New Delhi:
The government's flagship reform, the land acquisition bill, finds no mention in the list of business that the government intends to take up in Parliament next week, provoking speculation on whether it intends to table it at all this session.
The political tussle between the Modi government and a united opposition over the land bill has dominated the Budget session of Parliament. The Congress, led by Rahul Gandhi, rejects the government's changes as "anti-farmer" and has vowed that it will not allow them to clear Parliament.
For the Modi government, the land bill, which makes it easier to acquire land for big industrial and infrastructure projects, is a crucial piece in its economic growth agenda, and one that investors are awaiting as a sign that this government can walk its talk.
In the first half of the Budget session, the Lok Sabha cleared the bill, but it was stalled in the Rajya Sabha or Upper House, where the government is in a minority. The opposition insisted it be scrutinised by a parliamentary committee.
The government was forced to re-issue an ordinance or emergency executive order to ensure the changes in law did not lapse. To do so, it had to take the rare step of proroguing the Rajya Sabha, which meant discontinuing the session and beginning it afresh.
The Lok Sabha's budget session will end on May 8, next week, and it is still to take up a number of important bills like the juvenile justice bill, a real estate regulation bill and the black money bill and GST bill. These are bills it expects to clear without many hiccups, save in the case of the GST or Goods and Services Tax Bill, which the Congress wants reviewed by a joint panel of the two houses.
The government, however, knows there is no chance that the land bill will get cleared this session; certainly not in the six working days now left in this session. Parliament will also be closed over a long weekend from May 1 to 4.
Without Parliament's approval, the government will have to extend its life once more as an ordinance till the next session.