-The Telegraph New Delhi: The Left and the Trinamul Congress have both promised to oppose the passage of the pension reform bill that the government plans to push with the BJP's support. The Pension Fund Regulatory and Development Authority (PFRDA) bill was listed for passage in the Lok Sabha today but was stalled because of protests over various issues. One of them was the fuel price hike, which found Trinamul and the...
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Rajya Sabha passes National Food Security Bill
-The Times of India NEW DELHI: The National Food Security Bill, which seeks to provide heavily-subsidized food to two-thirds of India's 1.23 billion people, was passed by the Rajya Sabha on Monday. Much like what happened in the Lok Sabha last week, there was a scramble among political parties to garner populist brownie points even as they differed fiercely on certain provisions of the bill and their implementation. With the Congress all...
More »Populism unites parties, helps land bill sail through Lok Sabha
-The Times of India NEW DELHI: Concerns of industry took a backseat as political parties, spurred by the oncoming election season, joined hands in Lok Sabha on Thursday to pass the land acquisition bill that enshrines consent of landowners and steep hikes in compensation. As when the food security bill was passed earlier this week, competitive populism took centrestage with Congress toasting Rahul Gandhi as the inspiration behind the legislation and BJP...
More »UPA to bring changes in food bill for wider acceptance in Parliament-Gargi Parsai
-The Hindu The UPA government has decided to bring amendments to the National Food Security Bill to help secure more support for the "game changer" legislation in Parliament. The government may move some of the changes proposed by other political parties, such as the DMK, the BJP and the Left Parties, as official amendments. At a meeting of senior Cabinet ministers convened by Prime Minister Manmohan Singh on Monday, it was decided that...
More »Finances are already open, says Left-Aarti Dhar
-The Hindu The Left Parties have always maintained that the financial statements and accounts of a political party should be made publicly available, and hence strongly rejected the order of the Central Information Commission (CIC) that sought to bring six national parties under the purview of the Right to Information Act, 2005. Disputing the CIC's argument that parties were public authorities, Prakash Karat, general secretary of the Communist Party of India (Marxist),...
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