UPA should seek Parliament nod for reforms: BJP

BJP today demanded that the UPA government should seek approval of Parliament for reforms like allowing FDI in pension and insurance sectors.

Speaking to reporters in Hyderabad, senior BJP leader M Venkaiah Naidu termed the FDI in retail, pension and insurance sectors as anti-poor and anti-farmers and asked the Congress-led UPA government not to take any unilateral decisions on major issues that could affect the country in general, and common man in particular. The UPA can dissolve Parliament and seek mandate of the people afresh if it is confident that its reform processes were, indeed, pro-poor, Naidu said.
The UPA government has lost its moral right to take unilateral decisions after Trinamool Congress (TMC), led by West Bengal Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee withdrew its support to it and also parties like SP and BSP have been opposing to allow FDI in retail, the BJP leader said. The results of two Lok Sabha bypolls in Uttarakhand and West Bengal also showed that Manmohan Singh government was fast losing confidence of the people, he claimed.
 While the Congress lost in Tehri in Uttarakhand, it narrowly scraped through at the Jangipur seat in West Bengal that fell vacant after Pranab Mukherjee became President. A notable point in Jangipur bypoll was the decision of the TMC not to contest the election, he pointed out. The BJP would work out modalities in consultation with the NDA allies and other parties opposed to the decisions of the UPA and mount pressure on it to seek Parliamentary sanction for its decisions, Naidu said. We would press the UPA to take approval from Parliament on allowing the FDI in retail too as the Congress had opposed it in the past, he said.
Referring to separate statehood for Telangana, Naidu alleged that the UPA government led by Congress has been adopting opportunistic stand on the issue, which had it promised in its election manifesto.

- PTI