FDI vote: BJP sees silver lining in the defeat

It became clear to the BJP on Thursday when BSP leader Mayawati announced that she would vote with the government on the issue of FDI in multi-brand retail in Rajya Sabha.  The BSP voted with the government in the Upper House on Friday.

The BJP is not disheartened by the set back in the two Houses, and it hopes to make electoral capital out of it across north India. “The phoney preachers of social justice have surrendered to big global capitalism supported by crony capitalism,” said Ravi Shankar Prasad, the national spokesperson and deputy leader of the party in Rajya Sabha.

The party leaders argue that apart from consolidating its hold in its traditional stronghold of small traders, it will also win over the most backward classes (MBCs) in UP and Bihar and other northern states where these oppressed sections are engaged in selling vegetables and fruits, and where nearly 90% of them are self-employed. It is being argued that the entry of WalMart and other golbal retail outlets would affect these sections adversely.

“We have brought the issue of FDI to centre stage by forcing a debate and a vote on the issue. Every one spoke in Hindi, including CPI-M’s Sitaram Yechury in Rajya Sabha, Basudeb Acharia in Lok Sabha, TMC’s Tathagat Roy. It was with the intention of reaching out to the people in the north.

The BJP wants to turn the tables on the Mandal parties, a kind of poetic justice in the caste-driven north Indian politics. The party’s argument is that it was difficult to drive home the scandal in 2G spectrum allocation because of the technicalities. But it did not require much effort to tell people with what went wrong in coal block allocations.

The party believes that FDI in retail hits the common people – the aam aadmi that every political party wants to address and woo.