M A I N   N E W S

No-trust move against Vajpayee government
on Aug 18
Tribune News Service

New Delhi, August 14
The Opposition is bringing a no-confidence motion against the Vajpayee government in the Lok Sabha on August 18. The move, political sources here say, is likely to be defeated by voice vote.

This will be the first ever no-confidence motion against the Vajpayee government which has been in office for the past five years. However, the government is confident that it would survive the motion and sources say that the stage of voting may not come at all.

Discussion would begin soon after the one-line motion is moved in the Lok Sabha. The marathon debate on the motion would continue for the second day on August 19 also.

Prime Minister Atal Bihari Vajpayee would reply to the motion on Tuesday evening at 5pm. The voting, if necessary, would take place at 6 pm.

The Leader of the Opposition in the Lok Sabha, Ms Sonia Gandhi, is expected to move the motion. She is understood to have given the notice of the motion to Speaker Manohar Joshi today.

Sources say that in case the voting were to take place, the government was confident of getting as many as 335 votes in the House of 545. Apart from the National Democratic Alliance (NDA), three major allies of the government — the Telugu Desam Party (29 members), Bahujan Samaj Party (14) and AIADMK (11)— are likely to vote against the motion.

The question hour on August 18 and 19 would remain suspended as the no-confidence motion takes precedence over all other matters.

However, it is understood that before the motion is moved, Speaker Manohar Joshi would take up financial business like Demands for Grants for various departments and ministries.

The no-confidence motion is being viewed in political circles as a direct corollary of the impasse that has gripped Parliament since the Public Accounts Committee (PAC) expressed on August 4 its “inability” to table its report on Operation Vijay (Kargil war) since the CVC had not produced any report before the PAC on the defence procurements referred to in the CAG report on “Op Vijay”.

Parliament has been disrupted since the PAC report was tabled on August 4.

As both sides — the Opposition and the government — have remained firm in their respective positions they have taken, the stalemate was not showing any signs of resolution.

The proverbial last straw for the Opposition was separate rulings by the presiding officers of the two Houses on the PAC issue.

Meanwhile, a meeting of the NDA has been scheduled here for August 16 to thrash out the ruling combine’s strategy. The meeting will be held at the Prime Minister’s residence.