INDIA cut short the budget session of parliament on Wednesday (May 8), two days ahead of its scheduled close and without passing major reforms like the food security and the land acquisition bills.
The session, one of the least productive on record, has been disrupted for two weeks by opposition demands for the resignation of Prime Minister Dr Manmohan Singh and his law minister over a federal police investigation into how the government awarded coal concessions to private and state companies.
Two long-stalled economic reforms – one to lift the foreign ownership cap in insurers to 49 per cent from 26 per cent and another that would simplify land acquisition for factories – were expected to be passed in the legislature during the budget session but ended up being side-tracked by the political ruckus.
The food security bill, which aims to give millions more people cheap food, is seen as crucial to the ruling Congress party’s hopes of reelection.
