Retail fire spreads to Congress, govt in a fix

New Delhi: After Opposition and allies, cracks are appearing within the Congress party over the UPA government’s decision to press ahead with a plan to allow 51per cent FDI in multi-brand retail. Congress Member of Parliament from Uttar Pradesh, Sanjay Singh feels that multinationals will come with billions and hurt poor, unorganized people in backward states like UP. Making his dissent clear, he opined that the move will be detrimental to the Congress’ interests. He said, “I will write a letter to the PM. Party has always stood by the poor sections of the society…this is not the right time to take such a decision.” Yesterday, Congress’ Kerala unit Chief Ramesh Chennithala had also written to the Prime Minister against opening up of the retail sector. “There are 10 lakh small and marginal merchants operating here (in Kerala). Bringing in FDI in this highly competitive sector will be detrimental to the future of Kerala's retail traders, who stand to lose their livelihood to the big fish like Wal-Mart,” Chennithala said.  The government had this morning convened an all-party meeting over the issue but it failed to break the deadlock even as Parliament remained stalled for the sixth consecutive day.