By Venkatesh Kesari
New Delhi, July 22: The two-week-long political stalemate ended on Tuesday after a resounding victory for the Manmohan Singh government in the crucial trust vote in the Lok Sabha, which saw a realignment of political parties, heated debates and allegations of money power. In the end, the government won the trial of strength by a comfortable margin.
The victory, which put the Prime Minister firmly in the saddle, will not merely push the country towards the nuclear club, but also enable the government to move ahead with economic reforms. In his moment of glory, the Prime Minister targeted the Left. "They wanted me to behave like a slave," his reply to the Lok Sabha debate read.
Though the stalemate began from July 9 after the Left withdrawal of support to the government, the process of instability started much earlier, after the government made it clear that it is not backing off from the nuclear deal with the United States. At the end of the day on Tuesday, the UPA raced ahead in the numbers game. Those in favour of the motion stood at 275, and those opposed it numbered 256. The government won by 19 votes. Altogether 10 members were either absent or abstained from voting. There were also indications that, in a major blow to the saffron camp, at least nine NDA MPs defied the whip to vote for the motion. In the course of the debate, when Congress MP Rahul Gandhi was addressing the House, BSP members kept intervening and alleged that the government was trying to put pressure on them through the CBI to toe the UPA line. They also provided instances of the CBI going after the BSP supremo, Ms Mayawati, though "she has been exonerated by the agency."
As for the trust vote, the BJP, TDP, Janata Dal (U), Janata Dal (S), TRS, BJD and Shiv Sena failed to keep their flock together. The UPA’s managers managed to get support from Andhra Pradesh, Karnataka, Gujarat, Maharashtra and Orissa.
Dr H.T. Sanglianna Patil (Bengaluru North), Manjunath Kannur (Dharwad South), Manorama Madhvaraj (Udupi), M. Shivanna (Chamarajanagar) — all from Karnataka, Dr M. Jagannath (Nagar Karnool), D.K. Audikesavulu (Chottor), A. Narendra (Medak) — all from Andhra Pradesh, Harihar Swain (Aska, Orissa), and Tukaram Renge Patil (Parbhai, Maharashtra) helped the government either by remaining absent or by abstaining from voting.
Two BJP MPs from Gujarat, Babubhai Katara (Dahod) and Somabhai Patel (Surendranagar), as well as Brij Bhushan Sharan Singh (Balrampur, Utttar Pradesh) had already announced they would vote for the motion, besides two JD(U) MPs — P.P. Koya (Lakshadweep) and Ram Swaroop Prasad (Nalanda).
The UPA managers got at least six supporters from the BJP in Karnataka, Gujarat and UP. The switching over of Dr M. Jagannath was surprising in the sense that he crossed the floor just before the trust vote. There were reports of a lone Shiromani Akali Dal MP drifting towards the UPA.
Flashing a smile and the victory sign, Dr Singh described his government’s victory as "convincing." He said: "India was ready to take its rightful place in the comity of nations." The BJP MPs’ bribery allegations were "extremely sad", he felt.
