PM's concluding speech on trust vote

The Leader of Opposition, Shri L K Advani has Chosen to use all manner of abusive objectives to de4scribe my performance. He has described me as the weakest Prime Minister, a nikamma PM and of having devalued the office of PM. To fulfill his ambitions, he has made at least three attempts to topple our government. But on each occasion his astrologers have misled him. This pattern, I am sure, will be repeated today. At his ripe old age, I do not expect Shri Advani to change his thinking. But for his sake and India's sake, I urge him at least to change his astrologers so that he gets more accurate predictions of things to come. As for Shri Advani's various chargers, I do not with to waste the time of the House in rebutting them. All I can say is that before levelling charges of incompetence on others, Shri Advani should do some introspection.

Can our nation forgive a Home Minister slept when the terrorists were knocking at the doors of our Parliament? Can our nation forgive a person who single-handedly provided the inspiration for the destruction of the Babri Masjid with all the terrible consequences that followed? To atone for his sins, he suddenly decided to visit Pakistan and there he descovered new virtues in Mr. Jinnah.

Alas, his own party and his mentors in the RSS disowned him on this issue. Can our nation approve the conduct of a Home Minister who was sleeping while Gujarat was burning leading to the loss of thousands of innocent lives? Our friends in the Left Front should ponder over the company they are forced to keep because of miscalculations by their General Secretary.

As for my conduct, it is for this august House and the people of India to judge. All I can say is that in all these years that I have been in office, whether as Finance Minister or Prime Minister, I have felt it as a sacred obligation to use the levers of power as a societal trust to be use4d for transforming our economy and polity, so that we can get rid of poverty, ignorance and disease which still afflict millions of our people.

This is a long and arduous journey. But every step taken in this direction can make a difference. And that is what we have sought to do in the last four years. How far we have succeeded is something I leave to the judgement of the people of India.

When I look at the composition of the opportunistic group opposed to us , it is clear to me that the clash today is between two alternative visions of of India's future. The one vision represented by the UPA and our allies seeks to project India as a self-confident and united nation moving forward to gain its rightful place in the comity of nation, making full use of the opportunities offered by a globalised world, operating on the frontiers of modern science and technology and using modern science and technology as important instruments of national economic and social development.

The opposite vision is of a motley crowd opposed to us who have come together to share the spoils of office to promote their sectional, sectarian and parochial interests. Our Left colleagues should tell us whether Shri L K Advani should enlighten us if he will step aside as Prime Ministerial candidate of the opposition in favour of the choice of UNPA. They should take the country into confidence on this important issue.

I have already stated in my opening remark that the House has been dragged into this debate unneccessarily. I wish our attention had not been diverted from some priority areas of national concern. These priorities are:

Tacking the imported inflation caused by steep increase in oil prices. Or effort is to control inflation without hurting the rate of growth and employment.
To revitalize agriculture. We havedecisively reversed the declining trend of investment and resource flow in agriculture....
To improve the effectiveness of our flagship pro-poor progremmes such as National Rural Employment Programme, Sarva Shiksha Abhiyan, Nation-wide Mid day meal programme, Bharat Nirman.....
To deal firmly with terrorist elements, Left wing extremism and communal elements that are attempting to undermine the security and stability of the country....

....All I had asked our Left colleagues was: Please allow us to go through the negotiating process and I will come to Parliament before operationalising the nuclear agreement. This simple courtesy which is essential for orderly functioning of any Government worth the name, particularly with regard to the conduct of foreign policy, they were not willing to grant me. They wanted a veto over every single step of negotiations which is not acceptable. They wanted me to behave as their bonded slave.

The nuclear agreement may not have been mentioned in the Common Minimum Programme. However, there was an explicit mention of the need to develop closer relations with the USA but without sacrificing our independent foreign policy. The Congress Election Manifesto had explicitly referred to the need for strategic engagement with the USA and other great powers such as Russia.

In 1991, while presenting the Budget for 1991-92, as Finance Minister, I had stated: No power on earth can stop an idea whose time has come. I had then suggested to this august House that the emergence of India as a major global power was an idea whose time had come. Carrying forward the process started by Shri Rajiv Gandhi of preparing India for the 21st century, I outlined a far reaching programme of economic reform whose fruits are now visible to every objective person.

Both the Left and the BJP had then opposed the reform. Both had said we had mortgaged the economy to America and that we would bring back the East India Company . Subsequently both these parties have had a hand at running the Government. None of these parties have reversed the direction of economic policy laid down by the Congress Party in 1991. The moral of the story is that political parities should be judged not by what they say while in opposition but by what they do when entrusted with the responsibility of power.

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