Prime Minister Singh Survives Vote, Lays Policy Agenda
By arunr at 27 July, 2008, 7:49 pm
Prime Minister Manmohan Singh and his Congress Party coalition survived a no confidence vote, getting a needed political boost ahead of a general election and the backing to secure a nuclear deal with the U.S. The government’s victory, by a 275-256 margin with 10 abstentions, was wider than many had anticipated.
Yet the vote wasn’t without controversy. Outside the House, BJP leader LK Advani said the 3 MPs had come to his chamber in the afternoon showing him currency notes (in bundles of Rs 1,000 each) as a bribe to vote for Congress. It was not, however, clear who precisely had offered to bribe them. The BJP alleged that a senior political advisor to Congress President Sonia Gandhi, Ahmad Patel, was the one who had financed the operation. Patel denied this on television.
An upcoming, anointed leader of the Congress party, Rahul Gandhi sought to tie nuclear energy with India’s power needs and poverty problems. Gandhi’s speech was interrupted many times especially by the Bahujan Samaj Party (BSP), which is aligned against the UPA.
Finance Minister P Chidambaram explained key aspects of the nuclear agreement — especially the fact that the Hyde Act, the law passed in the US Congress governing export of nuclear technology, did not supersede the Indo-US civil nuclear deal, which has been a key objection of the four Left parties that withdrew support to the UPA last month. While India would agree to a voluntary moratorium on nuclear tests, it could continue them later for security or geo-strategic reasons. Mr. Mr. Chidambaram expected economic growth in the year ending March 31, 2009 of 7% to 8%, below the average of almost 9% over the past five years.
Some believe India’s government may seize the chance to jumpstart its stalled economic agenda, which includes further opening India to foreign companies. Analysts expect a proposal to allow foreign insurance companies to hold a stake of 49% in an Indian insurer, up from a cap of 26% now. The government may also lower its stake in state-run banks to below 50%, paving the way for private companies to shake up the industry.
Prime Minister Singh tried to deliver a speech laying out his priorities and agendas, but was blocked by opposition, after he called the opposition a “motley crowd opposed to us who have come together to share the spoils of office to promote their sectional, sectarian and parochial interests.” The speech was later posted on his website, and includes the following key policy points:
- Tackling the imported inflation caused by steep increase in oil prices.
- Revitalizing agriculture and agricultural productivity.
- Improving the effectiveness of our pro poor programs such as National Rural Employment Program, Sarva Shiksha Abhiyan, Nation-wide Mid day meal program, Bharat Nirman to improve the quality of rural infrastructure of roads, electricity, safe drinking water, sanitation, irrigation, National Rural Health Mission and the Jawaharlal Nehru National Urban Renewal Mission.
- Expanding higher education by increasing the gross enrolment ratio in higher education from 11.6% to 15%, by starting an ambitious program to create 30 new universities, of which 14 will be world class, 8 new IITs, 7 new IIMs, 20 new IIITs, 5 new IISERs, 2 Schools of planning and Architecture, 10 NITs, 373 new degree colleges and 1000 new polytechnics.
- Implementing a new 15 Point program for minorities, including the scheduled castes, scheduled tribes, paying particular emphasis on implementation of Land Rights for the tribal peoples.
- Implementing a Right to Information Act to impart transparency to processes of governance.
- Alternative energy options, like solar, nuclear, and hydro-power, to switch from an overreliance on carbon based sources like oil and coal.
Mr. Singh ended with a wistful, personal note:
“I have often said that I am a politician by accident. I have held many diverse responsibilities. I have been a teacher, I have been an official of the Government of India, I have been a member of this greatest of Parliaments, but I have never forgotten my life as a young boy in a distant village. Every day that I have been Prime Minister of India I have tried to remember that the first ten years of my life were spent in a village with no drinking water supply, no electricity, no hospital, no roads and nothing that we today associate with modern living. I had to walk miles to school, I had to study in the dim light of a kerosene oil lamp. This nation gave me the opportunity to ensure that such would not be the life of our children in the foreseeable future. Sir, my conscience is clear that on every day that I have occupied this high office, I have tried to fulfill the dream of that young boy from that distant village.”
This followed a controversial speech Mr. Singh gave in April, where he called the widespread practice of aborting female fetuses as a “national shame”, and urged for stricter enforcement of laws devised to prevent doctors from helping parents to avoid the birth of unwanted daughters.
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