Illustration: City Air News
New Delhi, August 5, 2013: Senior BJP Leader and MP Dr. Murli Manohar Joshi today took strong exception to the statement of Union Commerce Minister Anand Sharma appearing in a Hindi daily today in which he has blamed the opposition parties particularly the BJP for frightening the foreign investors which the minister says has resulted in very negligible or rather no turnout of global investors in India. Taking a dig at Sharma, Dr. Joshi said that it is not the BJP or opposition parties but the unsound economic policies of the government and failure of providing any congenial atmosphere free from corruption is the root cause for no investment till today even after lofty claims made by Sharma and UPA Government. It is the inefficiency in the functioning of the government and lack of firmness of policies which is responsible for repelling the investors and not the statements from the opposition parties.
Dr. Joshi further warned Sharma to desist himself such tactics of transferring his own failures to the opposition parties and should not make a total handover of the vibrant Indian Bazars to the hands of global retailers.
Senior BJP leader said that stability in economic growth and economic policies of the government coupled with strong currency of the country attracts foreign investment and unfortunately on both these counts, the government has miserably failed. Rampant corruption and gross nepotism in the administrative system under the control UPA Government has tarnished the image of the country at international level. Passing buck on BJP and opposition parties is nothing but a cover up exercise by Sharma. The government, if interested in attracting investment should first come out clean with regard to scams in various ministries and assure of a transparent system and sound policies. May he ask the Commerce Minister to explain why Indian businessmen are moving out of India, he said. The BJP is not threatening them. The fact of the matter is that due to unsound fiscal policies and the rampant corruption the UPA government itself has become the biggest threat to the investment environment.
He also said that the issue involves livelihood of more than 5 crore business establishments and crores of people in the country who are dependent upon retail trade for their livelihood and the BJP will leave no stone unturned in protecting their fundamental right of economic justice and right to trade guaranteed by the Constitution of India. It would be proper on the part of Anand Sharma to remove his FDI dominated spectacles and try to understand the ground realities of Indian retail trade.