Pension Bill: CPM caught between Buddha & Citu / Dec 13, 2005 / The Economic Times
From Indiapensions
Pension Bill: CPM caught between Buddha & Citu
NEW DELHI: Caught in the tug-of-war between the Buddhadeb Bhattacharjee government and the Citu on the pension fund bill, the CPM is trying to do a balancing act.
Amidst strong opposition from within the politburo, the party is likely to look for a compromise formula by negotiating on the number of public sector pension fund managers.
The issue will come up at the one-day politburo meeting tomorrow, which is to be attended by West Bengal chief minister Buddhadeb Bhattacharjee and Citu leaders M K Pandhe and Chittabrata Majumdar. The CPM, which has been blowing hot and cold on the pension fund bill, is now looking for a way out of its earlier stand that the bill was non-negotiable.
The party seems to have diluted its stand of “no private pension fund managers” to negotiating on their number. In a note on the pension fund bill, the government had suggested that the bill could be amended to provide for at least one of the pension fund managers to be a public sector entity. The CPM may now demand that this number be raised.
Under pressure from the Left Front government in West Bengal, the Marxists may have to convince its Citu members in the politburo to be open for negotiating with the UPA government.
However, the other task may be to bring around the other Left Parties, including the CPI which has left the decision on the legislation to the Aituc. CPI’s leader in Lok Sabha and Aituc general secretary Gurudas Dasgupta has given a dissent note to the parliamentary panel saying his party will oppose the bill “lock, stock and barrel.”
In fact, the CPM is understood to have sent a letter in response to the government’s note on the pension fund bill putting three conditions to consider support— employees money should not be allowed to be put in stock exchange, there should be no private pension fund managers and 50% pension benefit on the last drawn salary should be allowed to be maintained with the centre chipping in the extra amount.
The other Left Parties distanced themselves from a note drafted by the CPM saying the trade unions should be consulted before sending it to the government. The left-backed trade unions are questioning the very basic characteristics of the bill saying that it moved from a non-contributory to contributory scheme, privatised pension funds and linked pension benefits to the share markets.
Taking up the legislation, a money bill, in Parliament without the Left’s nod would mean risking the opposition of 61-strong Left. The 37-member Samajwadi Party has also indicated it would to go with the Left on the bill.
