An affiliate of the Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh (RSS), the Bhartiya Majdoor Sangh (BMS), has opposed the government’s recent easing of norms for Foreign Direct Investment (FDI).
The body has threatened to launch protests against the government, writing letters to both Prime Minister Narendra Modi and Finance Minister Arun Jaitley, asking them to call for a review of the decision by ‘stakeholders’.
Vrijesh Upadhyay of the BMS said that the there was a need to protect the retail sector of the economy, or it will collapse. The BMS, the trade wing of the RSS, has always opposed FDI. Upadhyay said that while the focus was on FDI, no one was concerned about Foreign Direct Outflow (FDO). He claimed that the volume of direct outflow was greater than the foreign investments the country was getting, demanding a white paper on all FDI investments till now.
Earlier this year, another Sangh affiliate, the Swadeshi Jagaran Manch (SJM) had opposed the decision to continue the UPA’s FDI policy in multi-brand retail.