Cong sitting pretty in House,FM rules out rollback

Notwithstanding attempts by the Congresss outside supporters like the SP,the BSP and the RJD to mount pressure on it by joining hands with the BJP and Left....

Notwithstanding attempts by the Congresss outside supporters like the SP,the BSP and the RJD to mount pressure on it by joining hands with the BJP and Left,Finance Minister Pranab Mukherjee sounded confident of staying the course with his budgetary proposals. In an interview to NDTV later in the day,Mukherjee,while admitting that there might be some cascading effect on prices due to the hike in petrol and diesel prices,ruled out a rollback in proposals.

It will be inflationary to some extent. I am told by the Economic Division of Finance Ministry that the impact will be 0.41 per cent on Wholesale Price Index. There may be some cascading effect, he told NDTV when asked about the impact of the taxes on oil and its products.

Asked whether the excise and custom duty increase would be rolled back,he said: No,where is the question of rollback. If there was question of rollback,I would not have put it.

Meanwhile,even as the BJP and the Left on Friday threatened to bring separate cut motions,UPA floor managers said the UPA,even without the support of the SP,the RJD and the BSP,had the requisite majority in the Lok Sabha to defeat such motions. Although Trinamool Congress leader Sudip Bandopadhyay demanded later that the decision on petro price hike be kept on hold at this juncture,it appeared to be a mere token protest given the fact that party chief Mamata Banerjee had patiently heard Finance Minister Pranab Mukherjees speech and raised no objections.

The SP,the BSP and the RJD together accounted for 47 MPs and even without their support the ruling coalitions strength in the Lok Sabha was 276. Ruling party floor managers were also counting on Rampur MP Jaya Prada who has been expelled by the Samajwadi Party,although,technically,she remains an SP MP.

While the Congress crisis managers swung into action to keep their flock together,they expected the BSP,the SP and the RJD and even the Left to backtrack when it came to supporting a BJP-sponsored cut motion. Except price rise,they have nothing in common, a senior Congress functionary said. Besides,these parties were also set to come under pressure from MPs who would not like to face the electorate the second time within a span of one year. Also,the SP and the BSP are unlikely to join hands in favour of any cut motion.

The Congress think tank was learnt to have already sensed trouble from these outside supporters in the Budget session of Parliament and had,therefore,got ministers to cancel their plans for foreign visits and remain stationed in the Capital all through the session.

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Meanwhile,the Congress slammed the opposition parties for staging a walkout during the FMs speech. It is a constitutional slur. It is the violation of every parliamentary tradition to boycott the Finance Bill. Staging a boycott in this manner when the Finance Minister is speaking is against the constitutional propriety, said Congress spokesman Manish Tewari.