The Congress is confident of managing numbers in the Lok Sabha at a time when Trinamul Congress supremo Mamata Banerjee is planning to bring a no-confidence motion against the UPA government. The supporting Samajwadi Party is giving conflicting signals, while the ally DMK is opposed to the FDI in retail.
The Congress allies in the UPA may be with the government and unlikely to advance the Lok Sabha elections, but they are uncomfortable due to different reasons.
While the Jharkand Vikas Morcha (Prajatantrik) announced withdrawal of its support of two MPs to the government at the Centre in protest against its “anti-people policies”, the Maharashtra Congress has put the Nationalist Congress Party in the dock on the alleged scam in power projects. This has led to resignation of deputy chief minister Ajit Pawar.
But the Congress does not think that these developments are leading to its isolation in the ruling front. The Congress on Monday said the Manmohan Singh government is in majority and thus can take decisions.
“The government is not in minority. If some of our partners have concerns, we will continue to provide them the empirical evidence to allay their apprehensions. Same cycle was witnessed during the Indo-US nuclear deal,” party spokesman Manish Tewari told reporters in reply to a volley of questions on the issue of FDI in retail.
The Congress downplayed the DMK’s announcement that it would back any Opposition-sponsored resolution in Parliament against allowing FDI in multi-brand retail.
Making it clear that the government has full authority to take decisions, Mr Tewari said “at times when you break from the past, it is wrenching for some people”.
Dubbing as “false propaganda” that FDI is detrimental to the interest of domestic business, he said the principle secretary to Atal Behari Vajpayee, the late Brajesh Mishra, had also backed the nuclear deal signed by the UPA government.
He insisted that if India has to grow and reap the benefits of demographic dividend, decisions like FDI in retail were needed in larger and long-term interests of the country.
A section of the Congress feels the stands taken by various parties on issues like FDI at a time of perceived instability were essentially a posturing and not real threats.