A day after Parliament cleared foreign direct investment (FDI) in retail, social activist- turned politician Arvind Kejriwal demanded a referendum on the issue.
Alleging misuse of CBI on the part of the government to ensure the required vote in both the Lok Sabha and Rajya Sabha, Kejriwal said, “All of us have seen how political parties behaved in Parliament during a debate on FDI in retail. I think, the issue should be brought under a referendum.”
“The issue was not debated properly in Parliament It has ensured the support of BSP and SP with the CBI handle. Nothing else explains their flip-flop,” he added.
Expressing his opposition to FDI in retail, the chief of the newly founded Aam Aadmi party said, “The Walmart experience shows that farmers in the US were not benefitted, but deprived besides it being a very bad employer. The theory that the eliminiation of middlemen will help both farmers and consumers is rubbish. Walmart will rob both farmers and consumers.”
"The government is also saying that Walmart and others will also set up cold storages. If the government could not do this for the last 65 years, it is stupid to believe that foreign companies will come and do this in a few years,” he said.
