Lok Sabha needs to be dissolved
I wonder whether the Lok Sabha, the lower House, can last its full tenure till May 2014. The government has been in a minority since the Trinamool Congress of West Bengal withdrew its support a few months ago. The debate on the government decision to allow 51% to direct Foreign Direct Investment (FDI) in multi-brand retail showed how close Prime Minister Manmohan Singh's victory was -- 253 against 217 -- in the House attended by 471 members.
In fact, it is a pyrrhic victory because both the Samajwadi Party and Bahujan Samajwadi Party walked out with their members before the voting. Both the parties have between them 41 votes. Had even Mulayam Singh Yadav of the Samajwadi Party voted in favour of the motion, the government would not have been defeated as opposition leader Sushma Swaraj claimed in her emotional and well-argued speech in the house.
She was right when she said that some of those who spoke in favour of her motion were on the other side when it came to voting.
What made the two parties walk out to enable the government win is already in the public domain. The government-controlled Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI) has registered cases of corruption against the two leaders. They could not afford to annoy the rulers. Mulayam Singh and Mayawati realise that the sword of Damocles is hanging over their heads as long as this Lok Sabha lasts.
Maybe, it has dawned upon them after the opposition's defeat on FDI that it was in their interests to have the House dissolved as soon as possible and have fresh elections, particularly after their resounding victories in UP elections (Mayawati in the Lok Sabha polls and Mulayam Singh in the assembly election) are fresh in the voters' mind.
True, most of the sitting members are opposed to the dissolution because they are not sure whether they would get their party's tickets and even if they did, whether they would win. This may be in their interests but not that of Mulayam Singh Yadav and Mayawati who are bound to gain from early elections.
People in the country are sick of the present parliament, which does not function. A new Lok Sabha may be a different ballgame. Both the Congress and the BJP, the two main political parties, are so hostile to each other that the transaction of business after the FDI debate has become all the more difficult. The country needs growth so that there are more jobs and more money in the people's hands.
As far as the Manmohan Singh government is concerned there is a policy paralysis which would get worse when the opposition jointly challenges every decision in Parliament and on the streets. Largely, the situation has reached dangerous proportions because of corruption by the ruling party and the ineptness of ministers and bureaucrats who cannot handle ticklish problems.
A simple question is handling the distribution of food grains. How do you explain that one-fourth of the population goes to bed without food while some 60,000 tons of food grains are rotting in Punjab in the open, some of it as old as 15 years?
There is no accountability. The Centre has even ignored the Supreme Court's order that food grains should be distributed among the poor instead of allowing them to rot. FDI in retail is not going to improve the situation. Farmers will be hit and small shopkeepers may join the larger force of the unemployed.
Mulayam Singh Yadav may rue the day when he helped the government because his image as a socialist is in the mud. Even though he said he walked out keeping in mind the interests of farmers and small shopkeepers, he could have defended their case by supporting Sushma Swaraj's motion.
Probably, he and Mayawati have their eyes fixed on the next Lok Sabha elections. UP has 80 seats in the 545-member house. Have the two entered into a secret arrangement with the Congress for participation in government after the elections? Just as they supported the Congress to save its skin at the present juncture, they may do so after the results of the Lok Sabha polls.
Then the Congress would be desperately looking for allies to form the government because the party looks like lessening its current tally of 207. I am against FDI not because of ideological reasons but because it will adversely affect my country. Why do the advanced countries want only our markets and not the large work force we have?
In fact, the West has imposed strict visa restrictions and even students' entry is difficult. It has become fashionable for the West to downgrade India because it is a free society, not like China where the forced labour can produce things cheaper. Even the United Nations Development Programme (UNDP), supposedly independent, has lectured us not to try to effect "inclusive" growth because we would become a cropper.
The growth which is not intensive is neither just nor fair. The FDI has been imposed on us, we didn't want it.
Nonetheless, I want the debate on FDI in multi-brand retail to end. The entire country has done nothing in the last one year except weigh its pros and cons. True, the government has won. But it has to be vigilant about the way in which the advanced countries utilise our markets.
Flag follows the trade has been India's experience, starting with the East India Company and ending with the 150 years of British rule. This time the rule may not be direct, but they may be tempted to pull the wires from behind. I can understand the exigencies of politics which the ruling Congress had to cope with to win in the Lok Sabha.
The deals with Mulayam Singh Yadav and Mayawati are bad enough. But what is worse is the "concessions" promised to foreign investors. There may be offers which the governments do not easily concede. The behind-the-scenes things are always at the expense of the country's trade or business. I hope I am wrong. If I am not, it would be a sellout by the Congress to stay in power. The voters will not take this lightly when they go to polling booths in 2014 or earlier.
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