The all party meet convened by the Union Finance Minister Pranab Mukherjee has been successful with the over two weeks logjam in Parliament coming to an end. The Finance Minister shared this decision with all political parties today and got in return the truce the government desperately needed - Parliament will now get back to work.

At a meeting of all political parties that lasted less than half an hour, Finance Minister Pranab Mukherjee read out a short statement -"The decision to permit 51% FDI in retail trade is suspended till a consensus is developed through consultations among various stakeholders."  Mr Mukherjee then formally shared the same resolution in the Lok Sabha at 11 am.  He stressed that the "stakeholders" he referred to include Chief Ministers and political parties. Without the involvement of state governments, he said, the new FDI policy cannot be implemented.

The BJP's Sushma Swaraj said it is a victory of democracy that has forced the government to bow before the "will of the people." The Left says that the government's announcement amounts to a "virtual rollback" - a rollback was the pre-requisite declared by the BJP and the Left for parliament to start functioning again. Members of the UPA coalition, however, say the reforms have been paused, not cancelled.