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No compromise

Mamata rigid on demand, says govt must reverse decisions on major economic reforms

Our Correspondent, New Delhi
A day after withdrawing support to the Congress-led UPA government, Trinamool Congress Chief Mamata Banerjee yesterday ruled out any compromise regarding her demand for reversing of the decision on major economic reforms taken by the Indian government.
Meanwhile, the Congress, which falls short of parliamentary majority after the exit of Trinamool Congress from the United Progressive Alliance (UPA), is struggling to shore up support for the government led by Prime Minister Manmohan Singh.
"I will stick to my position," said the chief minister of the Indian state of West Bengal, adding all six ministers from Trinamool would resign if the federal government did not backtrack on its decision to hike diesel price, limit the use of subsidised cooking gas and allow foreign
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investments in the retail sector.
Rejecting Finance Minister P Chidambaram's statement in Delhi in the morning, she told reporters in Kolkata that nobody from Delhi had contacted her before or after the decision was taken.
Chidambaram earlier said the prime minister had left a message for Mamata four days back but she had not so far responded to that.
"I was never informed of the decision on allowing FDI in retail. I will request Congress leaders not to distort facts," Mamata said. A minimum of 24 cylinders should be given to a family in a year and FDI (foreign direct investment) in retail should be withdrawn.
On September 14, the day the Indian cabinet took the decision, she had told Congress President Sonia Gandhi that the Trinamool Congress opposed the move, Mamata said.
Recalling a statement of former finance minister Pranab Mukherjee, now the president of India, that FDI in retail would not be implemented unless political parties reached a consensus, she said this was a commitment the government must adhere to.
Criticising the federal government, she said it had a tendency to raise petroleum prices by Rs 7-8 a litre every time it went for hiking the fuel prices and then bring the prices down by Rs 1 only to claim it had reduced the prices.
"They [referring to the government] started reforms in 1992. Even now, they are raising prices citing international prices. What are reforms for if they are not for the common man?"
She told the Congress that the UPA was not a singleparty government but it had taken all the decisions unilaterally.
Meanwhile, Manmohan Singh held talks with Sonia Gandhi as well as senior cabinet colleagues to firm up a strategy to respond to the crisis caused by the withdrawal of support by Trinamool Congress to his government.
Trinamool's six ministers would submit their resignations on Friday and 19 MPs would cease to offer support in parliament.
The withdrawal of Trinamool Congress's support has brought the Manmohan-led government's strength down to 254 members, 18shortofmajority in the 543-member Lok Sabha.
However, since Samajwadi Party and Bahujan Samaj Party are supporting the UPA government from outside, its strength reaches beyond 300.
Congress insiders believe the party will be able to regain a maj ority in parliament when the party council reconvenes in November.
But observers said the prospect of the government making progress in enacting the bold economic reforms, which were criticised by Trinamool, Samajwadi Party and BSP besides the entire
opposition, were diminished because the ruling party would not have parliamentary majority to push through key legislations relating to the reforms.
The reforms unveiled last week include allowing foreign direct investment in retail, permitting foreign airlines to pick up stakes in Indian airways and a 12-percent hike in the price of subsidised diesel. The number of subsidised cooking gas cylinders available to households was also cut in half.
Because of this, bolder reform proposals involving banking, insurance and pension sectors now look very difficult to push through, analysts said.
However, the prime minister and the finance minister have ruled out the possibility of reversing the policies, saying that those were necessary to cut the government's ballooning subsidy bill and to bring in foreign capital and investment.
Meanwhile, opposition parties, including Bharatiya Janata Party and Left, have separately called a countrywide general strike today in protest against the economic reforms.
Senior BJP party leader L K Advani said the party was planning to demand a special session of parliament to discuss the issue of FDI in retail. But BJP’s key ally Janata Dal (United) is not in favour of this move. .