 "Lok Sabha passes coal, insurance bills but elders in no mood to follow")
Although the Congress, the main opposition party, concedes its opposition to the insurance Bill is not on its ‘merits’, it says it will not allow the government to use “brute force of numbers” and pass new Bills when the coal and insurance Bills were pending before the Rajya Sabha.
As for the land acquisition Bill, the government is slated to table it before the Lok Sabha on Monday. On this issue, the government will not find any cooperation from the Congress and other opposition parties, which are firmly entrenched against the legislation. By all accounts, the government is working towards a joint sitting of the two Houses of Parliament to clear contentious legislation but the lack of numbers would upstage it there, too, should it not manage to win over a few political parties in the Opposition such as the Biju Janata Dal and All India Anna Dravida Munnetra Kazhagam.
Senior Congress leaders expressed surprise about the government’s strategy on replacing the Bills with ordinances and pushing them through without engaging with the Opposition. Leader of the Opposition in the Rajya Sabha Ghulam Nabi Azad told Business Standard: “When the government saw on February 24, in the Rajya Sabha, that the Opposition refused to let it withdraw the three important Bills — on coal, insurance and motor vehicles — it should have attempted to engage with the Opposition instead of steamrolling all views and bringing in new Bills in the Lok Sabha. This is possibly for the first time that such an unprecedented situation has occurred in Parliamentary history.”
In his reply on the Presidential address in Parliament, Prime Minister Narendra Modi had given ample evidence of the government’s unwillingness to kowtow before the Opposition. He reminded the Opposition parties that political parties should respect the electoral mandate in their respective states and not persevere with their traditional attitude of opposing every action of the government.
When the new Bills on coal and insurance were taken up by the Lok Sabha on Wednesday, which cleared the Bills by voice vote, the Congress did not oppose it but abstained from voting on certain amendments in the insurance Bill, which were pressed by the Trinamool Congress and the Left parties.
Making clear the Congress’ stand on the insurance Bill in the upper House, party spokesperson Abhishek Manu Singhvi said that the party was not opposed to the Bill “on merits”. He added: “We are opposed to the methodology of Ordinance that has been adopted. Also, there is an attempt to bypass the upper House, where the Bill is already pending, by bringing in a new Bill.”
He added that Congress was not alone in this and the Opposition was with it on this view. CPM's P Rajeeve who raised the issue of violation of Constitutional rights of the upper house Art 107, made it clear that the Opposition was awaiting the verdict of the Chairman on the issue. Due to vociferous objections from the Opposition, neither the Coal nor the Mining bill could be placed in the list of business before the upper house in the coming week.
Meanwhile MoS Finance, Jayant Sinha later went on record to say, "If insurance bill is defeated in the Rajya Sabha, it will open an opportunity for a joint session."
The Congress led Opposition however does not buy that argument with political parties admitting that they would prefer not to clear or reject the Coal and Insurance bills and keep it pending before the upper house, making it difficult for the government to bring it before a joint sitting. Opposition parties point to the recent victory with their majority numbers in making the government accept amendments to the President's speech, only the fourth such occasion in Parliamentary history.