The fate of the controversial Insurance Bill hangs in the balance with nine Opposition parties, including the Congress, giving a joint notice on Friday in the Rajya Sabha for referring the Bill to a Select Committee of the House.
Sources said the Leader of the Opposition will move the motion as soon as the Finance Minister introduces the Bill for discussion and passage. The motion, under Rule 70 of the Rules of Procedure, entails voting.
The Bill, which provides for raising FDI in the insurance sector from 26 to 49 per cent, is expected to come up on Monday. It was deferred on Thursday.
The Congress, Trinamool Congress, Janata Dal (United), CPI(M), CPI, Samajwadi Party, Bahujan Samaj Party, Nationalist Congress Party and the DMK gave a notice to Rajya Sabha Chairman Hamid Ansari for allowing them to move a motion for referring the Bill to a Select Committee when the government brings it for consideration in the House.
The AIADMK is not a signatory to the motion, but is understood to back the demand for sending it to a Select Committee. The stand of the BJD is not clear. The motion says, “The Bill further to amend the Insurance Act, 1938, the General Insurance Business (Nationalisation) Act, 1972 and the Insurance Regulatory and Development Authority Act, 1999 as introduced in the Rajya Sabha be referred to a Select Committee of the Rajya Sabha comprising 11 (Opposition) members.”
This means that the Select Committee will not have any BJP members on board. For that the government will have to bring an amendment, sources said.
The NDA does not have a majority in the Rajya Sabha and, on Thursday, Parliamentary Affairs Minister M. Venkaiah Naidu had refused to react to the possibility of the Bill being referred to a Select Committee or of a joint session to take advantage of the NDA majority in the Lower House.
The Congress has said several new amendments were now sought to be moved by the government to the Bill conceived by them and that needed to be studied. “We continue to oppose the Bill,” CPI(M) leader Sitaram Yechury told The Hindu . “If it goes to the Select Committee, we will be able to bring around others to our point of view.”
