Indian govt, US N-deal survive confidence vote

In his six-page reply, which was laid on the table, the Indian Prime Minister hit out at the Left parties, saying “They wanted me to behave as their bonded slave.”

“They wanted a veto over every single step of negotiations which is not acceptable,” he said with regard to the negotiating processes he wanted to undertake with the International Atomic Energy Agency and the Nuclear Suppliers Group before operationalising the nuclear agreement.

He said, “I have often said that I am a politician by accident....... whatever I have done in this high office I have done so with a clear conscience and the best interest of my country.”

M Jagannath of the TDP, who apparently defied the party whip, came to the Prime Minister soon after the vote and congratulated him.

Later, he was seen seated in the Congress benches before the result was officially announced by the Speaker.

The Indian Prime Minister hugged Rahul Gandhi who made a brief speech hailing the Prime Minister’s initiative on the nuclear deal.

As Sonia Gandhi beamed in relief, Pranab Mukherjee was also the centre of attraction for the UPA MPs.

CPI-M member Varkala Radhakrishnan was the lone Opposition MP to move to the treasury benches to congratulate the Prime Minister.

Hitting back at L K Advani for levelling charges of incompetence against him, Prime Minister Manmohan Singh asked the BJP leader to do some “introspection” over his role when Gujarat was burning and during the Kandahar hijack crisis.

Replying to the debate on the trust vote in the Lok Sabha, he also asked “our friends” in the Left Front to ponder over the company they were forced to keep because of the “miscalculations” by “their general secretary”, an apparent reference to CPI-M general secretary Prakash Karat.