Business Daily from THE HINDU group of publications
Wednesday, Jul 23, 2008
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Business Daily from THE HINDU group of publications Wednesday, Jul 23, 2008 ePaper | Mobile/PDA Version | Audio |
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Politics Government - Politics A victory soured by corruption allegations Leader of the Opposition Mr L.K. Advani told reporters that a sum of Rs 1 crore was paid as advance to three BJP MPs for the favour of abstaining, with the promise that an additional Rs 8 crore would be paid the next morning after the deed was done. Rasheeda Bhagat
Chennai, July 22 As expected the United Progressive Alliance Government won the trust motion in Lok Sabha, but the principal Opposition party, the BJP, ensured the victory was sullied by serious allegations of attempts by one of the UPA’s new allies, the Samajwadi Party, to bribe BJP MPs to abstain from voting. The climax of the day was not the Speaker, Mr Somnath Chatterjee, announcing that the Manmohan Singh Government had won the trust motion, with 275 votes in favour of the motion and 256 votes against it and 10 abstentions. It was the deeply disturbing image of BJP MPs pulling out bundles of Rs 1000, waving them around and dumping them on the table in the Lok Sabha. Leader of the Opposition Mr L.K. Advani told reporters that a sum of Rs 1 crore was paid as advance to three BJP MPs for the favour of abstaining, with the promise that an additional Rs 8 crore would be paid the next morning after the deed was done. That the entire episode of money exchanging hands has been filmed by a television channel further heightened the drama even though the visuals were not aired. The allegation will be investigated and the truth will be known eventually, but in pulling out this coup of sorts the BJP was able to claim the high moral ground. On the back foot and appearing extremely disheartened during the days leading up to the trust vote on several counts, not the least of which was yielding the centre-stage in Opposition space to Bahujan Samaj Party chief Ms Mayawati, the party will now have a lot of ammunition to attack the Government with. Also, the episode brought to mind the July of 1993 when the Narasimha Rao Government survived a no-confidence motion amidst allegations of horse-trading and buying the votes of the JMM MPs. The murky details came to light only after Rao’s term in office was over and one of the MPs – Shailendra Mahato – who had accepted the bribe turned approver in 1996. In a way the BJP allegation came in very handy and a face saving measure for the Left parties that had vowed and worked very hard to bring down the UPA Government, and miserably failed to do so. It can now explain away the embarrassment of having voted along with the “communal” BJP by attacking the UPA Government on this scam. At the end of the day, the entire political drama beginning with the Left’s withdrawal of support, political regroupings, charges and counter charges of bribes, sops and inducements, has only diminished Indian democracy and darkened the image of politicians in the eyes of the aam aadmi they profess to serve. Ten misconceptions about the nuclear deal See-saw on the nuclear deal Having the deal and saving the Government More Stories on : Politics | Politics | Economic Offences
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