Through a slew of mediators, the Congress has sent the word across that some important bills like the Food Security Bill and the one that is needed to implement the Land Boundary Agreement with Bangladesh needs to be placed and cleared through the parliament.
“We need to clear the Food Security Bill for common good of our nation, it is important for the poor people. And we need to clear the bill for implementing the Land Boundary Agreement for the sake of national prestige, or else India stands accused of doing treaties with neighbours which it cannot implement,” a top Congress leader told bdnews24.com, but conditions of anonymity.
These bills could not be placed or cleared due to the constant pandemonium and boycotts during the last parliament session when the Opposition tried to corner the Congress on a plethora of corruption scandals like the Coalgate scam.
The Food Security Bill which the Congress sees as a major trump card to revive its falling popularity in the run-up to the next parliament elections, especially in rural India was taken off the Cabinet agenda this week at the last moment.
“The government decided to soften the Opposition and pass it in the parliament through a consensus,” the Congress leader said.
The Cabinet has already cleared the Land Boundary Agreement in February this year and the bill to implement it has already been drafted.
But he said if the Opposition, specially the BJP, does not agree to a special parliament session or to clear the food security bill and the one for implementing the land boundary agreement, then the UPA will consider dissolving the parliament and go for early elections.
That is something the BJP does not want now.
There is considerable upheaval within the party caused by L K Advani’s resistance to Narendra Modi’s elevation to head the party’s election campaign which many see as his projection as the party’s prime minister candidate.
Neither do the smaller regional and low caste parties want an early election because that will unsettle their plans to explore and develop the possibility of a Federal Front, an idea floated last week by Trinamul Congress chief and West Bengal chief minister Mamata Banerji.
An early election will catch both the BJP and the non-BJP parties off guard. It may not help the Congress very much but the party’s top leadership feels it may be better than waiting for the BJP to get over its inner-party feuding and the third front to crystallise.
So the Congress is trying to goad the Opposition parties including the BJP to agree to the special parliament session and get crucial bills passed — with the threat of dissolving the parliament, if necessary.
One last throw of the dice, as it seems.
Source: Bd news24
