New Delhi, Sept 18 (ANI): The firebrand chief minister of West Bengal, Mamata Banerjee, whose Trinamool Congress (TMC) party is the key ally within the ruling Congress-led United Progressive Alliance (UPA) coalition, has been trying to force Prime Minister Dr. Manmohan Singh's government to flip flop on a string of policy issues including retail reforms and diesel price hike.
This time the rift between Banerjee and UPA seems to have widened after the former's 72-hour deadline to rollback diesel price hike, remove the cap on subsidised LPG cylinders and give up the plan to open up India's retail industry to foreign supermarkets ends today evening.
Last week India raised price of heavily subsidised diesel by 12 percent and restricted sales of subsidised LPG cylinders to six per consumer annually. A day later India's government announced the decision to allow foreign direct investment (FDI) in the supermarket sector, allowing global giants such as Wal-Mart and Tesco into India's $450 billion retail market.
"We are grateful that the government has realised and appreciated the value that we will bring to strengthen the Indian economy," Raj Jain, President of Wal-Mart India told Reuters.
Kishore Biyani, Chairman of Future Group, Mumbai told Reuters, "We are hoping this time the government will stick to its decision (allowing FDI in multi-brand retail) because that is absolutely essential."
The latest decisions of Indian government surprised all including its own supporting parties such as Samajwadi Party, the Bahujan Samaj Party and the Dravida Munnetra Kazhagam.
While leading a protest rally in Kolkata on last Saturday, Banerjee branded government's decision as anti-people move and gave an ultimatum of 72-hour to central government to rollback its decisions.
Last year India's government had to put the plans to open up its retail industry to foreign supermarkets on hold after Banerjee exerted intense pressure on Singh's government.
TMC's six ministers are in union ministry including Railways Minister Mukul Roy and rest of the five (Saugata Roy, Sudip Bandyopadhyay, Choudhury Mohan Jatua, Sultan Ahmed and Sisir Kumar Adhikari) are ministers of state.
But this time Singh's government seemed in no mood to cave in to the pressure of the defiant coalition partner.
"In my view, the government has taken this decision after due considerations, there should be no rollback. And if we fall into this habit of the government announcing (a decision) after discussion and rolls it back then our credibility would be zero," said Deputy chief of the Planning Commission of India, Montek Singh Ahluwalia in New Delhi on Tuesday.
However, Mamta Banerjee does not seem to be in a mood to compromise this time. "We have to take a decision which proves that we do not bark without a bite... we are ready to make tough sacrifices," Trinamool MP and Union minister Saugata Roy told Hindustan Times.
Now all eyes are focussed on the outcome of the crucial Trinamool Congress meeting in Kolkata. Will Mamta be able to force the beleaguered government to cave in to her demands or she decides to plug out her support? By Diwakar Kumar (ANI)
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