Congress core group meets over parliament logjam
November 30th, 2011 - 3:10 pm ICT by IANS
New Delhi, Nov 30 (IANS) Top leaders of the Congress, including Prime Minister Manmohan Singh and party president Sonia Gandhi, are meeting here Wednesday to discuss the government’s decision to allow foreign equity in retail which has led to a parliament logjam.
The meeting of the Congress core group is being held at the Prime Minister’s House at 7, Race Course.
Finance Minister Pranab Mukherjee, Defence Minister A.K. Antony, Home Minister P. Chidambaram, Commerce Minister Anand Sharma and political secretary to the Congress president Ahmed Patel are attending the meeting.
The meeting, which started in the afternoon, comes after Mukherjee Wednesday met Congress MPs to discuss the standoff over the decision to allow foreign equity in retail.
The government’s known troubleshooter held a brief meeting with Gandhi at her 10 Janpath residence before meeting party MPs to allay their apprehensions on the decision to allow 51 percent foreign direct investment (FDI) in multi-brand retail and 100 percent in single brand retail, sources said.
The Congress’ meetings assume significance in the wake of opposition to the move even from within the party.
Congress MP from Uttar Pradesh Sanjay Singh Tuesday criticised the government, saying the move would hurt the poor and the timing was not right because of the upcoming assembly elections in his state.
Kerala Congress chief Ramesh Chennithala has written a letter to Singh, opposing the decision. He also requested Kerala Chief Minister Oommen Chandy not to implement the move in the state.
Standoff with the opposition has led to a logjam in parliament, which could not run at all for the first seven days of the 21-day winter session that began Nov 22 due to various issues, including FDI in retail.
- Congress in a huddle over FDI war with opposition - Nov 30, 2011
- FDI war: Deadlock deepens, BJP rejects Congress truce offer (Intro Roundup) - Nov 30, 2011
- FDI war: BJP refuses to budge, Congress backs government (Second Intro Roundup) - Dec 01, 2011
- FDI war: Congress, opposition daggers drawn (Roundup) - Nov 30, 2011
- PM speaks to Trinamool, DMK on FDI (Lead) - Nov 30, 2011
- Heat on FDI grows, government calls all-party meeting - Dec 05, 2011
- Recall of retail FDI regressive, disappointing: India Inc (Roundup) - Dec 07, 2011
- Congress core group meets again on FDI, no resolution - Dec 01, 2011
- Industry feels let down with recall of FDI in retail - Dec 07, 2011
- FDI roll back unlikely at all-party meeting - Nov 28, 2011
- All-party meeting called to end parliament stalemate - Dec 06, 2011
- FDI: Government mobilising numbers for adjournment motion, talks to allies (Roundup) - Dec 01, 2011
- PM responsible for parliament logjam: Gurudas Dasgupta - Dec 06, 2011
- Opposition insists on FDI rollback ahead of all-party meet (Roundup) - Dec 06, 2011
- FDI pause wins peace in parliament, disappoints India Inc. (Roundup) - Dec 07, 2011
Tags: ahmed patel, anand sharma, assembly elections, commerce minister, congress chief, congress president, home minister, logjam, manmohan singh, p chidambaram, party congress, political secretary, pranab mukherjee, prime minister manmohan, prime minister manmohan singh, ramesh chennithala, retail sources, sanjay singh, sonia gandhi, winter session