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Congress for trust vote but ready for the worst

Gargi Parsai

NEW DELHI: The Congress said on Thursday that if the United Progressive Alliance government won a trust vote in Parliament, it would be taken as the sense of the House in favour of the India-U.S. nuclear agreement. And if it lost, then there would be elections.

Asked whether this stance indicated that the government apprehended a close call on the trust vote, senior Congress leader M. Veerappa Moily said, “We are seeking a trust vote on our own to demonstrate that we have the majority.”

UPA chairperson and Congress president Sonia Gandhi will convene a meeting of the UPA Coordination Committee with allies besides a meeting of the Congress Working Committee on Friday to discuss the current political situation. The meeting with the allies will discuss the possible dates for the trust vote.

Although the Congress is claiming a majority, it is preparing for the worst and will convey as much to the allies, none of whom are ready to face elections at a time of double-digit inflation.

After Prime Minister Manmohan Singh met President Pratibha Patil in the morning, the Congress Core Group met at his residence.

The leaders discussed the situation arising out of the government permitting the International Atomic Energy Agency to circulate to the members of the Board of IAEA the draft of the India-specific safeguards agreement it was reluctant to share with the Left parties.

“We will convene Parliament as soon as possible. We have a meeting of the UPA allies in the morning tomorrow [Friday] besides a meeting of the Congress Working Committee,” AICC general secretary Ahmed Patel told journalists after the meeting.

The Congress fielded three of its senior leaders — Mr. Moily, Vayalar Ravi and Kapil Sibal — to defend its recent positions and actions on the nuclear deal.

“No contradiction”

Mr. Sibal said there was no contradiction between what External Affairs Minister Pranab Mukherjee said about the government winning a vote of confidence before going to the Board and the circulation of the draft at the IAEA. All that the IAEA had done was circulate the draft as a preparatory step for convening the Board.

“After the text of the IAEA was circulated to the members of the Board, the government placed the document on its [Ministry of External Affairs] website,” he said.

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