◗ FDI amendments ‘ big U- turn’ by govt, says Congress

The Congress on Wednesday termed amendments in Foreign Direct Investment by the government as a “big Uturn”. Senior Congress leader Anand Sharma said that this was done just to make a big splash before the visit of Prime Minister Narendra Modi to the Davos Summit. On the issue of 100 per cent FDI in single brand retail, Mr Sharma said, “I don’t think its going to make much change, because almost all the major brands of the world are already here as 100 per cent FDI was already allowed. This is done perhaps for the Prime Minister to make a statement at Davos.”

“As the BJP government allows 100 per cent FDI in single- brand retail by doing away the requirement of 30 per cent sourcing through ‘ Make in India’, the PM and FM’s duplicity and doublespeak stand exposed,” he added.

But Mr Sharma slammed the move of the government to divest its 49 per cent stake in Air India. “Air India has assets worth lakhs and lakhs of crores ( of rupees) in India and abroad. The government needs to inform the country what this policy will do. Don’t want a situation where Air India is sold for a song and all bilateral route rights are gone with that,” Mr Sharma said. He added that the UPA government had deliberately kept Air India out of the purview of FDI while it allowed 49 per cent FDI in the civil aviation sector.

The CPI( M) also strongly objected to foreign airlines investing in Air India. In a statement the party said, “Having taken the decision to privatise Air India, the Modi government is now moving towards handing over Air India to a foreign airline. The government should heed the recommendation of the parliamentary standing committee, which has asked the government to review its decision.”