Opinion - Letters to the Editor   

Trust vote

The image of Manmohan Singh, assiduously promoted by the Congress, has taken a severe drubbing after the trust vote. As long as he needed the support of the Left parties, he was friendly with them and enjoyed the power and prestige associated with the high office of Prime Minister. After making a deal with former enemies of his party, he not only breached the trust of his benefactors but also turned around and accused them of treating him as their ‘bonded slave.’ What prevented him from freeing himself earlier? Why did he prefer to cling to power with their help for four years?

Ananda Murti Vemuri,

Visakhapatnam

The run-up to the trust vote in the Lok Sabha and the sense of deja vu at the end of it reminded me of Christopher Marlow’s Doctor Faustus, who sold his soul for knowledge and power. We have an anti-defection law and the party whip to keep legislators tied to one camp but the crafty floor managers keep finding ways of circumventing the law. The observation in the editorial (July 24) on how the government should have lost by 16 votes instead of winning by 19 votes had the formal decisions of the parties been adhered to speaks volumes about the political morality or the lack of it.

Col. P.S.V. Ramana (retd.),

Secunderabad

Amid a hue and cry outside and inside Parliament, the government won the confidence vote by a comfortable margin, thanks to cross-voting. The question is: how effective is our anti-defection law in checking defections and ensuring the stability of a government?

Y.N. Murthy,

Bangalore

The gentle, polite, sober and soft spoken Manmohan Singh, often described by the opposition as the weakest Prime Minister, has struck back. With his deft moves which flummoxed the opposition, he won the trust vote hands down. At last, he is free of baggage and can act expeditiously to complete his unfinished agenda of economic reform. The opposition lost a golden opportunity to convince the people against the nuclear deal. Instead, its leaders indulged in personal attack using invectives, making gestures and snide remarks.

B.C. Bhowmick,

Asansol

It is heartening to note that Dr. Singh is interested in pushing the reforms, which were hitherto blocked by the Left parties.

V.S. Ganeshan,

Bangalore

The nation has been spared an impending political chaos. What was evident during the run-up to, and on the day of, the trust vote was: the ruling alliance lacked credibility and could not handle the issue outside Parliament politically; the main opposition behaved in an uncivilised manner with its leader indulging in vilification; and the Left parties’ objection to the Indo-American nuclear deal was based only on their hatred for anything American.

J. John Sundararaj,

Kanyakumari

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