PM, the biggest winner of the trust vote

V FOR VICTORY: Singh emerged as the biggest winner despite the Opposition targeting him on personal level.

                

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New Delhi: After days of tense standoff over the Indo-US nuclear deal, Prime Minister Manmohan Singh on Tuesday won majority support in Parliament by a bigger margin than expected, shortly after three opposition MPs dramatically displayed wads of currency in the Lok Sabha alleging they had been bribed to abstain during the trust vote.

After more than an hour of utter confusion in the Lok Sabha when Manmohan Singh could not give his final response to the confidence motion debate because of disruptions by opposition MPs demanding his resignation, Speaker Somnath Chatterjee brought the curtains down on two days of acrimony in the House by announcing the final result: 275 MPs in favour of the UPA and 256 against.

But after a dramatic day, most politicos agreed that it was not as much a judgment day for the Congress as it was for Manmohan Singh who emerged as the biggest winner despite the Opposition targeting him on a personal level.

On the panel of experts to analyse the developments of the past two days were CPM’s Prasenjit Bose, Editorial Advisor of TOI Group Gautam Adhikari, senior journalist Swapan Das Gupta, political commentator and columnist Neerja Chowdhury, Congress Spokesperson Manish Tiwari and political commentator and columnist Prem Shankar Jha.

Left isolated?

The Government will now be going to the IAEA, it might even go for those reforms that the Left was against. On top of that, the Left is now with UP Chief Minister Mayawati who the CPM had once called casteist. She allied three times with the BJP and even campaigned for Gujarat CM Narendra Modi. So where is the Left today and what is its stand regarding allies?

Bose said that the Left will not give up its battle against the N-deal and is still willing to take their agitation to the streets.

“Even when we were voting on Tuesday we didn’t expect to topple this Government with just our votes. We all know how this majority has been mustered and makes us all remember how 15 years back Narasimha Rao had also saved his Government. So history has just repeated itself,” he added.

Bose then went on to say that the Left’s opposition to the nuclear deal remains. “All the arguments given by the External Affairs Minister and Rahul Gandhi are misleading and wrong. And the Left is definitely not isolated. The nuclear deal has brought a realignment of political relations in this country. We are now going to the masses in a very big way and we will explain how the deal is not good for the country.”

Rahul Gandhi said that Tuesday’s decision in Parliament was for the future of India. He also said that it was for a forward-looking mindset. Does his words make the Left look more backward in their thoughts? Is there disconnect between the Left and young India?

To which Bose said, “I think it is Rahul Gandhi who is removed from the reality of India. All this that has happened looks like the Congress’ version of the India Shining campaign. So let the Congress go to the people with this idea because then it will be easier on our part to expose the hype around the deal.”

PM, the biggest winner of the trust vote?

Has Manmohan Singh finally emerged as a politician that he has always accused of not being? The PM has always been charged with being a face to the Government that is run by the UPA Chairperson. But through this trust vote the nation has seen the way he was personally targeted by the Opposition. So has he emerged as a newer and more aggressive political leader?

Adhikari said, “I don’t know if Singh is king but he is certainly the new Singh. The way he walked, carried himself and spoke, his whole demeanor seems to have changed. He is by and large a quiet person who doesn’t like to project himself too much but he is finally being more assertive. People should rethink now because this man has come out as a pretty good strategist. He is a strong personality in his own quiet way. He has achieved a great victory.”

Agreeing with Adhikari, Das Gupta said, “There is a new demeanor. He has won a match. Unfortunately, we may find out that it is a case of match-fixing. But it has showed Manmohan Singh to be a skilful politician. All this has raised his stature but put him on a different plane.”

But will the Congress now bite the bullet and project him as the prime ministerial candidate for the upcoming General Elections?

“Now that is a million-dollar question,” said Chowdhury and then added, “But what the Congress will not be able to do is ignore him.”

“The deal will now go through so the party will deflect attention from inflation. So far his meetings have been in halls rather than rallies. Many also said that he is not a crowdpuller. But this time since he is the author of the deal and has pushed for it so he cannot be ignored. The Congress has go with him,” she explained.