Joint session could be called if no consensus on land bill: FM

Its passage crucial to the success of next phase of reforms, says Finance Minister Arun Jaitley

Finance Minister Arun Jaitley on Tuesday said if the land reform Bill was not passed in the Rajya Sabha then a joint session of Parliament would be called as its passage was key to the success of next phase of reforms and achieving India’s growth target.

“I hope, we do not have to reach that situation (of convening a joint session of Parliament) and it gets sorted before that. The present government, as far as the constitutional mechanism is concerned, has the numbers,” Jaitley said.

Refraining from giving a timeline for convening a joint session of the Parliament, Jaitley exuded hope that the land reforms Bill, in its new shape, would be able to get through the Rajya Sabha, where the ruling party and its coalition partners do not have a majority.

However, he said the Bharatiya Janata Party and its coalition partners have enough numbers to get the Bill passed if there was a joint session of the Indian Parliament.

“We would like to ensure this landmark reform in India, does take place,” Jaitley said in his presentation on ‘India’s economic future’ organised by the Stanford Institute for Economic Policy Research.

"The land law approved in 2013, in my view, has hindered the complete development of rural India. Almost 55 per cent of India is rural,” he said.

Jaitley asserted the 2013 law does not provide for adding irrigation, rural infrastructure, easy availability of land for affordable housing for poor and also industrialisation in rural areas.

“This has become politically very contentious. It is currently before the Joint Select Committee. I am keeping my fingers crossed as to how this debate would proceed. But I do hope the Committee comes out with some agreed formulation, otherwise if consensus eludes us — both house choose to disagree with each other — then a joint session of the houses will take it up,” he said.

Jaitley said the government is committed to continuing with reforms.

“We finished the first year, with somewhat significant but modest change by Indian standards,” he said, adding, the basic parameter to put the House in order has been set.

Noting that India’s appetite for reforms has increased, he said, at the end of the day very few moves get blocked and at the most they get delayed. “This seems to be the maturity of Indian politics,” he said.