With big ticket reforms on agenda, DMK may skip Cabinet meet

UPA ready to roll out second phase of reforms viz FDI in PFRDA bill, insurance

Shorn of its Trinamool Congress baggage, the UPA government went ahead with its long pending reform measures like FDI in multi-brand retail.

Now, a few weeks down the line the government is ready to unleash its second round of reforms namely permitting FDI in pension (the PFRDA bill) and increasing the cap of FDI in insurance from 26 to 49%. Both these measures had been labelled ‘anti-people’ by the former ally Trinamool, who had wholly opposed it.  With these ‘Big Ticket’ reforms on the agenda, southern ally DMK might give the Cabinet today a miss, unwilling to be a party to such measures.

The DMK, which albeit is now the largest ally of the UPA, is not keen to rock the UPA boat post the TMC exit. However according to sources, it is not comfortable with the “bold economic decisions” of the UPA such as capping the number of LPG cylinders and diesel hike. The DMK had even joined in the nationwide ‘bandh’ last month protesting against the UPA’s reform measures.

DMK patriarch M.Karunanidhi, has even publicly demanded a reconsideration of FDI in multi brand retail. Adopting a resolution meeting of the DMK Executive, he had earlier stated, "Allowing FDI in multi-brand retail in the name of economic reforms will spell doom for developing countries like India.” 

Therefore the DMK does not want to be seen siding with the UPA on its unpopular decisions of pension reform by putting “people’s hard earned pensions into the market “.

According to sources, the DMK representative MK Alagiri, also the Chemiclas and Fertilizers minister, might not make it t the Cabinet today. The official reason being that he will be in Mumbai attending the ‘India Chem 2012’, which is being inaugurated by the President Pranab Mukherjee. 

Other allies like the Sharad Pawar led NCP have been backing the government on its reforms agenda while at the same time asking it to move ahead with caution.