Gujral Wins Confidence Vote

Prime Minister IK Gujral won the confidence of the Lok Sabha yesterday through a voice vote. Nobody asked for a division after Gujral smoothly brought down the political temperature in the Lok Sabha yesterday, with statesmanly words on the essential problems of the country and quiet promises of transparency and performance, all delivered in a winning blend of humour and sobriety.

Initiating the debate on the motion of confidence in his government in the morning, Gujral skilfully walked the thin line between propriety and political exigency. He would never protect anyone, he said, nor allow a witch-hunt.

AB Vajpayee, leader of the opposition was promptly on his feet, demanding why Gujral felt the need to promise there would be no witch-hunt. Did he want to put a curtain on certain cases, he asked. Gujral responded with equnimity that he had only been in office 24 hours and had not seen the relevant files. He could speak about files relating to Bangladesh or CTBT, he said.

Congress chief whip Santosh Mohan Deb rose to say his party had never asked for anything when it promised its support. The courts would decide, he added. BJP members were on their feet shouting in response.

Gujral quickly contained that by saying he had never said anyone recommended anything, never raised a finger, so he did not know why Deb felt the need to intervene. That minor dig at the Congress soothed the BJP, without upsetting the Congress.

Turning to policy matters, Gujral thanked the House for its consensual backing for his foreign policy, which would remain.

A similar consensus needed to be built on economic policy, which must continue, he said. There was already a consensus on social justice, he added.

Gujral said he had realised many years ago that illiteracy and pollution went hand in hand with poverty and promised that his government would give these problems high priority. He added that he used to get sleepless nights when he saw the population clock in his predecessors offices.

Gujral spoke in the same statesmanly vein in the evening. Perhaps to build bridges with the Congress, Gujral repeatedly referred to his Congress predecessors and to his days in Indira Gandhis government. He emphasised the liberality of the freedom movement, calling it the legacy of India.

He iterated his commitment to keeping the national leaders promises to emancipate women and to scheduled castes. He emphasised the need to unify rather than divide sections of society. The USSR collapsed because people had lost faith in the system, he said, even though everything looked stable when he had stayed there for five years.

The state does not belong to a single party, a single religion, a single caste, he said. The glorious state of India will survive if we keep our promises, he added. If promises were not kept and systems ignored, the state got damaged.

We can disagree. We can disagree we disagree, he said, but urged that all should work together. Consensus was the key, and had always been. Whenever we go abroad, we are one, and Vajpayee would lead the next delegation to the United Nations if he remained in the chair.

Striking a humble note, he said he had the highest respect for AB Vajpayee, pointing out that he was an ambassador when Vajpayee was the external affairs minister.