Amarinder hits back at Jaitley over FDI issue
Thursday, 10/04/2014
http://paper.hindustantimes.com/epaper/viewer.aspx
AMRITSAR: Dubbing his BJP rival Arun Jaitley as pseudo-liberal, Congress candidate from Amritsar Captain Amarinder Singh on Wednesday asked the former to explain how foreign direct investment (FDI) in retail is going to hit the common retailers.
Jaitley had challenged the Congress party on Tuesday for a debate on FDI in retail and especially its effect on Amritsar’s trading community.
“Jaitely is so self-contradictory that on the one hand, he welcomes FDI and at the same time he opposes it in the retail sector. You can’t practice partial liberalism This will only mean that like a pseudo-Punjabi, you are a pseudo-liberal”, he added.
Amarinder also dared Jaitley to give one example to qualify for a debate with the Congress on the issue. “Yes, we will like to debate with you, but give us at least one example as how FDI in retail will destroy small domestic retailers”, he said.
He pointed out that there were already several multibrand retail outlets owned by big domestic industrial houses like the Reliance, Birla, Bharti and others. “If the powerful domestic behemoths could not pose any threat to the small traders across the country, how will the foreign investors do that?”
“We can always provide protection to domestic traders and retailers while allowing FDI”, he said.
