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Congress likely to push for confidence vote over US-64

BS Political Bureau

The opposition Congress might bring an adjournment motion or a no-confidence motion against the NDA in the forthcoming Parliament session on the issue of mismanagement of funds in US-64. The motion, which could be brought as early as Wednesday, represents a serious embarrassment for the government because the entire opposition is likely to unite on this issue, except possibly the Samajwadi Party.

The Congress has convened a meeting of all opposition parties on Monday morning because it expects the adjournment of Parliament for the day following obituary references. It is here that the strategy for raising the US-64 matter will be decided and notice given. While in the Lok Sabha it is possible for the opposition to raise it and embarrass the government, in the Rajya Sabha, either a call attention motion or a short duration discussion could be used to bring the matter up. Notices for the latter have already been given.

Congress MP in the Rajya Sabha, Pranab Mukherjee said the issue was serious and affected investors across the board, rich or poor. He said an adjournment motion meant that the chairman and speaker would have to decide whether the matter was important enough to suspend all pending work of the house to hold a discussion.

Sources close to the Lok Sabha speaker G M C Balayogi said as the PM was scheduled to speak on the Agra summit on Tuesday, permission for the adjournment motion might be given only for Wednesday.

Losing an adjournment motion is considered a censure of the government. While according to law the government is not required to resign, convention decrees that it should.

The Samajwadi Party has to decide whether it will accept the lead taken by the Congress in embarrassing the government and go along with the opposition, or will support the opposition only so long as the government is not in danger of falling. On two occasions in the past - the Mauritius avoidance of double taxation agreement in which some Members of Parliament tried to charge Finance Minister Yashwant Sinha with misconduct citing the involvement of his daughter-in-law in US investments in Mauritius; and the general Budget - the Samajwadi Party had begun by supporting the opposition but had ended up siding with the government.

Sinha's own party has not been sympathetic to him on the US-64 issue, with past president of the BJP, Kushabhau Thakre not bothering to hide his ire against the government on the way small investors had been duped. While there is no love lost between the Telugu Desam Party and the Congress; and the TDP is an ally of the government for all practical purposes, on the US-64 issue, it may decide that supporting the government could be harmful for it.

In the last session, no government business could be transacted because the Tehelka bribery issue was used by the opposition to stall discussion in Parliament. In the forthcoming monsoon session, it is the mismanagement of US-64 which seems set to stall Parliament.

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