The strong reservation of agriculture minister Sharad Pawar finally succeed in getting the Cabinet shunning the Ordinance route to get Sonia Gandhi’s pet Food Security Bill, and preferring to be passed in a special session of parliament. However, the government has not closed the option of resorting to promulgating an Ordinance if there is no consensus during the meetings it plans with the Opposition on the issue.
The proposal for an Ordinance, which was not taken up by the Cabinet on two earlier occasions, was taken up briefly at yesterday’s Cabinet meeting. At the outset, prime mnister Manmohan Singh told the meeting that one last attempt should be made to build consensus with the Opposition. The issue was then deferred. Significantly, ahead of the Cabinet meeting, Pawar, who is said to have reservations over the Ordinance route for the measure, met the Prime Minister and is believed to have insisted that such a significant legislation should not be hustled through.
Singh also held separate discussions with senior colleagues including finance minister P Chidambaram, defence minister AK Antony and food minister KV Thomas on the desirability of Ordinance to implement UPA chairperson Sonia Gandhi's pet scheme that seeks to provide cheap food grain to a whopping 67 percent of the population.
The government's decisions today also had taken into account the reservations expressed by key outside ally the Samajwadi Party. After the an hour long Cabinet meeting, Chidambaram said the government will make one more attempt to forge consensus with the Opposition on passage of the Bill, where it could not pass in the last session due to disruptions. Some Congress ministers are also said to be having reservations on the Ordinance route.
