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The opposition to FDI in retail is falling off the shelf Left, Right and Centre. It is mostly politics not economics.
And politics tends to bring out the worst in anyone, especially political parties. Just turn to what the BJP has done. Its Right ideology seems to have sprung a leak, dampening foreign investors eyeing the retail sector. The other day, the leak burst with the party saying that if elected to power it would flush down the policy! By virtually red-flagging potential investors, it has plumbed a level it should not have. Unless, of course, it is precluding its getting the seat!
If reforms have not broken water since the time they were introduced in 1991, it is thanks to the various political combos keeping the pipeline open, barring the ebb and flow. A couple of combos have even included the perennial nay-dribblers — the Left. Even they have kept their hands off the faucet. But, now, the BJP, batting for its shop-keeper constituency, says it will white-wash the policy.
Even if foreign majors are not exactly beating a path to India, it is not quite cricket for the BJP to hold out such threats. It could have conveyed its displeasure with the policy and rested its case or said it would create a political consensus for a re-look at the policy. With detractors within and on the Left and the Right, the UPA faces wholesale problems on retail!!
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