Government can hope for a less turbulent budget session of parliament after Congress and BJP seemed to converge on key issues on Wednesday.
BJP has expressed support on exclusion of marital rape from criminal law amendments while Congress may agree to the opposition’s demand to get the related bill—replacing the recent ordinance—reviewed by a standing committee.

The government has already accepted the BJP’s demand for death sentence if the victim is left in a vegetative state.

If the bill is sent to a standing committee, the panel would be requested to submit their report as early as possible to enable the parliament to pass it quickly.

The opposition has almost agreed not to press for discussing the helicopter scam under rules that entail voting in the Houses. On the other hand, parliamentary affairs minister Kamal Nath offered to conduct “any form of probe” that is acceptable to the opposition. The two sides may finally settle for a judicial probe.

The two sides have already overcome the ‘saffron terror’ episode on Wednesday after the the BJP “accepted” home minister ’s regret over the issue.

In the meeting, Kamal Nath flagged the food security, land acquisition and the pension fund bills as priority issues even as some parties demanded to send the land bill to a joint select committee.