BackI told Congress MPs the insurance Bill was theirs: BJP’s Chandan Mitra
Mitra, who chaired the RS committee on the Bill, says he got full cooperation from the Congress
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New Delhi: Senior Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) leader Chandan Mitra, who was chairman of the Rajya Sabha select committee that recently submitted a report endorsing the Insurance Laws (Amendment) Bill, 2008—with support from the Congress party—says he won over Congress members of Parliament (MPs) by persuading them it was “their Bill". Edited excerpts from an interview:
How did you manage to build a consensus to allow 49% foreign direct investment (FDI) in the insurance sector? How did you manage the support of the Congress party? Did senior ministers intervene to end the deadlock?
Personally, I went out of the way to try and talk to all the members of the select committee whom I knew from before because they are all Rajya Sabha members and they have been colleagues for some time. I used to informally discuss quite a few themes so that the differences get narrow. But then there were political issues and some of the members were ideologically committed to other positions. So obviously, there was no common ground with them and I didn’t press them on this matter. I knew that complete unanimity could not be achieved. So, the target was broad consensus and not total unity. With this approach, I had told the members with ideological issues, that I know they are opposed to FDI but, on the other provisions of the Bill, “please let’s cooperate and let us discuss, I am sure you can help with your contributions to improve the other provisions". They came up with suggestions, we heard them and, broadly speaking, I had an open and inclusive approach. I think that helped a lot.
Of course, our leaders were committed to the idea and particularly finance minister Arun Jaitley, he has good connections with people across the board. He spoke to many leaders of various parties, including the Congress party, and that helped a great deal in creating the atmosphere. As far as Congress support is concerned, one thing was clear to me—that senior Congressmen like Anand Sharma, who was in this committee, acknowledged that this Bill was their Bill. Former finance minister P. Chidambaram had first moved it in 2008, the Bill was sent to the standing committee which was headed by Yashwant Sinha and standing committee gave its report in 2010 when United Progressive Alliance (UPA) was in power. But the Bill including 88 official amendments were those moved by Chidambaram. So I constantly argued with Congress members that this is their Bill, it so happens that history has cast the duty upon us to enact this into law, so Congress should not oppose it. Many Congressmen admitted that it was their idea and their Bill. Finally, there was agreement that Congress will not obstruct the Bill as such, they had a few suggestions, I told them that I will be accommodative, assimilative and try to incorporate as much of their ideas as possible within the broad parameters of the Bill itself. I got full cooperation from the Congress.
BJP initially opposed 49% FDI in insurance. Was there an internal discussion within the party before the change of stand? How did it happen?
These are evolving situations. The BJP had a problem with the Congress-led UPA’s approach to FDI, its industrial policy. The larger issue I felt as a parliamentarian, a back-bench parliamentarian since 2003, was that the UPA didn’t really reach out to the BJP. It didn’t try to involve the BJP in the decision-making process. These things matter a lot, it is not always an ideological position. Often consensus can be reached by exchanging ideas, willingness to accommodate, do a bit of give-and-take. But the UPA, I recall when they were in power, they bristled at the very idea of cooperating with the National Democratic Alliance (NDA). So I think there was also a strong feeling in NDA circles that we cannot help them out.
The BJP had changed its position somewhat after the fall of the Atal Bihari Vajpayee government and, at that point of time, we felt that these matters should be kept in abeyance. After seeing how badly the economy was performing under the UPA, the BJP realized the dire need to open up the economy, to kickstart the next big-ticket reforms, and bring in investment from abroad because the investment climate within India had collapsed. Under the UPA, even Indian investors were investing abroad; they were no longer investing in India. The government needs money, the various sectors need money so, in these circumstances, the BJP amended its approach and we decided that we will go all out to invite FDI, and insurance was the first sector where something was already pending. We decided to take it up, and with the passage of this Bill, we will signal to the world that India is ready for business and India is going to invite big ticket foreign investment.
When you look back, was it a strategic mistake to induct two members of the select committee—J.P. Nadda and Mukhtar Abbas Naqvi—in the government at the last moment which delayed completion of report by the select committee of Rajya Sabha?
Honestly, the induction of these two leaders delayed matters by two weeks. I don’t think that a two-week delay was a matter of life and death at all. Even after the report has been tabled, the Bill is facing trouble because opposition is not letting the House function. The Bill has not been tabled in the House even now. I don’t think there was any mistake, strategic or otherwise, in inducting these two members. In politics, you cannot be guided by these factors, a cabinet reshuffle when it happens, it happens. The rest have to adjust, and on the very first day of the winter session, two replacement members were named and after a two-week extension, I managed to file the report. So there was nothing seriously lost in this.
Politically, how important is the support of the Congress party for the government since the NDA doesn’t have the required numbers in the upper House? Do you see similar Congress support for other important legislation?
I can’t talk about Congress support for other legislation—surely they have to take a decision. We will wait for them to make their position clear to the other legislation as and when they come up. Yes, the support of Congress will make the passage of Bills very much easier. Congress plus BJP and the Bill will be through in Rajya Sabha. But suppose Congress decides to oppose and vote against, which I hope they won’t because they have passed the report, then there will be a problem of numbers. We will try to rope in all the smaller parties—as many as we can. There are parties like CPM and Trinamool which are ideologically opposed, so yes, if the Congress moves against, there is going to be a problem of numbers. We hope that matters won’t come to that because we have accommodated the Congress to the best of our ability.
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