Prosecutions That Further The Government's Reform Agenda

 Prosecutions That Further The Government’s Reform Agenda

 Even as the autonomous Special Court,  which can only be stymied by the Supreme Court, summoned the former Prime Minister, Manmohan Singh, for questioning in the infamous ‘coal scam’; the Congress in a sudden volte face, decided to back the Insurance Bill in the Rajya Sabha.

The Congress Party has 67 seats in the current Rajya Sabha out of 245 (231 elected), to the BJP’s 46. With the help of the Congress, NDA allies and ‘sympathisers’, most legislation can go through with more than the majority 124 votes.

Mr. Manmohan Singh plans to challenge the summons by petitioning the Supreme Court. There have been rousing endorsements and support for his ‘integrity’ and ‘honesty’ from the Congress. Sonia Gandhi along with a galaxy of Congress stalwarts even marched from the Party HQ in Akbar Road, New Delhi, to the former Prime Minister’s residence, in a show of support.

But if the former prime minister allowed himself to be a puppet, he actually had no right to abdicate his constitutional and sworn obligations to the people of India, during his decade in the top job. But several media reports suggest that the Congress High Command is seriously concerned that Mr. Singh may reveal that he had merely rubber-stamped decisions that were actually taken at the behest of the Congress President. While this won’t get Mr. Singh off the hook from the serious criminal charges he is facing, it will seriously implicate and embarrass Sonia Gandhi as well.

The insurance law is now passed, after languishing since 2008, and as a consequence is expected to bring in $10-15 billion of foreign investment and resultant new jobs into India’s underdeveloped insurance sector. This is because the foreign investment cap has been raised,  to 49%, from the erstwhile 26%.

The passage of the Insurance Bill has been welcomed by all players operating in the country. Many of them are foreign companies that that have been waiting for a very long time.

The new law will see a ramping up of private insurance companies in a field dominated till now by the large PSU units like LIC of India. But, as Minister of State for Finance, Jayant Sinha said, India today is in need of at least 4 or 5 LICs’.

If the Congress continues to be driven on to the back-foot by judicial interventions, will it continue to cooperate with the Modi Government’s efforts to usher in Reforms Stage  2?

Just before this one, two other bills were referred to Select Commitees, causing potential delay in their implementation. One is the Coal Bill, where NDA auctions have just elicited bids worth over Rs. 2 lakh crores for just 30 blocks auctioned, with a potential to garner up to Rs. 15 lakh crore when the entire exercise is completed.

This is far in excess of the estimates that the former Comptroller and Auditor General, though he put it in terms of potential revenue lost by the UPA Government. That is, before the Courts cancelled the UPA allocations as illegal. And this highlights the magnitude of the coal scam, the former Prime Minister will be questioned about.

Likewise, another, the Mines and Minerals Bill, has also been sent to Select Committee at the Opposition’s insistence. Here again billions of dollars in earnings and investment would be potentially held up or lost, if it  wasn’t for the covering ordinance the Government passed after the Monsoon Session.

And yet the Congress bitterly criticised the Government for passing some eight ordinances, mostly to get around the deliberate and bloody-minded legislative blockage.

The newly transparent  ‘Spectrum’ auctions for telecommunications, following on from the UPA era 2G scam, are also garnering very substantial bids. They too are part of the same pattern, and expose the rot in the previous administration that deliberately deprived the country of huge revenues.

The most emotive piece of legislation involving farmers, the Land Acquisition Bill, was passed with eleven farmer-friendly amendments, by the Lok Sabha recently. But it was not without drama. There was eight hours of tumultuous debate, walk-outs, and abstentions during the voting. It now needs to run the gauntlet in the Rajya Sabha, where its prospects are not good.

However, this land law is crucial to the Government’s infrastructure development plans. It could very easily also get stuck in yet another Select Committee. And once the bill is introduced into the Rajya Sabha, it cannot be withdrawn from it, without the permission of the House. Will the Government refrain from doing it then, and call for a Joint Session of Parliament instead?  If so, by when?

But since one important piece of reformist legislation has indeed just passed with Congress cooperation, perhaps a way has been found. Juxtaposed with the windfall benefits of what one BJP stalwart called ‘judicial activism’, things may just be looking up for this Government’s legislative agenda. 

For : NitiCentral

(808 words)
March 13^th, 2015
Gautam Mukherjee