According to indications available here, Prime Minister’s Office is working overtime these days to facilitate the process of presentation of some important bills in Parliament for bringing out substantive reforms in both political and economic areas. Dr. Singh had detailed discussions with the Congress President Sonia Gandhi on his multi-pronged strategy to combat the opposition attack in the monsoon session and he is going to face the Parliament this time with full backing from the Congress leadership.

The liberalization of the Indian economy in its present form has completed twenty years on July 24 this year and there are comments in both national and international press about the next phase. The discussions with Mrs. Sonia Gandhi who is also the chairperson of the National Advisory Council have led to the composition of a package which takes care of the interests of both the poor as also the foreign investors. It has been a compromise package but Dr. Singh and the Congress President are fully united behind the successful implementation of this programme which, they are confident, will be beneficial both for the Government and the Congress Party.

On the political front, the draft of the Lokpal Bill is ready and the law minister Salman Khurshid has been asked to ensure that proper consultations are held with the other political parties during the course of session and all efforts are made to pass the Bill during the monsoon session. The civil society group led by Anna Hazare is a bit cornered politically as no political party has supported the deadline of August 16 set by Hazare for passing the Bill since Parliament is supreme and its members only will decide after discussions when to pass the Bill.

As regards the people’s programmes, Dr. Singh has given priority to the passing of the Food Security Bill which is the brainchild of the Congress President and the proposal of the NAC headed by her. Though, there has been some changes in the provisions of the Bill and still, the bureaucrats are worried at the financial implications of the Bill, Dr. Singh has given go ahead to the Food Security Bill and the Congress Party will make it a major issue for discussion at the monsoon session. Similarly, the new rural development minister Jairam Ramesh has made ready the draft Land Acquisition Bill and the Congress sources say that this Bill is meant to protect the interests of the farmers and all political parties are being taken into confidence for finetuning this Bill. For instance, the West Bengal chief minister Ms Mamata Banerjee has been taken into confidence by Mr. Ramesh in respect of the provisions of the Bill and Uttar Pradesh chief minister has also been asked to give her government’s views.


While the Food Security Bill and the Land Acquisition Bill are meant to take care of the aam admi, the support base the Congress party is targeting, the economy has to be given a push and that requires some urgent reforms which need immediate attention of the Government. As a part of that, the Government is determined to present the Pension Fund Bill and the Bill to allow foreign direct investment in multi brand retail in the coming session. Already talks have been held with the BJP on the passing of the Pension Bill and the Government is taking care of the concerns of the opposition about some of the clauses in draft Bill expressed by the members of the Standing Committee on Finance of Parliament at their recent meeting. Both the Prime Minister and the Finance Minister are very anxious to get this Pension Bill passed in the monsoon session since they believe that this will help in making available huge funds for the infrastructural development of the country but this at the same time will not affect the interests of the pensioners since they will get a minimum guaranteed returns

Similarly, the Government is interested in passing the Insurance Laws (Amendment) Bill which is pending with the Standing Committee on Finance of Parliament since December 2008. The Bill is still with the SCF and the BJP has so far not cooperated in finalizing the report for presentation to the Parliament. Finance Minister is still trying his best since the provision stipulating hike of FDI cap from the existing 26 per cent to 49 per cent, has the potential of bringing large foreign funds in the national economy. The US and the British companies are waiting for the passing of the Bill and there is big pressure from both the governments on India for passing the Insurance Bill with the FDI hike clause. The passing of the Bill depends on the understanding between the Congress and the BJP and the Prime Minister has asked the Finance Minister as also the Law Minister to make all efforts to persuade the BJP to give its support to the Insurance Laws Bill.

There is a hard political side to this move by the Prime Minister. Five states are going for assembly elections early next year and for the Congress, the most important is Uttar Pradesh. The Congress general Secretary Rahul Gandhi has targeted UP elections as he thinks that the outcome of the assembly elections will have big influence on deciding the results in the next Lok Sabha elections due in 2014. The new package of the Prime Minister has a major focus on Uttar Pradesh as both the Food Security Bill and the Land Acquisition Bill will have a deep impact on the electorate in UP before the assembly elections. (IPA Service)