Rajya Sabha will not insure, so Government plans ordinance

“The Constitution has remedies. All options are possible. We may or may not rely on an ordinance,” said a senior minister who did not want to be named. Another minister added, “There is enough precedence for such an option. But the government does not want to specify it when the Parliament is sitting. We wanted it to go through the proper procedures in the House to pass the Bill, but the Opposition is being unreasonable.”

Opposition parties in Rajya Sabha, led by the Congress, have been demanding that Prime Minister Narendra Modi issue a statement on the issue of forced conversions and rising incidents of communal violence in the country. The demand has been rejected by the government, leading to the deadlock.

“Although there are instances of important bills having been passed in the din, especially during the UPA regime, BJP’s top leadership feels an ordinance is the most respectable option,” said a source.

On Wednesday, Trinamool Congress MP Derek O’Brien said, “It is bye-bye Insurance Bill for this session… our demand remains that the PM should make a statement. It does not require a 56-inch chest, just a four-inch heart to come to the House.”

P D T Achary, former secretary general of the Lok Sabha, said there is nothing that can stop the government from issuing an ordinance. “The government can issue an ordinance making use of the provision to go for it in an emergency situation,” Achary said.

The BJP-led government has prepared a list of instances, wherein previous governments promulgated an ordinance when a bill was pending before Parliament. “There were 10 occasions when an ordinance was issued when the respective bill was pending before the Lok Sabha and five occasions when the bill was before the Rajya Sabha,” said a senior government official.

Achary cited instances from 1950 (ordinance on the Sugar Crisis Enquiry Authority), 1997 (ordinance on the High Court and Supreme Court Judges’ Salaries and Conditions of Service) and 2007 (Ordinance on NCT of Delhi (Special Provisions) Amendment) as examples.

But CPI(M)’s Sitaram Yechury pointed out that on all such occasions, the concerned Bill had not gone to the Select Committee — which is not the case with the Insurance Bill. “Once the Select Committee report has been submitted, it will be entirely the property of the house,” Yechury said. A senior opposition leader said, “Let the government bring the ordinance. It will eventually have to come to the Rajya Sabha in the next session.”

Meanwhile, despite a personal request from Parliamentary Affairs Minister Venkaiah Naidu to the opposition, Rajya Sabha on Monday failed to pass the National Capital Territory of Delhi Laws (Special Provisions) Second (Amendment) Bill, 2014.

The Delhi Bill, according to opposition leaders, may be allowed to be passed on Tuesday “as it involves several thousand poor people in Delhi”. “We are considering whether we should pass it because it concerns the poorest of the poor in Delhi. We might pass it tomorrow,” O’Brien said.