Dear Editor,
Tired and bored of confronting the government on the issue of Manipur crisis, the opposition parties are moving no-confidence motion against the NDA government. It is 331 vs. 141. BJP alone has 303 seats in its kitty. Half-way mark is 272. The result is foregone. Yet, the opposition parties are moving the no-confidence motion with much euphoria and fanfare. The opposition parties at any point of time do not have confidence in the ruling party right from the time oath is taken as MLAs or MPs. The government will be oscillating when hung Lok Sabha or hung Assembly is the result of elections. When the ruling party members tilt towards the opposition parties to the extent of causing the ruling party falling into minority, the no-confidence motion survives and the government collapses. The present NDA government has stood like rock and is working like clock under the able leadership of Modi. In a situation of this kind, the no-confidence motion is not only an exercise in futility but also utter waste of precious time.
Whenever a new government is formed it is mandatory that the majority has to be proved on the floor of the House. The 13-day Vajpayee government fell just by one vote. In Maharashtra, soon after the Eknath Shinde-led MLAs withdrew support to the Uddhav Thackeray government, Thackeray was shown the door. As per protocol the Governor asked Thackeray to prove his majority on the floor of the House after Shinde walked out with his MLAs. But Thackeray did not face the House at all, save alone proving the majority. For sometime P V Narasihma Rao ran minority government. Later he mustered majority and survived. There are umpteen number of cases when governments in the past have collapsed before completing the term in the no-confidence motions. The present situation is not even remotely promising for the opposition parties to puncture the government through no-confidence motion. Instead of frittering away the time and energy like this, it could have been used for discussing and debating the Manipur issue. It is on this issue the opposition parties are wanting to express their views with reply to be elicited from the government. The discussion and debate in the House provide good forum to know the role of all the parties involved in keeping Manipur burning. People are mature enough to know that sometimes those involved in creating troubles make more noise to show that they “abhor” violence. Surely, I.N.D.I.A. is not disappointed at the outcome of no-confidence motion because they foreknow the result. The frustration of I.N.D.I.A. team is given outlet in the proposed no-confidence motion.
V Seetharamaiah.