By Dilip Cherian
The winter session of Parliament is underway and while there are 67 bills pending before both Houses, Dilli’s political observers are naturally focusing on those which are likely to be contentious. The first few days into the session have already indicated that the Opposition will continue to challenge Modi sarkar over the Insurance Bill and amendments to the land acquisition law, among others. Floor management will hold the key. While the BJP has a majority in the Lok Sabha, it does not have that advantage in the Rajya Sabha. So far the saffron party has managed well with the labour reforms bill which the Congress has backed, but the Insurance Bill will be a major test for the government.
The bill has been getting blocked since the UPA times because of the toxic animosity between two former finance ministers P Chidambaram and Yashwant Sinha who had carried their old rivalry forward. But now that neither of them is in the driver’s seat and Abhishek Manu Singhvi is buried in income tax problems. It is being hoped that he’ll now be more amenable to finance minister Arun Jaitley’s reasoning. After all, it is crucial for the much anticipated reforms that are expected to come later. Which is why despite the rigid postures being adopted, the government at the same time is keen to avoid a tit-for-tat situation with the Congress, which has come out against the changes in definition of FDI through the inclusion of foreign portfolio investments (FPI) in the policy.
However, if the government is able to introduce the bill before US President Barack Obama’s visit to Dilli in January, it would make Obama happy because it will impact mostly American companies.
Dream house draw
The much-awaited draw in the Delhi Development Authority’s (DDA) mega housing scheme concluded with 25,000 flats being grabbed by those lucky among the staggering 10 lakh applicants. That the authorities managed to hold the draw after much delay was surprising; but even more surprising for Dilliwallas was that the event passed off relatively free of controversies which have always dogged allotments in previous years, including charges of corruption and favouritism.
It’s not easy. After all, the scheme attracted hordes of applications, which effectively mean that each flat had 40 applicants! It was a situation ripe for controversy. It was perhaps to avoid past experience that this time the DDA tried to ensure transparency. In a first, the draw was webcast live on a separate dedicated website. It also tried another new method: the draw was held under the supervision of retired Delhi HC Judge Manju Goel, National Informatics Centre DG Mahesh Chandra and IIT Delhi Professor Anshul Kumar, a break from the past when the jury used to be mostly composed of senior bureaucrats. But none of this mattered to those who didn’t strike it lucky.
