Parliament is set for a battle royal this week, as the government has slated debate and passing of the controversial land acquisition bill in the Lok Sabha on Monday and Tuesday and its consideration in the Rajya Sabha at the weekend. Outside, the main opposition Congress is planning farmers' march to Parliament on March 16, hoping its vice-president Rahul Gandhi will return from abroad after introspection to lead the protest to Delhi from Bhatta Parasaul village in Greater Noida in Uttar Pradesh.
The government, however, on Sunday made it clear that it was determined to get bills passed to replace all six Ordinances before Parliament goes into a month-long recess on March 20. Five of these Bills, including controversial insurance bill, were passed by the Lok Sabha this week while the last one – land acquisition bill comes up for Parliament's consideration this week. All the bills cleared by the Lok Sabha will come up before the Rajya Sabha this week. They include the Motor Vehicles (Amendment) Bill for legalising e-rickshaw and the Mines and Minerals (Development and Regulation) Amendment Bill.
As the battle shifts to Rajya Sabha, the ruling BJP is placating its allies opposed to the land ordinance by suggesting half-a-dozen amendments to protect the interests of farm land owners. Congress president Sonia Gandhi has convened a meeting of the party MPs on Monday evening to prepare a strategy to oppose the legislation. The meeting was shifted from the usual morning hours to evening triggering speculation that Congress vice-president Rahul Gandhi may also turn up, ending his "sabbatical".
While the government is desperate to meet the deadline of April 5 for passage of the Bills related to all six ordinances brought by it as otherwise they will lapse, the Congress has decided to oppose the insurance bill, even though it is a replica of its own UPA government's legislation hanging since 2008. The Congress abstained from voting in the Lok Sabha on Wednesday when the insurance bill was passed.
The government is toying with the idea of three or four more sittings in the first half of the session instead of closing it on March 20 for resumption on April 20 as it will give enough time to get all the ordinance-related bills passed before the ordinances lapse on completion of six weeks to the start of the session as envisaged in the Constitution.
It has listed the land acquisition bill for consideration on Monday and Tuesday while the coming Wednesday and Thursday are reserved for debate on the railway budget and Friday and Saturday on the general budget that may even extend up to March 16. The Rajya Sabha agenda for the next week includes passage of four bills cleared by the Lok Sabha – Insurance Laws (Amendment) Bill, Coal Mines (Amendment) Bill, Motor Vehicles (Amendment) Bill and the Mines and Minerals (Development and Regulation) Amendment Bill. The Lok Sabha gave its nod on the first two on Wednesday and another two a day earlier amid tumultuous debates.
Deputy chairman P J Kurien will have to give his ruling he had reserved on the Opposition objecting to the government introducing the bills in the Lok Sabha that were already pending in the Rajya Sabha and as such property of the House that cannot be hijacked to the other House. The opposition had prevented withdrawal of three bills from the House but this did not stop the government from taking the Lok Sabha route to get them passed using its big majority in the Lower House.
Finance minister Arun Jaitley and parliamentary affairs minister M Venkaiah Naidu are telling the opposition leaders that the government is ready to tweak the ordinance's provisions that removed the clauses on the original law for acquisition only on the consent of the land owners. The original law requires consent of 70 per cent of the land owners in case of the public projects and 80 per cent in case of private industries and housing projects. Jaitley has hinted that the consent clause may be brought in the bill in case of the acquisitions for private projects, but reducing it the consent by a minimum of 50 per cent of the land owners.
Meanwhile, Rahul Gandhi is expected to lead a farmers' march to Delhi from Bhatta Parasaul village from March 13 that will culminate into a siege of Parliament on March 16 to protest against the anti-farmers land acquisition bill. This will be the second rally that the Congress is organising at Jantar Mantar as the first such rally held by the party and addressed by leaders like Ajay Maken and Digvijay Singh flopped as hardly 500 people turned up.
Rahul's choice to lead march from Bhatta Parasaul, stems from May 2011 agitation of farmers of this village against forcible land acquisition. He had eluded police by travelling to the village as a pillion rider on a motorcycle and then sat on a 'dharna' in protest against the police excesses, alleging that he had seen evidence of many farmers were killed and some of their women were raped. "The government will face the first test on Monday when it brings the mines and motor vehicles bills replacing the ordinances. These bills were passed in the Lok Sabha without much difficulty but they cannot get past the Rajya Sabha," Congress deputy leader Anand Sharma said.
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