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After the UPA government has proved the vote of confidence on 22nd July by 275 to 256 vote victory followed by shocking scenario of waiving cash bundles by a few MPs at the floor of lower house, veteran Left leader Somnath Chatterjee has been expelled in view of his refusal to step down as the Speaker of Lok Sabha before the trust vote.

CPM general secretary Prakash Karat said on Thursday that it was “unfortunate” that the party had to take the decision but added Chatterjee can appeal against it.

“The Central Committee decided that no member of the party should remain the Speaker of Lok Sabha after the withdrawal of support. We were asked to communicate this to him. He did not agree…we had no option (but to take action),” Karat told reporters adding that Somnath can still appeal to the CPM central committee against his expulsion.

Karat told that the Left parties accepted a suggestion from the ruling party in 2004 that one of its members should be the Speaker and accepted it because “we were supporting the Government”. But as the Left is now the opposition party, the speaker cannot be from their party.

“On July 9, 2008 we withdraw our support to the government and became part of the opposition after that the CPM central committee decided that no one can be Speaker after withdrawal of support,” he continued.

“Between now and 2009 we will be in the opposition,” Karat said adding it would be difficult for the Government to function properly.

When pointed out that he had said that Chatterjee would take a final decision, he said, “to continue or not as the Speaker is his decision. It is up to him. But, whether he will remain as our party member will be decided by us.”

And regarding the shameful accusation of money in voting by the BJP MPs’ stating that a Samajwadi Party leader tried to bribe them by offering Rs three crore each for remaining absent from voting. Karat said that the tape submitted by a TV channel about the episode should be made public. It is a matter of serious concern and of public interest.

Karat has told that a nationwide campaign will be started against the government by them against Congress supported Indo-US Nuke deal, spiraling inflation, farmers’ suicide and terrorism.

“We will tell the country that this government is misusing institutions and agencies like CBI to harass political opponents,” Karat said.

Tags: India, Indo US, Indo US Deal, Left, Left Leaders, Left Parties, Nuclear, Nuclear deal, Politics, Somnath Chatterjee, UPA

The UPA government has proved the vote of confidence on 22nd July by 275 over 256 vote victory but the dramatic scenario of waiving cash bundles by a few MPs at the floor of lower house has shocked the moral values of Indian Democracy. Amid these allegations has the UPA really won?

It is not the only incident of involvement if cash in politics. Cash and politics is not a new story but such an open display of corruption in the parliament is really shameful. Corruption is eating the moral values of the society and it has crawled into the parliament also. Corruption and bribery have become the order of the day.

Bharatiya Janata Party MPs’ bribe allegations shocked the House and their waiving of wads of currency notes in the sanctum sanctorum of the Lower House raised many questions on the morality of the Indian parliament. The dramatic scene sidelined the UPA victory and the headlines were covered by the cash for vote allegations episode.

Congress described the entire episode of displaying cash in the Lok Sabha as a planted operation by ‘those who know that they will lose in the vote of confidence’. While the opposition BJP leaders including L K Advani claimed that 3 MPs of their party-Ashok Argal, Faggan Singh Kulaste and Mahavir Bagora were bribed 3 crores each with an advance of 1 crore. He demanded a detailed probe in the matter by the speaker.

Meanwhile the speaker, Somnath Chatterjee, the veteran leader of Left has been expelled in view of his refusal to step down as the Speaker of Lok Sabha before the trust vote.

The government was speechless on the issue. No matter whether the shocking allegations will proved correct or not, the day has stained the Indian government history. It is like a hard blow to Indian democracy. 22 July, Tuesday has been listed as the Black day in the history of Indian Parliament. Although PM wins but there was a bigger defeat of the government. It was a shameful drama and the Indian government has lost the trust of public.

Tags: Bribery, Corruption, Government, Horse Trading, India, Parliament, UPA

Prime Minister Manmohan Singh has won the confidence motion in the parliament. 275 member of parliaments votes in the favor of the government led by UPA and 256 votes goes against the government.

With this small election in the parliament, Congress lead UPA government will now has a complete majority in the parliament. 10 member of parliaments did not caste the vote.

This confidence motion has a two days of discussion in the parliament and UPA government won the confidence motion by a margin of 19 votes.

Entire congress man in India are celebrating the victory of the government. The latest news coming on the voting are saying that 10 member of parliaments are cross voted in the favor of government.

Earlier today one BJP MP shows the money offered to him in the parliament. That amount was offered to him for vote in the favor of the government.  Speaker Somnath Chatterjee has announced in the parliament that it is the black day of the parliament and he will conduct an inquiry for this.

Tags: Confidence Motion, India, MM Singh, PM, UPA

After the Left parties have withdrawn support to the Congress led United Progressive Alliance (UPA) government President Pratibha Patil has asked Prime Minister Manmohan Singh to meet her on Thursday.

BJP demanded that the government be asked to prove its majority within a week and in wake of these political crises, Singh who is in Japan for the G-8 summit is asked by Patil to meet her. He will be back past midnight.

Samajwadi Party General Secretary Amar Singh and its Parliamentary party leader Ramgopal Yadav also met the President and gave a fresh letter of support of 39 of its MPs to the government.

Earlier in the day, top leaders of CPM, CPI, Forward Bloc and RSP met President Pratibha Patil at Rashtrapati Bhavan and submitted a list of 60 Members of Parliament and handed over separate letters withdrawing their support to the government. They also submitted a joint communication asking her to “direct the Prime Minister to seek a vote of confidence in the Lok Sabha immediately”.

Lok Sabha has a total of 543 members. SP, PDP and some independents are supporting the government and UPA hopes to get 272 votes for a simple majority in the Lok Sabha.

Ajit Singh-led RLD, JD(S) headed by former Prime Minister H D Deve Gowda, Mamta Bannerjee’s Trinamul Congress and TRS come in the “undecided” category but have given enough hints of backing the government in a trust vote.

There are clouds of worries in the Indian political ring. There is a curiosity among all regarding government’s survival? Now there are uncertainties whether the government will able to prove a vote of confidence within a week and will retain its power or will it fall??

Tags: Congress, G-8, India, JD, Manmohan Singh, MM Singh, PM, Pratibha Patil, President, RLD, SP, TMC, UPA

A few hours after the Left parties pulled out their support to Congress led UPA government, External Affairs Minister Pranab Mukherjee on Tuesday announced that the UPA government will have to seek trust vote of confidence on the issue of very controversial and crucial Indo-US nuclear deal.

UPA government who announced to approach the IAEA to finalize the safeguards agreement will move for the same only after winning the trust votes.

After holding a talk with Prime Minister Manmohan Singh, who is in Japan to attend the G8 meet, Pranab said while talking to the reporters that the government will seek vote of confidence as soon as it receives a formal communication from President Pratibha Patil.

The normal Monsoon Session of Parliament will be convened from August 11 as informed by Mukherjee.

Replying to the Left parties’ complaint that UPA is hiding full text of safeguard agreement, Mukherjee said, “Full text of the safeguards agreement could not be shared with Left partners as it is a “privileged” confidential document between the Indian government and the IAEA.”

Mukherjee told that a brief summary of the agreement was already unveiled to the Left parties and full text of the safeguards agreement could be shared with “third parties” only after going through laid down procedures of the IAEA.

He also clarified that outcome of talks with IAEA had been circulated among all members of the UPA-Left co-ordination committee as agreed in the November 16, 2007 meeting.

Mukherjee told that those who want a full text of the safeguards agreement would have had to join the government to have access to it.

Tags: Congress, External Affairs minister, India, Indo US, Left, Left Parties, Nuclear deal, Nuke Deal, Pranab, Pranab Mukherjee, UPA, USA

The Left parties on Tuesday announced their withdrawal to the UPA government and said they would meet the President tomorrow to withdraw support to the congress led UPA government implementing their threat to pull the rug over the controversial Indo-US nuclear deal.

The announcement came a day after Prime Minister Manmohan Singh stated that “India will approach IAEA very soon” which rendered any further talks on the issue meaningless.

“As you are aware, the Left parties had decided that if the government goes to the IAEA Board of Governors, they will withdraw support. In view of the Prime Minister’s announcement, that time has come,” CPI (M) General Secretary Prakash Karat told reporters.

“The meeting of UPA-Left committee called by government on July 10 was meaningless now.” said Karat.

The four parties - CPI (M), CPI, Forward Bloc and RSP have sought an appointment with President Pratibha Patil for Wednesday morning to submit their letter of withdrawal of support.

“We will also urge the President to ask the government to prove its majority on the floor of the House,” a top Left leader said after the hour-long meeting of the four parties which decided to pull their support to Congress.

Giving a crack to their four-and-a-half year relationship with the UPA Communist Party of India (CPI) National Secretary D Raja said, “We will vote against Congress in Parliament,”

“Why is the Manmohan Singh government keeping the draft of the IAEA agreement secret from the people of India,” the Left leader asked.

In a joint statement, the four Left parties said they had been demanding the full text of the draft IAEA agreement saying it was necessary to see whether “any corrective action is possible on India’s part if the US discontinues the fuel supplies”.

Soon after the announcement of withdrawal of its support by Left to the UPA Government, the Congress has called for an emergency meeting at the residence of Sonia Gandhi, 10 Janpath.

Tags: Congress, India, India US, Indo US, Left, Left Parties, Nuclear deal, Nuke Deal, UPA, US

Failing to secure majority support in the 87-member state assembly, Jammu and Kashmir Chief Minister Ghulam Nabi Azad has resigned from his position on Monday.

Embarrassed Azad withdrew the confidence motion which was to be put to vote to prove his support in the house and announced his decision to resign at the end of his emotionally-charged one and a-half hour long speech on the confidence motion he moved this morning in the house.

“I am satisfied with my work. The motive I came with, I have largely achieved it. I don’t care who will be the chief minister. I don’t care whether the government survives or falls… I have shown the way,” Azad said in his speech which highlighted his government’s achievements during the last two- and-a-half years.

After the announcement Azad proceeded to Raj Bhavan to formally hand over his resignation letter to the governor N.N.Vohra.

The resignation comes as a surprise in view of Azad’s assertions over past week that he had the required majority in the house.

The one-day session of the state assembly had been convened on the instance of state governor N.N.Vohra who had asked Azad to prove his majority in the house, following withdrawal of support by the People’s Democratic Party (PDP), the key coalition partner on June 28.

PDP, led by former Chief Minister Mufti Muhammad Sayeed, had on June 28 withdrawn support to the Azad-led government in the wake of massive protests in the Valley on the Amarnath land transfer issue.

Tags: Azad, Gulam Nabi Azad, J&K, Jammu, Jammu Kashmir, Kashmir

After the Left has set a July 7 deadline for the government to clarify its position on whether it was going ahead on the Indo-US nuclear deal, Congress on Friday sought to reject the deadline. Congress spokesman Abhishek Singhvi told reporters that Sovereign governments or political parties cannot be subjected to deadlines.

Shighvi told that it is the time to work on triple objectives- to do a nuclear deal in national interest, to carry along our allies with us for that purpose and to go to elections as per the Constitutional schedule. Rejecting suggestions of an “unholy alliance”, Singhvi said, “Samajwadi Party and the Congress have never been mutually untouchable in the same sense as the Left and the BJP or the Congress and the BJP.”

Singhvi said the Congress had not changed its stand on the nuclear deal “by even one millimeter”.  He said that the deal is totally in national interest.

“We are happy that other parties in the national interest are slowly converging to our view point,” he said.

Left is strongly opposing the deal to happen. The party has threatened to withdraw support for the government if it seeks approval for the deal from IAEA, the next international move needed to operationalise the pact.

Yesterday Left parties gave a deadline to the government saying that it must tell by July 7 about its plans towards approaching the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) for the safeguards agreement, if any.

“We wish to know definitely whether the government is proceeding to seek the approval of the safeguards agreement by the board of governors of the IAEA,” said Prakash Karat, CPI (M) General Secretary, reading out a letter addressed to the government.

The party said it would launch a national campaign from July 14 to explain its opposition to the nuclear deal and what it called “runaway” inflation.

Tags: BJP, Congress, India, Nuclear deal, Nuke Deal, Samajwadi Party, SP, US

All India shutdown called by the BJP-VHP on Thursday against J&K govt decision of revoking of the land donated to Shri Amarnath Shrine Board has disrupted normal life in most part of the country. The protest left two persons killed while most of the rail and road transport was blocked. After the revoke of the order of transferring forestland to Amarnath shrine board, BJP-VHP demanded removal of Governor N N Vohra.

Many incidents of violence were reported by the protesters affecting road and railway transport. Along with, all markets were closed on the day. Bandh supporters stopped the Delhi-Bhopal Shatabdi express at Agra. BJP supporters blocked the major highways including Delhi-Amritsar highway at Shambhu Barrier and the Delhi-Noida-Delhi flyover in Delhi. Western Express Highway in Mumbai was also blocked. Many trains were also being targeted. Delhi-Bhopal Shatabdi Express has been stopped near Agra.

Jammu, the epicenter of the violence hit normal life in the state along with parts of Punjab, Haryana, Delhi, Uttar Pradesh, Karnataka, Kerala, Maharashtra, Assam and Jharkand. Meanwhile, in Jammu, curfew continued for the second day and pilgrims to the Vaishno Devi Shrine were among those stranded. The situation in Jammu remains tense with curfew remained in various parts of the state.

The VHP is also taking an active part in the bandh. “The forest act issue is just an excuse,” VHP general secretary Venkatesh Abdeo said. “This is a conspiracy to stop the Amarnath pilgrimage. Tomorrow it will be Vaishnodevi and Tirupati.”

The capital city was also affected largely by the bandh. There were violent incidents reported in the city in some regions. Shops were forcefully stopped in the Lakshmi Nagar area while whole market was closed in Karol Bagh too. Delhi Police assured that adequate security arrangements have been made in wake of the bandh and strict vigilance is going.

Similar scenario was viewed in financial capital Mumbai where protesters pelted buses with stones in suburban Kandivili damaging five best buses and blocked roads also. Important arterial roads at Vakola, Malad and Borivili in Northwest Mumbai and in the Northeast suburb of Ghatkopar were blocked.

In Thane, members of right wing Hindu organization were moving around the city since morning with flags in their hands forcing shop owners to down shutters. Even in Nagpur incidents of stone pelting were reported from Dighori and few places in south and eastern part of the city, said police. Some activists damaged about eight buses late last night in eastern part of city, they said.

Shops, business establishments and educational institutions were closed in most parts. Similar effects were seen in Karnataka state.

Tags: Amarnath Row, Bandh, BJP, India, India Bandh, Jammu, Kashmir, Land Deal, VHP

In the fresh protest against the decision of hand over of forest land to the Amarnath Shrine Board by BJP and Shiv sena activists, 70 protesters were arrested during the clash which left 9 people injured.

Protesters were throwing stones to show their anger and also attacked houses of State Health Minister and senior Congress leader Mangat Ram Sharma and People’s Democratic Party legislator Shanti Devi as said by official sources. However, there was no major incident reported so far.

Ten activists were arrested in Jammu and 60 arrested in Kathua district. Police baton charged over 1,000 BJP activists to resort traffic on Tawi Bridge.

Effigies of Governor Vohra, CM Ghulam Nabi Azad, PDP patron Mufti Mohammad Sayeed and former deputy CM Muzaffar Hussain Baig were also burnt during the agitation.

Transport system was also affected due to the protest. Pathankot-Jammu-Srinagar National Highway was blocked at six places in Kathua, Samba, Jammu and Udhampur districts, where protestors put up barricades, thereby stranding over 2,000 vehicles.

It was reported that BJP and Shiv Sena activists clashed with police at Ragunath Bazaar, City Chowk, Bikram Chowk, Muthi, Kathua, R S Pura, Udhampur, Nagrota, Bari Brahamana, Vijaypur and Samba areas in Jammu district during the bandh.

“The situation is under control. There is no major incident reported from anywhere in Jammu region. Some preventive arrests were made,” Inspector General of Police Jammu K Rajindra said.

Tags: Amarnath, BJP, Jammu, Jammu Band, Kashmir, Police, Shiv Sena