The Left parties which had been consistently opposing the bill staged a protest walk out after prolonged attempt to push through a plethora of amendments.

The oral suggestion of the Congress party seeking compulsory deployment of 75 per cent of investible funds in the infrastructure and social sectors was, however, ignored even though finance minister Yashwant Sinha hinted that the cap would be 50 per cent as it existed in the case of the LIC.The official amendment made it clear that priority would be given to register insurance companies providing health cover to individuals or group of individuals.

Emphasis on social sector got pronounced in yet another official amendment in clause 32B of the bill which enjoins upon the insurers to provide life insurance or general insurance policies to the rural population, workers in the unorganised sector and for economically vulnerable and backward classes as also crops.

In yet another amendment carried through, the Government made it compulsory to the insurance companies to comply with the social obligations failing which they will attract a penalty of Rs 25 lakhs and in the event of subsequent failures of compliance, even deregistration.

The amendment relating to maximum investible funds was kept rather vague. It merely said: "the authority may give specific directions for the time, manner and other conditions subject to which the funds of policy holders shall be invested in the infrastructure sector as may be specified by regulations made by the authority and such regulations shall apply uniformly to all the insurers".

As anticipated, all amendments pressed by the left parties were rejected by voice vote, including the one suggesting reference of the Bill to a joint select committee which was defeated in a division. The left party members made feeble attempts to block the measure, obviously realising that the numbers were not in their favour.

Expectedly, the Congress benches coyly sat through the exercise in the Lok Sabha in what looked like a pre-arranged move, giving rise to speculation that the BJP and the Congress entered into a tacit quid pro quo on the IRDA Bill. Even critics like senior Congress member Rajesh Pilot and deputy leader of opposition Madhavrao Scindia were condescending to the finance minister who had a field day.

In his reply to the two-day debate on the insurance bill, Yashwant Sinha allayed all fears about the LIC and GIC saying there was no question of winding them up or diluting the Government stake in these companies. Not a single GIC or LIC worker would face retrenchment, he added.

Complementing the GIC and LIC , the finance minister expressed confidence that the two would live up to the competition well.