Congress remains reluctant on trust vote

Basically, it is a reiteration of the party’s old stand with the rider on the no-trust motion suggesting a hint to other anti-BJP parties to keep cool for a while and let the BJP government fall on its own. That the Congress is reluctant to precipitate anything in the three-week wintersession of Parliament was amply evident in what Aiyar said next.

“Well consider a no-confidence motion (if moved by other parties) depending on its language and content, the way it is drafted and whether enough people support it to be tabled in the Lok Sabha. In any case, the final decision on this issue will be taken by the Congress Working Committee,” Aiyar added.

The Congress also noted that the AGP was the latest party to say it will review its support to the BJP government. “The AGP too has said it will review its support yesterday. It is possible that the withering away of the BJP-led government will reach its logical conclusion,” the spokesperson said.

Surprising, the party stopped short of demanding Railway Minister Nitish Kumar’s resignation following the major rail accident in Ludhiana in which over 100 people were killed when the Jammu Sealdah Express rammed into bogies of the Frontier Mail.

The Congress felt that the Centre should immediately upgrade the technologyinvolved in running trains and instal modern alarm systems to prevent other accidents. “We leave it to Nitish Kumar’s conscience whether he wants to leave or stay on,” Congress spokesperson Ajit Jogi added.

Aiyar hits out at Vajpayee

Congress spokesperson Mani Shankar Aiyar is living up to his reputation as a verbal loose cannon. Today he had a few choice words to describe Prime Minister Atal Behari Vajpayee. “Woh layak vyakti hain parantu nalayak neta hain (he is an able man but an incompetent leader),” Aiyar said on Vajpayee replying to a query on what the party felt on the PM getting the `Honest Man of the Year’ award yesterday, given by a private organisation. Aiyar’s opinion on Vajpayee comes after his defence of the Emergency some days ago when he justified it saying it was the right thing at that time. His stance was then was up by the PM who made the Emergency a poll plank for the BJP. The BJP is now expected to take Aiyar on on his latest salvo.