Day 309

Politics is the thing which is totally unpredictable. More unpredictable than the weather. If the matter is concerned with the Indian politics then nothing can be said about it. Yesterday, there was nation wide strike in India against the price hike in diesel, cutting of the subsidy in the LPG cylinder and the FDI in retail industry. Mulayam Singh Yadav joined the hands with the left block and other parties in the protest of the decisions mentioned above. But after the Trinamool Congress withdrew its support from the UPA government then Mulayam Singh rushed to support the UPA.  This is something which is going beyond my thinking. The explanation which Mulayam Singh Yadav gave that he doesn’t want the communal forces to stay away from forming the government at centre. Now the situation has come to the number game in Lok Sabha. Even Mamata Banerjee was aware of this point. That’s why she didn’t asked the President for the no confidence motion against the UPA government. She is well aware of the fact that either Samajwadi party or the Bahujan Samajwadi Party will go to support the government because both of them are having the more MPs than the Mamata Banerjee.

But I think that the main game is something different. Well, there is no need to discuss anything about the fuel price hike and the LPG cylinders. The main game is in the FDI in the retail sector. The basic difference is that in various categories of the FDI, there are different percentages. For example in the retail industry its 51%, in aviation industry its 49% and in power industry I think it’s about 40% or 48%. If we go in the history of the foreign companies investing in Indian companies then it always had been 51-49 division. The foreign companies have got 49% only. But now according to the new proposed bill, the foreign companies are going to have 51% because there is a clause in the proposed bill that the foreign companies have to invest 50% in the infrastructure development. So they are getting 2% extra. But with this additional 2% hike, the foreign countries will get the controlling power in their hands.  There is another angle also. There is an expectation that the Congress party is going to have something bigger in the FDI. But that’s in the womb of the time. May be after a decade or so that hidden thing will come in the limelight.

The main thing is that FDI has become a necessary evil. Soon or latter, the union government has to allow the FDI in the retail sector. No matter, which party is in the power at the centre? Then also, the same question will be there which is right now. Like every important decision, the FDI in retail is also having the two sides of the question. Good and bad. Let’s see what will happen in the coming time. I just wish it be the good one for the country.