Sharma asks Modi to withdraw Raje's retail FDI decision

Commerce and Industry Minister Anand Sharma wants Gujarat Chief Minister Narendra Modi, prime ministerial candidiate of the Bharatiya Janata Party, to ask Rajasthan chief minister Vasundhara Raje to withdraw the decision of her government on not allowing foreign direct investment (FDI) in multibrand retailing.

"They (BJP) should put it in their manifesto,” he told reporters here on Tuesday. According to Sharma, a state government's decision to allow FDI in multibrand retailing is irrevocable, "exercised and exhausted”. After ousting the Congress government in Rajasthan, the Raje regime  reversed the earlier decision to allow FDI here.

Last week Modi had stated small retailers must learn to work with large modern stores and online companies, indicating a possible change of stance by the BJP on retail FDI policy.

Sharma said foreign investors were repeatedly threatened with the BJP's threat to withdraw the decision on multibrand retail FDI, though it had been passed by the cabinet.