Left goes soft on Pension Bill, selloff

The four-month long boycott of the UPA-Left coordination committee meeting appears to have made the Left parties adopt a more conciliatory stance.

At the meeting of the coordination committee today, they adopted a softer and more flexible approach to the contentious issues of Pension Bill and disinvestment in the public sector undertakings (PSUs).

In an apparent climbdown from the 'no-negotiation' stance maintained by them on the Pension Fund Regulatory and Development Authority (PFRDA) Bill, 2005, the Left parties today agreed to 'consider' the matter and suggest amendments, if any.

They had earlier opposed the Bill declaring that pension was a statutory benefit and the proposed Bill would open the gates for the private sector to invest the corpus in the capital market.

At the meeting, Prime Minister Dr Manmohan Singh sought the support of the Left parties to table the PFRDA Bill, which has been cleared by the parliamentary standing committee on finance, in the next session of Parliament.

Regarding suggestions from the Left parties to take trade unions and government employees' association into confidence, Finance Minister P Chidambaram urged them to convince the unions.

The Left parties, however, declined, asking the government to take its own initiative. Abani Roy, Secretary, Revolutionary Socialist Party (RSP), told the Business Standard that the Left parties had not diluted their earlier stance on the Bill.

"There are some notes of dissent in the recommendations of the standing committee. But, before we talk about the dissent note, we have asked the government to talk to the trade unions," he said.

On the issue of disinvestment of small portions of government equity in non-navaratna PSUs, the Left parties adopted a conciliatory stance asking the government to prepare a paper. They were ready for further discussions. The Left parties gave a note expressing reservation about India's position on the Iranian nuclear programme.

Before the IAEA meeting on November 24, India should actively coordinate its stance with Russia, China and non-aligned countries. If consensus is lacking in the IAEA, India should abstain, said the note. The Prime Minister suggested that this issue should be discussed after the return of External Affairs Minister Natwar Singh to India.

On the note on FDI in retail, given by Left parties, the government agreed to study the matter and give its response, but, maintained that it was yet to take a decision. The Left parties asked the Prime Minister to speak to the Commerce Minister and asked him not to take any step in this direction or express policy views to the media about it.

The Left parties also asked the government to table the Women's Reservation Bill in its original form and towards this end hold an all-party meeting after the Bihar election.

Apart from the Prime Minister and the Finance Minister, those who attended the meeting today included UPA chairperson Sonia Gandhi, Home Minister Shivraj Patil, Congress leader Ahmed Patel, CPM general secretary Prakash Karat and politburo members Harkishan Singh Surjeet and Sitaram Yechury, CPI general secretary AB Bardhan and Secretary D Raja as well as RSP Secretary Abani Roy.