CPI-M for voting on FDI issue in Parliament

In a bid to take on the government in Parliament on its decision to allow foreign direct investment in multi-brand retail, the Communist Party of India-Marxist on Wednesday said it has submitted notices in both the Houses seeking a discussion on the issue under rules entailing voting.

"In both the Houses, the CPI-M members have given the notices and we wish to take this up for a proper discussion under rules which will entail voting," senior CPI-M leader Sitaram Yechury told the media in New Delhi.

"Any such decision (allowing FDI in multi-brand retail) will have to be endorsed by Parliament and the government should not go behind the cover of saying that this is an executive decision," he said.

He said the government should take into account Parliament's decision if it wanted to go ahead as it was "supreme in our constitutional scheme of things."

While Yechury signed the notice in Rajya Sabha, his senior party colleague Basudeb Acharia sent the notice in Lok Sabha seeking that the two Houses reject the government's decision to allow FDI in multi-brand retail.

Rule 184 of Lok Sabha's Rules of Business and Rule 167 in the Rajya Sabha entail voting after discussion on a matter.

The decision to move such motions was taken at a meeting of the top-brass of the CPI-M, CPI, Revolutionary Socialist Party and Forward Bloc in New Delhi on Monday.

The Left leaders had then also decided to conduct a nation-wide mass campaign to collect five crore signatures, with party activists going from house-to-house to collect signatures in December and January.

The signatures would be collected on the demands for a universal public distribution system without dividing people into BPL and APL, supply of 35 kg of foodgrains at not more than Rs 2 per kg which should be provided for in the proposed law on food security. The Left parties have also opposed the cash transfer scheme in the PDS.