Generational shift

On Wednesday, the Lok Sabha passed the Insurance Laws (Amendment) Bill but not before the Trinamool Congress' Saugata Roy told the House how it was "ironical" that what the "father proposes, the son disposes". Roy was referring to the fact that Minister of State for Finance Jayant Sinha introduced the Bill in the House in the absence of Finance Minister Arun Jaitley, and that it was Sinha's father, Yashwant Sinha, who had headed the parliamentary standing committee that had studied the insurance Bill from 2008 to 2011, suggesting as many as 88 amendments. Sinha senior was not in favour of increasing foreign equity in the insurance sector; the latest amendment provides for raising the foreign investment cap in the sector from 26 per cent to 49 per cent. Roy said this was yet another example of how, in the Bharatiya Janata Party, "the senior generation's prescriptions are overruled by juniors". Jayant took the criticism in good humour.