UP chief minister Mayawati on Saturday asked the UPA government to immediately withdraw its decision on allowing FDI in retail sector, failing which she would be forced to take “stern steps”.
The chief minister has written a letter to this effect to Prime Minister Manmohan Singh. She said that the BSP would oppose the decision in Parliament too.
Addressing a press conference here on Saturday, Ms Mayawati said that as long as her party was in power n Uttar Pradesh, she would not allow any foreign company to enter the retail sector here. She said small traders and farmers had no reason to be apprehensive till she was in power.
The chief minister squarely blamed Congress MP Rahul Gandhi for the decision on allowing FDI in the retail sector.
Referring to Mr Gandhi as “Congress Yuvraj”, the chief minister said that the UPA had approved the policy only to please Yuvraj’s foreign friends.
“The Yuvraj is working hard to bring Congress to power in Uttar Pradesh which is the biggest state so that his foreign friends can benefit from investments here but we will not let him succeed. The Yuvraj has been brought up and educated abroad and therefore thinks like a foreigner. He brings his foreign friends here for entertainment and takes them to the houses of the poor,” she said.
She said like East India Company, Wal-Mart was being welcomed into the country and this would deal a death blow to the Indian economy and take the country towards another era of economic slavery. “Small traders and farmers will be driven to suicide because the multi-national giants will sell farm produce at much lower rates. Inflation will increase further and Indian economy will gradually go into foreign hands and unemployment will go up,” she said.
In 2007, Ms Mayawati had forced the closure of Reliance retail chain of stores in UP on the grounds that this would damage the interests of farmers. The state government had shut down Reliance Retail stores a day after they were inaugurated.