Arun Jaitley at the FICCI function.

Govt keen to push through insurance bill, opposition unrelenting

Trinamool attacks Jaitley, vows to oppose insurance reform

Agency Report | New Delhi | 20 December, 2014 | 09:20 PM

The government was “extremely determined” to push for insurance sector reforms and would not allow parliamentary disturbances to stop it, Finance Minister Arun Jaitley said Saturday, even as the opposition Congress warned it will not relent till their concerns were addressed.

The Rajya Sabha is currently stuck in a logjam over the conversion issue and was unable to transact any business last week.

Addressing an event at Ficci here, Jaitley said: “Today, the choice is clear. You either reform or miss the bus once again, and if the latter were to happen, a whole generation will not pardon us.”

Jaitley made it clear that the government will not tolerate attempts to delay or obstruct reforms of the nature of opening the insurance sector to Foreign Direct Investment (FDI) even as “political obstructionists are out to ensure that the issue does not come to the debating table of parliament”.

“The government is extremely determined to go ahead with this (insurance sector) reform and will not allow a parliamentary disturbance to obstruct or delay a reform of this kind,” he said.

Marking a sharp contrast in the functioning of the two houses of parliament during the first four weeks of the winter session, the productivity of the Rajya Sabha has been only 68 percent.

Jaitley said the greatest challenge facing the nation was the need to create a shared national vision on certain issues even as there was an ideological divide on many of them.

Without naming the Trinamool Congress, Jaitley said a political party, whose members were allegedly involved in a chit fund scam, was trying to divert attention by creating obstruction in the functioning of the Rajya Sabha where the ruling National Democratic Alliance does not have a majority.

The opposition Congress, which has been at the forefront of protests in the Rajya Sabha, meanwhile said it would not allow the house to function till their concerns in the debate over the conversion issue were addressed.

“We are not relenting till the prime minister makes a statement on the issue. They need to address our concerns,” Congress Rajya Sabha member Satyavrat Chaturvedi said.

The Lok Sabha has lost only two hours and 10 minutes so far due to interruptions.

The Rajya Sabha, on the other hand, has witnessed interruptions during 15 of the 19 sittings (for which data was available), thereby losing a total time of 44 hours and nine minutes.

While productivity of the Lok Sabha during the current session so far has been 105 percent, productivity of the Rajya Sabha during the winter session has been 68 percent.
Affirming its opposition to insurance sector reforms, the Trinamool Congress hit out at Jaitley who has charged the West Bengal’s ruling party of obstructing the upper house of parliament.

Trinamool Rajya Sabha chief whip Derek O’Brien accused Jaitley of “falsehood” and “putting spins to things” and asserted seven to eight parties were united in opposing the “so called reforms”.

“Two days of parliament are still left. If Jaitley thinks he has seen the best of Trinamool, he is wrong. Don’t bulldoze us, we will fight you in the parliamentary democracy. Insurance Bill is not a reform. It is only being touted as a reform. We do not need these so-called reforms,” he said.

“Jaitley cannot use weekend bytes to try and put spin to things,” said O’Brien referring to the senior Bharatiya Janata Party leader’s comments wherein he had charged the Trinamool of obstructing proceedings in parliament.

Asserting that the government was “extremely determined” to push for insurance sector reforms, Jaitley, without naming the Trinamool, Saturday said: “One political party finds itself involved in something which is unsavoury, and are therefore trying to divert attention by creating obstruction in the upper house.”

Dubbing him as “frustrated minister” and “falsehood minister”, O’Brien warned Jaitley against indulging in “mudslinging” and called for making public the workings of the Board of Control for Cricket in India (BCCI).

“Let us not get into scams because I can also throw mud. Let us bring issues like that of the BCCI into the public domain. Let us see who is in charge and who is pulling strings in the BCCI,” said O’Brien.

Daring the BJP to fight it out politically, the Trinamool leader said: “BJP should pull up old records and see how they used to disrupt the Rajya Sabha. Do not play these dirty games, do not make it a street-slanging match.”