(Mis)Trust Vote

The two day special session of the Indian Parliament to discuss the Indo-US Nuclear agreement (not a 'deal', as kindly explained by Pranab Mukherjee in the Parliament) and vote on the trust vote turned out to be more entertaining than was actually expected. The week leading to the trust vote had all elements of drama that one could imagine, except morality - which was not expected in any case.

Ever since Prime Minister Manmohan Singh visited United States in July 2005, trouble started brewing between the Congress and the Communists. Communists, who oppose anything American, obviously opposed the ‘deal’ tooth and nail. After sitting through several rounds of discussion via various committees formed to resolve the differences between the two parties (Congress and the Left), there was one message that the Left sent out to the country - The dog that barks seldom bites.

Congress on the other hand was getting weaker by the day with multiple assembly election defeats, soaring inflation etc that Left felt that it would be a political suicide to be seen in the company of Congress when the general elections were only few months away. Left needed a reason to breakup and Congress dropped it in their lap when Manmohan Singh declared that India will go ahead with the Nuclear Agreement by moving to the next step. One would be mistaken to think that Congress is taking into account the best interests of the country by even daring the Left to withdraw its support. In a carefully planned move over the last few months, Samajwadi Party led by Mulayam Singh Yadav was roped in. Mulayam, who is being hounded by Mayawati in his home state of Uttar Pradesh, dumped the Third Front he was heading and embraced Congress. It was only after his party publicly joined UPA, Manmohan Singh announced that India will proceed with the next steps of the all-important agreement.

At the other side of the political spectrum, Bharatiya Janata Party led NDA was sitting pretty. In the last few months, they had tasted Assembly election victories in Gujarat, Himachal Pradesh and Karnataka. Steep increase in prices of petrol and food grains was more than enough to create the bitterness among the people against the UPA government. Third front remained a non-starter. Without having to do anything from their end, Congress and the Left were fighting with each other and that would only benefit BJP in the long run. As for the Nuclear agreement is concerned, it was a known secret that BJP would not have done anything different from Congress had it been in power. BJP was fine with the agreement in general and unlike the Communists, BJP was even fine in cosying up with United States. Publicly they were saying that they would like certain clauses of the agreement to be renegotiated, but never openly came out with what their concerns are. The indirect message that could be read by all was that 'We are fine with the agreement, but why should we let the Congress take credit for it?'. Such was the maturity displayed by India's principal opposition party. How healthy would it have been for the democracy to support the Government in this issue and may be move a no-confidence motion on the government citing issues like inflation?

At last, when the Left announced their withdrawal of support, the real drama started to unfold. Manmohan Singh, who was in Japan when the Left pulled the plug met President Pratibha Patil immediately upon his return and said that he would seek a trust vote in the Parliament and prove his majority. Left were supporting the Government with about 60 members, whereas Mulayam's Samajwadi Party had about 39. Although the gap closed down considerably, there was still a narrow gap to fill in. All the smaller parties were chased and cuddled. If the single digit MP parties were ruing their luck at any point in time, Gods were smiling on them as each vote was valuable to the UPA. With due apologies to the horses for the juxtaposition, horse trading was happening openly as MP after MP came out in the open claiming that he/she was offered Rs.25 or 30 crores in exchange for the votes. As the D-day approached, the price tag of the MPs kept increasing. Honourable members like Shibu Shoren openly demanded ministership (Coal Ministry, to be precise) in exchange for support. Lucknow Airport was renamed as 'Charan Singh Airport' in exchange for three votes from Ajit Singh led Rashtriya Lok Dal (for the uninitiated, Ajit Singh is the son of former Prime Minister Charan Singh). H D Devegowda, who had two MPs in his kitty suddenly woke up from his slumber and became an all-important person. He was even said to have demanded Central Ministership for H D Kumaraswamy, who is a MLA in Karnataka Assembly. In the meanwhile, Left hobnobbed with Mayawati led Bahujan Samaj Party and even declared that she will be their Prime Ministerial candidate when Manmohan Singh government falls. Mayawati, who has made no secret of her ambitions to occupy the Prime Minister's chair was doubly elated and did her best in keeping her flock under control.

If Congress had some forethought, it could have avoided few nerve-wracking moments and also some ignominity. After the Left pulled the plug on government, Manmohan Singh rushed to the President and volunteered to seek the trust vote. From his point of view, it was the most ethical thing to do. However, had he not given such an assurance to the President and had the President sat over the issue for few more days (President is not bound by any timeframe), one of the opposition parties would have moved the no-confidence motion and that would have made life easier for Congress led UPA. Dynamics are so complicated that Communists would find it hard to vote in favour of a (no-confidence) motion moved by Bharatiya Janata Party led NDA or vice versa, despite the fact that both the groups (NDA and the Communists) perceive Congress (and the UPA) as their common enemy. Never mind, it was just a flash of thought.

Two days before the trust vote, Congress heaved a sigh of relief and said that they have done their ground work and publicly stated that they will receive support from quite a few quarters including BJP. This writer has a feeling that BJP wanted the Government to win the trust vote, but fell shy of declaring support. While it was speculated that certain MPs from BJP (like Sangliana from Bangalore) would switch sides or abstain during voting, BJP did not appear to do anything to check that. BJP might have wanted the government to last for few more months because if the government fell, Mayawati would get projected as the master strategist and she would steal the limelight.

With all these noble considerations in mind, began the trust vote. MPs made the nation proud with their behaviour in the Parliament, unmindful of the fact that the whole world was watching the debate. On the second day of the debate - hours before the voting, three BJP MPs walked up to the well of the house and displayed wads of currency notes claiming that they were bribed by the ruling coalition to abstain from voting. It had the entire nation shocked in disbelief that it comes to such a pass. The usual mayhem and chaotic scenes, which the Indians have learnt to associate with the Parliamentary sessions of late, followed and the trust vote was held. Thanks to the 'M' power, UPA won the battle with as many as ten abstensions from the Opposition including BJP, Telugu Desam etc. There were abstensions and cross voting from the other side as well (with as many as 6 Samajwadi Party MPs voting against the Government). Only God and few others like Amar Singh, Sonia Gandhi etc would know the net price of this exercise.

The morning after, while the affected parties promptly sacked the erring MPs for defying the whip, some naive Indians were wondering why action shouldn't be taken against the MPs who blatantly took money in exchange for support. For those hopefuls, this writer would like to draw attention to the no-confidence motion against P.V. Narasimha Rao led Congress government in July 1993. Narasimha Rao government faced a crisis (due to Harshad Mehta scam) as it fell short of few MPs and bought over few MPs belonging to Jharkand Mukti Morcha party led by Shibu Shoren for Rs. 1 Crore each (a princely sum those days). The said amount was promptly deposited in the bank accounts of the respective MPs and somehow, it came to light. Chargesheet was filed by the CBI against the MPs who took bribe as well as Narasimha Rao and few others who were involved in the exchange. The case (P.V. Narasimha Rao Vs State (CBI) (1998) 4 SCC 626) was fought over in Supreme Court, that ruled as below - According to Article 105(2) of the Constitution, the Members of Parliament enjoyed immunity from prosecution for any wrongdoing (including bribery) that is connected to the discharge of their duties inside the parliament (voting etc). So, if at all there could be any action against the MPs who crossed over to the other side, it could be taken only by the Speaker of the House and not by the Court of Law. However, the MPs who defied the whip of their own party by abstaining will not enjoy any immunity because their action (abstaining) happened to be outside the Parliament.

When the Constitution provides such immunity, no wonder our honorable representatives don't feel shy about declaring their current worth and make hay while it shines. The funniest paradox in this is that if this unreasonable immunity be waived, the change should be initiated by the MPs themselves. Bet on any of our MPs to initiate such a change?