Thaindian News

New Delhi, Nov 29 (IANS) The Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) Tuesday said that the government should either roll back the decision to allow foreign equity in the retail sector or get it approved in parliament.

Talking to reporters, Leader of Opposition in the Lok Sabha Sushma Swaraj also questioned the timing of the announcement for allowing the foreign direct investment (FDI) in the retail sector.

“The government has two options. First is that they roll back the decision and debate it, or they can discuss the issue in parliament under adjournment motion, followed by voting. If it is passed by the house, they can go forward with it,” Swaraj told reporters here.

The parliament logjam over the issue continued even after the government convened in the morning a meeting of leaders of political parties to convince them of the cabinet decision approving 51 percent FDI in multi-brand retail and 100 percent in single brand retail.

Leader of Opposition in the Rajya Sabha Arun Jaitley of the BJP said: “Going by what was expressed in the all-party meeting, the sense of house is against it.”

The BJP leaders said the United Progressive Alliance’s (UPA) constituents Trinamool Congress, DMK and the Muslim League were also against the FDI.

“Sudip Bandyopadhyay from the Trinamool Congress, Tiruchi Siva from the DMK and E. Ahamed from Muslim League spoke against the decision. They even said ‘roll back the decision, there is no need for discussion’. If they vote according to what they said in the all-party meet, it will have to be rejected, otherwise they can get it through,” Jaitley said.

He added that another key UPA constituent, the Nationalist Congress Party (NCP), though in favour of the FDI in retail, asked for a discussion to make the house function.

“Sharad Pawar (of the NCP) said he was in support of FDI in retail, but to break the stalemate and make the house function, the house should be allowed to debate over the decision,” Jaitley added.

The opposition has been pressing for an adjournment motion to discuss the issue of FDI in retail, followed by voting.

The BJP also rejected allegations that it had favoured FDI in retail in its manifesto.

“We only had 26 percent FDI in retail in our party agenda in 2004, but we revised our position and we are against it,” he said, adding “we are not against FDI in principle, but we are against FDI in this sector”.

The union cabinet last week passed a decision to allow FDI in retail, which has been opposed not only by the opposition parties but also government allies.

The opposition parties, including the BJP and its allies, the Left, the AIADMK, the Bahujan Samaj Party and the Samajwadi Party and UPA constituents like the Trinamool Congress and the DMK, have been demanding a rollback of the decision.