Confident Cong sees no risk to stability

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West Bengal chief minister Mamata Banerjee arrives at Writers’ Buildings in Kolkata on Thursday. — PTI

The newfound confidence in the Congress to push through the reforms agenda and bring the economy back on track has a lot to do with timing than the sheer number game. Sources in the Congress said any talk of risking the stability of the government is just a misplaced debate, as before the Trinamul Congress (19MPs) decided to withdraw support, the UPA had the backing of more than 300 MPS in the Lok Sabha.
Congress leaders privately claim that there is a method in taking decisions in the interest of the nation. “We did it during the controversial Indo-US civil nuclear deal. At that time also we respected our valued allies — the Left parties — up to a certain limit. But when time came, as we were convinced that the deal was in the best interest of the nation, we took the final decision and survived the Left dissertation,” a senior Congress functionary said.
The Congress leader was of the view that this time around also, the leadership in the government showed a lot of patience and put in a lot of effort to convince the ally, even as UPA-2 has been more comfortable than what was in 2008. “But when we saw no positive signs were coming from the ally, the government had to take some tough decisions as time was running out,” he said.
With the dawn of 2013, the UPA would have entered into the election year and it would have been difficult for the government to take such tough decisions in the election year, another Congress leader said, adding that had these decision were not taken now, “we would have been accused of messing things around”.
Politically speaking, the Congress leaders are of the view that neither of the UP parties — SP and BSP — can afford to ditch the UPA at this juncture. “The two parties may take liberty in giving some dissenting sound bytes here or there against the government’s decisions. But they would ill-afford going to the President to withdraw their letters supporting to the UPA,” they added.
The Congress managers have also ruled out any possibility of a special session as demanded by the Opposition BJP. They said, “Since all the decisions taken by the government are of administrative nature, which does not require the mandate of the Parliament, there is no question of seeking the support of parliament. Also since the numbers still remain in favour of the UPA, where is the need to go in for confidence or no-confidence motion,” they said.