Congress may support government on GST Bill

The Congress is in no mood to support the controversial land acquisition ordinance but may back the economic reform bill related to Goods and Services Tax (GST).

Speaking to MAIL TODAY, Leader of the Opposition in the Rajya Sabha Ghulam Nabi Azad said: "There will be no compromise on the land bill."

However, sources said the Congress supports the GST Bill in principle as the previous UPA government was also in favour of passing the tax reform legislation, but had objected only to the way the government bypassed procedures while bringing it in the Lok Sabha last week.

Sources said the government managers are weighing the options on the controversial land acquisition ordinance in the wake of Congress vice-president Rahul Gandhi launching a nationwide protest to brand the legislation as anti-farmer.

Even as Rahul mounted his attacks on the government over the land ordinance, Minister of State for Parliamentary Affairs Rajiv Pratap Rudy had told the Lok Sabha last week that the government will bring a bill to replace the land ordinance before the second half of the Budget session ends on May 8.

For the government managers, it is like a replay of the first half of the session when the government was able to pass the legislation in the Lok Sabha, where it enjoy a majority, but could not take it to the Rajya Sabha, where it lacks in strength.

The situation has not altered since then.

Sources said the only option for the government to pass the legislation is through a joint sitting of both the houses of Parliament. But for that, the Bill has to be passed in one house and rejected in the other.

"It is for the parliament to decide," Parliamentary Affairs Minister M. Venkaiah Naidu said when asked if a joint sitting was on the government's mind.

Sources said the Opposition doesn't want the land ordinance to get rejected in the upper house and would rather prefer to keep it in abeyance.

The government is aware that besides the Congress, parties like the Left, TMC, NCP and even NDA ally Shiv Sena have reservations on the land ordinance.

"There is a lot of reflection within the government on the land bill," said CPI-M leader Sitaram Yechury.

Amid reports of wide spread rural distress due crop damaged by unseasonal rains and poor compensation by the respective state governments, the government may have to rethink its strategy on the issue, said the sources.

(In association with Mail Today Bureau)