Gujral wins confidence vote

The United Front government headed by Prime Minister Inder Kumar Gujral won the vote of confidence in the Lok Sabha on Tuesday. The motion, moved by Gujral, was carried through by a voice vote with only the Bharatiya Janata Party opposing it.

Speaking before the motion of confidence, Gujral sought the co-operation of all parties in building a strong nation and said the state was supreme and could not belong to a single party.

Gujral said that a Russian friend had told him the erstwhile Soviet Union had collapsed when the single ruling party fragmented. This should not happen in India, he said.

He acknowledged that his was a coalition government and that he would seek a ''national consensus'' on all major issues. He said coalitions were a reality now and that though it was easy to form one, it would take time to maintain and ''sustain'' it. Gujral assured that his government would be ''transparent and accountable'' but it would still not permit ''witch-hunting''.

This provoked Opposition leader Atal Bihari Vajpyee to ask if the prime minister intended to ''drop a curtain'' over investigations into corruption and criminal charges against former ministers and political leaders. The prime minister said he had been in the job just 24 hours and he had yet to see the files relating to such investigations.

Congress chief whip Santosh Mohan Dev got up to say his party had never sought a cover-up of investigations as a condition for extending support to the government. The Congress member was shouted down by members of the BJP and other Opposition parties.

The prime minister tried to pour oil over troubled waters, saying Santosh Mohan Dev's had reacted strongly only because he did not understand Hindi. He then stressed his reference to witch-hunting was not part of any deal with the Congress.

Gujral said his government would give special emphasis on population checks and welfare of women. He acknowledged that despite elections in Jammu and Kashmir, the ''sorrow'' there was yet to end. He promised to take special steps to redress the grievances of the people there and to try to accelerate the process of normalising relations with neighbouring countries.

The prime minister also said he would redouble efforts for the welfare of the farmers and workers, whom he described as the backbone of the country. He also appealed to former finance minister P Chidambaram and his Tamil Maanila Congress colleagues to rejoin the government and assume their old ministerial offices.

When Vajpayee came on, he focused on the replacement of former prime minister Deve Gowda, linking it to the animal husbandry scam against Laloo Prasad Yadav.

He quoted Deve Gowda's speech in the Lok Sabha on April 11 when he had said he had not initiated any new cases against political leaders in the past 10 months, not interfering even in a case in which his party's chief minister (Laloo Prasad Yadav) was allegedly involved. This, said Vajpayee, hinted that Deve Gowda had to resist attempts to influence him.

Vajpayee said the UF was now weaker after Deve Gowda's ''sacrifice'' and that he disapproved of a stable government which, he felt, could never lead to a stable government.

TMC leader and former finance minister P Chidambaram sought smooth passage for his Union Budget while UF constituents entreated the TMC to rejoin the coalition government. During his address, Chidambaram outlined the UF government's economic achievements and said the economy was on a sound footing.

When her turn came, Sushma Swaraj of the BJP asked how Gujral could provide ''stability'' when the UF itself did not enjoy it. She said the Congress and the United Front were adopting confrontationist postures and ridiculed the prime minister's appeal for consensus, saying there was no consensus among the UF constituents.

She accused Communist Party of India leader Indrajit Gupta of conspiring with the ''killers'' of the Deve Gowda government.

''In the past 10 days every one was cheating the other in the United Front,'' she said, and asked what good could such a government do for the country. She said it would be difficult for the prime minister to run the government without compromising on several issues.

She alleged the Congress withdrew support to the Deve Gowda government not because of any policy differences but to escape the clutches of law. Instead of criticising the BJP, the Congress and the UF should do some introspection, she said.

Prem Singh Chandumajara of the Akali Dal generated much heat when he accused the Congress for spawning the 1984 riots after the death of Indira Gandhi and asked the UF government how it could trust such a party that had betrayed so many others. He said the Gujral government would meet the same fate as the Deve Gowda government because it was supported by the fickle Congress.

When Chandrumajara described the Congress in unparliamentary terms, the Congress benches were in an uproar. When even the Akali Dal chief S S Barnala agreed that the word ought to be expunged, Chandrumajara personally withdrew the word.

Sharad Pawar, floor leader of the Congress, on his part, assured full support to the Gujral government through the tenure of the current Lok Sabha and perhaps beyond that, to strengthen secular and democratic forces. He complimented the United Front for picking an intelligent and knowledgeable person like Gujral.

During his 50-minute speech, which was often interrupted by BJP members, Pawar attacked the BJP for instigating communal feelings and advised the UF constituents to shed their anti-Congress attitudes. Pawar also justified the withdrawal of support to the Deve Gowda government, claiming H D Deve Gowda failed miserably as prime minister.

Pawar narrated the sequence of events leading to the demolition of the Babri masjid and said the Vishwa Hindu Parishad had collected millions of rupees for their agitation over the Kashi and Mathura temples. Pawar said that though the BJP had claimed Kashi and Mathura were not on their agenda, a VHP general secretary had said the party would step in later. Uma Bharati and some other BJP members tried to interrupt Pawar but many Congress members shouted back to restore the balance.

Pawar picked up the thread again and said that though L K Advani and Jaswant Singh later expressed regrets for the Ayodhya episode, Advani had declared December 6, the day of the Babri masjid demolition, as a national day.

About the Congress withdrawal of support, he said some UF constituents has mistaken the quiescence of his party for weakness. They had even claimed the Congress had no option but support the UF, he said, adding that the Congress had withdrawn support to the Deve Gowda government when this attitude became intolerable, despite the party's efforts to help the UF contain communalism.

Support was withdrawn after giving due notice, Pawar said, pointing out that the Congress Working Committee resolutions of November 4 and February 16 suggesting corrective steps were also sent to the prime minister and the UF constituents. But the UF leader had not bothered to talk it out with the Congress, he said.

Now the vote of confidence is safely through, the House will meet again on April 30 to discuss the Union budget.