Rahul backs FDI in Retail

Rahul Gandhi has come out in full-throated support of foreign direct investment (FDI) in retail. Turning the government’s FDI setback into a poll weapon, Rahul asserted that the Centre would implement the suspended investment policy in retail. He slammed the opposition for sabotaging a move that would give farmers a higher return on their produce. Rahul dubbed the anti-FDI position of the Congress’s political rivals —ranging from the SP, BSP to the BJP—a betrayal of farmers, while aggressively marketing FDI in retail as a panacea to farmers of this region, known as the ‘potato belt’ of Uttar Pradesh, where prices of the vegetable have hit rock bottom. On his way to Kannauj, Rahul visited potato fields where he saw the produce rotting and “pigs gorging on them”. At Ismailpur, he stopped at a roadside dhaba and asked a gathering of locals if they knew about FDI. The stridency contrasted with they way the Manmohan Singh government agreed to suspend the decision to appease rebellious allies and the BJP-led opposition after they refused to allow Parliament to function over the issue.