Dr. Manmohan Singh and the votaries of FDI in multi-brand
retail know very well that it will do more harm than benefit the common man. In fact, in 2002, as leader of the
opposition in Rajya Sabha, Dr.Singh fought tooth and nail against the
introduction of FDI in retail. His colleague Mr. Priya Ranjan Munshi
castigating the BJP, which was in power then and who tried to bring FDI in
retail, said “it is anti-national to bring FDI in retail.” Now, the Congress and Dr. Manmohan Singh say FDI
in retail is pro- national and is to be welcomed, irrespective of merits or demerits. Moreover, experiences
of other countries show that the establishment of supermarkets by Walmart and others has led to excessive use
of pesticides, insecticides, fertilisers and other chemicals in the production,
preservation and storage of food products. Such stores have their own standards
according to which they buy the products (manufactured and agricultural). If a
product does not pass through that standard test, it will be dumped back on the
farmers, and because of the monopoly market, the farmer does not have any
other place to sell it. Thus the farmer always tries to produce products that
are uniform and standard. This needs huge amount of pesticides and leads to
loss of the numerous indigenous varieties of crops. These crops are highly
resistant and are fit for the local conditions; they will be of great use in present
times of climate change, when other crops are failing due to slight change in
condition. But with the pattern of agriculture being pushed by the
corporations, we will lose enormous bio-diversity, mother earth and the hard
working farmer has created over the thousands of years of civilization, and
forces monoculture in food. Under such circumstances, the large
format local corporate as well as foreign retail shops/stores (run by the
multinational retail giants of United States as well as Europe) are unsuitable
for the welfare of the people of the country. Thus, FDI in retail will add to
the troubles faced by the country in controlling environmental pollution and climate change and thereby cause severe health hazards
to the people.
Dr.C.Murukadas, NDTV, Nov.5, 2012
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