Govt wants Insurance Bill cleared before Modi's US visit

Congress sticks to the demand of sending Insurance Bill to a Select Committee

Congress Vice-President Rahul Gandhi on Tuesday asserted the Congress did not have double standards on the Insurance Amendment Bill. Rejecting the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP)-led government’s contention that the Congress had done a U-turn on a Bill it had itself proposed, Gandhi said, “I think, there are no double standards on the insurance Bill by the Congress.”

The Congress and several Opposition parties are demanding that the Bill be referred to a select committee of Parliament. The government wants to get the Bill cleared before Prime Minister Narendra Modi visits the US next month.

At the BJP parliamentary party meeting on Tuesday, Parliamentary Affairs Minister M Venkaiah Naidu told partymen the Congress had “double standards”. He said the Congress was now opposing the Bill only because Modi would get credit.

One round of an all-party meeting on Monday failed to defuse the crisis. Another meeting would be held on Wednesday.  

The Congress said Finance Minister Arun Jaitley’s statements “smack of arrogance”. The finance minister had in a television interview challenged the Congress-led UPA to vote against the insurance Bill in Parliament. Congress spokesperson Anand Sharma reminded the government it was the Congress that introduced the Bill in 2008 and it was the BJP, in the Opposition then, that had opposed it for six years.

“The BJP is intent on misrepresenting the Congress stand. It is not we who are confrontationist; it is the government. Why does the government not agree to a select committee? After all, the Bill that we had brought in did not have the new amendments such as proposing portfolio investments,” Sharma said.

“There is a Parliamentary procedure of sending a Bill to a select committee, which operates in a time-bound manner. even the Lok Pal Bill was cleared after it was sent to a select committee.”

The Biju Janata Dal and the Nationalist Congress Party have said they would support the Bill. The Samajwadi Party rejected reports of being wooed by the BJP. “The party is going to oppose it,” SP leader Ram Gopal Yadav told reporters. The AIADMK has written to the chairman of the Rajya Sabha, urging that the Bill be sent to a select committee.