<p>Describing BJP as pro-reforms, its president Rajnath Singh has defended the party's decision to oppose FDI in multi-brand retail arguing that such a move would aggravate the unemployment problem in India.<br /><br /></p>.<p>Asserting that the BJP is open to more FDI in the Indian economy, Singh said his party is however opposed to the Foreign Direct Investment in multi-brand retail.<br /><br />"We believe that retail trade is a traditional sector, which provides employment to 50 million people. They have traditional skill in retail trade.<br /><br />"So bringing in FDI in multi-brand retail would result in unemployment problem in the country. So we have reservations related to FDI in multi-brand retail sector," Singh told reporters yesterday.<br /><br />BJP is a pro-economic reform party, he said.<br /><br />"It was the NDA Government led by Atal Bihari Vajpayee which gave the maximum impetus to economic reform and accelerated the process," he added.<br /><br />"The impression that BJP is against economic reforms is not correct. We are pro-economic reforms," he said.<br /><br />Singh refuted the allegations that the Congress-led UPA Government can't carry on major economic reform ahead of the next year's general elections because the main opposition parties like the BJP are not letting the Parliament function.<br /><br />"It is not the case that Parliament has not functioned in the past nine years," he said in response to a question.<br /><br />During his stay in Washington, Singh met a host of leaders of the US corporate sector and listened to their concerns about India.<br /><br />In his meetings, Singh raised the concerns of Indian IT industry sector on certain provisions, in particular those related to the H-1B and L1 visas in the comprehensive immigration bill.<br /><br />This needs to be addressed by the United States, as this will badly impact the Indian IT companies, he argued.<br /><br />As far as the civilian nuclear liability bill is concerned, there was news that Finance Minister P Chidambaram during his recent trip to the US assured the Americans that he would have some sort of negotiations with the US, Singh said.<br /><br />"As far as our stand is concerned, on this nuclear liability bill, whatever is being done is as per the law passed by the Indian Parliament," Singh added.</p>
<p>Describing BJP as pro-reforms, its president Rajnath Singh has defended the party's decision to oppose FDI in multi-brand retail arguing that such a move would aggravate the unemployment problem in India.<br /><br /></p>.<p>Asserting that the BJP is open to more FDI in the Indian economy, Singh said his party is however opposed to the Foreign Direct Investment in multi-brand retail.<br /><br />"We believe that retail trade is a traditional sector, which provides employment to 50 million people. They have traditional skill in retail trade.<br /><br />"So bringing in FDI in multi-brand retail would result in unemployment problem in the country. So we have reservations related to FDI in multi-brand retail sector," Singh told reporters yesterday.<br /><br />BJP is a pro-economic reform party, he said.<br /><br />"It was the NDA Government led by Atal Bihari Vajpayee which gave the maximum impetus to economic reform and accelerated the process," he added.<br /><br />"The impression that BJP is against economic reforms is not correct. We are pro-economic reforms," he said.<br /><br />Singh refuted the allegations that the Congress-led UPA Government can't carry on major economic reform ahead of the next year's general elections because the main opposition parties like the BJP are not letting the Parliament function.<br /><br />"It is not the case that Parliament has not functioned in the past nine years," he said in response to a question.<br /><br />During his stay in Washington, Singh met a host of leaders of the US corporate sector and listened to their concerns about India.<br /><br />In his meetings, Singh raised the concerns of Indian IT industry sector on certain provisions, in particular those related to the H-1B and L1 visas in the comprehensive immigration bill.<br /><br />This needs to be addressed by the United States, as this will badly impact the Indian IT companies, he argued.<br /><br />As far as the civilian nuclear liability bill is concerned, there was news that Finance Minister P Chidambaram during his recent trip to the US assured the Americans that he would have some sort of negotiations with the US, Singh said.<br /><br />"As far as our stand is concerned, on this nuclear liability bill, whatever is being done is as per the law passed by the Indian Parliament," Singh added.</p>