NEW DELHI, Dec 6 � As Parliament meets after a four-day break tomorrow, Opposition parties BJP and CPI(M) today gave no indication of relenting on their demand for complete rollback of the decision to allow FDI in retail, an issue which has caused a logjam, reports PTI.
BJP and CPI(M) stuck to their positions even after the government told them that the controversial Cabinet decision of allowing 51 per cent FDI in multi-brand retail and 100 per cent FDI in single brand retail was being put on hold.
Both the parties said functioning of Parliament will depend on the government�s stand on the issue expected to be articulated at the all-party meeting called tomorrow morning.
BJP leader Arun Jaitley said the FDI decision would harm the interest of farmers, small retailers as well as consumers and held Congress President Sonia Gandhi and her son Rahul responsible for it.
�Everybody is well aware (of the fact) with whom power lies in the Congress. People have not heard the views of the Congress chief and the party general secretary whom that party considers its future leader,� Jaitley, Leader of Opposition in Rajya Sabha, said addressing a party function here.
He said BJP has always been in favour of reforms provided these are for the welfare of the people and allowing 51 per cent FDI in multi-brand retail is not one of them.
�But all changes are not reforms. Some take us backwards,� Jaitley said.
Contending that smooth functioning of Parliament depends on the government�s stand, CPI(M) General Secretary Prakash Karat said that his party would be satisfied only with �complete� rollback and not �abeyance� of the decision.
Karat suggested that government intended to put the FDI decision on hold till the end of Winter Session of Parliament and said it was �mistaken� if it thought the policy could be implemented after that.
�The government has informed the opposition parties that they are putting the decision on abeyance. This is an obvious plot. This abeyance is till the Winter Session. 2011 is going to end. 2012 is another year. Then, there will be no abeyance.
