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Cong hungers for Food Bill-Annapurna Jha
-The Pioneer

The Congress Core Committee on Saturday went into a huddle for over 3 hours and decided to hold the UPA coordination committee meeting on Monday - a demand made by its ally NCP too recently - to finalise its strategy on Food Security Bill, which remains stuck in Parliament.

The Core Group also deliberated on the vexed Telangana issue which is threatening to take a heavy toll on the party in Andhra Pradesh with two MPs joining Telangana Rashtra Samiti and senior leader K Keshava Rao likely to follow suit. The prospect of Government formation in Jharkhand and details of anti-Naxal operations in Chhattisgarh, where the State party leadership was wiped out in the May 25 Maoist attack, were also discussed.

The Core Group, chaired by Congress president Sonia Gandhi and Prime Minister Manmohan Singh, has tasked Parliamentary Affairs Minister Kamal Nath to see if the Opposition agrees for a special session of Parliament to take up the Food Security Bill. If not, the Government may take the Ordinance route as the Congress feels that the Food Security Bill, along with the Land Acquisition Bill, will be the game-changer and they must be passed before the elections.

Since NCP president and Agriculture Minister Sharad Pawar had red-flagged the Food Security Bill during the Monsoon Session saying that he would not like the legislation to be passed without discussion, the Congress realises the necessity of first convincing its own alliance partners.

Being a Constitutional Amendment Bill, the Government knows that it cannot be passed in Parliament, especially in the Rajya Sabha where the UPA is in minority, without a broad agreement among various political parties. So, once UPA allies come on board, an all-party meeting is also likely to be called on June 7 to discuss the matter, sources said. If a broad consensus emerges in the all-party meeting, then the special session of Parliament can be held in first week of July, they added.

However, all this urgency appears more to get political mileage as the Government has not yet prepared the list of beneficiaries which will include 75 per cent rural and 50 per cent urban population.

"All these efforts are aimed just to get political benefit. It may be good news for political parties but not for the poor people as the list of beneficiaries has not yet been prepared. It will take at least 12 more months to complete the list," National Advisory Council member NC Saxena told The Pioneer. Significantly, NAC headed by Sonia had played a crucial role in drafting the legislation.

For his part, Kamal Nath will hold informal discussion with various political parties to gauge their response to the idea of calling a special session of Parliament to pass the legislation.

Both the PM and Sonia have charged the Opposition parties as obstructionists and accused them of intentionally disrupting Parliament's Monsoon session to create hurdles in the passage of the Bill, which, it says, would have helped 67 per cent of the country's population.

One section of Congress wants that just like the anti-rape legislation an Ordinance should be issued in case of Food Security Bill also so that the Opposition will be under pressure to support the "pro-poor" legislation. If they don't, beneficiaries of the Rs 2 per kg wheat and Rs 3 per kg rice programme will take them to task and it would be reflected in election results. But another section and the Law Ministry is not in its favour. They feel that Food Security Bill is a complex legislation which will be implemented by the states, so the Centre cannot bulldoze it on them through an Ordinance.

Health Minister and AICC incharge Ghulam Nabi Azad, who attended the meeting despite not being a member of the Core Group, briefed about the political situation in Andhra Pradesh. The meeting failed to arrive at a decision. The party may change the leadership in the State, sources said. Home Minister Sushilkumar Shinde, who has just returned from Chhattisgarh gave details of the anti-Naxal strategy in the State.