Crucial Bills may stall on Opposition unity

‘Centre’s talk of cooperative federalism is just talk’

March 06, 2015 12:22 am | Updated April 02, 2016 07:57 am IST - NEW DELHI

With an intensification of Opposition unity in the ongoing Budget Session, the Modi government can no longer depend on the Congress to help it get the Insurance Bill through the Rajya Sabha.

Indeed, it is learnt now that when the Insurance Bill, passed by the Lok Sabha, comes to the Rajya Sabha next week, the Opposition, including the Congress, will demand that it be taken up first by a Standing Committee. The Opposition argues that if it is the same Bill, then the government has violated parliamentary norms by bringing it to the Lok Sabha while it is pending in the Rajya Sabha; if it is different, they have the right to ask that it be sent to a Standing Committee.

A senior Congress Rajya Sabha MP — and proponent of insurance reforms — told The Hindu : “The situation has changed: we don’t want to break opposition unity, that’s of paramount importance.” The Congress had sponsored the original Insurance Bill as leader of the UPA government but abstained from voting on it in the Lok Sabha on Wednesday.

Meanwhile, the BJD — with 20 MPs in the Lok Sabha and seven in the Rajya Sabha — that was earlier “equidistant” from the Congress and the BJP, has become belligerent in this session, playing a leading role in moving statutory resolutions against the introduction of government Bills, and declaring that it cannot support the Land Acquisition Bill, the Coal Mines Bill, and the Mines and Minerals Bill in their present form: all three seek to replace ordinances.

A senior BJD MP told The Hindu , “When this government came to power, we felt it needed to be given some time. But nine months on, its intentions are clear. And the Centre’s talk of cooperative federalism is just talk.”

Finally, even though the Trinamool and the Left Parties cooperated in Parliament in the Winter Session, in this session, it has touched a new high when the Trinamool backed a Left-sponsored amendment to the President’s Address in the Rajya Sabha. Sources said that when Trinamool MP Derek O’Brien called party chief and West Bengal Chief Minister Mamata Bannerjee to ask whether the party should support CPI(M) MP Sitaram Yechury’s amendment that was almost identical to the one moved by Trinamool MP Sukhendu Sekhar Roy, but which would be moved first, she readily agreed. The party should not stand on prestige on the issue, she said. The amendment that referred to the absence of the mention of corruption and the government’s failure to bring back black money from abroad, was carried, leading to the Modi government’s first defeat on the floor of Parliament on Tuesday.

Indeed, there is very close coordination between Leader of Opposition in the Rajya Sabha Ghulam Nabi Azad, Congress Deputy Leader Anand Sharma, Mr O’Brien, Mr Yechury, Samajwadi Party leader Ramgopal Yadav and JD(U) leader K.C. Tyagi among others. Sources say they now make plans in person rather than on telephone to maintain secrecy, as they did in the days leading up to the Rajya Sabha defeat.

Clearly, the Aam Aadmi Party’s victory in Delhi has given the Opposition a second wind, while the BJP’s attempt to steamroller its Bills, bypassing parliamentary rules and conventions, has only strengthened solidarity in the Opposition ranks.

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