PM must seek vote of confidence, says Advani

‘‘For survival, the Government seems ready to trade off anything. For all practical purposes, Manmohan Singh Government has lost majority in Lok Sabha. Government should immediately convene a session of Parliament and seek a vote of confidence,’’ he said at a press conference that he addressed along with colleague Jaswant Singh.

The Constitution, however, makes no mention of a ‘‘vote of confidence’’. The Constitution says that the Council of Ministers is collectively responsible to the House of the People, from which emanates ‘‘the no-confidence motion’’, mentioned in the ‘‘Rule 198 of the House’’ rules of business. ‘‘A minority Government is perfectly legitimate. However, the majority should not be against the government. And the House is the only forum to decide that,’’ said constitutional expert Subhash Kashyap.

Aware that it didn’t have the constitutional sanction for its ‘‘vote of confidence’’ demand, the BJP sought to link it with the Government’s resolve for the nuclear deal. ‘‘As the UPA is now a minority, it has no right to execute any binding international agreements. The BJP demands that the Government must immediately call the Parliament into session and take it fully into confidence. It must obtain the Parliament’s approval by first obtaining a vote of confidence from the House,’’ said Advani.

The Congress, however, rejected the claim. ‘‘The demand is constitutionally untenable. Why do you need a trust vote? The Left is still supporting the Government and now even the SP has supported the Indo-US nuclear deal,’’ said party spokesperson Manish Tewari.

Jaswant Singh claimed the country was hurtling towards an ‘‘economic emergency’’. He admitted that the NDA had offered outside support to ‘‘any...