The passage of the Aadhaar (Targeted Delivery of Financial and Other Subsidies, Benefits and Services) Bill, 2016, in the Lok Sabha today along with the clearance of the Real Estate (Regulation and Development) Bill in the Rajya Sabha yesterday, clearly signals a welcome change in the approach to the legislative business in Parliament in this session from the two previous sessions.
While there is no doubt that the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) has improved its floor management by being more accommodating to the opposition parties, the fear of getting isolated in Parliament in the Congress party ranks, is also playing its part here.
The Aadhaar Bill is aimed at the targeted delivery of subsidies and services to the Indian residents through unique identity numbers (Aadhaar) and the Real Estate Bill seeks to regulate the transactions between the home buyers and the promoters of the real estate projects – both have been seen as a necessary piece of legislation that will benefit people.
Whether the positive developments with regard to these two Bills — they are set to become law as the Aadhaar Bill has been introduced as a money Bill, which can’t be blocked in the Rajya Sabha and the Real Estate Bill will easily get passed in the Lok Sabha with NDA having a majority in the house — is any indication of a similar success in passing the Insolvency and Bankruptcy Code and the Goods and Services Tax (GST) Bill – would now be interesting to watch.
If Prime Minister Narendra Modi and Finance Minister Arun Jaitley succeed in convincing the opposition parties, including the Congress party for this by finding ways to placate them, they will certainly be seen as having recovered substantial lost ground in the running of Parliament.
There is no doubt that most of the parties have been averse to the unnecessary disruptions in the current session, which is a positive sign for the NDA government.
But, thinking that the Congress party will relent on the GST Bill unless the government does something that shows that the party’s demands have been met, especially that of keeping the GST rate below 18 per cent, will be far from the reality.
In fact, the current situation may reverse within no time if not handled properly by the ruling dispensation.
The second leg of the Budget session, which will continue till May 13, after a recess from March 17 to April 24, is expected to give a clear hint about the fate of other economic reform legislations in the current session and also the future sessions.
There is a glimpse of BJP finally learning the virtue of being accommodating towards the views of the opposition parties and the need to build bridges with them, but it needs to constantly work on this.
