It’s Time to Liberate Nation

The UPA government was formed in May 2004 on the strength of the outside support it received from the four Left parties, which have 61 MPs in the Lok Sabha. It has been reduced to a minority government after the Left parties’ decision to withdraw their support to it today. The BSP has officially informed the President that it no longer supports this Government.

It is now incumbent on Prime Minister Dr. Manmohan Singh to seek a vote of confidence in the Lok Sabha.

The BJP demands that an emergency session of Parliament be convened immediately. The question whether the government enjoys majority support must be ascertained on the floor of the House, and in no other manner.

The BJP has taken note of the Prime Minister’s statement yesterday that he would follow all parliamentary norms. This enjoins upon him the obligation not to go ahead with the next steps in concluding the Indo-US nuclear deal. The BJP believes that a minority government does not have either the political or moral legitimacy to go ahead with a major international agreement.

The issue before the country is not the nuclear deal alone. A far bigger issue is whether a government whose performance has been disastrous on all fronts should be allowed to continue any longer. The UPA government has messed up the country’s affairs on all fronts. Its failure to control skyrocketing prices has caused intense agony to the common man. Its anti-kisan policies have forced large numbers of farmers to commit suicide. The rising interest rates have not only badly affected all sectors of the economy, but greatly added to the burden of middle-classes. The government’s track record in the area of internal security is nothing short of shameful. The breakdown in Jammu and Kashmir in the last few days exemplifies how it has failed miserably to provide the governance and stability that the country needs. No government has undermined institutions and norms; no government has bent to foreign powers as has this Government.

Therefore, when the Lok Sabha meets to decide the fate of the government, the issue before MPs is not the nuclear deal alone: the issue is the totality of the failures and betrayals of the UPA government. The time has come to liberate the country from the misrule of the Congress-led government.

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