Venkaiah meets Anand Sharma; BJD, NCP hopeful of breakthrough
In an effort to build a consensus on the Insurance laws (Amendment) Bill on Tuesday, Parliamentary Affairs Minister M Venkaiah Naidu met Congress General Secretary Anand Sharma even as the Government maintained that the Congress was “deliberately delaying” the legislation “to deny” it the credit.
Running against the time, the Government sought to narrow down “differences” with the Congress which apparently wanted clarity on the definition of ‘foreign direct investment’, alleging that “the very definition of FDI was being changed, equating it with foreign institutional investments (FIIs) and portfolio investments.”
The Bill seeks to raise the FDI cap in insurance sector from 26 per cent to 49 per cent.
The Government has all along said that the language and contents of the proposed Bill were that of the UPA Government only and no major new amendments were proposed. Naidu discussed “the changes” objected to by the Congress with Sharma and also deliberated with other opposition parties, which on Monday asked Rajya Sabha Chairman Hamid Ansari to sent the insurance bill to the RS select committee. According to sources, an all-party meeting, the second after the inconclusive one held Monday, may be convened on Wednesday to bring about a consensus.
While the Opposition parties like Nationalist Congress Party, an ally of UPA, and the BJD were hopeful that a solution could be found on the issue by this week, the left leaders said the Government would not be able to introduce the bill in the current session which would conclude on August 14.
Meanwhile, in the Parliamentary Party meeting, Naidu told BJP members that the Congress Party, which first introduced the Insurance Bill when the UPA was in power, “is now deliberately delaying” the Bill. He said Congress party was “apprehensive” that the credit would go to the Modi- Government. Asked about the possibility of a joint-session to pass the Bill, a senior Central Minister said “that would be after it gets defeated in one House”.
The Insurance laws (Amendment) Bill, listed for consideration in the Rajya Sabha was deferred on Monday for time being as the Government sought to work out a consensus on the issue in couple of days.
According to a BJP leader, it was indeed a “UPA Bill” as of 97 amendments it includes, only 11 amendments proposed by the Modi-Government and 86 proposed by the previous Congress-led UPA Government. He said most of amendments in the Bill were moved by former Finance Minister P Chidambaram who ha incidentally welcomed “its introduction”.
The Bill was introduced in Parliament during the UPA regime and was referred to Standing Committee on Finance which spent considerable time and then made certain recommendations. The Government is, therefore, against any move to sent the bill to a selected committee of RS for further examination.