Amid uproarious scenes, India's government avoided collapse Tuesday when it won a perilously close vote of confidence in parliament. The win means India can now focus on pushing through a much-vaunted, long-delayed nuclear deal with the United States.
Had the government lost the vote, the world's biggest democracy would have faced early elections and the Indo-US nuclear deal would almost certainly have been canned.
Prime Minister Manmohan Singh's Congress party-led coalition, the United Progressive Alliance (UPA) won 275 votes in its favor and 256 against in the confidence motion, the parliamentary speaker Somnath Chatterjee announced late Tuesday. The vote followed a two-day parliamentary debate.
"Parliament has spoken in an unambiguous manner," Mr. Singh told journalists outside parliament. "This augurs well for the country's development and for India's efforts to find its rightful place in the comity of nations. It is a convincing victory."
The vote of confidence, India's first in a decade, was prompted when the government's communist allies withdrew their support over the civilian nuclear deal, arguing that the pact made India a pawn of Washington. Their withdrawal left the government without a clear majority.
So close seemed the vote that four jailed members of parliament (MPs) – serving time for kidnap, murder, and arson – were temporarily released under constitutional provisions guaranteeing their right to vote. Several hospitalized MPs were also brought in, including one wheeled into parliament on a gurney.
1 comment:
u forgot to tel one thing it was the worst day in parliament...
everybody was on their edge of seats..
bribery..kidnap and all sorts
but at the end congress won it
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