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New Delhi, Dec 8: Political consensus still eludes the BJP-led coalition on the IRA bill, even as the Vajpayee government appeared set to introduce the bill in parliament later this week.
"The Congress is not opposed to opening up of the insurance sector to private companies, but we must know details of the bill. For example, the kind of foreign equity that would be offered," senior Congress leader and former speaker Shivraj Patil told reporters at the party's official briefing after the Congress parliamentary party met under the leadership of Sonia Gandhi here on Tuesday.
Direct and indirect negotiations between the BJP and the Congress have yielded little, so far. The Congress insists on knowing the details of the planned legislation before committing itself. Without the Congress support, the IRA bill is bound to fall through.
The squabbles within the BJP and the Sangh pariwar over the legislation seem a thing of the past now, with the party officially announcing on Tuesday that it would support thebill in any form the government chooses to introduce.
The stand followed a three-hour session that the prime minister and home minister LK Advani had with office bearers of the BJP late on Monday evening, where finance minister Yashwant Sinha explained the details of the legislation, including its necessity for attracting foreign capital in infrastructure development. He said the country needed an investment of $25 billion a year for infrastructure-sector's development. BJP president Kushabhao Thakre, a strong critic of the bill, was also present.
Both the prime minister and the finance minister urged the office bearers to impress upon the MPs to cooperate with the government. Sinha said the bill was a test case and that the BJP's sustained opposition would send a wrong signal to foreign investors.
Party spokesman Venkiah Naidu said much of the row could have been avoided had the government briefed the party leadership earlier. Now the party will support the IRA bill in whatever form it comes, hesaid.
According to parliamentary affairs minister Madan Lal Khurana, Sinha made it clear that the planned bill is slightly different from the one presented by the previous United Front government. The planned bill has fixed a minority stake to foreign companies and the NRI component was missing in the earlier one.
Khurana said Sinha told the meeting that workers' interests would not be jeopardised by the passage of the bill. The reference was obviously to trade unions which had voiced their opposition.
The BJP sees no problem from its allies, barring the Trinamool Congress whose opposition is taken for granted. Khurana said the BJP had discussed the bill with its allies.
Sources said an all-party meeting on the subject would be called in the next two days. Speaker Balayogi will talk and show the bill to senior leaders of the opposition to hammer out a consensus, sources said. The components of the bill remain the same as approved by the cabinet--26 per cent for foreign companies and 14 per cent forFIIs, OCBs and NRIs, according to government sources.
Copyright © 1998 Indian Express Newspapers (Bombay) Ltd.
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