Seek trust vote over nuke deal: Advani

BY AMIT AGNIHOTRI

New Delhi

July 5: Charging that the UPA government has lost moral right to govern owing to its "opportunistic" alliance with the Samajwadi Party, BJP’s prime ministerial candidate L.K. Advani demanded that Prime Minister Manmohan Singh should immediately convene a session of Parliament to seek a vote of confidence.

"The UPA government has lost its majority in the house as it reduced governance to a theatre of the absurd by aligning with the SP over the Indo-US nuclear deal. The government has lost its moral right to exist. The PM should immediately convene a session of Parliament whenever the Left withdraws support from the government," said BJP leader L.K. Advani.

Attacking the government, Mr Advani further said that for the past 18 months, governance in India has come to a standstill. "The economy is floundering, prices are escalating, terrorists continue with their attacks imperilling the life and limb of innocent civilians routinely, Maoist threats are proliferating through the veins and arteries of India and our entire neighbourhood is turbulent. But in response to all these challenges, the UPA just stops governing," said Mr Advani. Taking a dig at the recent "alliance" between the SP and the Congress, the BJP leader remarked the development reminded him of the head surgery done by the Congress when it had supported the change of Prime Minister IK Gujral in place of H.D. Deve Gowda during the United Front government.

"The tie-up with SP now shows they have arranged another set of crutches in place of the Left partners," said Mr Advani. Reiterating that the BJP would go in for a re-negotiation of the Indo-US civil nuclear energy deal if it comes to power at the Centre, the BJP leader also said the UPA’s mis-governance has resulted in the ill-timed, ill-negotiated and hastily pushed through nuclear agreement with the US administration.

"The UPA has supinely consented to be pushed into agreeing this ‘deal’, at a pace dictated by the US, and at their domestic convenience. To keep the US establishment happy, propriety, principles of governance, probity in public life all have been abandoned. Unprincipled deals of convenience bring yesterday’s adversaries as today’s allies. This diminishes governance in the country," said Mr Advani.