India’s shaky government and the opposition are to lock horns on Thursday as parliament re-opens for a crucial session that will see a recent string of pro-market reforms being hotly contested.
The previous session was a washout in September with parliament passing just three or four bills because of disruptions by opposition protests about corruption.
The new winter session, which is slated to end on December 20, is scheduled to hold 20 sittings to legislate 25 bills and debate another 10, the news agency Press Trust of India said.
The ruling coalition lost its majority in September when a key ally withdrew its 19 MPs to protest against the government’s decisions to hike fuel prices and allow foreign direct investment (FDI) in the retail sector.
Opponents have billed the measures as anti-poor, saying they are aimed at pandering to large foreign corporations.
Sushma Swaraj, leader of the main opposition Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP), warned the upcoming session could be as stormy as the previous one, which ended on September 7.
“We want the house to run (but) there are several issues waiting to be discussed,” she told reporters on the eve of the new session.
“Our pre-condition is that the issue on which an assurance was given to the house be taken up first under a rule that entails voting,” Swaraj said.
The BJP insists that former finance minister Pranab Mukherjee, now India’s president, promised last year that FDI in the retail sector would be allowed only after a consensus in parliament — a stand which is disputed by India’s ruling Congress party.
“There was no assurance in that sense of the word,” Parliamentary Affairs Minister Kamal Nath commented in the run up to the session.
“We will go into the records on what Pranab Mukherjee had said,” Nath told reporters.
Analysts say India’s fractious opposition, which is yet to decide on testing the government’s legislative strength with a no-confidence vote, want to keep Prime Minister Manmohan Singh’s coalition nervous.
To survive a no-confidence vote — which could prompt early elections — Singh’s Congress-led coalition will have to depend on outside parties, many of which are also hostile to foreign investment.
Among the market-opening steps, the decision to allow foreign supermarkets into the retail sector did not require a vote but opening up the gigantic insurance and pensions markets will require parliamentary approval.
The push for the pro-market reforms comes as the government faces a slowing economy, a gaping fiscal deficit and high inflation which has built pressure on the left-leaning ruling alliance.
The new session is also likely to take up a divisive anti-corruption draft law and a thorny bill to protect whistleblowers.
According to the New Delhi-based think-tank PRS, 102 bills still pending include important legislation on issues like land acquisition, access to food, affirmative action for women and a host of anti-corruption initiatives.
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