INDIA: INDIAN PRIME MINISTER INDER KUMAR GUJRAL'S NEW UNITED FRONT ALLIANCE GOVERNMENT SET TO WIN A TRUST VOTE

Record ID: 337641

  • Title: INDIA: INDIAN PRIME MINISTER INDER KUMAR GUJRAL'S NEW UNITED FRONT ALLIANCE GOVERNMENT SET TO WIN A TRUST VOTE
  • Date: 22nd April 1997
  • Summary: NEW DELHI, INDIA (APRIL 22, 1997) (RTV - ACCESS ALL) 1. SV P. CHIDAMBARAM, FORMER FINANCE MINISTER, ENTERING PARLIAMENT 0.11 2. SV SHARAD PAWAR, CONGRESS LEADER ENTERING 0.17 3. SV PRIME MINISTER INDER KUMAR GUJRAL ARRIVING AND WAVING TO CAMERAMEN 0.21 4. SV RAM VILAS PASWAN, FEDERAL MINISTER FOR RAILWAYS ARRIVING
  • Embargoed: 7th May 1997 13:00
  • Keywords:
  • Location: NEW DELHI, INDIA
  • City:
  • Country: India
  • Reuters ID: LVA3Z4448I3QV7RF9D2GT01S5SPS
  • Story Text: Indian Prime Minister Inder Kumar Gujral's new United Front alliance government was set to win a trust vote on Tuesday (April 22) and looked certain to clinch eventual parliamentary approval for a landmark budget.

    Gujral, who succeeded ousted prime minister H.D.Deve Gowda on Monday (April 21) after the previous United Front government was ousted 10 days ago, sought a fresh vote of confidence, promising an administration by consultation.

    The house is expected to decide the confidence motion later in the evening on Tuesday.

    Gujral told deputies of the lower house of Parliament that he would provide a clean and transparent administration.

    "Till the time I head this government, it will remain transparent and will be accountable. If the members of the opposition criticise us on our mistakes, we will accept their criticism. Even if the mistakes are committed by my fellow colleagues, I will accept responsibility. I will not protect them.

    We will not indulge in any witch-hunting", Gujral said.

    The Congress party, which triggered Deve Gowda's fall after withdrawing its make-or-break support for his 10-month-old government, promised to back Gujral for the remaining four years of the Lok Sabha, but with conditions.

    The rightwing Hindu Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP), however, said the new government would be short-lived.

    BJP leaders said it would be difficult for a sauve politician like Gujral to keep the United Front intact.

    Its spokesperson Sushma Swaraj likened Gujral's status to an Indian daughter-in-law living in a joint family wih a dozen mothers and fathers-in law.

    "Gujral's status is at present of a daughter-in-law living in a joint family with a dozen mothers-in law and fathers-in-law. They are constantly fighting amongst each other and in order to be liked, the daughter-in-law has to attend to the whims and fancies of all. I pity you (Gujral) for the role you have chosen for yourself. Why have you chosen such a role? You are a prime minister caught between the prosecution and defence on the political front", she said.

    The centre-left ruling coalition was originally cobbled together with Congress support in June last year to oust a 12-day-old government headed by BJP leader Atal Behari Vajpayee.

    When Congress withdrew support to Deve Gowda, it accused him of not keeping the BJP contained.

    But the 15-party alliance under Gujral, a 77-year-old Marxist turned social democrat, was expected easily to prove its parliamentary majority after patching up relations with Congress.

    Gujral and Deve Gowda belong to the left-leaning Janata Dal party, the biggest single constituent in the alliance.

    The BJP controls 193 votes in the 545-seat lower house of parliament. Congress has 140 and the United Front 178.

    Gujral on Monday named a 35-member cabinet that included all but five members of former prime minister H.D. Deve Gowda's ousted government.

    Four of the five, including former Finance Minister P.

    Chidambaram, belong to the Tamil Maanila Congress (TMC) party, which in a fit of pique decided not to join the government after its leader, G.K. Moopanar, lost the race for prime minister.


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