CPI(M) urges Prez not to approve Insurance, Coal Ordinances

Protesting government's decision to issue Ordinances on insurance and coal block allocation, CPI(M) today wrote to President Pranab Mukherjee, urging him not to approve these and "nip in the bud" the tendency of imposing an "authoritarian" manner of governance.
Terming the move to issue Ordinances as "clear violation" of parliamentary norms, senior CPI(M) leader Sitaram Yechury sought the President's intervention to ensure it is not permitted.
"I am sincerely requesting you not to sanction such Ordinances," Yechury said in his letter to Mukherjee.
"I am sincerely requesting you to intervene in order to 'nip in the bud' such tendencies which may result in imposing an authoritarian manner of parliamentary functioning. This would be completely anti-thetical to the letter and spirit of our constitutionally established parliamentary democracy," he wrote.

The Cabinet, earlier in the day, decided to promulgate an Ordinance on raising foreign investment cap in insurance sector from 26 per cent to 49 per cent. The Cabinet also decided to promulgate an Ordinance to allow fresh auction of coal blocks de-allocated by the Supreme Court in September.
The government decided to use the Ordinance route as the bills on these could not be passed during the just-concluded Winter session of Parliament.

Yechury said the government's "taking recourse to such an Ordinance route under these circumstances would be a clear violation of our established Parliamentary Democracy."
Noting that a Rajya Sabha Select Committee had scrutinised the Insurance Bill, he said its report has not yet been deliberated upon and therefore the legislation "remains the property of the House on which a decision is pending."

He argued that, "Until this process is completed, the issuance of an Ordinance would be a grave violation of the sanctity of Parliamentary proceedings.