US EDITION
COLUMNISTS
DIARY
SPECIALS
INTERVIEWS
CAPITAL BUZZ
REDIFF POLL
DEAR REDIFF
THE STATES
YEH HAI INDIA!
ELECTIONS
ARCHIVES

Search Rediff

Bansi Lal wins vote of confidence

The Haryana Vikas Party government led by Bansi Lal tonight won the motion of confidence in the state assembly by 22 votes.

The motion, moved by Chief Minister Bansi Lal as directed by Governor Mahabir Prasad, was put to vote by Speaker Chhattar Singh Chauhan after a stormy debate lasting seven-and-a-half hours.

The Congress and independent members voted in favour of the motion. As a result, the Opposition comprising the Indian National Lok Dal, the Bharatiya Janata Party and an independent managed only 33 votes to the ruling party's 55. One BJP member does not have voting rights.

The Congress played a key role in bailing out the minority HVP government to prevent the INLD and the BJP from forming an alternate government with the support of some dissident HVP legislators.

The house proceedings were telecast live by two private television channels.

The one-day special session was summoned because the governor directed Bansi Lal to prove his majority after the BJP withdrew from the government on June 22, reducing it to a minority.

In the 90-member assembly, the HVP has 35 members, INLD 22, Congress 12, BJP 11 and independents 10.

It was for the first time in the 33-year history of the Haryana Vidhan Sabha that a chief minister had to move a motion of confidence to prove his majority.

The debate was marked by noisy interruptions and heated exchanges in which members traded accusations. The Opposition charged the government with failure on all fronts.

In his two-hour reply to the debate, Bansi Lal expressed gratitude to Congress president Sonia Gandhi for coming to his rescue and saving his government. Recalling his "old relations" with the Nehru family, the chief minister promised to work under Gandhi's guidance to oppose "communal forces tooth and nail".

Launching a frontal attack on Prime Minister Atal Bihari Vajpayee, he accused him of "destabilising" his government and described the BJP as "selfish and undependable".

He said the BJP's politicians were ungrateful. He had formed an alliance with the party when it was considered untouchable by other parties, he pointed out.

He also accused the BJP politicians of trying to drive a wedge within his party.

Blaming the Vajpayee government for the crisis in Kargil, Bansi Lal said that when the prime minister was "enjoying a banquet" with his Pakistani counterpart Nawaz Sharief in Lahore in February, intruders were constructing bunkers in the Kargil sector.

Bansi Lal said that as a former defence minister he knew a lot about the country's borders, but this is not the right time to discuss these things. At the moment "we are with the government and at the back of the jawans fighting the enemy on the front", he said.

Yet, at a time of such crisis, the prime minister thought it prudent to destabilise the Haryana government, he charged. When the country is counting the bodies of its martyrs, the prime minister is counting seats in the next Lok Sabha, he said.

He said it was the country's misfortune that the prime minister's attention is not on the borders. "Let this conflict be over and the enemy be driven away. I will go to the people and raise the question of martyrdom of every jawan and demand an explanation from the prime minister and his party," he thundered.

He also bitterly criticised INLD president Om Parkash Chautala for aligning with the BJP to dethrone him.

Highlighting his government's achievements in different sectors over the last 37 months, he promised the people that they would get round-the-clock power supply from June 30.

UNI

Tell us what you think of this report