But he warned that some MPs believed that support for the current system among peers "is motivated purely by self-interest and that it will somehow meltaway if we can be bought off by some vague offer of grandfather rights for existing members".
Among what the cynical Indian press calls the government's "election sops", farmers have now been promised an income insurance scheme but they will believe that when it happens, having seen earlier election commitments meltaway when the going gets hot.