Government determined to push insurance bill, opposition unrelenting

The government was "extremely determined" to push for insurance sector reforms and would not allow parliamentary disturbances to stop it, Finance Minister Arun Jaitley said Saturday, even as the opposition Congress warned it will not relent till their concerns were addressed.

The Rajya Sabha is currently stuck in a logjam over the conversion issue and was unable to transact any business last week.

Addressing an event at Ficci here, Jaitley said: "Today, the choice is clear. You either reform or miss the bus once again, and if the latter were to happen, a whole generation will not pardon us."

Jaitley made it clear that the government will not tolerate attempts to delay or obstruct reforms of the nature of opening the insurance sector to Foreign Direct Investment (FDI) even as "political obstructionists are out to ensure that the issue does not come to the debating table of parliament".

"The government is extremely determined to go ahead with this (insurance sector) reform and will not allow a parliamentary disturbance to obstruct or delay a reform of this kind," he said.

Marking a sharp contrast in the functioning of the two houses of parliament during the first four weeks of the winter session, the productivity of the Rajya Sabha has been only 68 percent.

Jaitley said the greatest challenge facing the nation was the need to create a shared national vision on certain issues even as there was an ideological divide on many of them.

Without naming the Trinamool Congress, Jaitley said a political party, whose members were allegedly involved in a chit fund scam, was trying to divert attention by creating obstruction in the functioning of the Rajya Sabha where the ruling National Democratic Alliance does not have a majority.

The opposition Congress, which has been at the forefront of protests in the Rajya Sabha, meanwhile said it would not allow the house to function till their concerns in the debate over the conversion issue were addressed.

"We are not relenting till the prime minister makes a statement on the issue. They need to address our concerns," Congress Rajya Sabha member Satyavrat Chaturvedi told IANS.

The Lok Sabha has lost only two hours and 10 minutes so far due to interruptions.

The Rajya Sabha, on the other hand, has witnessed interruptions during 15 of the 19 sittings (for which data was available), thereby losing a total time of 44 hours and nine minutes.

While productivity of the Lok Sabha during the current session so far has been 105 percent, productivity of the Rajya Sabha during the winter session has been 68 percent.