Prime Minister Manmohan Singh has moved the ‘Confidence Motion’ this morning over the Indo-US Nuclear Deal, against which the Left front withdrew its support to the UPA government and made it a minority government.
Though the government claimed that it would not proceed with the deal until it proved its majority on the floor of the house, it has gone ahead with the proceedings at the IAEA, exhibiting its arrogance and showing scant regards to constitutional norms. While going ahead with the N-deal, it also indulged in ugly ‘horse-trading’ business to muster majority support. The nation has been witnessing the worst exhibition of political immorality and indecency for the last ten days by the Congress led UPA government. Right from the time when a ‘confident’ Manmohan took a time leverage of ‘twelve’ days to move the confidence motion, it was quite evident that horse-trading would be rampant and it became true.
Self-interests and party-interests became the trade-rules in the ‘MP Bazar’ and everything happened in the name of National Interest! Honourable Members, who do not have even an iota of knowledge on the subject of nuclear deal, have become the prominent movers of the very same deal! While some of them are ‘not new’ but ‘clear’ about the technique of horse-trading, some of them are really ‘new’ but ‘not clear’ about both the ‘N-deal’ and the ‘H-trading! A few experienced senior parliamentarians have taken the lead in purchasing the horses and parading them. In the bargain, archrivals have become allies, adversaries have become supporters and back-stabbers have transformed into flag-holders!
Talking of the experts in the shameless show, Amar Singh stands out in the crowd. In 2004 he had said, ‘what was done to me, the public humiliation and then the bravado expressed by the Congress, it will cost them dearly because all the constituents of the Congress party and ours are of the same pattern. I felt ‘unwanted’ at the party at 10, Janpath. I am very ashamed I went there. I should not have gone there. Sonia did not talk to me at all...Surjeet was sitting with me so as to pacify my hurt feelings and me. They gave me cold stares and if looks can ill, I was almost killed! But for us, Sonia Gandhi would not have got the opportunity to shun power and attain sainthood, and Manmohan Singh would not have become prime minister. We are not given any credit for this. On the contrary, we are being discarded, rejected and very shabbily treated’.
And exactly after four years he says, ‘we realise our mistake of not supporting Congress and Sonia’s bid to become Prime Minister in 1999. Even now it is not late. We have joined together in the ‘national interests’ and we fill fight the elections to make Rahul as the Prime Minister’. After having spoken in parliament against the N-Deal in the previous sittings alongside the Left, he now says that the nuclear deal is beneficial to the nation. If this is not the ugly politics of the lowest order, then what else is?
Then comes Prakash Karat, who had driven to Mayawathi’s residence seeking support from the very same lady whom he had called ‘opportunist’ a hundred times in the past. He has been compromising his party’s ideologies for four years just for the sake of enjoying power without responsibility and accountability. He and his colleagues have been having their say in every field of governance with just 6% vote share in the national electorate. He had the audacity to go against veteran Jyoti Basu and to include the name of Speaker Somnath Chatterjee in the list submitted to President Prathiba Patil. Now he has gone to the extent of supporting ‘opportunist’ Mayawathi’s candidature for the post of Prime minister. If this is not opportunism then what else is?
The next in the line is Chandrababu Naidu, who enjoyed anything and everything during the NDA regime supporting the ‘communal’ BJP. Now he talks of a team against both the BJP and the Congress, trying to revive the sick joke called ‘Third Front’. With the compulsions of the state politics in mind, he has trapped Mayawathi by showing the ‘PM Card’ to the over ambitious lady. Tomorrow, his colour will change depending upon the prevailing circumstances and he is capable of that.
The same is the case with Mayawathi, who will not mind having a post poll alliance with the BJP, though she is dreaming of leading the third front and becoming the Prime minister. After all, she is a person who will turn hostile as and when she wants. She has already started poaching Samajwadi party heavily and she will go to any extent to dismantle it and make Mulayam and Amar Singh powerless.
In the ongoing exhibition of brazen politics the nation is also seeing ‘small’ men like Ajit Singh, Deve Gowda and Sibu Soren, etc, who want to take the maximum in their sinking careers. Hence, they are making hay while the sun shines, as this might be their last opportunity.
Last but not the least, there is one person, who has simply outshone even Amar Singh and that is none other than the Prime Minister Manmohan Singh. The ‘honest’ and ‘mild mannered’ politician, who is known for his ‘integrity’ seems to have thrown away all norms of decency, decorum and democracy in the process of achieving his sole objective of clearing the N-Deal. Right from the beginning, he has shown scant regards to parliamentary norms and proceedings, he has not taken the opposition into confidence; he has not given due respect to the opposition, which has more than 250 ‘seats’ in parliament, he has not lived up to the ‘commitments’, which he has made in parliament during the debates, he has not stood by the promises he has made to the Left front, he has been audaciously proceeding with the deal even before proving the majority in the floor of the house and this man of ‘integrity’ is not at all bothered about his party’s rampant indulgence in shameless horse trading.
Manmohan has not respected the feelings, apprehensions and expert opinions of a majority of the scientist community, which has sacrificed its all for building this nation. He has proceeded with the N-Deal without proper mandate knowing pretty well that the deal is a real ‘sell out’, as averred by the scientist community Ultimately he has gone against the Nation!
These characters, which play leading roles in the immoral trading at Parliament Bazar are nothing but brokers of power politics and there is no place here for things like ‘Constitutional Propriety’ and ‘National Interest’. Some kings (queens) have become brokers and some brokers have become king (queen) makers and the ‘brokerage’ is ‘Value of Democracy’!
There is a saying by the Great Tamil Poet Barathiyaar, ‘Peygal arasaandaal Pinam thinnum Saaththirangal’, which comes in his famous ‘Panchali Sabatham’ and the meaning of the verse is, ‘when Devils rule, Corpses consume the Rules of Law’! The nation now is ruled by Devils and there is no place for the Rule of Law!
