CPI(M) silent on whether it would vote against the UPA govt

The CPI(M)-led Left Front today held a 12-hour bandh in West Bengal against FDI in retail, but refused to state whether it would vote against the UPA government if there was a confidence motion in the Lok Sabha, saying it was a "hypothetical question."

"It is not right to answer a hypothetical question," Left Front chairman Biman Bose told a press conference where he claimed the bandh, also against diesel price hike and cap in the number of LPG cylinders, was a success.

To a question whether the Left would vote against the motion should the Congress-led UPA government move a confidence vote in the Lok Sabha in the prevailing situation, Bose, a CPI(M) politburo member said, "The question is based on hypothetics and I cannot answer hypothetics."

The Left Front chairman claimed the way the government was trying to bring in FDI in retail would be very harmful for the people.

"When supremacy of supermarket chain will be established, they will do away with discounts which they initially give to customers to put small shops out of business," Biman Bose said.

Bose claimed that in its election manifesto for the 2009 Lok Sabha elections, the Trinamool Congress had talked of large-scale foreign and domestic investment in small and retail business and alleged that, "It is now making a u-turn on its earlier stand."