In a day of hectic political developments, six Trinamul Congress ministers submitted their resignations to Prime Minister Manmohan Singh on Friday. Dr Singh, accepting the resignations, thanked Trinamul ministers for their work and expressed “sadness” at their departure. The meeting lasted just three minutes.
Dr Singh, who has been seeking his nuclear moment, sent the resignations to President Pranab Mukherjee. The Trinamul MPs later met the President and handed a letter signed by Mukul Roy, its parliamentary party chief, withdrawing support from UPA-2.
In his Friday evening address to the nation, Dr Singh made it clear it was time to “reform or perish”. Adopting a combative tone, he defended the government’s “tough economic measures” and, reminding the nation of his 1991 reforms, urged people “not to be misled by those spreading misinformation”.
Dr Singh stressed the need to contain subsidies, and declared: “They did not succeed in 1991, they won’t succeed now.”
Immediately after the TMC’s withdrawal of support, Samajwadi chief Mulayam Singh Yadav pledged to back the government.
Mayawati’s BSP is also likely to continue supporting UPA-2. With these two key allies coming to the government’s rescue, UPA-2, now in a minority, is safe on the floor of the Lok Sabha for now.
Despite bailing out the government, however, Mr Yadav continued to keep the government on tenterhooks by opposing FDI in retail and saying a Third Front will be formed in the 2014 elections. Some Congress leaders feel despite the numbers the government “cannot be decisive as the degree of stability is now threatened” and a “snap poll can’t be ruled out”. The coming Winter Session also appears headed for a washout.
The TMC plans to press for a vote on FDI and will charge the government with contempt of Parliament as then finance minister Pranab Mukherjee had assured the Lok Sabha on December 7, 2011 that a “decision on multi-brand retail will be implemented only after a political consensus was reached”.