The Insurance Laws (Amendment) Bill: Missing the Forest for the Trees
Many commentators have viewed the ongoing stalemate over the passage of controversial Insurance Laws (Amendment) Bill, 2008 – which, inter alia, proposes to raise foreign shareholding in the insurance sector from 26 to 49 percent – as nothing but sheer political opportunism of country’s two main political parties – Congress and BJP. Undeniably, it was the Congress-led UPA government which introduced this Bill in 2008 but the then main opposition party (BJP) strongly opposed it and the Bill was sent to the Parliamentary Standing Committee on Finance headed by Yashwant Sinha, senior BJP leader, for scrutiny. In its Report to Parliament, the Standing Committee…