The furor over the decision of the Union Cabinet to allow 51% Foreign Direct Investment in the retail sector has stalled Parliament from functioning and leading to wrangling with political parties from the far Right (BJP) to the Left shouting down the rationale put forth by the ruling Congress led government at the Centre. Even the allies, in particular the Trinamol Congress, with 18 seats in the Lok Sabha, they are not willing to support the move for opening up the retail sector to FDI. With an unrelenting Opposition and little support from its largest ally, the Manmohan Singh government has now decided to ‘holdback’ FDI in retail and a final decision would be taken only after consulting all Opposition parties. It is still not clear whether the Opposition is now convinced about the government’s decision but the BJP seems to be demanding not just a hold back but a complete roll back of the government’s decision. This is somewhat an immature way of dealing with the issue and parties like the BJP, which apparently mentions about FDI retail in its party manifesto, appears to be in a hurry to return to power by dislodging the UPA government through a vote on this issue. If the government has accepted the ‘sense’ of the Opposition not to go ahead with its decision, there is no reason why the BJP and Left parties should continue disrupting Parliament. Checks and balances are no doubt good for democracy and good governance but going overboard by curtailing a healthy debate in Parliament is also unparliamentarily. The main Opposition BJP and the Left parties must allow Parliament to resume so that the fear and confusion arising out of the Cabinet decision allowing FDI in retail can be addressed by the government of the day.
In a country like India something like an FDI is always going to be contentious given the vibrant political culture of a multi-party system. On the one hand the government of the day must be given the benefit of doubt while taking important policy decision/s, after all that is the area of the political executive to take a call on policy matters. Having ruled at the Centre, the BJP will hopefully be mindful of this aspect because tomorrow it may face a similar situation where as the executive in power it may want to initiate policy upfront. If the legislature of the day i.e the opposition parties are always looking for a fight, then how will the government function and take vital decisions. Hopefully a self regulatory mechanism can be found within the present system of parliamentary democracy where a check can be kept on the power of both the executive and legislature. Neither wing of the government should become omnipotent at the cost of the other. This will be unhealthy for the functioning of our government system. Coming back to the FDI in retail sector, while the UPA government may have wanted to take forward what was already a known policy (including to the BJP), nevertheless, given that such a decision could be controversial, the manner in which this was done, could have been different. The Manmohan Singh government is now faced with the embarrassment of ‘holding’ back its decision and calling for more consultation on the issue. The question is why this inclusive approach of reaching out could not have been done earlier. Why is this present government always in damage control mode? They did this with the Telangana decision and now the FDI in retail, to name only two that is. The latest dysfunction witnessed in our parliamentary democracy only goes to show that firstly we need to get back to substantive issues and not merely playing to the gallery (this is for the opposition). Secondly for the government of the day it is a lesson that in this age of coalition multi-party environment, due care must be taken towards better political management, which the present UPA government seems to be lacking.
In a country like India something like an FDI is always going to be contentious given the vibrant political culture of a multi-party system. On the one hand the government of the day must be given the benefit of doubt while taking important policy decision/s, after all that is the area of the political executive to take a call on policy matters. Having ruled at the Centre, the BJP will hopefully be mindful of this aspect because tomorrow it may face a similar situation where as the executive in power it may want to initiate policy upfront. If the legislature of the day i.e the opposition parties are always looking for a fight, then how will the government function and take vital decisions. Hopefully a self regulatory mechanism can be found within the present system of parliamentary democracy where a check can be kept on the power of both the executive and legislature. Neither wing of the government should become omnipotent at the cost of the other. This will be unhealthy for the functioning of our government system. Coming back to the FDI in retail sector, while the UPA government may have wanted to take forward what was already a known policy (including to the BJP), nevertheless, given that such a decision could be controversial, the manner in which this was done, could have been different. The Manmohan Singh government is now faced with the embarrassment of ‘holding’ back its decision and calling for more consultation on the issue. The question is why this inclusive approach of reaching out could not have been done earlier. Why is this present government always in damage control mode? They did this with the Telangana decision and now the FDI in retail, to name only two that is. The latest dysfunction witnessed in our parliamentary democracy only goes to show that firstly we need to get back to substantive issues and not merely playing to the gallery (this is for the opposition). Secondly for the government of the day it is a lesson that in this age of coalition multi-party environment, due care must be taken towards better political management, which the present UPA government seems to be lacking.
