Govt will have to continue to manage, manufacture majority: Yechury

Undeterred by the defeat of the Opposition motion against FDI in retail in Parliament, CPI(M) today warned that the government would have to continue to "manage and manufacture" its majority as the Left parties move for annulment of and amendments to the related FEMA rules.

"The government will be hard-pressed now to go on managing and manufacturing their own majority," senior CPI(M) leader Sitaram Yechury said.

Yechury said the Left parties would move for annulment of and changes to the RBI amendments to the Foreign Exchange Management Act (FEMA) rules to allow FDI in multi-brand retail in both Lok Sabha and Rajya Sabha.

Maintaining that the Samajwadi Party, BSP and DMK had opposed FDI in retail but helped the government win the vote on the issue, he said these parties had placed the question of the government winning the vote higher than the merit of the policy on FDI.

"If these 31 MPs (SP-9, BSP-15, DMK-7 in Rajya Sabha) were honest to themselves, then the government would have lost in both the Houses," he said, later adding, "Each vote is a bargaining chip."

Replying to questions in this regard, Yechury said, "Something extra has happened...threat, intimidation, a bribe or a promise of doing something. Something has happened. ...I am not ruling out anything...There is definitely... something hanky-panky."

Elaborating, he said in 1993, the P V Narasimha Rao government won the no-confidence motion following which the JMM MPs bribery case came to light. In 2008, when Left parties withdrew support to UPA-I government headed by Manmohan Singh over the Indo-US nuclear deal, the 'cash-for-vote' scam happened.

Asked whether he was being "spiteful" after the defeat in Parliament, Yechury said, "No, we accept our defeat with grace... (but) am I wrong in accusing them of double-speak when the leader of DMK in Rajya Sabha says FDI means Foreign Direct Invasion and then he goes on to vote with the government?"

... contd.

ALSO READ

John Hopkins University invites Shivpal Yadav to deliver lecture on flood control

2G scam: Niira Radia likely to appear in court on May 28

Omar Abdullah apologises to family of Pak prisoner Sanaullah

Pak demands investigation into Sanaullah Ranjay's death