Day after, BJP crafts strategy to take on Rahul
NEW DELHI : A day after decisively defeating the vote of no-confidence in Parliament, the mood in the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) was of jubilation at the scale of victory. This was coupled with a decision to go on the offensive against Congress president Rahul Gandhi with a new narrative premised around his ‘immaturity’.
HT spoke to five BJP leaders, four of whom wished to remain anonymous. The BJP believes that the fact that the government got 325 votes - with the caveat that the number could go up when Lok Sabha secretariat releases a corrected tally - was a signal that the government was strong.
“Remember speculation about how BJP had lost its majority, that there were disgruntled MPS. In one stroke, we have erased all of that,” said the first BJP leader.
Anurag Thakur, the newly appointed chief whip of the party in Lok Sabha said, “... we spoke to MPS many times; drew up lists... Five BJP MPS who were outside the country came back for this. Five BJP MPS in hospital were brought. From BJP, only two MPS couldn’t make it either because of ill health or being abroad.” Another MP claimed that both the PM’S speech and the scale of victory had provided a much-needed boost to party cadres . Admitting they were taken aback when Rahul Gandhi hugged the PM, a leader said it had given them ammunition, claiming he came across as ‘childish, immature, non-serious and not prepared to become PM’.
“You can’t force yourself on someone. You can’t do this in Parliament,” said Thakur.
Congress spokesperson Jaiveer Shergill said, “The BJP again is solely focusing on Rahulji’s hug to conveniently divert attention from vital issues of governance the Congress president raised to which the PM had no response. Clearly the hug surprisingly has given a heartburn to the BJP camp. ”
Gandhi tweeted on Saturday: “The point of yesterday’s debate in Parliament..pm uses Hate, Fear and Anger in the hearts of some of our people to build his narrative. We are going to prove that Love and Compassion in the hearts of all Indians, is the only way to build a nation.” The trust vote in 2008, a year before the UPA faced Lok Sabha elections, was one of the most dramatic in Parliament’s history. After almost a year of intense negotiations with Left parties, the UPA was able to convince Prakash Karat, then general secretary of the Communist Party of India (Marxist), that it could go ahead with a safeguards agreement on civilian nuclear installations with the International Atomic Energy Agency . The agreement was an enabler for the India-us nuclear agreement. When the government announced plans to meet the The Congress-led UPA government went for a special session—only for the floor test— before knocking on the doors of the NSG. With no support from the Left, UPA managers fell back on Mulayam Singh Yadav’s Samajwadi Party to win the test. Yadav said former President APJ Abdul Kalam had told him that the Nuclear Suppliers Group , the Left, with 60 MPS, withdrew support to the government. PM Manmohan Singh opted for a floor test to prove his government still commanded majority.the UPA, in a mood to take a high moral ground, wanted to take the mandate of the House for the deal. It wanted to send a message to the international community that the Parliament has given UPA the go ahead for the deal. The trust vote also became one of those rare moments when the Left and the BJP came on the same platform. Indo-us nuclear deal was good for the country and so he will support the UPA. Meanwhile, a furious CPI (M) asked speaker Somnath Chatterjee to step down and vote against the government. Chatterjee refused and he was expelled a day after the trust vote. The debate on the trust vote was widely considered one of the best in parliamentary history. The Bharatiya Janata Party, otherwise a strong supporter of Indo-us ties, decided to vote against the government and took the plea that if voted to power, it will negotiate a better deal. After two days of debate, the UPA government won the motion with 275 votes while 256 MPS voted against it.