 "Backdoor talks to find a middle path on land Bill")
According to sources, Finance Minister Arun Jaitley discussed finer points of the National Democratic Alliance (NDA) government's land Bill with senior Congress leader and author of the 2013 UPA land law, Jairam Ramesh, and Nationalist Congress Party chief Sharad Pawar on Tuesday afternoon. The government's contention that the 2013 United Progressive Alliance law had drafting errors, which needed to be rectified formed part of the discussion.
The meeting - on a day when both the Congress and NCP boycotted the Lok Sabha over the suspension of 25 Congress MPs - was termed unofficial. Another such meeting scheduled for Wednesday is expected to involve a wider set of people from both sides.
Meanwhile, a meeting of the Parliamentary joint committee on the land Bill, slated for Tuesday, was postponed when the Congress and several other Opposition parties pointed out that committee member Rajeev Satav was one of the 25 the Lok Sabha Speaker had suspended. The committee, which was to give its final report on Friday, will now seek another extension.
The NDA's outreach to the Congress on the land Bill comes a day after the 11 BJP members in the joint committee signalled that the party might agree on retaining the 2013 Act's provision on consent but differences on other clauses still remain.
The government wants to correct the perception that it has capitulated on most of the nine substantive amendments that it had brought about to the 2013 Act. A party source involved with the process questioned reports that have suggested that the BJP members have already provided alternative legal provisions to insert in the 2015 Bill. The government does not want to withdraw the Bill in its entirety. It hopes to work with the Congress to retain some of the clauses of its Bill which do not breach Congress 'red lines', such as the consent clause. This could help the government with a face saver and limit political embarrassment.
In the meetings of the joint committee, the Congress has largely opposed most of the provisions in the NDA Bill except for a few, which it found to be perfunctory in nature.
On Tuesday, Rural Development Minister Chaudhary Birender Singh maintained that there was no climb down on the land Bill. "A Parliamentary joint committee is a mini Parliament. We shall examine the points of consensus as well as dissenting views," he said.
He said the government has from the very beginning maintained that it has no objection in accepting good suggestions from any institution, political leader, political party or farmers. Even the Constitution of India has been amended 100 times, the minister said. He said once the report of the panel comes to the ministry, it would study it and float a fresh Cabinet note.