FDI in retail An example: My village saw a kind of a “Super Market” for the first time six years ago. It is doing well. Babu’s kirana store and several other grocery shops in the bazaar are doing well too, as before. Now a hue and cry from the Opposition – “Walmart will devour the likes of ‘Babus’ if it comes to India” - while the ‘Babus’ of my village don’t even know who or what is ‘Walmart’. They don’t have the time to count their cash, leave alone to bother about a ‘Walmart’. On the other hand, The Secretary General of The Consortium of Indian Farmers Associations (CIFA), Mr. P Chengal Reddy confirmed again and again the benefits FDI will accrue the farmers and the consumers, whose combined population surpasses the country’s Babus’ by untold millions. The farmers and the consumers do concur with Mr. Reddy, only the ‘middle-milkers’ don’t. Why on earth then, the dumb UPA doesn't produce Mr. Reddy in the Parliament to call the Opposition's bluff? My village ‘Babu’ too wouldn’t mind sacrificing a day’s cash for an hour’s company with Mr. Reddy. Bennet Paes Assolna Goa
