Now it has come out openly that as the country’s agriculture minister between 1999 and 2001, Nitish Kumar had been part of the cabinet that endorsed 100 per cent FDI in multi-brand retail. But 11 years later as the chief minister of Bihar he is opposing it tooth-and-nail.

Nitish was Union agriculture minister when on February 1, 2000, the Vajpayee cabinet decided to allow FDI in multi-brand retail. A group of ministers was constituted to facilitate the proposal for allowing entry of foreign investors in the sector.

The proposal, which had the approval of the commerce and industry ministry, clearly stated, “India is losing out on many opportunities of growth and employment generation.”

The proposal was drafted by the then joint secretary in the commerce and industry ministry, M S Srinivasan, and it enumerated the advantages of FDI in retail sector.

“Huge capital infusion by foreign investors as modern organised retail business involves substantial investment in real estate, storage and transport logistics, IT applications, marketing and merchandising etc. A direct fallout of huge FDI in this sector would be employment generation, both direct and indirect,” the proposal said.

Nitish’s latest stand on the issue has come as a big surprise for his own bureaucracy. A senior IAS officer, who wished not to be quoted said recently that the chief minister’s opposition to FDI is surprising as his government has been reaping the benefits of liberalisation and economic reforms ushered in by the Congress and then aggressively pursued by the NDA, of which the JD(U) is a part.

“Even laymen know that liberalisation ushered in the revolution in information technology. It has improved overall productivity and growth. Like the IT sector, FDI in retail is also part of the economic reforms that India introduced in 1991 and has been following up on them,” he was quoted in The Telegraph.

“Creating fear psychosis against FDI is neither in the interest of the state nor its people,” he added.