According to sources privy to the meeting, a truce of sorts was called and a sincere effort was made to realise that certain sanctum sanctorum of both sides will not be violated.
Earlier last week, a meeting between Parliamentary affairs minister Venkaih Naidu and Finance Minister Arun Jaitley with their Congress counterparts Ghulam Nabi Azad and Anand Sharma was held. It was an extremely important meeting as it set rolling a slew of measures which satisfied both – pandering to the constituency as well as carrying on with important legislative business.
This meeting, in the middle of pitched battle fought between the two, gave the government hope about the passage of bills, especially some positive movement on the crucial GST bill.
On Friday, a very senior Minister in the govt went to the residence of a key Congress functionary and was closeted there for an hour. Among various other things, fate of GST bill was also discussed.
In both houses, the success of these overtures were reflected as seven bills were passed – four in Lok Sabha and three in Rajya Sabha in the first week, when the sheer thought of any business taking place looked next to impossible.
Though there are lot of ifs and buts and several caveats involved in the passage of the GST bills, these sequence of events, of back room manoeuvre, amid both sides raging and refusing to cow down, is a perfect example of real politics.
Source: http://indiatoday.intoday.in/story/how-bjp-and-congress-are-working-to-reach-a-deal-on-important-bills-gst/1/657530.html
