PM Modi along with Parliamentary Affairs Minister Venkaiah Naidu, on the first day of Budget Session in New Delhi on Monday. (Press Trust of India)
Finance Minister Arun Jaitley today fielded an opposition attack in Parliament on a slew of ordinances, or executive orders, passed by the government in the nine months that it has been in power. The most controversial of these ordinances seeks to bring major changes in the rules for land acquisition, which the Congress and other parties allege are against farmers' interests.
Here are the latest developments in the story:
Amid opposition slogans, the finance minister said the government is well within its rights to take the ordinance route. "The reasoning that ordinances are to circumvent or bypass Parliament is not rational. The UPA took the path several times," Mr Jaitley said in the Rajya Sabha.
Responding to Mr Jaitley, Congress leader Anand Sharma said: "You expect Parliament to rubberstamp your ordinances... you don't send anything to the Standing Committee."
Prime Minister Narendra Modi told his MPs at a weekly party meeting today that the land bill - criticised as "anti-farmer" by the opposition - will in fact help the poor. He will meet the BJP lawmakers and those from allied parties this evening as the government firms up its floor strategy.
The government will introduce the Land acquisition amendment bill 2015 in the Lok Sabha today to replace the land ordinance. Seven more ordinances need to be cleared by both Houses in the next few weeks or they will lapse.
The Congress signaled its intent to stonewall the government by giving notice for the suspension of Question Hour in the Rajya Sabha to discuss the land ordinance. It has reportedly discussed a "coordinated attack" with the Left, Trinamool Congress, Samajwadi Party and Janata Dal (United).
The BJP-led National Democratic Alliance has a commanding majority in the Lok Sabha, but is in a minority in the Rajya Sabha and needs the support of opposition parties to pass laws in that House.
With bleak chances of that support, the government has indicated that it is keeping options open for a rare joint session of both Houses to clear its ordinances if necessary.
The government also faces a farmers' protest led by activist Anna Hazare at Delhi's Jantar Mantar, which Delhi Chief Minister Arvind Kejriwal will join today. Mr Hazare alleges that the ordinance changes the law to favour only industrialists.
The Congress alleges that the Modi governments ordinance "fundamentally alters" a law that was passed with the BJP's approval two years ago. The ordinance seeks to scrap a social impact assessment and the need for the consent of 70 per cent land owners before agricultural land is acquired.
Restrictions on buying land, under the law championed by the Congress government, are among barriers holding up projects worth almost $300 billion or nearly Rs. 20 lakh crore in sectors such as rail, steel, mining and roads.
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