Country not ready for retail FDI: Trinamool Congress

New Delhi: The country was not ready for foreign investment in retail, the Trinamool Congress said on Thursday while blaming the government for keeping "international opinion" above national interest.

"Trinamool is against seeing India only as a market but the Congress-led minority government has rejected this idea. FDI is a Foreign Direct Instruction," Trinamool MP Derek O`Brien said in the Rajya Sabha during a debate on foreign direct investment (FDI) in multi-brand retail. "So low is the credibility of this government, it acts only on international opinion, Indian opinion does not seem to matter," he said. In opening retail FDI, he said, the "UPA government is behaving like a property dealer which starts decorating a drawing room without building a foundation". "This country is not yet ready for FDI in multi-brand retail. We need not FDI but HDI, human development index," he said. "When a government sidelines HDI and embraces FDI, it is sidelining people. It is selling India in wholesale. India deserves better," he said. The Trinamool Congress was an ally of the UPA-II government but withdrew its support after the government approved 51 percent FDI in multi-brand retail. IANS