Prime Minister Manmohan Singh on Tuesday (July 22) won a vote of confidence in the Lok Sabha with a comfortable margin belying predictions of a close contest on a day marred by unseemly scenes over allegations of bribery. The Prime Minister's motion expressing confidence of the House in the Council of Ministers was carried with 275 votes in favour and 256 against.
In a House with an effective strength of 541, it was not immediately clear how many abstained. The results were announced after nearly an hour when officials corrected the initial figures which showed 253 votes in favour of the motion, 232 against and 2 abstentions in a total vote of 487.
In the din caused by BJP members demanding Prime Minister's resignation and shouting down his speech, Singh laid his reply to the debate on the table of the House.
As opposition members pressed for a division, Speaker Somnath Chatterjee ordered voting by electronic voting machine.
Even before the final result was announced, ruling alliance members went to the Prime Minister and UPA Chairperson Sonia Gandhi to greet them on the victory in the confidence motion, the first in over four years of this government.
The Prime Minister sought the confidence of the House after the Left parties, which provided outside support since May 2004, withdrew it on the issue of government operationalising the Indo-US civilian nuclear deal by approaching the IAEA.
The two-day debate on the motion was often acrimonious but it took an entirely different turn after BJP members shocked the House by producing bundles of currency notes alleging bribes by the Samajwadi Party to them to abstain from voting.
Four BJP members, including former Prime Minister Atal Bihari Vajpayee, were permitted to vote from the inner lobby of the House through slips on account of their ill-health.
UPA scores big win in confidence vote
The UPA government scored an emphatic victory in the confidence vote in the Lok Sabha with a comfortable margin, ending the political uncertainty that will enable the ruling coalition to push ahead with the Indo-US civilian nuclear deal. The motion, which was forced by the Left parties' decision to withdraw support to the Government on the deal, was adopted with sizeable cross-voting from Opposition members including at least one visibly from Telegu Desum.
There was erosion in opposition numbers with only 256 opposing the motion against 275 supporting it. In a House with an effective strength of 541, the Government needed 271 and in the ultimate result it got four more than the half-way mark, belying predictions of a cliffhanger of a contest.
The day was marred by high drama when BJP members shocked the House displaying bundles of currency notes claiming Rs 1 crore was given to them as advance by a Samajwadi Party leader to abstain from voting.
Charges and counter-charges over the bribery allegations disrupted proceedings for over two hours with the Opposition members not allowing Prime Minister Manmohan Singh to make his customary reply winding up the two-day debate that was often crimonious.
In his six-page reply, which was laid on the table, the Prime Minister hit out at the Left parties saying "they wanted me to behave as their bonded slave."
"They wanted a veto over every single step of negotiations which is not acceptable," he said with regard to the negotiating processes he wanted to undertake with the International Atomic Energy Agency and the Nuclear Suppliers Group before operationalising the nuclear agreement.
Singh said the nuclear agreement will end India's nuclear isolation and apatheid and asserted that the agreements negotiated with the US, Russia, France and other countries would enable India to enter into international trade for civilian use without any interference with the nation's strategic nuclear programme.
The wheel has taken a full circle when last month Singh made it clear to his party, his coalition partners and to the Left allies that he should be given the freedom to go ahead with the deal, which he considers a major diplomatic initiative to end India's nuclear apartheid and bring along other benefits.
From his days as a demure reforms-implementing Finance Minister in the Narasimha Rao Government in the nineties to steering the government through a survival-threatening crisis, the former RBI governor and South-South Commission member has stood his ground and ensured that the government did not not collapse, a feat many a veteran politician would envy.
PM slams Left
"They wanted me to behave like a bonded slave", Prime Minister Manmohan Singh said referring to leaders of the Left parties. Recalling the differences over the Indo-US nuclear deal that led to the withdrawal of the Left support to his government, Singh told the Lok Sabha, " all I had asked our Left colleagues was–please allow us to go through the negotiating process and I will come to Parliament before operationalising the nuclear agreement.
"This simple courtesy which was essential for orderly functioning of any government worth the name, particularly with regard to the conduct of foreign policy, they were not willing to grant me," he said in his reply to the debate on Motion of Confidence.
"They wanted a veto over every single step of negotiations which is not acceptable, They wanted me to behave as their bonded slave," the Prime Minister said.
PM happy over "convincing" victory
Thanking the UPA leadership and its constituents for a "convincing" victory in the trust vote, a beaming Prime Minister Manmohan Singh tonight said whatever is necessary under the law will be done on charges of bribing MPs.
"Whatever necessary in accordance with the provisions of the law will be done," Singh told reporters in the Parliament complex.
He was replying to a question on the cross-voting and charges of bribery.
The Prime Minister said "these developments(bribery charges) made me extremly sad, if true,". He said the government would cooperate to see that "the truth is established".
Numerical win for UPA: LK
Leader of the opposition L K Advani on Tuesday (July 22) said that the UPA Government had only scored a numerical victory and not a moral victory. "There is something like numerical legitimacy and moral legitimacy. The government scored the numerical victory but lost on moral grounds," Advani said after Manmohan Singh government won the trust vote.
Advani said the UPA victory only validated the theory that money power was used to secure votes.
"Earlier there were only suspicions but today's episode has validated the fact that money was used."
PM rings up Prez
Soon after the UPA government won the trust vote, Prime Minister Manmohan Singh informed President Pratibha Patil about the development. The Prime Minister rang up the President and informed her about government's victory in the confidence vote in the Lok Sabha, a Rashtrapati Bhavan spokesperson said.
Victory shows govt has taken right decision: Rahul
Young Congress leader Rahul Gandhi said that the victory in the confidence vote showed that government had taken the right decision and the Prime Minister had done the right thing.
"Earlier also I had said I am not interested in whether we win or lose. What is important is what is right for India and the Prime Minister has done the same," he said reacting to the result of the trust vote. "We had to take right decisions and the decision was taken," he added. "I was disgusted," he said on allegation of bribery.