Vedanta-Foxconn’s pact invited ire from Opposition

The Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) signed with the Gujarat government on Tuesday is billed as the largest-ever investment by any corporate group in an Indian state

Mumbai Indian industry leader Vedanta and Taiwanese electronics giant Foxconn’s pact to set up a ₹1.54 lakh crore semiconductor and display manufacturing unit in Gujarat invited the ire of opposition leaders in Maharashtra who slammed the Eknath Shinde-Devendra Fadnavis government for their “failure” to bring the project to Maharashtra even though the Maharashtra Vikas Aghadi (MVA) government was reportedly in the final stages of talks with the conglomerate.

Thackeray said the mega project would have supported 160 ancillary industries and generated 70,000 to 100,000 employment opportunities (ANI)

The Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) signed with the Gujarat government on Tuesday is billed as the largest-ever investment by any corporate group in an Indian state and is expected to create 100,000 direct jobs.

Shiv Sena leader and former environment minister Aaditya Thackeray said on Tuesday that MVA government was working to bring this investment to the state and a site for the project had been finalised at Talegaon near Pune. Questioning the reason for the conglomerate to renege on the plan, he called it “a big loss for Maharashtra.”

Thackeray said the mega project would have supported 160 ancillary industries and generated 70,000 to 100,000 employment opportunities. He said the previous MVA government was in touch with the company and a meeting had also taken place with its representatives in January this year.

Thackeray said, “What was the government doing? What was the industries minister doing? On July 26, the CMO tweeted that the plant will come up in Maharashtra.”

Taking to Twitter on Tuesday, Thackeray wrote a series of posts attached to a screenshot of Vedanta Resources Limited chairman Anil Agarwal, which announced the news of the MoU.

“Although I’m glad to see this in India, I am a bit shocked. The new dispensation had tweeted photos, claiming to have brought this to Maharashtra, but it seems its intent was to send this away from Maharashtra. Our MVA Govt had brought this to final stage.”

Adding that he was not upset at the investment going to Gujarat, Thackeray said, “The question is why did they [the conglomerate] go to another state when everything had been decided.”

Shiv Sena leader and former industries minister Subhash Desai said that he and Thackeray had met Agarwal at the World Economic Forum (WEF) at Davos in May, and had even held a meeting with Foxconn officials in New Delhi.

“After these positive discussions, only the work on signing the papers remained. But, meanwhile our (MVA) government had to go… this project was of great importance to Maharashtra as it would have given a boost to (ancillary) industries here,” Desai said.

According to the officials from the industries department, the Maharashtra government had offered 30% capital subsidy on investment by Vedanta-Foxconn. It had also offered 35% concession on the land cost and waiver of 25% on the power bills for 15 years. The potential investors were also offered concessions in stamp duty and electricity duty. A meeting to this effect took place in July with the representatives of the companies.

Industries minister Uday Samant said they would get to the bottom of why Gujarat was chosen as the investment destination.

“The follow-up [with the conglomerate] had been taking place for the past 1.5 years by the Maharashtra government. I took charge as industries minister just 20 days ago. The new CM was sworn in two months ago... After we formed the government, we planned to give more incentives to this company. Despite that, they chose Gujarat. We will seek more information about this,” he added.

Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) leader and former minister Ashish Shelar said the MVA had failed to woo Vedanta-Foxconn by offering a better investment package. “The previous MVA government failed to bring the project to Maharashtra. The Thackeray government had always been against the projects and investment. They opposed the bullet train, and stood against the refinery project which had proposed the investment of $ 44 billion. It is saddening that Maharashtra could not bring the project, but Shiv Sena and other MVA constituents are shedding crocodile’s tears.”

The opposition leaders alleged that the Union government had played a role in sending the investment away from Maharashtra.

“In such large investments, the word of the Union government carries weight… [can] the Central government divert industries from Maharashtra to other states, especially Gujarat?” he asked.

Jayant Patil, state president of the Nationalist Congress Party (NCP), said that the project was almost finalised by the previous MVA government. “It appears that they [the BJP] wanted the project in Gujarat in the backdrop of Gujarat assembly elections this year and thus the Maharashtra government remained silent,” Patil said.

“There is a question over the law-and-order situation… and considering these things, how many investors would like to come here?” Thackeray said, referring to the fracas that broke out between supporters of rival factions of Sena on Saturday.

“This is betrayal of Maharashtra by Shinde-Fadnavis govt. CM Fadnavis had declared in 2015 that Foxconn would invest $5 bn. MVA tried to make it happen. Govt changed & it’s gone to Gujarat just like how IFSC was taken away with an aim of weakening Maharashtra & benefit Gujarat,” said Congress general secretary Sachin Sawant in a series of tweets on Tuesday.