Three trust motions over the last 20 years went down to the wire. PV Narasimha Rao survived the first in 1993 by seven votes, Mr Atal Bihari Vajpayee lost in 1999 by one vote and Mr Manmohan Singh managed to cross the halfway mark by three in 2008. The outcome of other recent trust votes, however, were either predictable (such as ‘humble farmer’ HD Deve Gowda’s comical “old man in a hurry” taunt of 1997), or voting never happened, as in the case of Mr Vajpayee’s 13-day Government in 1996 when he quit after a memorable flourish of rhetoric.
Of the three Confidence or No-Confidence Motions that were hotly contested, Congress won two with money power. This can now be asserted with complete authority after the WikiLeaks revelations that have severely jolted an already shaken Government. It may, therefore, be contended that Mr Vajpayee either did not spend money in 1999 or spent too little. The Congress, on the other hand, true to character, left nothing to chance on both occasions, spending liberally to ensure its Governments’ survival.
Mr Manmohan Singh, I have written in these columns in the past, is unfazed by the charge that he is an ineffective leader of men. It is not in his nature to accept moral responsibility for anything, not even for the grossest immorality. His contemporaries point out that most people in high positions have resigned or at least seriously threatened to resign at least once in their career. Not so Mr Singh. At 78 one can hardly expect a man to do something for the first time. So no matter how convincing the Opposition’s arguments, no matter how shrill their protest within and outside Parliament, don’t expect Mr Singh to be shaken, leave alone stirred.
Characteristically, therefore, he has sought to escape blame for the attempted mass purchase of MPs on the eve of the 2008 vote by first saying he had not authorised the transaction if at all it happened, and shortly thereafter denying the whole business altogether. I have no difficulty believing him when he says he didn’t know what was happening for on most issues the party keeps him clueless. In the Congress’s scheme of things, the Prime Minister figures way down in the right to information protocol. Everybody in the party knew he would be quite clumsy if asked to save his Government; that job had to be left to money managers, wheeler-dealers, dirty tricks department — all operating under the command of 10 Janpath, not 7 Race Course Road.
It is worth recalling the sequence of events leading to the UPA’s resolve to push the India-US Civil Nuclear Agreement through. At the Hindustan Times Leadership Summit Mr Singh appeared to have given up. He philosophised that one had to live with disappointments in life and strongly repudiated that his was a one-issue Government. Some months later Ms Sonia Gandhi decided that the time had come to fix the “bothersome” Left, especially because Washington’s pressure was getting more and more intense. Worse, US diplomats were openly flirting with ‘intellectuals’ close to the BJP in an attempt to warn Ms Sonia Gandhi that if she wouldn’t play ball, alternatives could be explored.
The BJP took a lot of middle class flak for refusing to support the nuclear deal and also for making common cause with the Left over the Confidence Motion. But in hindsight, thank god the BJP steered clear of dealing with the Americans and their Indian agents. But to return to the Congress, it was only when 10 Janpath gave the green signal that Mr Singh began to roar again, daring the Left to withdraw support in an interview with The Telegraph of Kolkata. The Left, much against the wishes of its complacent West Bengal unit, endorsed the Prakash Karat line. The Congress was ready for this. The money managers swung into action cashing IoUs struck with industrialists for doing them favours. The “war chest”, as fringe player and permanent Congress hanger-on Nachiketa Kapur evocatively described it, was filled with wads upon wads of currency notes.
The Congress has a fascination with cash. Remember Nagarwala, the State Bank of India manager who withdrew Rs 60 lakh from the bank’s currency chest and handed it over to a designated courier allegedly on the telephonic instructions of someone who imitated Mrs Indira Gandhi’s voice? That Nagarwala, the investigating officer and another official who was in the know, all died mysteriously over the next six months is of course another matter. PV Narasimha Rao allowed Harshad Mehta’s cars to drive into high-security 7 Race Course Road. Mehta supposedly handed over Rs 1 crore packed in two suitcases (Rs 67 lakh in one and the rest in the second) personally to the then Prime Minister. Narasimha Rao was never averse to using cash to purchase political loyalty, as he amply demonstrated during the 1993 no-confidence motion.
That vote would be remembered for the brazen corruption of JMM leaders and some members of Mr Ajit Singh’s party, usually the first target of those out to buy MPs. The JMM MPs were so reckless that some carried the cash to their respective banks and deposited it in their own accounts. One worthy dug a hole in his living room wall and entombed the currency wads therein! Half the promised money was paid just before the vote to the newly purchased parliamentarians. They were also treated to a lavish lunch at which liquor flowed liberally before being escorted to the House to press the button. One of them came so much ‘under the influence’ that he took two rounds of the Well, loudly screaming “Namaste! Namaste!” to everybody even as he staggered to his seat, slouched and started to snore! He even pressed the wrong button and had to be badgered into correcting this by signing a paper slip! I remember this vividly as I was present in the Press Gallery that fateful day, reporting for the Hindustan Times.
The 2008 vote was no less dramatic, complete with a sting operation mounted by pro-BJP freelancers working in association with a TV channel that eventually reneged on a deal to telecast it just prior to the vote. Three BJP MPs carried wads of currency notes paid to them to cross-vote and displayed these to shocked parliamentarians and TV cameras inside the House. That several MPs were paid handsomely to ensure the Government survived and the nuclear deal with US went through is beyond doubt. But the Government, determined to keep the murky operation under wraps, refused to follow up a committee recommendation for a fuller investigation by appropriate agencies.
When Mr Singh periodically asserts that wrongdoers will not be spared, be it in the 2G or CWG scandals, his averment sounds utterly hollow because he remains, along with Narasimha Rao, the biggest beneficiary of the blatant use of money power to stay in office. The Prime Minister’s bizarre logic that his party’s re-election in 2009 has disproved the charge of recourse to corrupt practice to stay in power in 2008 is a claim that would make even Mr Lalu Prasad Yadav, tainted by the fodder scam, blush. But then, Mr Singh often insists that the Prime Minister has to be as unblemished as Caesar’s wife. And Mr Manmohan Singh is a honourable man as Mark Anthony said of Brutus in Shakespeare’s words!
Source: The Pioneer
Of the three Confidence or No-Confidence Motions that were hotly contested, Congress won two with money power. This can now be asserted with complete authority after the WikiLeaks revelations that have severely jolted an already shaken Government. It may, therefore, be contended that Mr Vajpayee either did not spend money in 1999 or spent too little. The Congress, on the other hand, true to character, left nothing to chance on both occasions, spending liberally to ensure its Governments’ survival.
Mr Manmohan Singh, I have written in these columns in the past, is unfazed by the charge that he is an ineffective leader of men. It is not in his nature to accept moral responsibility for anything, not even for the grossest immorality. His contemporaries point out that most people in high positions have resigned or at least seriously threatened to resign at least once in their career. Not so Mr Singh. At 78 one can hardly expect a man to do something for the first time. So no matter how convincing the Opposition’s arguments, no matter how shrill their protest within and outside Parliament, don’t expect Mr Singh to be shaken, leave alone stirred.
Characteristically, therefore, he has sought to escape blame for the attempted mass purchase of MPs on the eve of the 2008 vote by first saying he had not authorised the transaction if at all it happened, and shortly thereafter denying the whole business altogether. I have no difficulty believing him when he says he didn’t know what was happening for on most issues the party keeps him clueless. In the Congress’s scheme of things, the Prime Minister figures way down in the right to information protocol. Everybody in the party knew he would be quite clumsy if asked to save his Government; that job had to be left to money managers, wheeler-dealers, dirty tricks department — all operating under the command of 10 Janpath, not 7 Race Course Road.
It is worth recalling the sequence of events leading to the UPA’s resolve to push the India-US Civil Nuclear Agreement through. At the Hindustan Times Leadership Summit Mr Singh appeared to have given up. He philosophised that one had to live with disappointments in life and strongly repudiated that his was a one-issue Government. Some months later Ms Sonia Gandhi decided that the time had come to fix the “bothersome” Left, especially because Washington’s pressure was getting more and more intense. Worse, US diplomats were openly flirting with ‘intellectuals’ close to the BJP in an attempt to warn Ms Sonia Gandhi that if she wouldn’t play ball, alternatives could be explored.
The BJP took a lot of middle class flak for refusing to support the nuclear deal and also for making common cause with the Left over the Confidence Motion. But in hindsight, thank god the BJP steered clear of dealing with the Americans and their Indian agents. But to return to the Congress, it was only when 10 Janpath gave the green signal that Mr Singh began to roar again, daring the Left to withdraw support in an interview with The Telegraph of Kolkata. The Left, much against the wishes of its complacent West Bengal unit, endorsed the Prakash Karat line. The Congress was ready for this. The money managers swung into action cashing IoUs struck with industrialists for doing them favours. The “war chest”, as fringe player and permanent Congress hanger-on Nachiketa Kapur evocatively described it, was filled with wads upon wads of currency notes.
The Congress has a fascination with cash. Remember Nagarwala, the State Bank of India manager who withdrew Rs 60 lakh from the bank’s currency chest and handed it over to a designated courier allegedly on the telephonic instructions of someone who imitated Mrs Indira Gandhi’s voice? That Nagarwala, the investigating officer and another official who was in the know, all died mysteriously over the next six months is of course another matter. PV Narasimha Rao allowed Harshad Mehta’s cars to drive into high-security 7 Race Course Road. Mehta supposedly handed over Rs 1 crore packed in two suitcases (Rs 67 lakh in one and the rest in the second) personally to the then Prime Minister. Narasimha Rao was never averse to using cash to purchase political loyalty, as he amply demonstrated during the 1993 no-confidence motion.
That vote would be remembered for the brazen corruption of JMM leaders and some members of Mr Ajit Singh’s party, usually the first target of those out to buy MPs. The JMM MPs were so reckless that some carried the cash to their respective banks and deposited it in their own accounts. One worthy dug a hole in his living room wall and entombed the currency wads therein! Half the promised money was paid just before the vote to the newly purchased parliamentarians. They were also treated to a lavish lunch at which liquor flowed liberally before being escorted to the House to press the button. One of them came so much ‘under the influence’ that he took two rounds of the Well, loudly screaming “Namaste! Namaste!” to everybody even as he staggered to his seat, slouched and started to snore! He even pressed the wrong button and had to be badgered into correcting this by signing a paper slip! I remember this vividly as I was present in the Press Gallery that fateful day, reporting for the Hindustan Times.
The 2008 vote was no less dramatic, complete with a sting operation mounted by pro-BJP freelancers working in association with a TV channel that eventually reneged on a deal to telecast it just prior to the vote. Three BJP MPs carried wads of currency notes paid to them to cross-vote and displayed these to shocked parliamentarians and TV cameras inside the House. That several MPs were paid handsomely to ensure the Government survived and the nuclear deal with US went through is beyond doubt. But the Government, determined to keep the murky operation under wraps, refused to follow up a committee recommendation for a fuller investigation by appropriate agencies.
When Mr Singh periodically asserts that wrongdoers will not be spared, be it in the 2G or CWG scandals, his averment sounds utterly hollow because he remains, along with Narasimha Rao, the biggest beneficiary of the blatant use of money power to stay in office. The Prime Minister’s bizarre logic that his party’s re-election in 2009 has disproved the charge of recourse to corrupt practice to stay in power in 2008 is a claim that would make even Mr Lalu Prasad Yadav, tainted by the fodder scam, blush. But then, Mr Singh often insists that the Prime Minister has to be as unblemished as Caesar’s wife. And Mr Manmohan Singh is a honourable man as Mark Anthony said of Brutus in Shakespeare’s words!
Source: The Pioneer
