A leading opposition politician threatened on Friday to set fire to any Wal-Mart store that opens in India after the government cleared a contentious plan to let global supermarkets set up shop.
The government announced on Thursday it would open up the long-protected retail sector, worth at least US$470 billion in annual sales, to allow Wal-Mart, Tesco and other global firms to hold a 51 percent stake in multi-brand retailers.
“By allowing Wal-Mart to directly invest in the retail sector, the government has jeopardized the job opportunities of the poor,” said Uma Bharti, a prominent member of the main opposition Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP).
“I will personally set fire to the [Wal-Mart] showrooms when they open anywhere in the country and I am ready to be arrested for the act,” Bharti said, according to the Press Trust of India news agency.
There was no immediate comment from Wal-Mart.
She called for a “new freedom struggle” against the government decision.
Foreign multinationals have lobbied for years to sell directly to consumers in the world’s second-most populous nation.
Multi-brand foreign groups such as US-based Wal-Mart now operate as wholesalers in India, but cannot sell directly to the public and the vast majority of consumers shop at small local markets.
Critics have worried that modern, large-format stores would drive small shops out of business, despite assurances from industry figures that the growing market is big enough to embrace all models.
Currently, family-run stores account for 90 percent of the sector, the second-largest employer after agriculture in the country of 1.2 billion people.
The BJP sought to distance itself from the comments of Bharti, widely regarded as a political maverick, who served for a short time earlier in the decade as chief minister of the central state of Madhya Pradesh.
“The party does not believe in burning down stores, although there may be a lot of anger among the common people” over the government’s new policy, BJP leader Murli Manohar Joshi told reporters.
The Congress-led government has been seeking to fend off charges of “policy paralysis” and reassert its leadership after being engulfed in a string of corruption scandals.
Its decision to open up the retail sector on Thursday was seen as a sign of its intention to press ahead with a reformist agenda, despite strong political opposition.
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