After calling UPA government “lame duck”, the leader of opposition in Rajya Sabha Arun Jaitley termed UPA’s FDI argument “vague and flawed”.

Saying that FDI in retail will kill manufacturing jobs and that the country needed to reform the manufacturing sector, Jaitley warned the government that India will become a nation of sales boys and sales girls.

“The direct impact of implementing FDI without reforming manufacturing sector will turn our nation into a nation of traders. We will have stores owned by the Americans, French, and British, selling Chinese products and India will become a nation of sales boys and girls,” he said.

Striking the difference between China and India, Jaitley said that the situation in India is completely different from China where 95 per cent of the products sold are manufactured inside the country. He tried to bring the government’s attention to the fact that both countries have different economic models.

Terming FDI in retail “anti-national”, Jaitley refuted the government’s argument that it will eliminate middlemen. “Killing middleman is not a solution and it won’t help farmers. Small middleman will go and ‘super’ middleman will crop up,” he said.

Quoting from the government report on FDI in multi-brand retail, Jaitley claimed that the statistics in the report were highly exaggerated. He alleged that a “horror situation” was created by the government to justify FDI.

Finally ending his offensive against the government’s arguments, Jaitley urged the government to withdraw FDI in multi-brand retail. “The arrogance of power may persuade you to be rigid, but please be humble. Please withdraw it,” he said.

He also appealed to the opposition to vote with ‘one voice’ to defeat the motion.

On a lighter note, he urged the government allies to vote against FDI keeping in mind their own people by saying that it was “not a time for thanksgiving”.

UPA won its first battle after the FDI in retail was passed by Lok Sabha on Wednesday evening by a margin of 35 votes (253/218) with the allies, SP and BSP, abstaining from it.

Jaitley said that those inside the government have been against FDI in retail. Although the allies abstained from voting which, in a way, was support to the government, they do not support FDI in retail, he added. “They say they will not let any store open in their region even if the government passes FDI in retail. How do you think you represent people’s sentiment?” Jaitley asked the government.

The leader of opposition also cited media reports in RS showing NCP’s ambivalence towards the FDI for which he was asked by the government to speak about what was said in the house. Following this cue, Jaitley challenged minister of IT and communications Kapil Sibal to open a store in his constituency and start a campaign from it and see if businessmen from his constituency voted for him.

Alleging that the government was blindly following western models of economic reforms, Jaitley said that “every change is not a reform”.

“Time has come when we should teach the western world our definition of economic reforms. Every reform model cannot be true in the Indian context. We need to apply our own economics,” Jaitley said.

The present stats in the house are as following:
For FDI
Congress 70
DMK 07
NCP 07
RJD 02
LJP 01
NC 02
Others 20
Total- 109

Against FDI
BJP 49
Left 14
TMC 09
JD(U) 09
BJD 07
TDP 05
AIADMK 05
Others 07
Total- 105

(Mayawati has declared that she will back the government and vote in favour of FDI.)