The Narendra Modi government, which had to face a combative Opposition on Tuesday, is banking on the Congress to help it pass the Insurance Bill in the Rajya Sabha. Publicly, the Congress has said it is willing to support it as the original Bill was sponsored by the UPA government. But, on Tuesday, a senior Congress MP said: “Yes, in principle, we support the Insurance Bill, but now it is more important for us to maintain solidarity with the rest of the Opposition.” The Congress’s final line will, of course, emerge when the Bill goes to the Rajya Sabha, but clearly there is a new mood in the Opposition, summed up by a Trinamool Congress MP as “MLD” or “make life difficult” for the government.
So, even though of the six Bills replacing the ordinances, the Opposition is united in principle against only one — the Land Acquisition (Amendment) Bill — the fact is it’s not in a cooperative mood. Parties that have State governments, the Trinamool, the Janata Dal (United) and the Biju Janata Dal, for instance, are not impressed by Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s talk of cooperative federalism.
The BJP’s parliamentary managers will initiate talks again with the Opposition parties on the controversial Land Bill, after Union Finance Minister Arun Jaitley returns from the U.S. later this week, senior government sources told The Hindu . However, these talks will be informal, and will be held with each party separately, the sources added, stressing that they will not take the shape of an all-party meeting.
For the Modi administration, of the six ordinances that it needs to convert into Acts of Parliament before March 20, the Land Acquisition Bill is facing the maximum resistance — from the Opposition, its own allies and RSS-affiliates alike. It is also, as top BJP sources said, the Bill that is most crucial for the government’s reforms agenda.
