Author: Manoj C G
Publication: The Indian Express
Date: July 18, 2008
URL: http://www.indianexpress.com/story/337119.html
Slams UPA for getting jailbirds to vote, forgets
same jailbirds trotted out for President Patil and V-P Ansari
Trust the Left to take the moral high ground
and not let facts get in the way.
A year ago, jailed RJD MPs Pappu Yadav and
Mohammed Shahabuddin helped the UPA-Left nominee Pratibha Patil become the
first woman President by casting their votes in a crunch situation.
Yadav and Shahabuddin also voted in favour
of Hamid Ansari, the Left's nominee for the Vice Presidential candidate later.
But now the CPM, after its separation from
the UPA, is citing "political morality" to slam the ruling alliance's
attempts to bring both these jailbirds and LJP MP Suraj Bhan to take part
in the crucial July 22 trust vote.
And not naming those jailbird MPs who are
likely to vote on the same side as the Left.
"While legally they may get the right
to attend Parliament and vote, there is a question of political morality involved,"
said a CPM Politburo statement today. "The Congress leadership will be
seen by the entire country as taking recourse to convicted criminals for sustaining
their government."
Yadav was convicted in the CPM MLA Ajit Sarkar
murder case and Shahabuddin is jailed in a case of kidnapping with intent
to murder. Both had voted in favour of both Patil and Ansari.
While Yadav represents the Madhepura Lok Sabha
seat, Shahabuddin is elected from Siwan constituency.
Interestingly, the CPM Politburo's statement
today mentioned the names of only Yadav, Shahabuddin and Bhan, omitting jailbirds
who are expected to vote against the UPA.
These include BSP's Umakant Yadav, Samajwadi
Party's Afzal Ansari and expelled SP MP Atiq Ahmed who are being aggressively
courted by the BSP.
So far, Ansari hasn't switched, claim SP leaders,
while Atiq Ahmed has already said he will vote against the UPA government.
Phoolpur MP Ahmed, expelled from the Samajwadi
Party after his name figured in BSP MLA Raju Pal murder case, had voted in
favour of Left nominee Ansari defying a party whip to vote for UNPA candidate
Rashid Masood.
When asked why the Left had not opposed Yadav
and Shahabuddin voting during the Presidential election, CPM Central Committee
member Nilotpal Basu said, "That we will have to see, those circumstances
were different and not the same as this."
CPM leaders claim the party did not include
the names of anti-UPA jailbird MPs because they were facing trial and were
not convicted.
This argument rings hollow given that Shahabuddin
was convicted in May, two months before he voted in the Presidential elections
in July last year.
Significantly, the BSP, which has made common
cause with the Left to oppose the nuclear deal, is wooing both Ansari, Ahmed,
and Umakant Yadav, who was expelled from the party earlier for criminal activities.
