New Delhi: Union Minister Kapil Sibal on Monday welcomed BJP leader Arun Shourie's remarks backing the hike in diesel prices and said his party should listen to his "good advice".
"I hope Arun Shourie is being listened to by BJP. I think he is giving good advice to BJP and BJP should listen to him," Sibal told reporters here.
Shourie, a former Union minister, has said he has hailed only one step of Prime Minister Manmohan Singh and that was hike in diesel prices. On allowing FDI in retail, he said the move will neither lead to any profit nor any loss.
Addressing a function here, Sibal strongly supported the government's move on allowing FDI in multi-brand retail and said the opposition being witnessed now was also seen when the government had opened up the automobile sector, which is more robust today than any other sector.
"There is a great worry about FDI in multi-brand retail. The same worry was expressed when we opened up the automobile sector and the other sectors that... Foreign industry would (affect the domestic market). So what...”
"The fact is that today our automobile component sector is perhaps more robust than any other sector anywhere in the world...," the HRD minister said.
Sibal said that this happened because the government put a policy in place and the industry seized it.
PTI
First Published: Monday, September 24, 2012, 19:50