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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

The UPA government today circulated the text of safeguard agreement accord to its 35-nation Board of Governors for approval and stepped on towards the controversial Indo-US nuke deal.

“At the request of the Government of India, the IAEA Secretariat today circulated to members of the IAEA board of governors for their consideration the draft of an ‘Agreement with the Government of India for the Application of Safeguards to Civilian Nuclear Facilities’,” International Atomic Energy Agency spokeswoman Melissa Fleming said in a press statement issued at the Agency headquarters in Vienna.

The agreement was sent after the Left parties withdrew support from the UPA government and submitted their resignation letters to the President on Wednesday. Left parties are against the Indo-US nuke deal and demanded the government to prove a vote of confidence in a week before approaching towards the deal.

The move described by Fleming as a “turning point” in India’s effort to push the deal came under attack from the Left and the BJP which saw a contradiction in government’s stand but the Congress said there is no contradiction.

According to the agreement, India will place its civilian nuclear facilities under IAEA safeguards to facilitate full civil nuclear cooperation between India and members of IAEA.

“The chairman of the board is consulting with board members to agree on a date for a board meeting when the agreement would be considered,” she added.

For the complete text of India-IAEA safeguard agreement, visit: http://im.rediff.com/news/2008/jul/iaea.pdf

Tags: Congress, Government, IAEA, India, Safeguards Draft, 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

The much awaited Left-United Progressive Alliance (UPA) coordination meeting over the Indo-US Civil Nuclear Agreement ended on Wednesday evening without a decision. After a 90-minute meeting of the 15-member committee, External Affairs Minister Pranab Mukherjee and CPM leader Sitaram Yechury said that the committee will come to a conclusion on IAEA safeguards in its next meeting, for which they failed to mention a date.

Its ninth meeting of Left-UPA over the crucial Indo-US nuke deal which went undecidedly against the backdrop of the standoff between the two sides on the Indo-US nuclear deal. It was reported that all members except NCP leader Sharad Pawar attended the meeting where both the sides stuck to their respective positions even while maintaining that they did not favor early elections.

The two sides met at the residence of External Affairs Minister Pranab Mukherjee, government’s chief negotiator, to discuss the latest situation arising out of government’s determination to approach the IAEA for finalizing an India-specific safeguards agreement.

The committee completed its discussions on all aspects of the agreement. Sources told that the next meeting of the committee is likely to be held in mid July.

Earlier, Pranab Mukherjee met Prime Minister at his residence (second time in a day) to give details of the situation before the crucial UPA-Left coordination committee meeting at 5 pm. Before this, Mukherjee had called on PM Manmohan Singh at the PMO to discuss the issue. The meeting came after the Left parties told Mukherjee earlier in the day that they would not accept a compromise formula that would have allowed the government to finalize the safeguards agreement required for the nuke deal, with the IAEA.

Left has dismissed the formula as “meaningless” hours before a crucial meet of the UPA-Left co-ordination committee to iron out differences on the civil nuclear deal. The Left parties maintained that they ‘understood’ the safeguards agreement would be on auto pilot mode for progress on the deal immediately after the IAEA Board of Governors approved it.  Later, Karat, Mukherjee and Antony had gone to Congress chief Sonia Gandhi’s residence to apprise her of the Left’s stand. Mukherjee also met UPA allies at 4:00 pm ahead of the UPA-Left committee meet.

Karat, meanwhile, also met Samajwadi Party leader Mulayam Singh Yadav, with the latter reiterating that his party would take a final decision on the nuke deal after next week’s UNPA meet.

Tags: , Congress, IAEA, India, India US, Left Parties, N-deal, Nuclear deal, Nuke Deal, UPA, USA

In the major breakthrough the Iran-India Gas Pipeline project will take off in a few weeks. The decision is taken during the emergency meeting in Jeddah late on Sunday night which came in the backdrop of the UPA government coming under attack from the Left for allegedly “dragging its feet” on the pipeline. 

Petroleum Minister Murli Deora after the meeting with his Iranian counterpart Gholam Hosein Nozari for talks on the $7.5 billion Iran-Pakistan-India (IPI) pipeline project said there were “some minor problems” which have been sorted out.

However Deora said that there were also some issues with Pakistan that has been taken care of.

Deora said, “The Pakistan oil minister has changed and so we have to deal with the new minister who is going to deal with it. Very soon we should be able to sign the agreement with Iran and Pakistan.”

Petroleum Minister Murli Deora said India has managed to resolve most differences with Iran and that there is no pressure from the US not to go ahead. He met with the Iranian minister on the sidelines of the Jeddah oil summit. It was an unscheduled meeting but one that has clearly yielded positive results.

The Left which criticized the government for going slow on the deal has said it’s a positive step but they won’t be taking the heat off the government just yet, that’s because the Left is still strongly against the nuclear deal and according to the CPI’s D Raja, the two deals aren’t linked.

However all oil producing countries are not keen on increasing oil production. There has been no major outcome in terms of cooling of oil prices while Saudi Arabia has said it will further increase oil production. Iran is sticking to its stand that there’s no shortage of supplies.

Tags: Deora, India, Pakistan, Petroleum, Pipeline, UPA

Mayawati led Bahujan Samaj Party (BSP) has pull out its support for the Congress-led United Progressive Alliance (UPA) at the centre. The BSP chief Mayawati has accused the UPA of neglecting Uttar Pradesh and meting out step-motherly treatment to her party and the UP government.

Uttar Pradesh Cheif Minister Mayawati sent a letter to President Pratibha Patil and UPA chairperson Sonia Gandhi stating her withdrawal of support.

“There won’t be any electoral alliance neither with Congress nor with Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP). UPA has left the Taj Corridor case lingering against me for political mileage and its attitude to my state has been very hostile,” Mayawati added.

UPA bears support by 220 members out of 543 members of Loksabha while 17 members of BSP refused to stand by them. The Left parties, which have 59 lawmakers as a block, extend outside support to the government.

“Even after seven months the attitude of the UPA Government has left lot to be desired. Taking this, the interest of the common man and the party into perspective, we have decided to withdraw support from the Congress led UPA Government,” she said

“I personally met Prime Minister Manmohan Singh and asked him to give an economic package of Rs 88,000 crore and he promised to do something about it. Till date, nothing had been done,” she added.

Tags: BSP, Cabinet Government, Congress, Mayawati, UP Government, UPA, Uttar Pradesh