The bill is likely to be tabled in the Rajya Sabha on Monday
The BJP and the Congress have both issued three-line whips for their members to be present in the Rajya Sabha on Monday, when the Narendra Modi government plans to introduce its first big reform, the Insurance Bill.
In preparation for what is expected to be a showdown, Opposition parties, including the Congress, have signed a letter asking the chairman of the Rajya Sabha to refer the Insurance Laws (Amendment) Bill - which aims to raise the ceiling on Foreign Direct Investment (FDI) in insurance to 49 per cent from the current 26 per cent limit - to an all-party parliamentary panel called the select committee.
The government has been making efforts to stall such a move as this will delay an important part of its attempt to revive a sluggish economy. But its attempts to get Opposition parties to reconsider their position against the bill have come to naught.
The BJP-led NDA has a brute majority in the Lok Sabha and the bill will sail through there. But it first needs to get it through the Rajya Sabha, where it needs the support of other parties.
The BJP and its partners have 64 members in the 250-member Upper House. The Congress has 69. Together the parties that have signed the resolution demanding that the bill be sent to a select committee have a strength of 136 in the Rajya Sabha. They are - the Congress, the CPM, the CPI, the Bahujan Samaj Party, the Samajwadi Party, the National Conference, the Janata Dal (United), Rashtriya Janata Dal, the DMK, the Kerala Congress and the Trinamool Congress.
"The Trinamool Congress has consistently opposed FDI in insurance. We want the bill to be sent to a select committee as its clear right now that the government does not have the numbers in the Rajya Sabha, " Trinamool Congress leader Derek O'Brien said. The Trinamool too has issued a two-line whip to its members to be present in the Rajya Sabha on Monday.
These parties have said that there are substantive changes in the Modi government's version of the insurance bill and these must be reviewed by the all-party parliamentary panel.
BJP leaders, however, say this is in fact a "UPA bill" since it includes only 11 amendments proposed by the present government and 86 proposed by the previous Congress-led UPA government. "Most amendments in the bill were moved by Chidamabaram... why delay a bill that was the Congress bill? Why should we send it to a Select Committee? Let them vote against their own bill," an NDA minister said.