By IANS,
New Delhi : Minutes after winning a trust vote in parliament, Prime Minister Manmohan Singh declared this would ensure that India takes in rightful place in the comity of nations with the operationalisation of the India-US civil nuclear deal.
“The vote shows that India is prepared to take its rightful place in the comity of nations,” the prime minister told reporters after emerging from Parliament House.
The trust vote was prompted by the Left parties withdrawing their support to the government to protest the government’s to go ahead with the nuclear deal by approaching atomic energy watchdog IAEA for an India-specific safeguards agreement and the Nuclear Suppliers Group for amending its laws to enable the resumption of nuclear commerce with India after a hiatus of more than three decades.
With parliament reposing its confidence in the government, it will be able to full speed ahead with the two entities.
Manmohan Singh thanked ruling United Progressive Alliance chair Sonia Gandhi, his coalition partners and Congress cadres “for their single-minded pursuit of this impressive victory.”
Lok Sabha Speaker Somnath Chatterjee announced in the house after a division that the confidence motion the prime minister moved Monday carried 275/256 votes.
Referring to the bribery charges levelled in the house Tuesday afternoon by three Bharatiya Janata Party members, the prime minister said this made him “extremely sad”.
“In my speech (in reply to the debate on the trust motion), I started by saying these developments had made me extremely sad. Whatever needs to be done under the law (to probe the allegations) will be done,” the prime minister maintained.