New Delhi:
The union cabinet, which is meeting right now, is expected to clear an ordinance to give life to the ruling Congress' ambitious Food Security Bill.
The government's move is likely to set up another massive showdown with the BJP, which is opposed to pushing through the landmark legislation without discussion in Parliament.
It has not come up at the Cabinet meeting yet, but will not need much time to be cleared as it has same features as the bill passed by the cabinet earlier and tabled by the government in the Budget session.
The ordinance is the Congress' emergency plan to ensure that the Bill, a major election promise in 2009, sees light of day soon. Whiplashed by scandals and scams, the ruling party hopes it will be a major vote-getter in the general elections, now months away.
And for good reason. Championed by party president Sonia Gandhi, it promises rice at Rs 3 a kg and wheat at Rs 2 a kg, less than 10 per cent of current retail prices, to about 810 million people, 67% of the India's population.
The BJP has said that it is open to a special session of Parliament to debate the government's proposal but, said senior leader Sushma Swaraj, it prefers convening the Monsoon Session of Parliament, due in July, early.
It has pointedly asked why the Congress is in a frenzy to bring it before the polls when "people have been starving for four years."
The Left and UPA's external ally the Samajwadi Party are opposed to the Bill. The Left wants it to be made law only after key changes that it has suggested are made. Mulayam Singh Yadav's SP says it is anti-farmer and reflects the government's keenness to clear a populist reform so that it can call mid-term elections.
Parties like the Trinamool Congress too have dismissed the proposal as "an election gimmick."
The government has already budgeted 900 billion or Rs. 90,000 crore for the scheme in the current fiscal year ending March 2014. If the bill is passed, it will need to come up with a whopping 1.3 trillion or Rs. 1.3 lakh crore in 2014, adding to a total subsidy burden that already eats up about 2.4 per cent of gross domestic product.