After six hours of intense verbal duel with the Opposition against the latter’s bid to send the Mines and Minerals (Development and Regulation) Amendment Bill, 2015 to the Select Committee, the Government finally relented to concede just that in the Rajya Sabha where it is woefully short of numbers to have its say. The NDA dispensation’s much-touted Bill is thus headed to the Select Committee, the composition and time frame of which will be decided on Wednesday by the ruling and Opposition parties in consultation.
It was a tug-of-war between the Treasury Benches and the Opposition in the Upper House on Tuesday. While the Opposition expressed interest in examining the legislation in detail in a Select Committee, the Government, keen to get the Bill passed at the earliest, was at one point of time even ready to see the Bill defeated on the floor as this would not have shut the doors of its passage in a joint session. But now with the Bill going to a Select Committee that route is closed for the time being.
Sources said, the Government ultimately giving in to the Opposition could be based on avoiding an embarrassment akin to the one when an Opposition amendment to the Motion of Thanks to the President’s Address was adopted last week. Another view was that the Government relented as the Bill coming through the Select Committee increases the chances of its passage in the House.
However, the fate of other crucial Bills too now appears to be similar given the precedent set on Tuesday, and the Opposition indicating it would not allow the Government to have it easy in Rajya Sabha. The Opposition has decided to refer all such Bills to the Select Committee that have not been sent to the Parliament’s Standing Committee, an Opposition leader said.
On Tuesday, a motion was thus moved by P Rajeev (CPI-M), Shantaram Naik and Jesudasu Seelam (both Congress) to send the Mines and Minerals Bill to the Select Committee. However, the Government while pushing for a discussion on the Bill tried its best to avoid this. For two hours, the two sides put their legal brains like Arun Jaitley, Anand Sharma, Satish Sharma and Ravi Shankar Prasad besides other stalwarts like Sharad Yadav, Naresh Agrawal and D Raja to debate whether a discussion on the Bill was needed or not. Then for over an hour there was a debate on whether the discussion should be limited to half-an-hour, as suggested by the Deputy Chairman, or for four hours as wished by the Government.
When the discussion began it went on for nearly four hours. Several members spoke on the basic principles of the Bill only to be later told by leader of House Arun Jaitley that those who have spoken cannot be part of the Select Committee as they have already expressed their views. Hence, the Motion was infructuous. Jaitley read out past precedence and quoted rules and said P Rajeev’s motion was prima-facie defective, hence, cannot be put to vote. “You sink with the motion” he said.
However, he was countered by the Congress saying that two of its members who too have moved the motion did not speak. leader of Opposition Ghulam Nabi Azad said Shantaram Naik and Jesudasu Seelam have not spoken, hence, the motion stays. Rajeev countered Jaitley by saying he too had participated in a debate for lokpal and later became member of its Select Committee.
Then came another googly. This time by Parliamentary Affairs Minister Venkaiah Naidu who raised the technical issue of the motion being flawed on the point that the names given in the Select Committee as proposed by members did not have any representation from the ruling party. He urged the Opposition to come with a fresh motion agreeing on Select Committee which should be time-bound, have representation of ruling party as well. Or, amendments can be made in this Bill and passed. He even proposed having a discussion on the Bill in an all-party meeting whose suggestions could be incorporated into the Bill as amendments. However, the Opposition did not agree to this.
Rajeev, told The Pioneer that since the Treasury Benches were opposing this motion itself they refused to give names for the Select Committee when sought by him. Giving an escape route to both sides, Deputy Chairman PJ Kurien suggested meeting between leaders of all parties on Wednesday to decide the composition of the Select Committee.
Interestingly, the Biju Janata Dal (BJD), which was hoping to make gains from the Mines and Mineral Bill in Orissa will have to wait a few more days. The BJD had several issues with the Bill but agreed to come around after Union Power Minister Piyush Goyal reached out to Orissa Chief Minister Naveen Patnaik seeking his support by promising to address his concerns in the Bill.