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UPA has won but democracy lost, says Punjab CM
"The UPA won but the country and democracy lost. The vote of trust for the government has come at the expense of trust among the people in our parliamentary system." This is how the Punjab Chief Minister Parkash Singh Badal described the outcome of the two day debate on confidence motion in the Lok Sabha which concluded last night .
The Chief Minister said that if the ruling alliance had not subverted free and fair democratic exercise through corrupt practices, horse-trading etc., and if the MPs had voted according to their party alignments before the Lok Sabha session started, the UPA would have lost. He said that the massive resort to corrupt practices had made a mockery of the country's well established party system.
The Chief Minister referred to "shameful scenes of display of naked money power" and said that this had confirmed the worst suspicion of the people about the moral degeneration of our political system. "This was the worst hour in the history of the nation and Indians all over the world had to hang their heads in shame," said Mr. Badal.
The Chief Minister said that UPA government winning amidst "scenes that put the country, its polity and parliament to shame is a matter that needs deep introspection about how our rulers at the national helm have behaved in full glare of international view. The UPA may have won a numerical victory but they suffered a huge moral defeat," said the Chief Minister.
Badal said that the country now looked up to the Speaker Som Nath Chatterjee to conduct a full and fair inquiry into the matter to expose the guilty and restore the faith of our people in the political system.
Badal said that he had the highest regards for the Prime Minister Dr. Manmohan Singh as an individual but it was unbelievable that in his concluding speech, he did not even consider the disgraceful incidents important enough to comment on.
About the nuclear deal, Badal said that the UPA kept it suspiciously under the wraps till the very last moment and that raised all kinds of doubts in the minds of the people. "If they had been transparent about it, at least with their own allies, the whole sordid chapter would have been avoided. "
Badal said that his party is in favour of the use of nuclear energy so long as " we are able to achieve that without compromising on our vital national interests and sovereignty. The SAD stands for a strong and progressive India and anything that promotes that goal is welcome but the UPA handled the whole issue as it was a close family secret. They should have taken the entire country into confidence on the issue." He said that nuclear plants should be set up at places which are thinly populated and the power can be pooled into a national grid which can be evacuated to where it is needed."
Referring to reports about the absence of an Akali MP from the voting, Badal said that the matter would be dealt with as per the party constitution and as per the law of the land.
