HARSIMRAT KAUR BADAL: FDI - A death-knell for farmers, traders

New Delhi. December 5, 2012: Harsimrat Kaur Badal, Member Parliament from Bathinda in Punjab today asserted that Foreign Direct Investment or FDI in multi-brand retail will sound the "death knell" for small industries and traders.
She accused the government of having failed to evolve a political consensus on the controversial issue.
In her speech delivered in Lok Sabha today she said, “We cannot even imagine that any government would barter away the livelihood of thousands of poor people to foreign Multi Nation Retail Giants just to gain global acceptance and corporate appreciation.
She further said that Why would the government be so desperate to implement the Policy that they were even willing to allow it to the discretion of the states? Has government in our country become such a joke that our Congress-Ruled state will implement FDI to please the Multi Nationals and render thousands jobless for 5 years so that the next government can come and revoke FDI in the state since its at the State Government’s discretion. And what happens to the poor displaced retailers, traders, labourers and harassed farmers for the entire five years while one government opens shops and the other closes shop. What kind of a divisive logic is this? A scheme can either be good for a country as a whole or detrimental.
An FDI Policy that should have aimed to strengthen infrastructure and boosted further export of Indian goods and created further avenues for employment turned out to be an FDI Policy that jeopardizes the livelihood of crores of Indian traders, shopkeepers, hawkers, labourers, farmers, salesmen and a host of others. To benefit a Multi Billion Dollar turnover foreign companies that make billions of dollars of profits each year by squeezing out these poor people and monopolizing the market and dictating the prices. The current FDI Policy framed by the Congress Government is nothing short of selling your own country and your own people at the hands of foreigners. But I guess on the eve of elections a party that’s been mired in controversies for rampant and enormous corruption, spiraling prices and declining growth rate, some major carrots needed to be dangled to entice the disgusted voter. Hence this open bribery of 10 crore people under the guise of the Aadhar Scheme and the deceptive FDI policy that is being touted to win over rich corporates at the cost of the poor man.
She said that the status of her country today as she sees 1.2 billion population engaged in various process of earning a living majority through farming, many through buying, selling and manufacturing together they employ millions of workers and laoburers, who support their families on the income generated by these farmers, traders and manufacturers. Today the Indian economy in its current state sustains the livelihood of 1.2 billion people who themselves are also the producers, sellers, manufacturers and consumers. It is a complete circle. The top Multi Brand Giants in the world  Walmart, Tesco, Carrefour and Metro, own 24,000 stores worldwide employing 33,60,000 people which averages to 140 employees per store.In a city having  minimum 10 lakh population there are at least 35,000 different types of traders employing hundreds of thousands of dependent workers and labourers.So when the government say FDI in retail will create jobs will they  explain how a foreign Multi-Brand Retailers that eats up the business of thousands of traders and labourers but employ only 140 people in its store is creating jobs or joblessness.
Referring to the Government claims of FDI will bring investment in infrastructure, she said that as per government’s own admission we need 7687 crores to build required Warehousing and Storage infrastructure all over the country. In a country where Rs.4,00,000 crores is being planned for Aadhar, does this amount justify the FDI in retail that will ruin crores of small traders ?FDI in warehousing and cold storage was allowed in our country more than a decade back but not a single FDI has come in this sector because any infrastructure a foreign company invest its money will only be for exploitation of farmers to amass profits not to benefit farmers or India.Provisions of infrastructure is the responsibility of the National Government NOT Foreign Investor ?
Regarding Kapil Sibal’s claims that 35 to 40% food is wasted and FDI’s backend infrastructure will eliminate this. But ICAR, Indian Council of Agriculture Research, the premier research body under the Government’s own Agriculture Ministry in its report to government dated September 2010 clearly states that food wastage in India between 0.8% to 10%.  Who should the country believe the Minister or the Government data. Or has the real figures so shaped because it suits the government’s FDI argument? She made a special mention of Punjab, the agrarian state, whose economy depends on its 12 lakh small and marginal farmers.In 1998 Pepsi entered into a tripartite agreement with Voltas i.e. Tata and Punjab Government to benefit Punjab farmers.Reality is that the Fruits and Vegetables Process Plant set up in Hoshiarpur mainly for tomato processing was sold off by Pepsi after a few years and poor contract farmers who had been wooed into diversifying into tomato cultivation after incurring debt to purchasing machinery for tomato cultivation were left high and dry and forced to revert back to traditional crops.The potato Chips manufacturing plant set up by Pepsi in Sangrur purchases majority of its potatoes from outside Punjab. Only a handful of big potato growers are able to supply - NO small farmers were able to supply any potatoes. She also quoted Jaswinder Singh Sangha who heads the Jalandhar potatoe Growers Association who is farmer engaged with Bharti Walmart  “We supply baby corn. The contract price fixed was Rs 8 a kilo. But they usually bring the price down by Re 1 a kilo saying it is below specifications or reject some lots,” Sangha says. “Despite producing pesticide-free vegetables, finally the price works out to a mere Rs 1 to 50 paise a kilo more than what the mandis give. Also, the vegetables we pick in the evening first go to their collection centres for sorting and grading and reach retail stores on the third day, when they are no more fresh.”
Jalandhar’s Rana Jung Bahadur, known as the Potato King, says the farmer is not yet part of the supply chain as FDI wholesale stores such as Bharti Walmart and Metro Cash & Carry as well as Indian retail chains such as Reliance Fresh and Birla More are still buying from mandis. “With FDI, retail chains will have to enter into forward contracts with farmers for developing a supply chain. In case of any loss due to natural calamities, normally market forces compensate as prices move up. But in case of pre-fixed contracts, the farmer will be at the mercy of retail chains,” he says.
 She said 250,000 farmers have committed suicide since 1997 due to unnecessary monopolies on seeds and chemicals, raising costs of inputs and deepening debt. When Big Foreign Retailers monopolize the market whose profits depend on buying cheap from the farmers and selling at higher costs to make their billion dollars profits, do you really think it will benefit the farmers and get them better prices.
Jab Yeh Desi Sarkar Desh Ka Bhala Nahi Kar Sakati Toh Vedeshi Multi-National Kya Karengi ?
So I would urge the government to recall the words of Mahatma Gandhi, the Father of the Nation who once asked “if my brother the weaver is out of work because of imported cloth, then how can I be better off by it.”
I today repeat the question to this government. In our country in 53 cities or even if I say in 18 Congress ruled cities if a single kiryana store, Paan Beedi store, Hawker, Labourer, farmer, manufacturers are put out of work because of a foreign multination selling 70% foreign manufactured goods then how is our India to be better off by it, than now when it grows and produces Indian goods and crops to sell through Indian retailers to Indian consumers, thereby providing livelihood and generating jobs for the 1.2 billilon people that make up this country.
Yes faisla is sarkar ne aur usse smarthan karne wali har ek party ne desh ke saamne rakhna hai ki who desh ke saath hai yaa videshiyon ke saath hai.