(Image source from: Food Security Bill gets a green-light})

Monday proved to be a historic day for the entire nation, more so a rare feats for the ruling UPA government with Lok Sabha  giving a go-ahead to the Food Security Bill. With barely eight months to go for the 2014 Lok Sabha Assembly elections and the brewing  war between the opposition and the ruling party, Congress proved that it has been really saving its best cards for the last!

A “game-changer” move by UPA-2, the Food Security Bill moved through a prolonged passage in Lok Sabha, as opposition parties like BJP, AIADMK, CPI, BJD and Akali Dal demanded amendments like reducing the rack rates for cheap food grain and making the law's coverage universal in the bill.

Raging concern on the ever-escalating current account deficit and falling growth was temporarily deferred during yesterday's session as the government and opposition grappled to bag maximum brownie points after the vote on the bill ended.

Rising to the occasion, Congress chief Sonia Gandhi, despite being down with a viral fever, voiced fervently "Ye karna hi hai." She said that the bill would bring  relief to those who have not succored from growth and are battling the banes of hunger and malnutrition. This is the first time in many inths that Sonia Gandhi intervened in a debate in Lok Sabha. She previously spoke during the special session in Parliament held to mark its 60 years.

Sonia made it quite clear that the food bill is “Congress's latest rights-based entitlement and a cornerstone of the ruling party's political agenda for the next Lok Sabha election.”

There was extensive debates and tows over the amendments, with the ruling party accidentally voting against a clause in the bill, believing it to be proposed by leader of opposition Sushma Swaraj.

The matter was later settled with Swaraj agreeing to a re-vote, a rare occurrence in the House. The bill will now move to the Rajya Sabha.

AW: Suchorita Dutta