FDI chaos: No retreat, only shortest pause, says Congress

There will be an all-party meeting at 9.30am on Wednesday to resolve the foreign direct investment (FDI) in multi-brand retail logjam. The four-day weekend was used to resolve the stand-off between the government and the opposition on the one hand and the Congress and its allies, especially the Trinamool Congress (TMC), on the other. It seems, with little success. For FDI in multi-brand retail is still on hold, primarily because of the TMC.

The TMC is miffed. The TMC's Dinesh Trivedi, who is Union railways minister, was informed of the Cabinet meeting on FDI in retail only four hours in advance. Confirming the DNA report of Sunday, Trivedi told the paper on Monday, "The Cabinet note (on FDI in retail) came just four hours before the meeting. I opposed it strongly in the Cabinet meeting."

On Monday, Pranab, who is UPA's chief crisis manager, talked to leader of the opposition in the Lok Sabha, and BJP leader, Sushma Swaraj, and CPI-M leader in the Rajya Sabha, Sitaram Yechury. Later, he said he will make a statement on the policy issue in Parliament on Wednesday.

"We are yet to decide on the exact words of the statement. All that will be finalised on Tuesday," said Rajeev Shukla, minister of state for parliamentary affairs. An effort will also be made to pacify the still recalcitrant allies on Tuesday, sources said.

The BJP is yet to commit itself. "We have to first hear out what the government is saying and only then decide on our response," BJP spokesperson and Rajya Sabha member Ravi Shankar Prasad said.

The Left wants to know where the rest stand. "We insisted on the all-party meeting to find out where other political parties stand on the issue after all this debate," CPI(M) Lok Sabha member Basudeb Acharia told DNA when asked why the Left was unwilling to wait till Mukherjee makes a statement in the house. "There would be no scope for clarification inside Parliament once the government has made a statement," said Acharia.  

According to sources in the BJP, though the party remained opposed to FDI in retail, it was unwilling to commit itself "alone". The BJP appeared interested in knowing the exact "plan" of the government, questioning it on whether it would "hold back, keep the policy in abeyance or restructure policy directives".

According to CPI-M sources, Mukherjee told Yechury that the government would "put on hold" the decision to liberalise FDI. The party has, however, decided to get general secretary Prakash Karat to release a booklet on Tuesday on its opposition to the policy announcement. Trivedi told DNA on Monday that he hoped Mukherjee would put the policy on hold since he has "given word to" Banerjee.

The Congress, however, maintained there was no looking back on FDI. "There is no retreat, no blink but just a pause," said a Congress leader. "We are sure what we have done is correct, but we just have to convince the other political parties. We have not gone back on our stand on FDI. But in a democracy you keep going forward and back to accommodate the wishes of the allies. There is no harm in discussing the matter with an open mind," said Congress spokesperson Renuka Chowdhury.

The Congress leaders said that all allies were consulted in advance and that Banerjee's stand was motivated by political compulsions. "You talk to all allies when you have a collective government. But people take positions due to certain compulsions," said Chowdhary.