Who won? Vajpayee and Sonia

Vajpayee is lucky that in his five years in power he did not have to face a no confidence motion (NCM). This was not the case with his predecessors, apart from V.P. Singh, Chandra Shekhar, H.D Deve Gowda and I.K. Gujral, who all had extremely short terms. Poor Lal Bahadur Shastri had to face as many as three NCMs in his 11-month tenure and, of course, Indira Gandhi topped the list with a record 15 NCMs against her. There were three NTMs against P.V. Narasimha Rao, two of them moved within six months of each other in 1992 and both by BJP leaders — first by Jaswant Singh and then by Vajpayee.

Only a few of the 25 no confidence motions moved since 1952 have been around one issue. Jaswant Singh’s in July 1992 was a four-point chargesheet against the government’s economic policies, corruption, national security, and the collapse of the system. George Fernandes’s NCM against the Indira government covered the entire gamut of price rise, negative trade balance, black money, wasting money on Asian Games and police oppression.

The Congress didn’t manage to make political points as effectively as the BJP. It could have gone to town over the “aar paar ki larhai” between the ‘Vikas Purush’ and the ‘Lauh Purush’. It could have asked why, if George Fernandes could be reinducted into the Cabinet, Bangaru Laxman could not have been reinstated as party chief and was that because he was a Dalit? The BJP, in contrast, managed to lampoon the Congress leaders more effectively.

The fact is that last week’s debate hardly touched dizzy heights. If anything, it only reinforced the “sab chor hain” sentiment in people viewing it. It would be naive to think that it won the Congress new voters or changed the opinions of all those who had become disillusioned with the BJP. Yet, and this may sound paradoxical, it led to a win-win situation for both Sonia Gandhi and Vajpayee.

Sonia Gandhi had already established that she is capable of running her party and holding it together. On August 18, she demonstrated that she can lead from the front in Parliament, wield the instrument of a no-confidence motion which is the ultimate “brahmastra” in the hands of the Opposition, speak for one hour, which is the longest she has ever spoken in Parliament, in a combative, point-by-point attack on the government. She was comfortable handling the economic issues and exhibited a new sense of confidence. For all their reservations, she compelled the other opposition parties like the NCP and the Samajwadi Party to vote alongside the Congress. That she was being compared to Vajpayee shows the long way she has come. Of course, Congressmen wished she had spoken in Hindi. There is little doubt that the paanwalla in the backwaters of MP or the sarpanch in tribal Rajasthan would have made better sense of the Congress offensive had it been in Hindi — and they are her potential constituents. The Congress tried to remedy this later and Sonia herself delivered her closing remarks in Hindi, but the first impressions count.

As for Vajpayee, the no trust motion established again that the government under him is stable, and that there is no threat to his leadership. The Monsoon Session started off with the BJP sharply divided on the issue of advancing the Lok Sabha election by a year — a move the PM opposed. The session ended, thanks to the no-trust motion, with the BJP and the NDA closing ranks behind him once again.

While Vajpayee used the motion to consolidate his position within his party, Sonia Gandhi sent out a message, without stating it in so many words, that she is now ready to take the next step — of executive responsibility.