Fiery Mamata strikes again: Trinamool shoots down pension Bill and holds the government to ransom

Fiery Mamata strikes again: Trinamool shoots down pension Bill and holds the government to ransom

By Kay Benedict and Dipanjan Roy Chaudhury

Published: 21:18 BST, 7 June 2012 | Updated: 21:36 BST, 7 June 2012

Less than 24 hours after Prime Minister Manmohan Singh pledged to give a push to economic reforms, the Trinamool Congress (TMC) bunged a monkey wrench into the revival plan by opposing the pension Bill and getting it deferred.

This is the umpteenth time the nettlesome UPA constituent, led by West Bengal chief minister Mamata Banerjee, has forced the UPA government to postpone a key reform measure.

Evidently, the Congress-led UPA cannot risk antagonising a key team member just a few weeks before the presidential election.

So, the Union Cabinet played it safe on Thursday and put the proposed legislation on the backburner after the TMC’s objection.

Cabinet secretary Ajit Seth listed the first three items on the agenda of the meeting but said that the pension Bill, which was the fourth item, had been ‘dropped’ and moved on to the next matter.

The Pension Fund Regulatory and Development Authority Bill, 2011, provides for private sector and foreign investment in the pension sector.

The Bill has been pending for several years. The TMC’s main contention is that the pension of senior citizens, which forms their support system in the twilight years, cannot be dictated by market forces.

While finance minister Pranab Mukherjee and commerce minister Anand Sharma had a few rounds of talks on the Bill with Mamata recently, the belligerent ally stuck to its guns. It is believed that Mamata is indulging in competitive populism with archrival Left Front, which too had opposed the Bill in UPA I.

There were indications earlier that TMC leader and railway minister Mukul Roy may stay away from the Cabinet meeting to send the signal that the pension Bill was anti-people.

However, the party changed tack at the last minute and Roy attended the meeting. On Wednesday, Roy sent a letter to the PM and FM.

He told Mail Today that his letter called for evolving a broader national political consensus on the Bill.

He further wrote that the TMC had not been able to articulate its views because there was no MP from the party in the Parliamentary Standing Committee that considered the proposed legislation.

The decision to defer the Bill was taken on Wednesday night itself after Roy’s letter was received.

Earlier, the Union government had accepted the recommendations made by the parliamentary committee, headed by senior BJP MP and former finance minister Yashwant Sinha, and lowered the FDI cap to 26 per cent from 49 per cent in line with the ceiling in the insurance industry.

The proposed legislation, which was introduced in the Lok Sabha on March 24, 2011, was referred to the committee for scrutiny.

Sources revealed that the TMC’s primary concern – the assured return clause – would be introduced in the pension Bill with certain conditions to protect the interest of policyholders.

The government may also consider the suggestion of the standing committee to provide greater flexibility to subscribers to withdraw funds from their accounts, they disclosed.

Congress leaders said though the government could get the Bill passed in Parliament with BJP support, it did not want to rub the TMC the wrong way because the latter’s numerical support would prove crucial in the presidential poll.

The TMC, with 47,890 electoral votes or four per cent of the electoral college, can tilt the balance in almost any political permutation.

The SP has 6 per cent and the Left Front five per cent.

Officially, the party downplayed the embarrassment. ‘We are serious about it.

‘We will take everyone along. Our allies will support us,’ AICC spokesperson Rashid Alvi said, commenting on the standoff.

The government, too, put up a brave face with Congress leader and law minister Salman Khurshid denying that there was a policy paralysis within the UPA.

Sources said the government would make a fresh attempt to evolve a consensus and pass the Bill during the monsoon session of Parliament in August.

But some Congress leaders were of the view that the government should call Mamata’s bluff.

With the 22-member Samajwadi Party – which is not against the Bill per se – backing the UPA, the government will not fall even if the TMC (with 19 MPs) pulls out of the alliance.

‘The SP has corporate connections and is considered a pro-reforms party.

It will not act whimsically like the TMC,’ a Congress leader observed.

It is understood that the TMC wants to keep up the pressure on its bigger partner to ensure that if the two parties split before the Lok Sabha polls, the ‘divorce’ is smoother.

Mamata’s party has been buoyed by its performance in the Bengal municipal elections and is keen to maintain the momentum.

The Trinamool Congress chief has locked horns with the Congress time and again. Members of her party voted against the Indian Medical Council (Amendment) Bill, 2012, in the Lok Sabha in May.

The TMC also took the Congress by surprise in December last year when its MPs toed the Opposition’s line and moved amendments to the Lokpal Bill in the Rajya Sabha.

The TMC chief had vetoed the pension Bill earlier as well.

In early December 2011, Banerjee’s stiff resistance to FDI in the retail sector forced the UPA to put the proposal in cold storage.

In September last year, she stymied the crucial Teesta water-sharing deal with Bangladesh arguing that it would impact the interests of the people of north Bengal.

Furthermore, Didi has opposed the UPA whenever oil companies have hiked petrol prices.