Trust vote in Lok Sabha expose dirty politics

The parliamentary debate during the recent trust vote in the Indian parliament made one thing clear; that no political party in India cares about the national interest. Nor do they have any future vision for the country. All the political parties indulged in fulfilling their selfish interests related to reaping electoral gains for the next parliamentary polls. A close examination of each party’s stand will only reveal how they just don’t care about the country and its people.

Left Parties:

The Karats and Bardhans of the Left proved yet again that when it comes to national interest, their loyalties lie somewhere else. The whole lot tried to stop the nuclear deal between the US and India by pointing out vague reasons. But not a single speaker from these parties clearly stated in the parliamentary debate that why are they opposed to the N-deal.

Publishing a booklet of their exchange with the UPA co-ordination committee on n-deal does not help their case. The party even tried, unsuccessfully, in spreading the message that muslims in India were against the deal. Such shameless attempt to communalise foreign policy has only exposed them in front of the Indian public. Mr Karat should understand that they don’t represent India and that they should forget about dictating India’s foreign policy with 59 MPs and that too from just two to three states.

As somebody said, power without responsibility is dangerous and the Left should know that if they want to have a say in the policy making then they need to participate in the government and work. Simply remaining outside the government and dictating terms is not democracy.

The party, frustrated by PM Manmohan Singh’s victory in the trust vote, vented all its anger on Lok Sabha Speaker Somnath Chatterjee for not resigning from the Speaker’s post. This has clearly exposed the double standards of Mr Karat and company. All along, they kept on saying publicly that the Speaker’s post is above the party and Mr Chatterjee has to make his own decision about whether to stay or resign. When the latter took a right decision of continuing in the post he was sacked. This has clearly demonstrated that the Left party is nothing but a socialist fascist organisation where the politburo leaders, with no popular support base of their own, take dictatorial decisions.

Mr Karat declared that the UPA should not go ahead with the n-deal or the country would revolt. I don’t know which country was he talking about, as until now there has been no indication from the people of this country that they oppose the deal. Mr Karat should first fight an election and come to the parliament and then talk about people’s concern.

National Democratic Alliance:

BJP, the leading party in the NDA, took the most opportunistic stand on the deal. The nation has not forgotten that not too long ago they were ready to give out more concessions to the US negotiators than the current UPA. I am sure the rest of the NDA partners did not understand the deal so they had nothing to say.

Even the senior BJP leaders (A B Vajpayee, Arun Jaitley, Jashwant Singh) did not make a single statement against the deal. We can understand that they may have some reservations about certain aspects of the deal, but to outrightly oppose the deal tooth-and-nail only reinforced the idea that they too are not worried about the Indian national interest.

BJP did not have a concrete reason to oppose the deal and hence its prime ministerial candidate declared that they would want the strategic relations with the US to continue and would “re-negotiate” the deal. Their opposition to the deal did not have the punch and they could not prevent the UPA government from winning the trust vote. Four BJP MPs cross-voted and few abstained, whereas three BJP MPs alleged they were offered bribes worth crores to vote for the UPA.

Mr Advani declared later that UPA’s victory was tainted and that he would fight corruption in public life. Agreed, but the BJP’s PM-in-waiting should also look inside his own party. Since the cash-for-query scam how many of his party MPs have been suspended for taking cash? The national president of his party (remember Bangaru Laxman) was caught on camera while taking bribe. Mr Advani has to clean-up his party of such dubious elements first and then think of rooting out corruption in public life. Charity begins at home…..

United National Progressive Alliance:

The assortment of losers from all over the country tried to forge an alliance and BSP president Mayawati even declared that they would form an alternative government with support from the Left parties. Not a single party had a clue what nuclear deal was all about and they just got together to serve their own interests. They got what they deserved in the end. The UPA government survived and the parties in the UNPA are already making plans of either joining UPA or NDA.

United Progressive Alliance:

The government finally managed to win the trust vote by managing few defections and abstentions. It was not a clear win for the PM and his friends (read SP and other managers) had to do some back-room negotiating to save the government. The PM has to ensure that we continue with an independent foreign policy and we don’t tilt in the favour of the US too much. The UPA government has to also explore the India-Pakistan-Iran gas pipeline project and ensure that India has an alternative energy source also.