Rahul Gandhi: "FDI Will Benefit Farmers"

Backing Centre's decision to allow FDI in multi-brand retail, Congress leader Rahul Gandhi has said the decision will help farmers prosper by removing middlemen from the supply chain and generate new jobs.

Addressing the national executive of Indian Youth Congress here last night, Rahul said FDI in retail will help farmers store their produce safely for a longer duration, thus ensuring best value for their crops.

The 42-year-old AICC general secretary, who is here on a two-day visit beginning yesterday, said around 60 to 70% of all perishable products in the country eventually rot due to lack of proper storage facilities.

Century Fox report: Indian Government allows 51% FDI, triggering outrage in the country.

The situation, however, will change once FDI in retail comes in, Rahul was quoted as saying in a Youth Congress release.

He said farmers could not get good price for their produce as the middlemen in the 'Mandis' would buy from them at very low rates and sell the same at a much higher price in cities.

But once FDI comes in, they will be taken out of this equation, he said.

FDI will also create lot of new jobs, which will not only lead to higher income generation but also significantly reduce unemployment, thereby having a salutary effect on the economy, he said.

He, however, said all contractual agreements that farmers get into with the retailers "should be carefully monitored" in order to ensure that interests of the farmer are not harmed.

Rahul noted that in the contemporary world, all economies are interconnected, thus having impact on each other.

"If something happens in the US, it will most likely affect events in India, and vice versa," he said.

Earlier, talking to members of the Jammu and Kashmir NSUI national executive, Rahul said it was important to win the hearts and minds of the student community in Kashmir.

"We need to earn their trust, their faith. I am here to win their trust through dialogue and deeds," he said.

Rahul also asked state NSUI leadership to bring a delegation of students to Delhi and meet Union HRD Minister Kapil Sibal to sort out all issues concerned to them.

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Mamata Banerjee To Protest In New Delhi Against FDI

After parting ways with the UPA, Trinamool Congress leader and West Bengal chief minister Mamata Banerjee will for the first time lead a demonstration in New Delhi on Monday against "anti-people" decisions of the Centre.

"It is an unprecedented decision by Banerjee to hold a rally at Jantar Mantar in the national capital to press the Centre to review its decisions on FDI in retail, cap on subsidised LPG and diesel price hike," Trinamool Congress MP KD Singh said on Sunday.

He said the demonstration was part of the party's resolve to show solidarity with the 'aam admi' who has been hurt the most by such decisions.

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"Withdrawing from the UPA was the first step. A series of protests have been planned in the coming days till the decisions are withdrawn," he said. When asked whether Trinamool Congress would support a resolution in Parliament against FDI if it is brought by BJP, former railway minister Mukul Roy evaded a direct reply.

"Who brings what is not the issue. The actual issue is the decision of the government which is anti-people...the then finance minister (Pranab Mukherjee) had assured Parliament that any decision on FDI will be taken after consulting all stakeholders and after evolving a consensus. That has not happened," he rued.

In her Facebook post, Banerjee had recently said: "Let us fight the battle boldly and unitedly. In a democracy, people are supreme. Our voice is the voice of the people. We must raise our voice, so that the government must reconsider."

"Looting is on in the name of aam aadmi and reforms," Trinamool Congress chief Mamata Banerjee hit out on Saturday.

Trinamool Congress leaders were busy brushing up their Hindi recently as party chief Mamata Banerjee plans to take her fight against FDI in multi-brand retail to Delhi and various other states later. Hindi speakers are expected to get priority in the party's agitations outside Bengal.

"Our leader herself can speak in Hindi. It is the medium of communication for a pan-India audience. Therefore, it is natural that Hindi speakers will get priority (to speak at protest rallies). We want more Hindi speakers," said a senior MP close to Banerjee.

"Our senior leaders, most of who are Bengalis, are also brushing up their Hindi-speaking skills. This will help them reach out to the people," the MP added.

Banerjee is to lead an agitation at Delhi's Jantar Mantar against the Centre's decision to allow FDI in retail, the diesel price hike and putting a limit on households using subsidised LPG.

She recently withdrew from UPA-2 in protest and announced that the Trinamool would organise agitations to demand a rollback of the government's "anti-people" decisions.

Banerjee is expected to address the rally at Jantar Mantar in Hindi and some of the other speakers are likely to follow suit.

The party has a few Hindi-speaking leaders such as KD Singh from Haryana, Sultan Ahmed and Dinesh Trivedi. Besides, Mukul Roy, Sudip Bandopadhyay and Subrata Bakshi can manage to speak in Hindi.

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CWC Endorses Economic Reforms Undertaken By Govt

With Mamata Banerjee walking out of UPA and the government facing opposition heat on economic reforms, Congress top brass met on Tuesday to take stock of the "present situation" and chalk out the strategy ahead. A meeting of the Congress Working Committee (CWC) chaired by Congress
Sonia Gandhi was expected to discuss on Tuesday morning the evolving political situation in the wake of Trinamool Congress severing ties with UPA and the government's determination to push ahead with reforms .

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The meeting also comes at a time when there is a clear realisation in Congress that the vexed issue of Telangana cannot be kept hanging for long. Indications have been given that a decision on the issue will be taken shortly.

A couple of days back, Andhra Pradesh Governor ESL Narasimhan had a meeting with Gandhi, home minister Sushilkumar Shinde and finance minister P Chidambaram, fuelling speculation that a decision may be on the cards. TRS chief K Chandrasekhara Rao is camping in the national capital for a meeting with Gandhi.

The CWC meeting took place in the backdrop of clear indications that Rahul Gandhi is going to assume a 'larger role' in party affairs very soon.

The occassion could be utilised by the party to rally behind the Prime Minister, who is being targeted by opposition parties on a host of issues including FDI in multi-brand retail.

The timing of the meeting is crucial as it comes close on the heels of the opposition parties holding a nationwide bandh to oppose the government's decision on allowing 51% FDI in multi-brand retail, hiking prices of diesel and putting a cap on supply of subsidised LPG cylinders to households.

The meeting was also signficant as it is being held ahead of the crucial assembly elections in three states including Narendra Modi-run Gujarat.

AICC general secretary Janardan Dwivedi, however, refused to specify what are issues that will be discussed in Tuesday's meeting.

"It will discuss the present situation" was his only refrain when asked about the issues that are expected to come up for deliberations in CWC.

Despite the 19-member Trinamool Congress walking out of UPA, Congress is not worried over the numbers as both Samajwadi Party and Bahujan Samaj Party have continued to back the government.

Opposition NDA has also said that it is not pushing for the ouster of the government, maintaining that it will not take steps in that direction as it may fall due to its internal contradictions.

However, the worry for the government is that some of its allies do not agree with recent decisions. DMK had joined the nationwide bandh on September 20 against the government's decisions.

Even within Congress, there have been voices of disagreement.

While a special invitee to CWC Anil Shastri has openly opposed the decisions saying they have damaged the party, some leaders speaking on the condition of anonymity said that the government could have moved a bit more cautiously on the measures.

The meeting will be attended by permanent members of CWC as well as its permanent invitees.

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LK Advani Slams PM For ‘Red-Carpet’ To Wal-Mart

BJP leader LK Advani on Sunday slammed prime minister Manmohan Singh over the issue of allowing FDI in multi-brand retail and said the red carpet was being rolled out for Wal-Mart when it faced protests even in the US.

He also said the BJP had opposed the measure when the NDA was in power.

In his latest blog, the BJP leader referred to the reported unrest brewing against America’s largest retailer Wal-Mart in various US cities at a time when the government here is “rolling out the red carpet” for it.

Quoting an article of author and financial expert S Gurumurthy, he said that on September 14 when Manmohan Singh rolled out the red carpet for Wal-Mart, the same day “New York City shut Wal-Mart out”.

He also referred to a web-based newspaper that carried a story on how Wal-Mart displaced nearby small businesses the day FDI in retail was notified in India last week.

“Weeks ago, on June 30, over 10,000 people, shouting ‘Wal-Mart = Poverty’, marched through Los Angeles against Wal-Mart stores,” Advani said quoting Gurumurthy.

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He also quoted a New York Times report on how Mexico has become the second largest country for Wal-Mart after the US in terms of number of stores.

“According to a New York Times report, this has been achieved by the retail giant’s Mexico arm by dishing out generous payouts to aid its mammoth growth,” he said.

Advani said that shortly after the Times published its investigation in April, 2012, Wal-Mart confirmed that it had launched an investigation into the “allegations of bribery at Wal-Mart de Mexico”.

Advani also recalled an exchange between Congress leader Priyaranjan Dasmunshi and the then industry and commerce minister Arun Shourie in the Lok Sabha on December 16, 2002.

Munshi, citing an Economic Times article, had raised the issue that the NDA government was being pressured to open up FDI in retail. Shourie said that since 1997 the policy had been to not allow FDI in retail. Advani infers that there has been opposition to FDI in retail even in the Congress party and he quotes Munshi as saying in that exchange, “...multinational retailers are continuously putting pressure on the government to take this anti-national decision of allowing foreign direct investment in the retail trade.

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Indian Government Allows 51% FDI, Triggering Outrage In The Country

Ending months of perceived policy paralysis, the UPA government Friday finally bit the bullet and pushed ahead with the boldest reforms yet by allowing 51% foreign investment in multi-brand retail - and opening the aviation sector - triggering expected outrage among some of its allies as well as the opposition.

The government clarified that states which did not favour 51 percent FDI in multi-brand retail - which opens up India's estimated $450 billion retail market to foreign supermarkets like Walmart and Carrefour - were free to not implement the policy.

This effectively means that states ruled by Congress governments can implement the decision while states ruled by non-Congress parties or the central government's allies will not have to implement it

The move comes at a time when the government's reputation has been battered by a host of alleged scams and Prime Minister Manmohan Singh's reputation as a reformer has taken a dent, with a leading US daily portraying him as "a tragic figure" and Time magazine describing him as "an underachiever".

Manmohan Singh was the prime mover behind this audacious but politically fraught decision.

Informed sources said he reportedly pushed for the decision at the meeting of the cabinet committee on economic affairs (CCEA), saying the UPA government needs to "bite the bullet".

"We have to bite the bullet. If we  have to go down, let us go down fighting," the prime minister was quoted by the sources as having said there.

The government also approved FDI in aviation and gave its nod for disinvestment in four PSUs, part of a package of reformist measures, along with the steep hike in diesel prices announced Thursday, which are widely seen as aimed at shoring up the faltering economy and the international standing of India that has taken a severe beating in recent months.

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Soon after the decisions were made known, the prime minister appealed to the people to support the government's steps that were "taken in national interest."

"I urge all segments of public opinion to support the steps we have taken in national interest," the PMO's Twitter handle quoted him as saying. "I believe that these steps will help  strengthen our growth process and generate employment in these difficult times."

The decision could potentially be a game-changer for India's retail market, which is dominated by neighbourhood stores.

While industry bodies welcomed the  move, ally Trinamool Congress joined the angry chorus of the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) and the Left to denounce the move, which the government insisted  would not hurt India's national interests.

BJP and Communist leaders called the  decision a "betrayal" of the people's interests.

"This is a complete betrayal, also of  parliament," BJP MP Balbir Punj said. Communist Party of India's D. Raja said a corruption-tainted regime was trying to salvage its image.

West Bengal Chief Minister and Trinamool Congress Mamata Banerjee was furious and said she would not stand for it.

According to Trinamool MP Kunal Ghosh, the party's parliamentary board will meet Tuesday to take a final decision, which could even lead to withdrawal of support from the government. "All options are open. We are ready  to take any kind of strong decision," he said.

DMK president M.Karunanidhi also said his party has opposed FDI in retail as it would result in competition for small traders. 

The BJP, whose opposition to the coal block allocations paralyzed parliament's monsoon session, vowed to unleash nationwide protests against the FDI unveiling.

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Attacking the central government's decisions allowing overseas investments in multi-brand retail and raising diesel price by Rs. 5 a litre, the CPI-M too said it, along with other secular parties, will launch a nationwide stir against the measures.

As criticism mounted, Commerce Minister Anand Sharma defended the sweeping policy changes, viewed as a major  step to spur economic reforms.

"It is not a sudden decision," Sharma told the media, explaining the decisions taken Friday.

The cabinet also decided that overseas retailers setting up a single brand store in India must source at least 30 percent of their goods from Indian companies, preferably from micro, small  and medium enterprises (MSMEs). Earlier it was mandatory for the overseas firms to source 30 percent of the goods from MSMEs.

The minister said the decision was first taken last November but subsequently held back following opposition mainly from the Left, BJP and the Trinamool.

But it was "never rolled back", Sharma clarified.

He said since then the government had held intense discussions with various stakeholders with a view to creating broad consensus. He said among those who were spoken to were farmers associations, civil society groups, regional chambers of commerce and industry as well as state governments.

"I had personally written to every chief minister of the country, spoken to almost all of them. There are states  which reacted to the proposal very well, some expressed opposition. The response has been a mixed one."

According to the government, the move comes with some conditions for the investors.

Sharma said multi-brand FDI was expected to generate a large number of jobs in rural India besides giving remunerative prices to farmers for their products.

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