So to begin with I made a mistake today. A mistake of following the Parliament debate on allowing Foreign Direct Investment (FDI) in multi-brand retail. Honestly I was confused about the pros and cons of FDI and so I wasted time listening the speeches from the parliament. While people from the parliament were supposed to be wise men ,with all due respect I must say, they all turned out to be jokers - each one of them Sushma Swaraj, Kapil Sibal, Mulayam Singh etc. What these jokers conducted wasn't a debate it turned out to be a circus, of stupid speeches and statements.
Sushma Swaraj, (BJP)
Starting with Sushma Swaraj, who perhaps initially forgot the debate was on FDI and began discussing about the section 184 under which the debate was being conducted. Dear madam, why waste time talking about what Pranab Mukherjee or Anand Sharma said last year ? Why waste time cribbing about the opposition not being consulted. Could you please talk about FDI? She did speak though. Some of her statements were so hilarious, she could easily beat Vir Das at stand up comedy. For example “Will Wal-Mart care about the poor farmer’s sister’s wedding? Will Wal-Mart send his children to school? Will Wal-Mart notice his tears and hunger?”...Well are the small scale retailers or Reliance retail doing that anyway? and even if they did this ain't a1980's movie and you ain't Rakhi Gulzar, for God Sake !
Saugata Roy, (TMC)
“I come from Bengal, where Siraj-ud-daulah lost the Battle of Plassey. Quoting Tagore, I can say, ‘they came as traders and became kings’.
Dear Mr Roy, this isn't your 18th century! We weren't a democracy then, it is today. Global awareness and news media were not the same in 18th century as today !
Kapil Sibal, (UPA)
“In 2004, the NDA tried to bring in FDI in retail to boost its India Shining campaign. What has changed now?”
How could the circus go on without Mr Sibal who's fond of moulding every discussion towards what NDA did. Sir UPA carried out 2G scam. But the NDA also followed the same policy!
Mulayam Singh Yadav, (SP):
Mr Yadav began his speech with words that showed how close minded he was "Aap kitna bhi tark dein,kitni bhi safaayi dein FDI desh ke hit mein nahi hai" ( You may give many arguments against it but FDI is for the best of the country)
"Agar FDI acha hota toh America mein FDI kyu nahi hai?" (If it were not good would America have adopted it). Is every good thing in America, Mr.Yadav?
“You will not benefit from this even in elections…We may not come to power at the centre but we will support you, and take support from you as well.”
Dear sir, would you ever think beyond elections and power? There is something called running the country and taking it forward as well !
Lalu Prasad Yadav, (RJD)
And with all these 'wise men' carrying out this wise debate ,how could Mr Lalu keep his mouth shut? He did petty name calling and called BJP jamoora (kids / young) ! Yes Mr.Yadav, BJP is a jamoora and we are nursery kids aren't we?
Summing up this useless article on a useless debate
Strangely enough though, the FDI debate in India seems to have gotten obsessed with China and Obama. Wal-Mart or not, we will always be a country obsessed with all things ‘foreign’ it seems!Coming back to my dilemma, I'm still not sure if FDI would overall prove useful but then I do have a message for all our leaders ,quoting Mr Sibal from this same circus type debate "We look beyond these walls.We look at the young.The excitement and hope in their eyes."...Dear Mr.Sibal, Yes there is hope in our eyes and when these hopeful eyes look for hope they look beyond your circus.
- The Hindu
