A day after Cabinet clears FDI in retail, members stand discordant

A hapless Prime Minister and a Cabinet divided between warring pro- and anti-reform ministers — that was the scene at the meeting of the Union Cabinet that cleared Foreign Direct Investment in retail on Thursday.

India woke up on Friday to learn that some Congress ministers themselves were opposed to the proposal. “Those who are for reform wanted the proposal cleared right now; those traditionally against economic reform wanted the proposal to be delayed, if not dropped altogether,” said a minister describing the scene at the Cabinet meeting.

This means P Chidambaram, Kapil Sibal, Kamal Nath, Sharad Pawar and Anand Sharma argued strongly for the move.

But some were not as bullish. “Many of us felt that this was not the right time (to move the proposal),” said another.

Defence minister A K Antony, who has vetoed FDI in retail every time it has come up for discussion, reverted to type in the Cabinet meeting as well. Rural development minister Jairam Ramesh (who has always been an indirectly elected MP in the Rajya Sabha and has never contested a Lok Sabha election) said the Uttar Pradesh elections were round the corner and the government had to be careful.

“Yes, Jairam would know a lot about elections,” one of his colleagues remarked to the Prime Minister.

Ramesh also said 49 per cent FDI in multibrand retail was too high and should be scaled down.

Civil aviation minister Vayalar Ravi had his reservations about the move. So did Subodh Kant Sahai, minister for tourism and formerly, food processing. Several others, including corporate affairs minister Veerappa Moily did not oppose the move but “they did not speak when the going was tough,” said a minister.

“Only when they knew what decision the Cabinet was going to take did they open their mouth,” this minister said.

Even after it became clear that the decks were stacked in favour of clearing FDI in retail, several ministers said, “do it later, not now”.

“It was on the brink of being referred to a Group of Ministers. But we argued that we should have done it immediately after we came to power in the second term. More delay could not be countenanced. If it was to be done, it must be done now,” said a minister.

“Azhagiri did express his concerns but he is not as articulate as (Dinesh Trivedi),”said a minister about the role of the two nay-sayers, minister for chemicals, MK Azhagiri (Dravida Munnetra Kazhagam) and Trivedi, minister for railways from the Trinamool Congress, who led the charge on behalf of those opposed to the move.

The Prime Minister spoke in the end. He appealed to all present not to go public about the proceedings of Cabinet as “it would discourage people from speaking their minds in future”.

That several ministers debriefed reporters the following day suggests his appeal had few takers.

The Congress core group — comprising ministers and members from the Congress party, including president Sonia Gandhi and her political advisor, Ahmad patel met On Friday to discuss the political fall out of FDI in retail and ways of containing it. A K Antony is part of the core group.

FDI in retail was the reason Parliament did no work On Friday. commerce minister Anand Sharma’s statement was torn up by MPs from the BJP, BSP and SP in both Houses. Both Houses passed resolutions condemning the attack on agriculture minister Sharad Pawar but immediately after, trooped into the well shouting slogans leading to adjournment.