Congress ready to bite 'didi' bullet

Key UPA member Trinamool Congress on Friday reacted sharply to the government’s move to allow FDI in various sectors, especially the opening up of multi-brand retail, and set a 72-hour deadline for a complete withdrawal of the proposals. The Trinamool argument, as expected, was that the reforms went against the grain of the party’s ideology and they had earlier conveyed their refusal to be a party to such a decision.

The Congress appeared to have taken the plunge after careful consideration. Mulayam Singh Yadav and his party are restless no doubt, but they have given no concrete impression that they want to move into poll gear right away. Similarly, the demographics in West Bengal, with a significant percentage of anti-BJP Muslim vote, does not allow Mamata Banerjee to walk away that easily. The Congress had carefully studied how these parties weighed their options before the Presidential polls and finally decided to stand by the ruling coalition.

Of course, given Mamata Banerjee’s history of instability, there is every possibility that she might throw political calculations to the wind to take revenge on a Congress which keeps provoking her relentlessly. But there was every indication on Friday evening that she was caught on the wrong foot and had not anticipated such a widespread FDI in multiple sectors. It remains to be seen, however, how she would react finally when her parliamentary party meets next week.

In Kolkata, Trinamool leader and Union minister of state for health Sudeep Bandopadhyay said, “The decision is unexpected. We would oppose the decision. A few days ago, there was a UPA coordination committee meeting where Mamata Banerjee herself was present. In that meeting, it was decided that all big decisions will be taken after consultation in the coordination committee.”

The BJP was startled by the Congress move. It had hardly expected the Union Cabinet to outsmart their own think tank at the time when the dominant ruling party was expected to be down and out. Ravi Shankar Prasad, BJP chief spokesman and deputy leader in the Rajya Sabha, described the decision to allow FDI in multi-brand retail as taken under pressure from foreign players. He said that it “endangers the livelihood of 50 million retail traders”.

“What have we got in return? Nothing. The issue of outsourcing remains a problem in the United States,” he pointed out referring to the American President Barack Obama making an issue of outsourcing jobs to India. Prasad also said that the government had promised to take a decision with regard to FDI in retail only after wide consultations in Parliament, but the government has taken the decision in a hurry. “This amounts to breach of privilege,” he said.

Party spokesman and former civil aviation minister Rajiv Pratap Rudy said that his party was not opposed to FDI in civil aviation per se, but it wanted the Indian players to grow to a certain level where they can face international competition. He also sarcastically remarked, “This is being done to save one private player.” He was referring to Kingfisher Airlines’ Vijay Mallya.