Friday, July 20, 2018

The no confidence motion in Parliament.

It was nice to see the Parliament function all through with the least amount of disruptions. There were a few uncouth guys shouting slogans which made the Prime Minister's speech a bit difficult to assimilate. But all in all, a commendable performance by our lawmakers, especially after the total washout of the previous session.

All the points that were agitating the opposition were brought out. The huge accumulation of the bank NPAs(Non Performing Assets), mob lynchings, the Rafale aircraft deal with France and the Doklam issue, among many others, were discussed and we, the general public, got to know the reasons behind the government's actions.

Rahul Gandhi's theatrics were uncalled for because it's not the done thing. Remember, he'd been wanting just '15 minutes' to air his charges in Parliament when he'd promised us that he'd pin the Prime Minister for ever. Nothing earth shaking happened because Narendra Modi had answers to each of the issues raised by the opposition, punctuated with statistics! And his hug of the PM, after his speech, what was it meant to convey?

Asking forgiveness for saying all that he had? He'd said that it was the 'Congress culture'! Is it really so?

From PM Narendra Modi's reply, the following became clear, at least for me:-

 (a) He'd not opposed the GST while he was the chief minister of Gujarat. He'd advocated the states'
      aspirations to be given importance which, incidentally, is the case now. He also brought out the
      fact that it was the Congress that had insisted on keeping the petroleum products out of its
      purview.

 (b) He'd said that the bifurcation of the then state of Andhra Pradesh into Telengana and AP should
       not be at the cost of trampling the Telugu pride. His views fell on deaf ears, it was carried out in
       haste to reap immediate political benefits that was the reason for the simmering discontent
       and said that granting it special status was out of question. To highlight the importance of doing
       it correctly, he cited the carving of Chhattisgarh, Jharkhand and Uttarakhand states by the
       Vajpayee government in a fair manner. He reiterated the fact that the bifurcation was unscientific
       and hastily done.

 (c) He chided the opposition for denigrating the Indian Armed Forces when it asked for proof for
      the surgical strikes, Rahul Gandhi's meeting with the Chinese diplomat to find as to whether
      India had really won a 'diplomatic war' on the Doklam issue and for insisting that there was no
      clause of secrecy in the Rafale deal despite the French government saying so!

 (d) He'd, also, reeled off statistics to highlight as to how jobs have been generated during his tenure
       thus far.

The no confidence motion, tabled by the Telugu Desam Party was, consequently, defeated overwhelmingly. A few observations from me on it:-

  (a) A combined opposition for the '19 General Elections looks highly improbable.
  (b) Will the BJD align with the BJP in the forthcoming elections?
  (c) The Shiv Sena needs to be discarded from the NDA because it has been treacherous this time
       by first saying that it would vote against the motion and then, abstained from the debate. Its
       perfidy of being part of the government and working against it needs to be sorted out during the
       forthcoming elections.


Tailpiece.

It was a quiet day, with our maid away for her medical review. It was Lekha's solo efforts in the kitchen and she had prepared an excellent 'paav bhaaji' for supper.....and I ate myself silly!  

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