A view of a factory shade of Tata Motors, seen in Singur in West Bengal, which witnessed violence over land acquisition
A dinner with the Prime minister did not yield a breakthrough, but Parliamentary Affairs Minister Kamal Nath managed to strike a deal with the BJP over how to end the paralysis of Parliament.
The impasse rested on the opposition's demand for a detailed discussion on missing documents needed for the CBI's inquiry into an allegedly massive scam in how coal licenses were issued to private firms, some of them while the Prime Minister held direct charge of the Coal Ministry.
As part of the compromise reached by Mr Nath in a meeting with senior BJP leaders like LK Advani and Sushma Swaraj, leaders of all parties spoke on the missing documents; Leaders of the Opposition, Sushma Swaraj and Arun Jaitley spoke first in the debate.
This cleared the way for Parliament to move to clearing important pending legislation which includes key reforms in the insurance and pension sectors.
Both houses today were disrupted with angry opposition MPs demanding that the Prime Minister provide a better explanation than the one he shared yesterday where he said it is premature to conclude there is "something fishy" about the files that have disappeared.
The government is keen to pass the Land Acquisition Bill, which provides farmers with higher compensation when their land is acquired for infrastructure or industrial projects, is also pending. If it becomes a law, it could serve as a vote-getter in the national elections, due by May.