Author: Agencies
Publication: The Indian Express
Date: August 1, 2008
Accusing the Congress of using 'money power'
to win the trust vote, the CPM said Prime Minister Manmohan Singh had 'bettered
the record' of his predecessor P V Narasimha Rao for indulging in 'immoral
and shady practices' to remain in power.
The party alleged that at least 16 MPs belonging
to Opposition non-Left parties were 'bought over, intimidated or blackmailed
into either voting for the government or to abstain'.
"Can there be any greater shame for the
Prime Minister and the Congress leadership? But the worrying thing is that
there is no sense of remorse or guilt at these immoral and shady practices.
Such is the degeneration of the Congress party in its lust to remain in office,"
CPM general secretary Prakash Karat said in a signed article in the forthcoming
issue of the 'People's Democracy.'
Maintaining that Manmohan Singh had 'bettered
the record' of Rao whose government acquired a majority after 'seven MPs were
purchased', he said the victory of the UPA government was 'tainted by the
use of money power on a scale never seen before in the corridors of power
in New Delhi'. Karat asked how long will the UPA government last, if offers
of 'a berth in the Union Cabinet, threats of unleashing investigating agencies
against unwilling opposition MPs and bribes running into crores of rupees
have enabled to survive'.
Observing that the Congress would have to
go to the people in the next few months, he said, "a just punishment
awaits them."
Alleging that the Manmohan Singh government
had opened its doors to 'unscrupulous bargains and pressures', the top CPM
leader said, "all those who extended support will extract their price."
"Even before the trust vote, the indications
of the shape of things to come were revealed. Amar Singh, the Samajwadi Party
leader, demanded that the Prime Minister mediates between the two warring
Ambani brothers," he said.
Dismissing the Congress thinking that the
CPM and the Left had 'not been isolated' after the UPA won over the SP, Karat
said the fact is 'more forces have joined hands with the Left parties after
the withdrawal of support' to oppose the Congress-led alliance.
While the government was 'basking in the success
of its confidence vote', it is 'increasingly isolated from the people and
covered with moral opprobrium for its corrupt practices'.
The Left parties, on the other hand, are rallying
the other democratic and secular forces 'to carry on the fight against the
anti-people policies and the anti-national foreign policy of the Congress-led
government'.
Warning the government against pushing through
various legislations like the Pension Bill, the Banking Amendment Bill and
the Foreign Education Providers Bill, Karat said the Left parties will "work
hard to see that such legislations are defeated in the floor of the House',
besides carrying out big protest actions.