Union finance minister P Chidambaram wants to push forward key economic reforms such as banking, insurance and pension through executive orders instead of parliamentary approval.

Speaking on the occasion of a book release where former external affairs minister Jaswant Singh from the BJP, who had a year-long stint as finance minister in the last year of the NDA government was also present, said, "Today, tempers are running high. That is what I sense from reading newspapers.... everybody is furious with everyone else. hopefully these tempers will cool down once Parliament reassembles. Then, I would be able to reach out to every section for supporting these bills."

He also said that even the opposition parties MPs had agreed with him on the nmeed to push forward these bill, barring except the Left, which basically had an ideological opposition.

He said all these bills were in the last stages of passing but were being held back on one issue in each bill.

The pension bill was held up on the issue that fund managers would be eventually drawn from the private sector. The insurance bill was being held up on the grounds of the foreign direct investment limit being raised from 26 per cent to 49 per cent, while the banking bill was held up on the issue of the removal of the 10 per cent voting right cap in private banks.

Chidambaram wanted to reach out to every section in Parliament to rally support for the passage of these bills. He said the Congress was prepared to lend its support to economic reforms even if it were sitting in the opposition.

Former finance minister Jaswant Singh said that the key to implementing reforms required a mindset change and carrying reforms forward was not an easy job since the political system did not support such measures.