INDIA: N-Deal was struck for crores

Cross-votes, abstentions save govt

23 Jul 2008, 0448 hrs IST,TNN - Times Of India
NEW DELHI: The Manmohan Singh government, badly bruised by allegations of vote-for-money, shook off some of the taint with a comfortable victory in the trust vote on Tuesday.
The 19-vote victory came after the managers of the Manmohan Singh government had outmanoeuvred and outgunned the opposition in what has been one of the murkiest contests in parliamentary history — a contest in which charges of bribery and misuse of CBI drowned all other

substantive issues on debate. Charges of horse-trading were rampant on Monday, the day before, and the days before that.
But on Tuesday, it came out in the open in Parliament as a shocked country watched on television three BJP members rush into the Lok Sabha well waving wads of currency notes that were allegedly given to them by Samajwadi Party leader Amar Singh’s men to abstain from the
trust vote.
They claimed to have videographic evidence of the whole bribery operation. That was the lingering image of Tuesday's proceedings which had their high points, including Rahul Gandhi’s earnest plea for the nuclear deal and Lalu Prasad's rib-tickling entertainment, but which descended to the depths and culminated in PM Manmohan Singh's reply being drowned out by an opposition yelling foul. Singh grabbed the option of tabling his speech to set the stage for voting.
The vote threw up a result that was surprisingly comfortable for the government. TOI had maintained in the final run-up to vote that the government was in a "comfort zone", but many believed it was a touch-and-go affair. In the end the govt won 275
The opposition sought to rubbish the government’s win by repeatedly claiming that this was a false victory as it had been bought with money, while UPA responded by claiming that the bribery drama had been staged by BJP to sabotage a vote the government was going to win
anyway. Now that BJP had failed to sabotage it, it was throwing muck on Manmohan Singh. The problem for Singh is that some of the muck might refuse to go away.
Manmohan Singh may have described UPA's victory in the trust vote as "impressive", but the voting pattern shows that the victory really came about thanks to 'cross-voting’, otherwise known as horsetrading.
As many as 14 MPs defied their parties to favour the trust vote, while four went against the whip by abstaining and three simply stayed away.
Had all of these MPs voted according to their respective party’s diktats, the MPs in favour of the motion would have been 261, those against 277!
Six Samajwadi Party MPs also went against the party whip and voted against the government, as did Kuldeep Bishnoi of Congress. But even
if these MPs had all voted for UPA in the trust vote, the final tally would still not have been enough to catch up with those voting against the government.
The biggest victim of cross-voting was NDA, BJP in particular. As many as five BJP MPs — Somabhai Patel from Gujarat, K Manjunath and H T Sangliana (Karnataka), Brij Bhushan Sharan Singh from UP and Chandrabhan Singh from MP — voted for the government. Another
BJP MP — Manorama Madhwaraj from Karnataka — abstained, while Babubhai Katara from Gujarat and Harisingh Rathod from Maharashtra simply didn’t turn up for the vote. Another party MP from Chikmagalur in Karnataka, D C Srikantappa, was also absent, but in
his case it was because of a genuinely serious illness. The JD(U)'s Ramswaroop Prasad from Bihar was another NDA member who voted for the government, while his party colleague P P Koya of Lakshadweep stayed away. BJD's Harihar Swain also defied his party whip. Another alliance constituent, NPF, could do little to prevent its lone MP Wangyuh Konyak from supporting the trust vote. The Akali Dal also was unable to prevent Sukhdev Singh Libra from abstaining.
Apart from NDA, TDP saw one party MP, M Jagannath voting for the government and another, D K Audikesavulu, choosing to abstain.
UPA had already sewn up TRS’s A Narendra who voted for it despite his party whip. That was true also of two MDMK members, L Ganesan and Gingee Ramachandran, as well as NLP's Baleshwar Yadav.

Three BJP MPs allege they were offered crores of rupees to abstain

Special Correspondent -The Hindu

An unfortunate and sad day in the history of Parliament: Speaker
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Nobody will be spared if found guilty: Somnath
“Deal was struck for Rs. 3 crore each for 3 MPs”
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— PTI/ Courtesy Lok Sabha TV BJP MPs show wads of currency, allegedly given to them to switch sides, during the special session of the the Lok Sabha on Tuesday.
NEW DELHI: The Lok Sabha was stunned on Tuesday when three members of the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) alleged that they were
bribed by an ally of the United Progressive Alliance (UPA) to abstain from voting in the confidence motion moved by Prime Minister
Manmohan Singh.
The members tabled in the House wads of currency which was reportedly paid to them as advance. The rest of the cash, they said, was to be
paid after the voting.
Lok Sabha Speaker Somnath Chatterjee said this was an unfortunate and sad day in the history of Parliament. After a meeting with the leaders
of all political parties on the issue, he assured the House that the matter would be looked into and nobody would be spared if found guilty.
A formal complaint was given to the Speaker in writing.
The drama unfolded at 4 p.m. when Ashok Argal and Fagan Singh Kulaste (Madhya Pradesh) and Mahavir Bhagora (Rajasthan) — all
elected from Madhya Pradesh — took out wads of thousand rupee currency from two bags and placed them on the table of the secretary-
general, alleging that it was Rs. 1 crore given to Mr. Argal at his house.
There was a stunned silence before all hell broke loose as members of the Opposition trooped into the well of the House raising slogans.
Some members from the Treasury Benches also came down to the well.
This was followed by a free-for-all, with the members trading charges.
The BJP members alleged that the deal had been struck for Rs. 3 crore each for the three MPs and Rs. 1 crore was given as advance.
The money brought to the House in two bags was allegedly the advance money paid to Mr. Argal at the behest of Samajwadi Party general
secretary Amar Singh.
Deputy Speaker Charanjit Singh Atwal, who was in the Chair, left the House and returned after 10 minutes to announce that the proceedings
had been adjourned until 5 p.m.
The House was adjourned twice until 6.30 p.m. when the Prime Minister made an attempt to reply to the debate on the confidence motion,
but was not allowed to do so.
The Congress MPs, including Congress president Sonia Gandhi, External Affairs Minister Pranab Mukherjee and Home Minister Shivraj Patil,
left the House soon after the charge was made.
But Law and Justice Minister H.R. Bhardwaj came in after a while as did Leader of the Opposition L.K. Advani.
PTI reports:
Mr. Kulaste later told journalists: “We were contacted on Monday and told the deal would be struck in Le Meridien hotel here but that could
not take place.
Later, SP MP Reoti Raman Singh came to meet us at 12.30 a.m. at 4 Ferozshah Road and said ‘please come with me to Amar Singh’s house
where the deal would be finalised’.”
“In the morning, Ahmed Patel [Congress] discussed the deal with us. Thereafter, we went with Reoti Raman Singh to Amar Singh’s house
where he offered us Rs. 3 crore — Rs. 1 crore each as advance — there and then. But we refused to take the money and said it should be
delivered at 4 Ferozshah Road.”
Mr. Bhagora said: “About 20 minutes later a man came to the residence with two bags full of cash and put it on the table.
I asked him to open the bags to show whether the cash was real or fake.
Then he took out Rs. 1 crore in cash.”
“A man telephoned Amar Singh, who told me this money was an advance for the deal.”

July 23, 2008Indian Government Survives Confidence Vote
By SOMINI SENGUPTA -NYTimesNEW DELHI — The Indian government survived a motion of confidence in Parliament Tuesday evening, paving the way for India to seal a landmark nuclear agreement with the United States but leaving the entire parliamentary process tainted by dramatic allegations of bribery made
on the floor of the house.
In a wider margin of victory than had been predicted by politics watchers, Prime Minister Manmohan Singh, who initiated the confidence
motion, won 275 votes, while his opponents secured 256 votes, and 11 members abstained. It came on the heels of two days of acrimonious
debate and constant heckling of speakers, including at Mr. Singh, who was unable to finish his closing speech to the legislature.
The significance of the vote goes well beyond the survival of Mr. Singh’s administration, or even the fate of the one policy issue on which he
staked his legacy: an agreement initiated by the Bush Administration more than two years ago that would allow India access to nuclear fuel and
technology on the world market. The nuclear deal, hailed as a centerpiece of deepening India-U.S. friendship, now needs the approval of the
International Atomic Energy Agency and the Nuclear Suppliers Group and to go to the United States Congress for a final up-or-down vote.
In this country, the real impact of Tuesday’s vote will be felt in the coming months, as major and minor political parties in India’s deeply
fractured political system prepare for national elections that must be held before this government’s term expires in May 2009. The confidence
vote has dramatically rearranged old political alliances, sharpened the divide between political adversaries, and threatened to intensify public
cynicism here towards elected leaders.
“The polite veils that are thrown over the workings of democracy have been lifted,” the political analyst and president of the nonpartisan
Center for Policy Research, Pratap Bhanu Mehta, observed. “Politics is going to get really, really ugly.”
Late Tuesday afternoon came the most rambunctious moment of the two-day debate in parliament. Three lawmakers with the opposition
Bharatiya Janata Party, or B.J.P., charged that Mr. Singh’s new allies, with a North Indian regional party called Samajwadi, had offered them
roughly $750,000 each in exchange for abstaining from the confidence vote.
Barely two hours before the scheduled vote, B.J.P. lawmakers stormed the well of the parliament, waving wads of cash in the air and forcing
Parliament to adjourn. No sooner, B.J.P. leaders appeared before television cameras to detail the bribery allegations and Samajwadi leaders,
almost simultaneously, went on air to deny the charges and in turn accuse senior B.J.P. leaders of attempts to bribe.
Adding to the mystery, a private news television station, called CNN-IBN, said it had acquired what it called a “cash for vote” tape in the
course of an investigation into alleged bribes. The station did not air the tape, but said it had handed it over to the speaker of the parliament,
Somnath Chatterjee. Another television station, NDTV, dubbed the entire incident “cash-gate.”
Whether any money changed hands, how, and between whom, is not likely to be resolved anytime soon. The run-up to the vote has been
marked by repeated allegations of bribes, but no concrete proof has been offered.
After the vote, which Mr. Singh called as “a convincing victory,” the prime minister told reporters that he hoped it would send a message to
the world: “That india is prepared to take its rightful place in the comity of nations.”
Mr. Singh has pushed the accord as essential to India’s ability to advance its civilian energy needs at a time when the country has faced dire
energy shortages that are crimping the growth of its economy.
His one-time supporters in the Communist Party strongly oppose the deal, fearing it would deepen relations with Washington, which they are
also against.
Finance Minister Palaniappan Chidambaram on Tuesday took a swipe at his Communist critics, without naming them, suggesting that “some
people” want China to advance and are holding back India’s economic growth. “I want to emulate China, I want India to become an
economic power, an economic superpower,” he told parliament.
This was in turn met with angry heckles and arm-waving from the Communist parties benches.
Mr. Singh’s Congress Party-led coalition took power in 2004 with support from four Communist parties. Their relationship grew increasingly
embattled and snapped recently, when Mr. Singh said he would go through with the nuclear agreement initiated by the United States.
In recent days, the Communists since linked arms with Kumari Mayawati, the nation’s most powerful politician from the Dalit community, as
Indians on the lowest rungs of the caste ladder are also known. The two factions do not agree on many things, except both are bent on
bringing down the Congress Party-led government.
On Monday, Ms. Mayawati, 52, came out swinging against closer ties to the United States and in a bold political appeal to Muslim voters,
alleged that any move by Washington to attack Iran would make life difficult for India. She warned Mr. Singh not to press ahead with the
nuclear agreement as an issue of “personal honor.”
It was a radical departure for Ms. Mayawati, who in an interview only three weeks ago said she did not know enough about the accord to
render an opinion.
Ms. Mayawati over the weekend secured several important defections, including from South and North Indian regional parties from landed
peasant castes. Those alliances could help her expand her reach nationally and allow her to give the country’s two major parties, Congress
and the opposition B.J.P., a fierce contest in the next national polls.

Indian government wins confidence vote
By Surojit Gupta 21 minutes ago Indian Prime Minister Manmohan Singh's government won a vote of confidence in parliament on Tuesday, ensuring the survival of the ruling
coalition and a civilian nuclear deal with the United States.
The government said it would now push ahead with the pact, which would give India access to foreign nuclear fuel and technology and end
decades of isolation, as well as work towards reforms to liberalize the trillion-dollar economy.
"This will send a message to the world at large that India's head and heart is sound, that India is prepared to take its rightful place in the comity
of nations," Singh told reporters. "I have always said the deal was important and now we know it."
The government's joy at its victory was tempered by a bribery scandal, after opposition lawmakers interrupted the debate to wave wads of
cash they said were offered as bribes by the government to abstain.
The furor was described as one of the lowest points in parliamentary history, and led to fresh demands for Singh to resign, and catcalls
preventing him from even delivering his concluding remarks after the two-day debate.
Singh said the accusations has made him "extremely sad" and promised to cooperate in a parliamentary inquiry.
There had been a flurry of horse-trading in the run-up to the vote as both sides wooed small, regional and caste-based parties. But in the end
the government won more comfortably than expected, by 275 votes to 256 with 10 abstentions.
Investors had expected a narrow win for the government, and said the victory could boost markets. The main share index has risen by more
than 12 percent in the last four sessions.
"The next task for the government will be how much it will be able to push through on the reforms front." said Agam Gupta, head of trading at
Standard Chartered Bank in Mumbai.
"Stocks should start on a strong footing and bonds will also get bought. This is a positive for all the asset markets."
Political analyst Mahesh Rangarajan said: "It's a clear victory and an endorsement of the nuclear deal."
"But the bribery scandal will come back. Expect an opposition offensive in the coming weeks."
Nevertheless, analysts said the government should now survive until the end of its term, with elections due by next May.
PUSH FOR REFORMS
The confidence vote was sparked by the withdrawal of the government's communist allies to protest the nuclear deal, which they say will make
India's security and energy policies dependent on the United States.
The Hindu nationalist Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) said the deal would limit India's chances to test nuclear weapons.
Finance Minister Palaniappan Chidambaram said the vote proved the government had a majority in favor of economic reforms, after four
years when efforts to liberalize were often blocked by its former communist allies.
"We have a majority. Therefore, we have to work with other parties to carry forward the reforms process," he told reporters.
The deal makes India a defacto nuclear power despite not signing the Non-Proliferation Treaty and conducting nuclear tests in 1974 and
1998.
It could unlock $40 billion in investment over the next 15 years, according to an Indian business lobby group, as India seeks new energy
sources to tap its booming economy.
Investors hope the victory will give the government time to battle rising inflation, which has hit the pockets of millions of poor voters, as well as
to pass some economic reforms in sectors like insurance and pensions.
Despite the parliamentary victory, it is still unclear whether there is enough time for the deal to be passed by the U.S. Congress under the Bush
administration.
The agreement needs clearance from the governors of the U.N. atomic watchdog and a 45-nation group that controls sensitive nuclear trade.
The government helped secure a parliamentary majority with the support of the regional Samajwadi Party (SP), which replaced the
communists as its parliamentary support.
The SP will now effectively hold the balance of power in India and the party is expected to give the government more room than the
communists to pass economic reforms.
With the vote going close to the wire, several MPs who are ill were flown or wheeled in from hospital, and others, in jail for crimes such as
murder and extortion, were granted temporary release.
(Writing by Simon Denyer; Editing by Alistair Scrutton and Jerry Norton)

Indian govt survives stormy confidence vote
by Pratap Chakravarty 34 minutes ago
India's embattled coalition government survived a chaotic parliamentary confidence vote Tuesday, clearing the way for it to forge ahead with a
civilian nuclear energy deal with the United States.
Prime Minister Manmohan Singh won the backing of 275 deputies against 256 who opposed his Congress-led government, mainly left-
wingers and Hindu nationalists, speaker Somnath Chatterjee said at the end of a raucous session.
Singh needed just a simple majority to survive and see through the last year of his mandate. Had he failed, the world's largest democracy will
be headed into early elections -- with his opponents emboldened.
The result came after a tense hand-count of some votes that apparently were not properly recorded by machine, and a furore over opposition
allegations that the ruling coalition paid out large sums of cash in bribes to ensure its win.
The deal gives the government the green light to move forward with a pact with Washington designed to bring India into the global loop of
nuclear commerce after decades of international isolation.
"It's a great victory for the party and the government, and this victory is dedicated to the future of the country," said senior Congress party
official Ambika Soni.
"The nuclear deal has been endorsed," said government minister Ashwini Kumar.
The nuclear deal would allow India, which has nuclear weapons and refuses to sign the nuclear Non-Proliferation Treaty, to be treated as a
special case on condition it separates its civil and military programmes and allows some UN inspections.
Government officials gave an impassioned defence of the deal during two days of special parliamentary debate , arguing that the country's 1.1
billion people badly need alternative sources of energy to avert an impending fuel crunch.
Left-wingers -- who triggered the vote by withdrawing their support for Singh earlier this month -- and the main opposition Hindu nationalist
Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) say the deal ties traditionally neutral India too closely with the United States.
They also argues it would compromise the country's nuclear weapons programme.
The communists had tried to widen the terms of the debate -- speaking out against rising food and fuel prices, and arguing that hundreds of
millions of poor have been left behind in India's economic boom.
The Revolutionary Socialist Party, one of the four left-wing parties that forced the vote, said the government's win had "blackened" the face of
Indian democracy.
"We do not recognise this as a victory. They won because of intense horse-trading," fumed party leader T J Chandrachoodan.
BJP president Rajnath Singh alleged: "There has been pressure on our MPs to take money to either abstain or vote for the government, and
this has been done by the (ruling) Congress and their supporters."
The stormy session saw three opposition BJP MPs wave bundles of cash worth 30 million rupees (715,000 dollars) that they said they had
been paid for their votes.
"Never in the history of our parliament has such a shameful and revolting scandal unfolded," Singh said.
Officials in parliament said Chatterjee had called in New Delhi's police chief to investigate the bribery claims. The speaker said it was a "sad
day in the history of parliament."

Indian govt wins confidence vote
NEW DELHI: Indian Prime Minister Manmohan Singh’s government won a vote of confidence in parliament yesterday ensuring the immediate
survival of the ruling coalition and a civilian nuclear deal with the United States.
Earlier the Opposition demanded the resignation of the Prime Minister anyway after three of its lawmakers said they had been bribed to
abstain. The government won 275 votes against 256 for the Opposition, the parliamentary speaker Somnath Chatterjee announced.
The session was angry and chaotic. The debate was briefly adjourned when opposition lawmakers interrupted the debate to wave wads of
cash they said were offered as bribes by the government to abstain.
The vote pitted the Congress-led coalition that negotiated the civilian nuclear deal against its former communist allies and opposition parties led
by the Hindu-nationalist Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP).
With the vote very close, several MPs who are ill were flown or wheeled in from hospital, and others, in jail for crimes such as murder and
extortion, were granted temporary release.
The win means the four-year-old, left-of-centre government will, for the moment, stay in power. It will try and move ahead with a civilian
nuclear deal, seen as one of the few legacies of the prime minister.
The deal would draw India closer to the West and allow the Asian giant access to foreign civilian nuclear fuel and technology, despite not
signing the Non-Proliferation Treaty and conducting nuclear tests in 1974 and 1998.
It could unlock $40 billion in investment over the next 15 years, according to an Indian business lobby group, as India seeks new energy
sources to tap its booming, trillion-dollar economy.
But it is unclear whether the prime minister will be able to stay in power until elections scheduled by May, 2009, especially if the bribery
scandal spirals and involves top government officials.
Investors had hoped the victory would give the government time to battle rising inflation, which has hit the pockets of millions of poor voters,
as well as passing some economic reforms in sectors like insurance and pensions.
Investors had expected a narrow win for the government, and said the victory could boost markets. The main share index has risen by more
than 12 percent in the last four sessions.
The confidence vote was sparked by the withdrawal of the government’s communist allies to protest the nuclear deal, which they say will
make India’s security and energy policies dependent on the United States.
Finance Minister Palaniappan Chidambaram, in a speech frequently interrupted by shouting from the opposition benches, defended the
government’s record and said nuclear power was vital if the country was to emulate the economic success of China.
“This government under Dr. Manmohan Singh’s leadership is charting out a new path which will end India’s nuclear isolation, which will pave
the way for India becoming an economic superpower,” he said.
Despite the parliamentary victory, it is still unclear whether there is enough time for the deal to be passed by U.S. Congress under the Bush
administration.
The agreement needs clearance from the governors of the U.N. atomic watchdog and a 45-nation group that controls sensitive nuclear trade.
The government helped secure a parliamentary majority with the support of the regional Samajwadi Party (SP), which replaced the
communists as its parliamentary support.
The SP will now effectively hold the balance of power in India and the party is expected to give the government more room than the communists to pass economic reforms.
New Delhi, Tuesday, Reuters -Daily Mirror LK

India will become US ally against Iran’
New Delhi, July 21: CPI(M) leader Sitaram Yechury on Monday accused the United States of trying to make India a strategic ally to attack
Iran once New Delhi signs the Indo-US nuclear deal.
"The country's security is under threat as the US is planning to launch an attack on Iran, and India will be forced to join ranks with the US as a
strategic ally," said Yechury during a protest on nuclear deal.
Noting that Iran recently acquired nuclear capability and thus drew US ire, Yechury said that India "will end up servicing US planes and warships during an all out attack on Iran."
Yechury said the Left parties had warned Prime Minister Manmohan Singh several times not to side with the Bush administration.
"Prime Ministers in several countries like France, UK, Australia and Japan had to lose their jobs for siding with the Bush administration. Here too, we will not stop till the UPA government is defeated," Yechury said.
Bureau Report