August 17, 2003	Sunday	Jumadi-us-Sani 18, 1424

Please Visit our Sponsor (Ads open in separate window)

NEW DELHI, Aug 16: Indian Prime Minister Atal Behari Vajpayee earned support from government coalition allies on Saturday who pledged to help defeat a no-confidence motion in parliament next week, a minister said.

Vajpayee’s National Democratic Alliance (NDA) has a comfortable majority in the 545-member lower house, but the government is taking no chances in making sure the opposition-sponsored motion is defeated on Tuesday.

The NDA has a strength of more than 320 against a combined opposition of 212, a parliament official said.

“All parties (in the coalition) have issued a three line whip to their MPs and we hope that this motion ... will be thrown out without great delay,” said Defence Minister George Fernandes to close the two-hour meeting.

MPs are to hold consultations again on Monday before the debate at a meeting presided over by Vajpayee, he added.

A spokesman for Vajpayee’s Hindu nationalist BJP party, Vijay Kumar Malhotra said the strategy of the government would be to “take advantage of the opportunity to highlight the achievements of the government and expose... the opposition.”

The opposition — led by the 118-year-old Congress party — has made it clear it does not expect the government to fall during the no-confidence vote, using the motion instead to force Vajpayee to address a controversy related to defence purchases that stalled parliamentary proceedings last week.

Opposition MPs alleged that Fernandes had attempted to cover up corruption surrounding arms deals made at the height of a 1999 conflict with Pakistan, criticizing the minister for refusing to release a report by the Central Vigilance Commission (CVC) probing high-level corruption.

A 22-member parliamentary affairs committee last week told the legislature it could not launch an independent probe into the case as the defence ministry, citing security, had declined to release the CVC report.

Discussion of the no-confidence motion was to begin at noon (1130 PST) on Monday and was to continue on Tuesday, with a reply expected by Vajpayee by Tuesday evening.

Congress party leaders, too, spent Saturday finalizing their strategy before Monday’s debate.—AFP