07-21-2008, 10:26 PM
<b> COALITION ENJOYS SIMPLE MAJORITY: MUKHERJEE</b>
By GLOBEGATHER.COM NATIONAL NEWS BUREAU,21 JULY 2008
As the numbers game intensified, Mukherjee said in his "simple arithmetic", UPA's combined strength of 237 with Samajwadi Party's 39 added upto 276. With the Lok Sabha having an effective strength of 541, the ruling coalition enjoyed a simple majority, he said.
BJP leader V K Malhotra claimed that the groups arrayed against the UPA were together and needed just four to five MPs more to defeat the government.
Failure of Shiv Sena MP Tukaram Renge Patil to turn up at the party"s parliamentary group meeting fuelled speculation that he may desert the party which has 12 MPs.
The atmosphere in the Lok Sabha was surcharged with BSP members at one point virtually coming to blows with rival SP.
An emotional Mukherjee, who has been UPA's pointsman for talks with Left parties on the nuclear deal, asked his former allies to "touch their heart" and asked "Is this an issue(nuke deal) that you(Left) are bringing down the government?
Given the bitterness that has marked relations between the UPA and the Left in the recent weeks, the Prime Minister was forthcoming in his praise of veteran Marxists Jyoti Basu and Harkishan Singh Surjeet for their "sagacity" and "leadership" for helping set up the coalition government.
Singh made no reference to Prakash Karat with whom he has been at odds over the nuclear deal. The import of the fact that the Prime Minister made no mention of CPI-M general secretary's name was not lost.
In a brief speech while moving the motion of confidence in his Council of Ministers in the Lok Sabha, Singh recalled the contributions of Basu and Surjeet and called them as "architects of our coalition government.
Singh's remarks were seen as a veiled dig at the Left parties which withdrew support to his government over the nuclear deal.
Voting expected at 6 pm on Tuesday . Twelve hours have been alloted for the debate and the voting is expected on Tuesday evening at about 6 pm after the Prime Minister's reply.
Singh, who before entering Parliament expressed confidence that the UPA government would prove its majority on the floor of the House, made a brief speech in which he did not not speak on the merits of the Indo-US nuclear deal over which the Left parties withdrew support necessitating the trust vote.
Moving the motion, he said for the past couple of decades the country was used to governments being forced to seek a vote of confidence within months of coming to power.
"I regret that this session of parliament has been convened when the attention of the government has been on the economy, particularly on the control of inflation and on implementing programmes for the welfare of our people, particularly our farmers. This exercise, I submit sir, was wholly avoidable," he said.
"I assure the House and the country that every single decision, every policy initiative we have taken was in the fullest confidence that we are doing so in in the best interests of our people and our country," the 75-year-old leader said to the thumping of desks by the ruling UPA MPs.
The two-day special session began in the shadow of mounting pressure from the CPI-M which directed Somnath Chatterjee to step down as Lok Sabha Speaker before the trust vote but in defiance he presided over the House.
Advani, who was unsparing in his criticism of the government, said "if people vote NDA back to power, we will renegotiate the nuclear deal to make it equal and ensure that there are no constraints on our strategic autonomy."
By GLOBEGATHER.COM NATIONAL NEWS BUREAU,21 JULY 2008
As the numbers game intensified, Mukherjee said in his "simple arithmetic", UPA's combined strength of 237 with Samajwadi Party's 39 added upto 276. With the Lok Sabha having an effective strength of 541, the ruling coalition enjoyed a simple majority, he said.
BJP leader V K Malhotra claimed that the groups arrayed against the UPA were together and needed just four to five MPs more to defeat the government.
Failure of Shiv Sena MP Tukaram Renge Patil to turn up at the party"s parliamentary group meeting fuelled speculation that he may desert the party which has 12 MPs.
The atmosphere in the Lok Sabha was surcharged with BSP members at one point virtually coming to blows with rival SP.
An emotional Mukherjee, who has been UPA's pointsman for talks with Left parties on the nuclear deal, asked his former allies to "touch their heart" and asked "Is this an issue(nuke deal) that you(Left) are bringing down the government?
Given the bitterness that has marked relations between the UPA and the Left in the recent weeks, the Prime Minister was forthcoming in his praise of veteran Marxists Jyoti Basu and Harkishan Singh Surjeet for their "sagacity" and "leadership" for helping set up the coalition government.
Singh made no reference to Prakash Karat with whom he has been at odds over the nuclear deal. The import of the fact that the Prime Minister made no mention of CPI-M general secretary's name was not lost.
In a brief speech while moving the motion of confidence in his Council of Ministers in the Lok Sabha, Singh recalled the contributions of Basu and Surjeet and called them as "architects of our coalition government.
Singh's remarks were seen as a veiled dig at the Left parties which withdrew support to his government over the nuclear deal.
Voting expected at 6 pm on Tuesday . Twelve hours have been alloted for the debate and the voting is expected on Tuesday evening at about 6 pm after the Prime Minister's reply.
Singh, who before entering Parliament expressed confidence that the UPA government would prove its majority on the floor of the House, made a brief speech in which he did not not speak on the merits of the Indo-US nuclear deal over which the Left parties withdrew support necessitating the trust vote.
Moving the motion, he said for the past couple of decades the country was used to governments being forced to seek a vote of confidence within months of coming to power.
"I regret that this session of parliament has been convened when the attention of the government has been on the economy, particularly on the control of inflation and on implementing programmes for the welfare of our people, particularly our farmers. This exercise, I submit sir, was wholly avoidable," he said.
"I assure the House and the country that every single decision, every policy initiative we have taken was in the fullest confidence that we are doing so in in the best interests of our people and our country," the 75-year-old leader said to the thumping of desks by the ruling UPA MPs.
The two-day special session began in the shadow of mounting pressure from the CPI-M which directed Somnath Chatterjee to step down as Lok Sabha Speaker before the trust vote but in defiance he presided over the House.
Advani, who was unsparing in his criticism of the government, said "if people vote NDA back to power, we will renegotiate the nuclear deal to make it equal and ensure that there are no constraints on our strategic autonomy."