Both the BJP and the Congress should rethink. The Congress' advocacy of this reform - and of such matters as the goods and services tax, for example - is recent enough that its refusal to pass the reform now will be seen as clear hypocrisy. And the BJP was being obdurate and stubborn recently enough to remember that parties in government can be easily stymied by a recalcitrant Opposition. It should know that the government has to go the extra mile to placate or bargain with the Opposition to get important reforms through. The proposed amendments to the insurance legislation are only one of several much-needed laws that the BJP will have to steer through the Rajya Sabha. It had better show that it is willing to both bargain and to be tough.
The Congress, perhaps recognising that its stand shows it to be completely hypocritical, is hastening to assure listeners that it still views the Bill as "its baby" and agrees with it in principle. In demanding that the Bill be sent to a select committee rather than debated and voted on by the House, it is being cynical and clever. The BJP would have been happy to force the Congress to vote against the Bill, demonstrating its hypocrisy, and then to take the Bill to a joint session of Parliament, where its numbers in the Lok Sabha would force the Bill through. The Congress has skilfully manoeuvred to avoid this. It is also right that some of the changes made to the Congress' version of the Bill are more than cosmetic. Greater restrictions have been placed on foreign insurers and re-insurers. Some of this may be unwise. But instead of discussing these changes in a select committee, the whole Rajya Sabha could, and should, discuss and amend the Bill if necessary. This may be politically inconvenient for the Congress; but both the Opposition and the government must co-operate to pass this important law.