Congress may support Insurance bill

NEW DELHI: Congress today indicated that it will support the Insurance bill which the government plans to bring immediately, a move which will help insurance firms to get much needed capital from overseas partners.

"We, unlike NDA, do not change stance when we are in government and (when we are in opposition). We will stand by...provided every clause in it (Bill) is for the benefit of the common man," party leader Jyotiraditya Scindia said at the AICC briefing today.

He was asked whether Congress would adopt "tit for tat" or "forgive and forget" attitude with the NDA government as regards measures like the long pending Insurance bill, which failed to get the BJP backing when the UPA was in power.

The former Union Minister was also critical of the maiden budget of the Narendra Modi government noting that everywhere in the exercise there has been mention of Public Private Partnership and taking the FDI route.

"This is quite ironical as the BJP leaders including Modi used to attack us when we spoke of FDI (when the UPA was in power) and used to accuse us of attempting to sell the country to foreigners. This is complete volte-face," he said.

Scindia felt that the budgetary exercise would not lead the country to a robust economic enviornment as the government has cut down allocation on several welfare schemes at a time when traunt monsoon is playing havoc with agriculture.

"It is a disappointment. We expected much more. People have been shortchanged," he said, adding the raising of the income tax exemption limit was just meagre when the BJP had declared it would be raised to Rs five lakh.