Centre will heavy price for imposing FDI: Karat.

Chennai: Lashing out at the UPA on the FDI in multi-brand retail, CPI(M) General Secretary Prakash Karat on Wednesday said the Centre will pay a "heavy political price" for trying to impose it, which is "anti-national" and "anti-people".

"I am confident that majority of the people in this country are against this policy and we are confident that in the coming days, the Congress and UPA government will have to pay a heavy political price for trying to impose the anti-people and anti-national policy on us," Karat said at a public meeting here.

Alleging that the Centre was "inclined to serve the interests of the US", Karat said, "when UPA-I was formed in 2004, from that time onwards our Prime Minister has been trying to push through this FDI in retail trade."

Centre will heavy price for imposing FDI: Karat
"In the first term of UPA, as they were dependent on the support of Left parties, they could not push it through," he said.

"First it (the pressure on India) was by President George W Bush. Now it is President Barack Obama. Everytime Manmohan Singh assures them saying 'Yes we will open up our retail trade for Walmart'," he said.

"Walmart is one of the biggest companies in the US and what is good for Walmart is good for the US. But unfortunately we have a Prime Minister, a government and a ruling party that thinks what is good for Walmart is good for India. We do not accept that," he said.

Observing that the Congress-led State governments were ready to "go-ahead" with the move to allow FDI in multi-brand retail, Karat said, "When this matter was put to vote in Parliament recently overwhelming number of parties opposed it."

"Out of the 18 parties which participated in debate in the Lok Sabha, 14 parties opposed the FDI policy. Only four parties, including Congress, supported it, which means overwhelming majority of MPs were against FDI in retail trade," he said.


Source    : zeenews.india.com