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Here are
three more articles on the "tainted" Trust Vote on July 22, 08
A)
India media condemn
vote 'taint'
Story
from BBC NEWS:
July 23, 2008
“The
Indian government's win in a vote of confidence has been "tainted" by charges of
vote buying, newspapers say.
B)
The Naked Truth
Rajinder
Puri
Outlook India.com, July 22, 2008
“And horror of horrors, MPs convicted for serious crimes were asked to vote! But
when convicted MPs voted in the presidential election was that acceptable?
Political parties and individual MPs sold loyalty and policy as brazenly as
harlots in a red light district.
C) A Tainted Vote
Pioneer, July 24,
2008
“Had all
Lok Sabha MPs voted honestly as per the whip of their respective parties during
the trust vote on Tuesday, the result would have been quite the opposite.
A)
India media condemn
vote 'taint'
Story from BBC NEWS:
July 23, 2008
The Indian government's win in a vote of
confidence has been "tainted" by charges of vote buying, newspapers say.
Opposition MPs had waved wads of money in the house alleging they were offered
bribes to abstain during horse-trading.
The government survived Tuesday's vote over a nuclear deal with the US by 275
votes to 256. Indian shares rose more than 5% as markets welcomed the result.
The vote came after the government's left-wing allies withdrew their support in
protest at the controversial accord.
If the Congress party-led government had lost the vote, India would have faced
early elections, casting the nuclear deal in doubt.
The opposition claimed that a news channel had secretly recorded the alleged
bribe taking.
The channel handed the tapes over to the parliament speaker Somnath Chatterjee
for investigation.
Mr Chatterjee said Tuesday was a "very sad day" for the Indian parliament,
adding: "Nobody will be spared if found guilty."
Prime Minister Manmohan Singh has promised his party will co-operate in an
inquiry into the claims.
'Making a hash of democracy'
"Shame. PM wins, Parliament plumbs new
depths," headlined the Hindustan Times newspaper.
We have a politics without scruples,
without principles, without common decency and without common prudence
Pratap Bhanu Mehta,
The Indian Express
"Whatever be the veracity of the accusations made by three BJP [main opposition
Bharatiya Janata Party] MPs [who alleged that they were offered bribes] what is
needed if the nation even hopes to come to terms with this body blow of India's
parliamentary democracy is an inquiry into the allegation."
"Democracy is what we make of it and it seems very clear that at
some basic level, we have made a hash of it."
The Times Of India said that 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 [the federal detective agency]
drowned all other substantive issues on debate".
The newspaper said as many as 14 MPs had defied their parties to support the
government, while four went against party whips by abstaining or staying away.
Writing in The Indian Express,
political scientist Pratap Bhanu Mehta said Tuesday's incidents in the
parliament pointed to the "abominable" depths that Indian politics had sunk to.
"What has been established beyond doubt is that the bags of money have not just
a metaphor for the character of our politics, they have become its means and its
essence," he wrote.
"It would be prudent not to prejudge the allegations. But it has to be said that
either way this episode reflects the abominable depths in our politics.
"We have a politics without scruples, without principles, without common decency
and without common prudence."
Pratap Bhanu Mehta said the PM had lost his "moral identity" despite winning the
trust vote.
"We had a prime minister whose trump card was integrity. But in order to retain
political control rather than face elections, he lost his own moral identity."
'Pyrrhic victory'
"UPA [United Progressive
Alliance, the governing coalition] wins vote, loses trust," The Pioneer newspaper said in its headline.
"The manner in which it [the government] stacked up numbers in its favour has
resulted in its losing the trust of the people," the paper wrote.
"It is at best a pyrrhic victory which will delight only those who have scant
regard and ever less respect for ethics and probity in politics."
"Shame! Go for polls to regain glory,"
said The Economic Times.
"If power
is not its own end for this government, the prime minister must use his
new-found authority and public esteem to squarely address the malaise of money
power in politics," the paper wrote.
It said that the Congress party and the PM should conclude the nuclear deal with
the US
and "call for fresh elections at the earliest opportune moment, to secure a
fresh mandate for reforms - political as well as economic."
The Asian Age said Tuesday's incidents
in the parliament had "sullied the fair image and reputation of the Indian
parliamentary system earned over six decades".
A magazine editor echoed a similar sentiment.
"Indian democracy has been rotten for a long time - this is just one more
manifestation of that rottenness," Vinod Mehta of Outlook magazine told the AFP
news agency.
"You've seen the ugliest face of Indian
democracy."
HAVE YOUR SAY India is succumbing to American political and economic pressure:
Goolam Dawood, Johannesburg,
South Africa
The newspapers said that by winning the vote of confidence, PM Manmohan Singh
was now free to go ahead with the nuclear deal.
"When the history of the last two decades gets to be written, Mr Singh will be
seen as the maker of two landmark events," The Telegraph newspaper wrote.
One was
the economic reforms of the 90s, and the other is the Indo-US nuclear deal."
The Times of India said the government should now push unfinished economic
reforms which had been opposed by its former communist allies.
"Now that the government has passed the floor test and is no longer dependent on
the left for support, its imperative that it makes up for time lost and presses
ahead with long delayed reforms."
Story from BBC NEWS:
http://news.bbc.co.uk/go/pr/fr/-/2/hi/south_asia/7520726.stm
Published: 2008/07/23 11:16:55 GMT
© BBC MMVIII
B) The Naked Truth
Rajinder
Puri
Oulook India.com, July 22, 2008
So Singh stays king with 275 for and 256
against, but it's clear that the emperor's got no clothes. It's been seen by one
and all. Will this "historic debate" be a turning point?
The recent events inside and outside parliament provided this scribe immense
satisfaction. Not because of what could or could not happen to the nuclear deal.
Nor even by what was or was not spoken in parliament. Not even by which way the
vote went. The satisfaction came from the total exposure of politicians
belonging to all parties and the political culture they revealed. The
intellectuals and the media pundits, as well as the lay public, are at last
waking up to the truth. The nation’s enemy is not this or that political party.
It is the entire political class.
Some TV channels and newspapers, some politicians, put up a brave face trying to
project the debate as proof of a vibrant democracy. They did not deceive the
public. They deceived themselves. India’s political class showed to the world
how contemptible it was. It clearly demonstrated that no mere political
realignment could effect meaningful change. The system has failed. The system
must change. The system must adhere to the true spirit of our written
Constitution. That is the bottom line.
Why did public perception about the political class change? MPs charged other
MPs of being bought. A senior leader named the price for an MP to be Rs 25 crore.
Never mind if this was contempt of Parliament, unless substantiated. Never mind
if those who claimed to have received bribe offers became complicit in crime
unless they named the culprits and initiated legal action. Never mind if
Parliament proceedings touched the lowliest of the lows when currency notes
(reportedly worth one crore) by the BJP as alleged bribe money received from
Samajwadi Party were produced on the floor of the house, in full view of the
television cameras telecasting it live. It is a new low, regardless of whether
or not it was a genuine case, or just orchestrated drama to score political
point.
Law is
least important in the prevalent Indian democracy. One senior leader lamented
that the CBI cases against Mayawati exposed that agency as an official tool
being used for political purposes. Goodness, how long it took for him to
discover that! When CBI cases against Mayawati were stalled, was CBI not a tool?
On probes related to Bofors, Jain Hawala, Volcker and a host of other cases was
CBI not a tool? All these hypocrisies during the recent debate were not new.
They had been exhibited before.
And horror of horrors, MPs
convicted for serious crimes were asked to vote! But when convicted MPs voted in
the presidential election was that acceptable? Political parties and individual
MPs sold loyalty and policy as brazenly as harlots in a red light district. This
too had happened before. So why were the public’s disgust and
the intellectual’s disquiet aroused this time around? Because all this happened
simultaneously. The sheer volume of misdemeanors was mind boggling. Didn’t Marx
say that beyond a point quantity creates qualitative change? The conduct of its
political class has jolted India.
There is data being widely circulated on the Internet. It appears to be
researched and accurate. It indicates what more and more young people complacent
till the other day are beginning to perceive about the politicians who rule
them. There are 543 MPs in the Lok Sabha. Of them 117 have been charged and are
being investigated for murder, rape, assault, extortion and robbery. [When the
current Lok Sabha was constituted, Outlook had listed as many as 100 way back in
2004 --Ed] Nineteen MPs have more than three criminal cases pending against
them.
-------------
Twenty-nine have been accused of spouse
abuse. Seven have been arrested for fraud. Seventy-one cannot get credit or
loans due to bad credit histories. Twenty-one are current defendants in various
lawsuits. Eighty-four were involved in offences and made to pay fines. These are
the people who make our laws. They are the people who rule us.
Never mind the merits or demerits of the Indo-US nuclear deal. On any assessment
can this ragamuffin bunch be trusted to render sober judgment on any issue of
national importance? MPs demonstrated in the recent debate that overwhelmingly
their prime concern was narrow personal gain bereft of national interest. The
truth is that our political system is flawed because the Constitution was
subverted from the day it was adopted by parliament. It is an explicit written
Constitution. It does not replicate the Westminster model. Our Constitution is
presidential. This view was repeatedly voiced by this scribe for years. MPs have
legislative responsibility and should have no executive responsibility. Former
President Kalam said as much. In fact MPs are empowered to spend crores for
development in their constituencies.
On July 11, 2007 this scribe after quoting relevant clauses of the
Constitution wrote: "If the Constitution is read as originally written,
India’s parliamentary system
would become presidential." Further in the same article it was proposed how the
President could obtain a direct popular mandate after minor Constitutional
amendments that would not infringe on its basic structure: "Electoral changes
that do not alter the structure of the Constitution are required. The terms of
Parliament, State Assemblies and President need to be fixed and made
coterminous. Nominations to them might be phased. Candidates for the presidency
would be nominated by the outgoing legislators. The Presidential candidates
might then campaign for the legislature candidates. Once elected after such a
campaign, the newly elected legislators would elect the President. That would
give the President a fully representative mandate."
These views were scoffed at or ignored for the most part. The recent debate
seems to have altered perceptions. Apart from reputed columnists suggesting a
review of the prevalent political system, even the staid Times of India
editorially commented: "Has the time come to think beyond the Westminster model
that India has followed since independence? India should seriously consider a
presidential system of government." Jurists as yet are not admitting that our
original written Constitution was in fact presidential. If a national debate on
this subject leads to a reappraisal of the Constitution by uncluttered minds,
they might also start saying that.
Read Full Article
C) A Tainted Vote
Pioneer, July 24,
2008
Had all Lok Sabha MPs voted honestly as per the whip of their respective parties
during the trust vote on Tuesday, the result would have been quite the opposite.
The Opposition would have secured 277 votes against the UPA Govt and only 261
MPs would have been in favour of the trust motion. In short, the Govt would have
fallen! This is how
24 MPs defied the whip. 8 MPs
cross-voted for the UPA while 6 UPA MPs voted against the Government. A total of
10 MPs either abstained or were absent
5 SP MPs and Kuldeep Bishnoi (Cong) voted against the Govt. But even if they all
had backed the vote, the result would still have been against the Govt
Most cross-voting MPs were from BJP.
4 of them voted for Govt. Manorama Madhwaraj (Karnataka) abstained while
Babubhai Katara (Gujarat) and Haribhai Rathod (Maharashtra) just didn't show up
in Parliament. (Chikmagalur MP DC Srikantappa was also absent, but only because
he was seriously ill)
# JD(U) MP Ramsaroop
Prasad voted for the Govt; his party colleague PP Koya stayed away
# BJD's Harihar Swain
also defied his party whip
Akali Dal's Sukhdev
Singh Libra abstained from voting
TDP's M Jagannath
backed the trust vote
Notable absentees
included Mamata Banerjee (TC), Chandrabhan Singh, Tukaram Renge Patil (Shiv Sena),
Vanlal Zawma (MNF)
Those who cross-voted for UPA were BBS Singh, HT Sangliana, Manjunath, SG Patel
(all BJP), Sivanna (JDS)
Tuesday's trust vote result
in Parliament was
For Govt: 275 (8 Opp
MPs voted for Govt)
Against Govt: 256(1
Cong, 5 SP MPs cross-voted)
Abstained: 10
(Including absentees)
http://www.dailypioneer.com/indexn12.asp?main_variable=front%5Fpage&file_name=story4%2Etxt&counter_img=4
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