The General Insurance Business (Nationalisation) Amendment Bill, 2021 that seeks to enhance private participation in public sector insurance companies will be tabled in the Rajya Sabha on Monday despite demands from Opposition parties to send it to a Parliamentary Committee for further scrutiny.
The Congress, the Left parties, Trinamool Congress (TMC) and Dravida Munnetra Kazhagam (DMK), among others, had demanded the Bill be sent to a Standing Committee of Parliament, but the government has not budged.
In the face of continued disruptions by Opposition parties protesting against the Pegasus cyberattack, the government has refused to concede any ground, adopting an equally aggressive stance. Due to continued disruptions for the last three weeks, 60 of the 78 hours of time in Parliament has been lost. Last week, the Rajya Sabha cleared eight Bills.
Sources, however, said that the government is unlikely to move the Electricity Amendment Bill in the last five days of the monsoon session.
On Thursday, the Kerala Assembly had moved a unanimous resolution asking the Centre to withdraw this Bill. Farmers’ organisations have been protesting against the proposed law, claiming that it will lead to an increase of 500% in their cost of irrigation. The proposed Amendment seeks to remove all cross-subsidies and make all consumers pay the actual cost of supply. Farmers and rural consumers will pay the highest price for electricity, as the cost of supply to rural areas is significantly higher than that to urban consumers.
“The only reason the government is hesitating on the Electricity Bill is because of the upcoming Assembly elections in Uttar Pradesh and Uttarakhand. They do not want to take any political missteps ahead of such crucial polls,” Communist Party of India-Marxist (CPI-M) MP Elamaram Kareem said. “There is no such political reluctance for the Insurance (Amendment) Bill.”
The General Insurance Business (Nationalisation) Amendment Bill, 2021 was passed in the Lok Sabha on August 2.
The government had stunned the Opposition in Rajya Sabha on Thursday when it brought the Essential Defence Services Bill, 2021. Leader of the House Piyush Goyal reached out to Opposition parties, meeting individual leaders. In one such meeting, Mr. Goyal met DMK’s floor leader Tiruchi Siva. According to sources, he made no mention of the Essential Defence Services Bill, 2021. “We were given the impression that the government will send the Bill for further scrutiny. But they utilised the disarray in Rajya Sabha to pass it in the din,” an Opposition leader said.
The growing distrust between the government and Opposition leaders has led to often bitter exchanges between the two sides. At the meeting of the Business Advisory Committee (BAC, a panel of all parties to allocate time for various Bills and discussions) on Friday, the TMC’s chief whip Sukendu Sekhar Ray walked out. “At the BAC, they [the government] fix 3-4 hours per Bill but on the floor of the house, they rush through the Bill, wrapping up the debate in 10-15 minutes,” Mr. Ray said.
At the same meeting, sources said that Mr. Goyal asked for cooperation from the Opposition parties for the passage of the Constitution Amendment Bill, which reverts the right of States to notify their own list of Other Backward Castes. At this, Congress Chief Whip in the Rajya Sabha, Jairam Ramesh, retorted that it’s for the government to ensure order in the House.
