Click to play videoWith three days to go before the UPA Government faces a floor test in Parliament, small parties and Independent MPs are demanding their pound of flesh for voting in its favour.
The Government has decided to rename the Lucknow airport after Rashtriya Lok Dal (RLD) chief Ajit Singh’s father, late prime minister Charan Singh, so that it can get the support of his three MPs.
Jharkhand Mukti Morcha (JMM) leader Shibu Shoren, who was forced to quit as the Union Coal Minister after being convicted of murder, might be given his post back so that the Government can get the votes of his five MPs.
As political parties realign before the vote of confidence, CPI leader A B Bardhan has alleged that the Government is buying MPs for Rs 25 crore each. The Government had to take the vote of confidence after the Left Front withdrew support to it over the Indo-US nuclear deal. But for many politicians the nuclear deal is not the issue: their aim is make the best gains out of the political crisis.
The Samajwadi Party (SP) has allegedly buried the hatchet with the Congress to hush up criminal cases against its leaders and the Telangana Rashtra Samiti will vote with any side which promises it a Telangana state.
Does the nuclear deal or national interest matter in this politics? Are MPs for sale as parties realign before the floor test? CNN-IBN’s Sagarika Ghose asked this on Face The Nation to Veerappa Moily, Congress spokesperson and chief of the party’s media department, CPI leader Atul Anjan, Chandan Mitra, BJP Rajya Sabha MP and editor-in-chief of The Pioneer, and Jayaprakash Narayan, president of Lok Satta Party.
Plain politics
Renaming an airport and offering ministry to a controversial leader is “ground reality” politics, said Moily. Soren is part and parcel of the UPA and he has been in and out of the Government, so why should “vultures” take him away. Renaming the Lucknow airport after Charan Singh today or tomorrow is nothing wrong, he said.
BJP leader L K Advani called SP leader Amar Singh a broker for snitching up numbers for the Government but the saffron party itself stands accused of luring Opposition MLAs in Karnataka to help its Chief Minister in the state. Amar, some two weeks ago, alleged that the BJP had last year contacted him to topple the UPA Government and make SP chief Mulayam Singh the PM.
If the allegations are true then the ultimate blame lies with the people for voting a hung Parliament, said Mitra. “In a situation where no major party or alliance has a majority and parties with one or two MPs call the shots then some of this is inevitable. The Lucknow airport should have been renamed long ago but not now as a bargaining ploy with Amar Singh,” he said.
That politics has been reduced to bargaining or profiteering is a cynical statement, said Narayan. “It is true that politics has become a big business but it is also true that a large number of parliamentarians on grand questions of right and wrong behave honourably. In the 1999 trust vote (Atal Behari) Vajpayee lost by one vote and not a single member of any party switched loyalties,” he said.
“We have developed an aversion to politics and politicians in this country and we tend to think worst of them.”
Is Bardhan allegation reflective of this cynicism and further harm politicians’ image? Anjan rejected such fears and claimed two MPs had themselves told TV channels that they were offered Rs 30 crore to vote for the Government.
Moily rejected the allegation and claimed the Government has a comfortable majority and doesn’t need to buy MPs. “The debate should be on the merits of the nuclear deal—on whether it is good or bad for the country—but instead of that smaller things are being discussed. It doesn’t augur well for the largest democracy in the country,” he said.
The Left Front called the Bahujan Samajwadi Party (BSP) casteist after the Uttar Pradesh Assembly elections but now it is ready to tie up with the party to pull down the UPA Government. How moral is that?
Anjan insisted the Left was on solid moral ground. “We have come together on the nuclear deal. (BSP) Chief Minister Mayawati extended support to us and said she will oppose the nuclear deal. We have been consistently against the nuclear deal,” he said.
SMS and Web poll on ‘Trust Vote Realignments: Are MPs for sale’?
Yes: 95 per cent
No: 5 per cent.
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