New Delhi, Sep 17: NDA convenor and Janata Dal-United chief Sharad Yadav has appealed to UPA chairperson Sonia Gandhi to remove prime minister Dr Manmohan Singh, finance minister P Chidambaram and Planning Commission deputy chairperson Montek Singh Ahluwalia, saying these three were only concerned "about GDP growth".
Yadav said that the Manmohan Singh government has “gone overboard” and “should not further exist.”
Speaking to journalists here on Sunday, Yadav hit out at Prime Minister Manmohan Singh and said: “Unless the Manmohan Singh government takes corrective steps on these decisions (coal, diesel and FDI retail), it will have to go.”
There was no way that FDI in retail and multinational retailer Walmart would be allowed to enter India, Yadav warned.
Yadav compared the govt's steps to hike diesel price and allowing FDI in retail with the Emergency imposed 37 years ago, and said in 1975, the then Prime Minister Indira Gandhi opened the locks on democracy by holding elections but “what Dr. Manmohan Singh is doing is trying to close the doors on employment opportunities for crores of Indians and this lock cannot be opened once FDI in multi-brand retail comes.”
Yadav said, the coordinated Sept 20 Bharat Bandh by non-UPA parties will “culminate in the ouster of this government.”
Not only UPA ally Trinamool Congress, but outside supporters like Bahujan Samaj Party and Samajwadi Party were unlikely to back these measures (read FDI retail) that went against 90 per cent of small retailers, including vendors, said Yadav.
He said the unorganised retail sector which included all types of vendors, accounted for more than 90 per cent of retail trade. It contributed about 14 per cent to the GDP and absorbed seven per cent of the labour force.
Therefore, its displacement was the “most critical issue in the country.”
Opposing the diesel price hike, he demanded a complete rollback for the transporters ferrying essential commodities and farmers.
According to him, unless the government traded metals and mineral wealth of the country at advantageous rates, as is done by oil cartels, the country would always be burdened by oil imports at high rates.
