh Badal said in Sirsa that the concept may be successful in developed countries such as the United States, but it would not do any good in India.
He even drew a parallel with t he entry of East India Company into the country. “If FDI comes, big players will eat into the share of small traders, and that will be against the idea of social welfare,” he said.
On the other hand, deputy chief minister Sukhbir Singh Badal said in Mansa that if the Congress-led UPA government involved all stakeholders and a consensus was evolved on FDI in retail, then the SAD had no problem in implementing it in Punjab. The interests of small traders and farmers must be safeguarded, said Sukhbir, virtually giving tacit support to FDI.
Punjab Pradesh Congress Committee (PPCC) president Capt Amarinder Singh, in his write-up in Hindustan Times (September 25), had pointed out that Sukhbir had initially backed FDI in retail, but later made a U-turn “as politics took preference over interests of the state.” Amarinder had mentioned that Sukhbir had written a letter to union commerce minister Anand Sharma in support of the concept.
Meanwhile, in Fatehgarh Sahib, Punjab revenue minister Bikram Singh Majithia gave an altogether different take on the issue. He said the UPA government lacked the requisite numbers (MPs) to take such a decision.
