The third man: Arun Jaitley is back in business as the BJP's troubleshooter No 1

Having been sidelined first in the Bihar assembly elections and subsequently in the recent Cabinet reshuffle, Finance Minister Arun Jaitley has redeemed himself in the ongoing monsoon session of Parliament with his unusually proactive approach in resolving ticklish issues.

Jaitley successfully established his skills as the ruling Bharatiya Janata Party’s troubleshooter when it comes to dealing with the opposition parties and finding solutions to outstanding policy matters. He stepped up efforts to forge a consensus on the pending Goods and Services Tax Bill in this session, stepped in to rescue his Cabinet colleague food and consumer affairs minister Ram Vilas Paswan with an effective intervention in the debate on price rise, engaged with Congress leaders to evolve a compromise on the Compensatory Afforestation Management and Planning Authority Bill and extricated the government from a sticky situation on a private members’ Bill seeking special status for Andhra Pradesh.

It had become increasingly clear over the past several months that Arun Jaitley was not being kept in the loop by Prime Minister Narendra Modi and BJP president Amit Shah on key internal party matters. Jaitley was not involved in the preparation for last year’s Bihar assembly polls and was not involved in the recent Cabinet reshuffle as was evident from the induction of SS Ahluwalia and Vijay Goel, who are not known to be members of his inner circle.

Similarly, it appeared that Jaitley’s clout had diminished when his least favourite persons – Subramaniam Swamy and Navjot Singh Sidhu – were nominated to the Rajya Sabha. It is a different matter that Jaitley stood vindicated after Sidhu resigned his seat from the Upper House and Swamy strayed from his mandate to target the Gandhi family and instead started attacking the finance minister.

Jaitley retrieved his position somewhat when he succeeded in prevailing on Modi to put an end to Swamy’s diatribe against him. Since then, the finance minister has gone out of his way to demonstrate that he cannot be ignored and that he is the prime minister’s best bet when it comes to handling important policy matters and dealing with the opposition.

Back to business

Getting down to business, Jaitley began negotiations on the GST Bill with the Congress even before the opening of the monsoon session of Parliament on July 18. He has since held a series of meetings with Congress leaders Ghulam Nabi Azad, Anand Sharma and P Chidambaram in an effort to find common ground on the GST Bill with the principal opposition party which had set three conditions for its support: waiver of the additional 1% levy for manufacturing states, the constitution of an independent authority to redress grievances and a cap on the tax rate.

The backroom parleys , which surprisingly were kept under wraps, witnessed a thaw on both sides of the political divide. While the Congress indicated its willingness to be flexible on its demands, Jaitley also refrained from his usual tough talk that he would get the Bill passed even if the Congress was not on board as the National Democratic Alliance government enjoyed the support of most regional parties.

In contrast, the finance minister is now credited with the view that he did not wish to pass a Constitutional amendment Bill without the consent of all political parties and state governments on the ground they have to implement the legislation. Jaitley has widened the discussions to include other political parties whose leaders have been told that they should not hesitate to knock on his door even during the weekend in case they wanted any clarifications on the GST Bill seeking to introduce a uniform tax rate across the country. The far-reaching legislation, which hit a roadblock in the Rajya Sabha where the government is in a minority, is now expected to be tabled for passage next week.

Jaitley’s deep involvement in the negotiations on the GST Bill is understandable as his ministry deals with it, but he was also called upon to convince Congress leaders Jairam Ramesh and Digvijaya Singh who objected to the Compensatory Afforestation Management and Planning Authority Bill on the ground that it dilutes the Forest Rights Act passed unanimously when the United Progressive Alliance was in power and will end up empowering forest departments and state governments instead of tribals who will not have any say in the utilisation of the funds by the proposed authority. It was after several rounds of discussions in the finance minister’s chamber that a compromise was worked out: Jaitley proposed that Ramesh’s suggestions will be included when the rules to the legislation are framed. The Bill was subsequently passed by the Rajya Sabha, a feather in the cap for the new environment minister Anil Dave.

Troubleshooter No 1

Jaitley was also called upon to rescue the government when it was cornered over a private member’s bill seeking special status for the new state of Andhra Pradesh. Private member’s Bills are usually withdrawn after the government assures the member concerned that it will look into the matter. But, in this instance, the Congress rallied other opposition parties, including BJP ally Telugu Desam Party, who banded together to insist that the Bill be put to vote. The government would have been in a tough spot had the Bill been passed as it would have to necessarily implement its provisions. Not only would this have provided the Congress a moral victory in Andhra Pradesh where it has been totally decimated, it would have created problems for the Centre which has to contend with similar demands from Bihar and Jharkhand.

The Modi government has consistently maintained that it is not necessary to grant special status to Andhra Pradesh since it has provided sufficient funds to the state. The Rajya Sabha was blocked for two days on this issue. Jaitley bailed out the ruling alliance when he insisted that a vote in the Rajya Sabha will be meaningless as this is a money Bill. The Congress eventually gave in and settled for a discussion on the Bill and an assurance from Jaitley that the special status for Andhra Pradesh, promised by former Prime Minister, will be honoured. It’s a different matter that the finance minister made no such promise in his reply to the debate on Friday, resulting in a walk-out by the Congress members.

Despite these minor skirmishes, the monsoon session of Parliament has progressed smoothly without any major hiccups. Bills are being passed while issues raised by members from across the political spectrum are being debated. This is partly to do with the change of guard in the parliamentary affairs ministry - former minister Venkaiah Naidu routinely got into arguments with opposition members and constantly reminded them that the BJP had got the mandate to push ahead with its agenda. The ruling alliance has now realized that it needs to reach out to the opposition to push ahead with its legislative agenda. The Congress has also decided to tone down its earlier aggressive pitch as it was proving to be counter-productive. Locked in an eyeball-to-eyeball confrontation for the last two years, both sides have understood the need for a ceasefire.