The weeklong pandemonium over FDI in retail came to an end after UPA won the vote on the motion brought out by BJP-led Opposition. The Government got 253 votes, while Opposition could muster only 218 votes in Lok Sabha. Out of 543 votes, only 471 MPs participated in voting in the lower House, where SP and BSP abstained from voting. A more or less similar scene repeated in the Upper House, where Government got 123 votes and Opposition 109.
But when we scrutinise the whole chain of events, some very interesting things come to the fore. Although UPA Government seems to have sailed to victory on the FDI logjam with the help of SP and BSP, their vulnerability is well evident.
SP and BSP were made to abstain from voting, thereby tacitly lending a helping hand to the Government. Hypocrisy has been an innate quality of SP. Making promises and then backing out at the very last moment is not something the party is doing for the first time.
Recently, in the matter of electing the President, Mulayam promised support to Trinmool Congress. But at the last moment, SP refused to stand by Mamata. Earlier, in 2008, SP saved the Manmohan Singh-led UPA-1 Government during the trust vote on the India-US nuclear deal.
Why does Mulayam Singh Yadav always come to the Government’s rescue? No other reason comes to mind except what is famously called the ‘Congress Bureau of Investigation’. Mulayam has had the disproportionate assets case at his heels for some time now and the CBI is investigating the matter. One does not have to be a rocket scientist to conclude that one false move by Mulayam might bring the entire weight of the CBI down on his head. The same applies to the BSP also with regards the Taj corridor case.
The Congress-led Central Government has SP and BSP in a vice-like grip and is sparing no opportunity to squeeze them. Take a look at Mulayam’s statement saying FDI policy is against farmers, and then turning around and refusing to vote against the Government in the Lok Sabha. For SP, politics is all about speaking in two voices.
The bigger question is that in spite of flexing its political muscle as much as it can, UPA could still only arrange 253 votes in Lok Sabha. This raises questions about their very existence. If the Government had received 273 votes, they could have said they have the confidence of House and claimed the right to remain in power. If SP and BSP had remained in the House and not voted, the result may not have turned out in UPA’s favour.
TMC chief Mamata Banerjee reaction seemed most apt when she said that the “mandate proves that UPA 2 is a minority Government”. This was the first test of UPA-2 after Trinmool exit, but it seems more a sign of their end. The ruling alliance’s vulnerability has been exposed.
It is not the UPA that has won but the CBI, which brought them victory in the FDI game in both Houses.
Leader of Opposition Sushma Swaraj was correct when she said that Government might have won technically but has ultimately lost on moral grounds.
The good news for Opposition BJP is that they put up a united face in the fight against FDI. The gap between win and loss was not much. The requirement right now is for the tempo to be maintained till the next general election.
Courtesy : Niti Central
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