New Delhi:
A reluctant government is prepping to face a vote in Parliament on the contentious Foreign Direct Investment or FDI in multi-brand retail issue. As a first step, it has listed a bill on reservation in promotions on the Rajya Sabha's agenda today.
The two matters are unrelated, but the BSP has reportedly linked them. Mayawati's party, which provides crucial support to the Manmohan Singh government, is said to have made it clear that a constitutional amendment bill on quota in promotions must be brought in Parliament first if the government wants to secure its support on the FDI issue. With the BJP-led opposition adamant that it will not allow Parliament to function till FDI is debated and voted on, the quota bill might not see light of day yet. But the government has made its good intentions clear to its ally; it will also be saved from having to smoothen the ruffled feathers of another external partner, the Samajwadi Party, which opposes the quota bill.
An all-party meeting, called by the government, is currently on to try and break the logjam on the FDI issue. The government was being forced to walk the political tightrope before the all-party meeting because despite the many days the PM spent before this session began, planning strategy and consolidating support on the contentious move to allow big supermarkets like Walmart to set up shop in India, even UPA partners are still not on board. Shortly before the all-party meet, the PM met all Congress leaders, and then Samajwadi Party chief Mulayam Singh Yadav.
The opposition, led by the BJP, has kept up the pressure, forcing adjournments in both houses. The first two days of the month-long winter session were washed out last week. Commerce Minister Anand Sharma met Leader of the Opposition in Rajya Sabha, Arun Jaitley, in a bid to break the impasse on FDI.
While the Samajwadi Party and the BSP are bargaining hard, UPA partner DMK is yet to be convinced on the merits of FDI in retail. DMK chief M Karunanidhi reportedly told the Congress' troubleshooter Ghulam Nabi Azad at a meeting in Chennai yesterday that he has many reservations on FDI in retail. The DMK, which is the second largest member in the UPA after the Congress with 18 MPs, has sought another meeting to sort differences out. Though FDI in retail is optional and states can choose not to implement it, the DMK is worried that favouring it even tacitly would affect its votebank, particularly the Nadar community that comprises traders and vendors who oppose the policy change.
The government hopes to resolve the FDI crisis at the earliest as it needs to move important legislation including food security bill, Lokpal bill, whistle-blowers' bill and those relating to banking and insurance sectors in Parliament.
The UPA needs both the BSP and the SP to take its numbers to about 300 odd, safely across the halfway mark at 273 in the 545-seat Lok Sabha. Without them it has about 243 MPs. Though the government will not fall if it loses a discussion-and-vote in Parliament, it will be a crippling embarrassment as well as give the opposition an upper hand in its sustained refusal to accept FDI in retail. The BJP and the Left are pushing hard to debate the FDI issue under rule 184, that entails voting. The government has so far refused arguing that an executive decision does not need Parliament's nod.
To that the opposition claims that the government has gone back on its promise in Parliament that it would consult all political parties before making a decision on FDI in multi-brand retail. It points to statements on this made in both houses of Parliament by senior ministers last year. The government is expected to contend that it did consult key stakeholders like chief ministers and political parties.