Despite the Opposition agreeing to allow passage of the Finance Bill and demands for grants for various Ministries on Tuesday to avoid a constitutional crisis, the Government is bracing up for complete washout of the second half of the Budget Session.
After it became clear at the all-party meeting on Monday that the Opposition would not show similar flexibility to allow the passage of the ambitious Food Security Bill and the land Acquisition Bill, the ruling Congress is mulling whether to implement them as schemes or through ordinance route.
Though passing these Bills in din on the last day of the Budget Session is also an option, the Government wants to avoid it as division of votes in the Rajya Sabha, where the ruling UPA is in minority, could put it in an embarrassing situation. Moreover, if the bills were rejected by Parliament, it would be difficult to bring them as Ordinance, sources said.
So, the Congress has trained its gun on the Opposition with spokesman Sandeep Dikshit attacking BJP for blocking the pro-people legislations. Parliamentary Affairs Minister Kamal Nath, who even met leader Opposition Sushma Swaraj, said that these two key legislations are “for the people of the country and anybody who blocks it is not doing a service” to them.
As an escape route, a section of the Congress has suggested that both these Bills could be launched as schemes by the Government to reap electoral dividends in the lok Sabha elections. Even if the Bills are passed, their implementation would have to be done through schemes only, they pointed out adding in the past National Rural Health Mission (NRHM) or IRDP or even Public Distribution System was started as the scheme.
Congress president Sonia Gandhi can then tell people that though her party and the Government wanted to give them as right the guarantee of subsidised foodgrains, the Opposition was not allowing Parliament to pass it. Another option is that after Parliament Session is over on May 10, an ordinance can be promulgated to implement them.
Then Opposition would find itself in difficult situation to avoid passage of these pro-people Bills in the next session as otherwise people getting 25 foodgrains per month at Rs 2 for wheat or Rs 3 for rice would take them to task. Even farmers getting higher compensation for their land would not allow anyone to take away that benefit by allowing the ordinance to lapse.
If still the Opposition creates hurdle, the Congress can tell farmers during elections that though they would have got four times compensation for the land, due to hurdles created by the Opposition they are not getting the financial benefit, they added.