Pranab Mukherjee had assured of consensus on FDI: Mamata

Accusing Trinamool Congress of double standards on the issue of retail FDI, West Bengal Left Front chairman Biman Bose on September 20 said the Mamata Banerjee-led party had argued in favour of the measure during last year’s assembly polls .

“They are now opposing retail FDI… but during the 2011 assembly polls they argued in favour of retail FDI in their election manifesto. They have clearly stated that they want FDI in retail. So what they are saying now and what they have said earlier is synonymous,” said Bose.
Earlier, Congress’ state unit too cited Trinamool’s manifesto to note that the Mamata Banerjee party had sought retail FDI.
“The Trinamool in its election manifesto during the 2011 elections asked for FDI in the state. Now they are opposing it,” state Congress president Pradip Bhattacharjee.

DOUBLE GAME

Miffed over the twin “anti-people decisions” of diesel price hike and FDI in retail, Trinamool Congress supremo and West Bengal Chief Minister Banerjee on September 18 announced that her party was withdrawing support to the United Progressive Alliance (UPA) government.

Bose demanded that the state government slash taxes on diesel prices to provide relief to the common man.

“In 2010, when Left Front was in power, we had reduced state tax on oil prices to provide relief to the masses. So why is the state government saying they can’t do anything? They should also slash the state-level taxes. They used to demand the same thing when they were in the opposition,” said Bose.

While she may not have spoken since her address to the media yesterday, Mamata Banerjee has been very active on Facebook posting multiple updates justifying her decision to back out of the UPA over the hike in diesel prices and allowing FDI in multi-brand retail.

In a post on her Facebook page today, she has quoted the statement made by the then Finance Minister Pranab Mukherjee assuring Parliament that the decision on FDI in multi-brand retail would be taken only after evolving consensus among all political parties.“For the knowledge of general public and common people, I am posting the statement given by the Ex-Union Finance Minister on 7th December, 2011 in Lok Sabha regarding the decision to permit FDI in retail. I expect your comments on it. Ex-Union Finance Minister was that time also the Hon’ble Leader of the Lok Sabha. Now tell us who has deviated from this statement of the Central Government ?” Banerjee said in her post.

Not surprisingly, she received a wide range of replies, mostly in support of her backing out of the UPA.
While Mamata has been active on her Facebook page in her criticism of P Chidambaram, the UPA government and posting Ganeshotsav messages, Prime Minister Manmohan Singh’s page has multiple graphics explaining why FDI in multi-brand retail will not do the damage that his erstwhile ally claims it will.