Arun Jaitley seeks debate on Rajya Sabha role in delaying reforms

Mumbai: Irked over the stalling of GST bill in the Rajya Sabha, Finance Minister Arun Jaitley on August 18 once again raked up the role of the upper house saying time has come to debate whether an 'indirectly elected' house can hold reforms passed by the 'directly-elected' Lok Sabha.

Accusing the Congress of delaying reforms with its 'obstructionism' in Parliament, he also took a dig at 'families' controlling political parties saying less number of businesses are now family-controlled with start-up revolution.

Against the backdrop of the failure of Rajya Sabha to pass the much-delayed Goods and Services Tax (GST) during the just-concluded monsoon session, Jaitley said, "India is getting increasingly polarised between those who want to grow and those who want to obstruct. "We have seen a very disappointing but a very educative Parliament session coming to an end. One needs to understand the politics of reform to assess the growth story."

The Finance Minister wondered "till what extent can the indirectly-elected House hold reform proposals passed by the directly elected house which represents will of the people? "Time has come to debate on this crucial question, to find out a conventional answer to this problem." Hitting out at Congress leaders, Jaitley said, "You can't have individual ambitions obstruct a popular mandate.

"Less and less businesses are controlled by families due to start-ups, but more political parties are family controlled. Families that control political parties believe that they have divine right to be in power." "Such tendencies lead to a right to obstruct. It is time we set up conventions as the British did to ensure we get legislative sanctions," he said.

Apparently making a case for further reforms in terms of opening up more sectors for foreign investments, he said, "Except for a few rare sectors, India must accept that it has to completely open up." Speaking on a range of macroeconomic issues, Jaitley said that the inflation was trending down and hoped that the central bank would take note of this in terms of their view on interest rates.

He said that monsoon has been good, except for two patches in the country, and harvest was expected to be good. Accelerating growth to 10 per cent and sustaining it can help alleviate poverty.